|
Date |
Happenings |
|
1914 |
|
2/21/1914 |
A Turkish boycott of
Armenian businesses is declared by the Ittihadists.
Dr. Nazim travels throughout the provinces to
implement the boycott. |
|
2/26/1914 |
The police spy David
notifies Reshad Bey, Chief of the Political Section
of the Constantinople Police Department that he is
providing the names, biographies, pictures, and
speeches about reform, as well as other data, of two
thousand leading Armenians. |
|
3/2/1914 |
Parliamentary elections
held in Turkey with only candidates approved by the
CUP winning seats. |
|
3/14/1914 |
The Ittihadist Mustafa
Abdulhalik Renda, the vice-governor of Seghert, is
appointed governor-general of Bitlis Province. |
|
7/28/1914 |
Negotiations are
started between the Turkish and German Imperial
governments. |
|
8/1/1914 |
Germany declares war on
Russia. Beginning of World War I. |
|
8/2/1914 |
A secret treaty of
alliance is signed between Turkey and Germany
virtually placing the Turkish armed forces under
German command. |
|
8/3/1914 |
The Turkish government
sends sealed envelopes containing a general
mobilization order to district and village councils,
with the strict instructions that they were not to
be opened until further notice. A fortnight later,
with the approval of the Ittihad Committee,
instructions are issued to open the envelopes. |
|
8/8/1914 |
Censorship of all
telegraphic communication is announced by the
government. |
|
8/18/1914 |
Looting is reported in
Sivas, Diyarbekir, and other provinces, under the
guise of collecting war contributions. Stores owned
by Armenian and Greek merchants are vandalized. |
|
8/18/1914 |
1,080 shops owned by
Armenians are burned in the city of Diyarbekir. |
|
8/22/1914 |
The male population
between the ages of 20 and 45 is conscripted by the
Turkish armed forces. |
|
8/28/1914 |
Turkish troops are
garrisoned in Armenian schools and churches in Sivas
Province. In the city of Sivas, 56,000 soldiers of
the 10th Army Corps are quartered in and around the
Christian districts. |
|
9/8/1914 |
The Turkish government
abrogates the Capitulations (the commercial and
judicial rights of the Europeans in the Ottoman
Empire). |
|
9/11/1914 |
The Armenian National
Assembly, composed of civil and religious
representatives, meets in Constantinople and advises
Armenians in the provinces to remain calm in the
face of provocation. |
|
9/27/1914 |
The Dardanelles Straits
are closed to foreign shipping. |
|
9/27/1914 |
News reaches
Constantinople about the demand made by the
government of the Armenian population in Zeitun to
turn in its weapons, including all types of knives. |
|
9/30/1914 |
The government
distributes arms to the Muslim residents of the town
of Keghi in Erzerum Province on the excuse that the
Armenians there were unreliable. |
|
10/1/1914 |
All foreign postal
services in Turkey are closed on government order. |
|
10/1/1914 |
Nazaret Chavush, the
most notable Armenian leader in Zeitun, is murdered
on the order of Haidar Pasha, governor of Marash. |
|
10/7/1914 |
News reaches
Constantinople of looting under the guise of war
contributions in Shabin-Karahisar. |
|
10/10/1914 |
News that 'the war
contribution' looting of Armenians was continuing in
Diyarbekir Province. |
|
10/10/1914 |
In Zeitun, all the
Armenian notables are called to a meeting. About
three score attend and are immediately arrested. |
|
10/13/1914 |
News of requisitions
imposed on Armenian businesses as 'war
contributions' reaches Constantinople from every
province. |
|
10/13/1914 |
News reaches
Constantinople of starvation and the spread of
disease in Sivas Province because of the desperate
conditions created by the 'war contributions'
campaign conducted against the Armenians. |
|
10/17/1914 |
Bands of chetes begin
looting, violating women and children, and
large-scale murdering in Erzerum Province |
|
10/17/1914 |
Leaders of the Armenian
nationalist Dashnak party organization in Erzerum
are arrested. |
|
10/22/1914 |
Enver authorizes the
combined German-Turkish navy to carry out a stealth
attack on Russia without declaration of war. |
|
10/29/1914 |
Hostilities are opened
between Turkey and Russia with the shelling of the
Russian Black Sea coast by Ottoman naval vessels
under German command. |
|
11/2/1914 |
Russia formally
declares war against the Ottoman Empire. |
|
11/9/1914 |
News from the interior
of Turkey reaches the Armenian community of
Constantinople that persecutions already exceed
earlier actions against the Armenians. |
|
11/9/1914 |
A Proclamation of
Jihad, directed against England, France, and Russia,
is issued in Constantinople legitimating the
formation of the chete organizations. |
|
11/13/1914 |
Unfounded accusations
are launched against the Armenians that they had
revolted and were preparing to join the Russian
forces. |
|
11/14/1914 |
The village of Otsni in
Erzerum Province is attacked at night by chete
forces. The local Armenian priest and many other
Armenians are killed. Every house is looted. The
first attacks by chete forces on the Armenian
villages of Erzerum are reported. |
|
11/18/1914 |
The Jihad Proclamation
is read in all the provinces of the Ottoman Empire. |
|
11/19/1914 |
Mass executions of
Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army takes place in
various public squares for the purpose of
terrorizing the Armenians, while with voluntary
contributions, Armenians were building several
hospitals for the use of the Turkish army through
the Red Crescent Society. |
|
11/20/1914 |
Orders are issued from
Constantinople instructing the provincial
administrators to oust all Armenian functionaries in
the service of the Ottoman government. |
|
11/21/1914 |
In Mush, Ittihadist
agents distribute arms to the Turkish population
after arousing them with false stories of Armenian
outrages. |
|
11/23/1914 |
Previously undisturbed
Armenian schools and churches in Sivas Province,
together with many private residences, are
requisitioned by the Turkish army for use as
barracks. The carts, horses, and other travel
equipment of the Armenian villagers in the provinces
are confiscated. |
|
11/26/1914 |
Robbery and looting on
a large scale is reported in Van Province. |
|
11/26/1914 |
The War Ministry
distributes explosives, rifles, and other equipment
to the irregular forces of the Special Organization
(Teshkilati Mahsusa). |
|
11/26/1914 |
Enver's uncle, Halil
Pasha, the military governor of Constantinople,
begins organizing Special Organization units in
Constantinople by enrolling criminals released from
prison. |
|
11/29/1914 |
Halil Pasha instructs
the governor of Izmid (Izmit) to identify leaders
for Special Organization units and to release
criminals from prisons to join these bands. |
|
11/29/1914 |
The vice-governor of
Izmid (Izmit) arms the Special Organization with
weapons supplied by the War Ministry. |
|
11/29/1914 |
Chete forces consisting
of intentionally released convicts are armed by the
government in Van Province. In the region of Van
requisitions take the form of open robbery and
looting. |
|
11/30/1914 |
Having completed his
job organizing the Special Organization in Artvin,
Behaeddin Shakir is instructed to move on to
Trebizond. |
|
11/30/1914 |
The central command of
the Special Organization sends instruction for
supplying the chete bands with money, vehicles, and
others equipment. |
|
12/1/1914 |
The beginning of a
series of isolated murders to terrorize the Armenian
population. |
|
12/1/1914 |
Reports reach
Constantinople that raids by irregular chete forces
on the Armenian villages of Erzerum Province are
continuing. |
|
12/2/1914 |
Turks loot the
properties of subjects of Allied nations. |
|
12/3/1914 |
The Ittihad Inspector
of Balikesir sends a message to Dr. Nazim of the
central committee of the Special Organization via
Midhat Shukri, the Central Secretary of Ittihad,
that the Interior Ministry and the Ittihad
Committee, in accordance with issued orders, are
busy organizing the irregular chete bands. |
|
12/5/1914 |
Reports continue
reaching Constantinople that chete raids on the
Armenian villages of Erzerum Province are
continuing. |
|
12/6/1914 |
Armenians are put to
use as porters of army supplies in Erzerum,
Trebizond, and Sivas Provinces under the worst of
cold winter conditions for the purpose of letting
them die of overwork and illness. |
|
12/14/1914 |
The Turkish Cabinet
charges Enver with command of the offensive on the
Caucasian front and assigns Talaat the position of
Acting Minister of War while retaining his position
as Minister of the Interior. |
|
12/22/1914 |
An attack by the
Ottoman Third Army corps opens the Battle of
Sarikamish on the Caucasian Front. |
|
12/23/1914 |
Foreign missionaries
abandon the interior of Turkey as crosses on
missions are broken by the Turks and replaced by
crescents. |
|
12/31/1914 |
Sahag Odabashian, the
newly appointed Prelate of Erzinjan, while traveling
from Constantinople via Sivas to Erzinjan, where he
was to be installed in office, is slain in the
village of Kanli-Tash, near Shabin-Karahisar, by six
chetes organized by Ahmed Muammer, the
governor-general of Sivas Province. |
|
1/1/1915 |
The Ittihad
representative of Bursa reports to the Ittihad
Central Committee that local criminals and bandits
have been registered in the Special Organization. |
|
1915 |
|
1/1/1915 |
Nuri, the vice-governor
of Gavar District in Van Province, receives orders
from the military governor to kill the Armenian
soldiers in the Turkish Army who were stationed in
his district. |
|
1/5/1915 |
The Turkish government
publicly charges that Armenian bakers in the army
bakeries of Sivas were poisoning the bread of the
Turkish forces. The bakers are cruelly beaten,
despite the fact that a group of doctors prove the
charge to be false by examining the bread and even
eating it. As this marks an attempt on the part of
the government to incite massacre, the government
does not rescind the charge. |
|
1/8/1915 |
Turkish and Kurdish
chetes (Halil Pasha's "First Corps") attack Armenian
and Assyrian villages in northwest Persia. They
remain around the city of Tavriz (Tabriz) and the
city of Urmia from January 8 until January 29, 1915.
From Urmia alone, more than 18,000 Armenians,
together with many Assyrians and even Persian
Muslims, flee to the Caucasus. |
|
1/12/1915 |
Ahmed Muammer, the
governor-general of Sivas Province, orders the
destruction of Tavra-Koy and other strategically
located villages around the city of Sivas in order
to make future defense impossible for the Armenians.
Inside the city of Sivas strategically-located
buildings were requisitioned. |
|
1/16/1915 |
The last actions of the
Battle of Sarikamish are reported. The Turkish army
is totally defeated and almost destroyed with a loss
of 70,000 men out of 85,000. |
|
1/19/1915 |
Enver arrives in Sivas
by automobile from Erzerum after his calamitous
defeat at Sarikamish. He instructs the Army to
accept only his orders and none hereafter from the
German commanders and to draft at once all those
deferred in the 20 to 40 age group, along with all
males between the ages of 18 and 20 and 45 to 52. |
|
1/22/1915 |
Enver arrives in
Constantinople by automobile from Sivas. After his
arrival, he makes a speech congratulating the
Armenians for admirably doing their duty on the
Caucasian Front and elsewhere. Enver seeks to lull
the Armenians of Constantinople who had not yet
experienced the general persecutions in the
provinces because of the presence of a large
European community in the city. |
|
1/23/1915 |
Enver, now actively
Minister of War again, issues a general order to
shoot all persons resisting his orders. |
|
2/2/1915 |
Talaat advises German
Ambassador Count Hans von Wangenheim that the war is
the only propitious moment to conclude the Armenian
Question. |
|
2/10/1915 |
S. Pasdermadjian, the
Second Director of the Ottoman Bank, is murdered in
the presence of German Major-General Posseldt, who
reported that no investigation was carried or was
any attempt made by the Turkish authorities to
apprehend the guilty parties. |
|
2/10/1915 |
Enver's brother-in-law,
Hafiz Hakki, dies of typhus and is replaced by
Mahmud Kamil as Commander of the Third Army
(Erzerum). |
|
2/14/1915 |
Tahir Jevdet, the
governor-general of Van Province, is reported saying
that the government must begin finishing the
Armenians in Van at once. |
|
2/16/1915 |
The vice-governor of
Mush orders 70 gendarmes to attack the village of
Koms and to kill the Armenian Dashnak leader Rupen
and all persons with him. Rupen and his companions
resist and eventually escape to the Caucasus. |
|
2/19/1915 |
Talaat, Osman Bedri,
and other Ittihadist leaders decide in a meeting
that should Allied naval ships force the
Dardanelles, the Turks would burn Constantinople,
blow up the Hagia Sophia, and slaughter the
Christian inhabitants. Kerosene is distributed to
all police stations in Constantinople for ready use
in such an eventuality. |
|
2/21/1915 |
An attack by chetes on
the village of Purk near Shabin-Karahisar results in
looting, murder, rape. |
|
2/26/1915 |
Vramian, an Armenian
parliamentary deputy from Van, writes Talaat
advising him to remove the large number of chetes in
Van Province. |
|
2/27/1915 |
In Sivas Province a
general attack is reported on many Armenian villages
accompanied by raping, looting, and an increasingly
larger number of killings. |
|
2/27/1915 |
In the village of
Chomaklu in Kayseri Province and in other places,
the government demands all weapons from the
Armenians. |
|
3/1/1915 |
In Marash, the
Armenians in the Turkish Army are deprived of their
uniforms and arms. |
|
3/3/1915 |
A dispatch from the
Ittihad Central Committee is released announcing the
decision to exterminate the Armenians. |
|
3/3/1915 |
Armenian soldiers in
the Erzerum army area are deprived of their uniforms
and arms. |
|
3/3/1915 |
The British decide to
attack the Dardanelles. |
|
3/5/1915 |
In Van Province,
regular gendarmes and chetes are reported attacking
many villages inhabited by Armenians and Assyrians. |
|
3/7/1915 |
A search for weapons is
conducted in Iskenderun (Alexandretta) and a mass
arrest of Armenians carried out. |
|
3/9/1915 |
Chetes and regular Army
units attack Zeitun. Six Turkish gendarmes are
killed by individuals resisting the attack. |
|
3/12/1915 |
Massacres and robberies
are carried in Alashkert District as part of a
general campaign led by the chetes forces against
the Armenian villages of the district. |
|
3/12/1915 |
Mass arrests of
Armenians are carried out in Dortyol and a public
announcement is made that those arrested would be
sent to work on road construction near Aleppo. They
are never heard of again. |
|
3/12/1915 |
Enver leaves for Berlin
to see Kaiser Wilhelm II. |
|
3/13/1915 |
A traveling commission
of parliamentary deputies tours all the cities of
Anatolia. The commission includes Dr. Fazil Berki,
parliamentary deputy from Chankri, Ubedulla,
parliamentary deputy from Smyrna, and Behaeddin
Shakir, member of the Central Committee of the
Ittihad Party. They address the Turkish population
in the mosques describing the Armenians as internal
enemies which must destroyed. |
|
3/13/1915 |
In Sivas Province the
population in all the Armenian villages is disarmed. |
|
3/14/1915 |
Sahag, the Catholicos
of Cilicia, advises the Armenians of Zeitun not to
resist under any conditions. |
|
3/16/1915 |
Russian forces advance
between Urmia and Tavriz. |
|
3/18/1915 |
An Allied attack on the
Dardanelles begins. |
|
3/18/1915 |
In Zeitun, the Turkish
forces arrest many of the remaining Armenian
notables and intellectuals whom they torture and
finally kill. |
|
3/19/1915 |
Six Armenian soldiers
from the town of Gurun are publicly hanged in Sivas
to frighten the Armenian population. |
|
3/19/1915 |
Greek recruits are
massacred near Smyrna. |
|
3/20/1915 |
Omer Naji, a
circulating Ittihad propagandist, travels to Aleppo,
Adana and nearby towns to arouse the Muslims. |
|
3/24/1915 |
Chetes and gendarmes
attack Armenians in the towns of Bayburt (Papert)
and Terchan in Erzerum Province, and in Bitlis. |
|
3/26/1915 |
Sahag, Catholicos of
Cilicia, renews his instruction to the Armenians of
Zeitun not to resist. |
|
3/26/1915 |
Thirty more Armenian
community leaders are arrested in Zeitun. |
|
3/28/1915 |
The Armenian Dashnak
leader, Murad, resists arrest in Sivas and flees to
the mountains, and after many daring escapes reaches
the Caucasus. |
|
3/28/1915 |
Hamid, the
governor-general of Diyarbekir Province, is removed
for opposing the order of massacre, and is replaced
by Dr. Reshid. |
|
3/29/1915 |
In Aleppo, the capital
of the province, Jemal Pasha falsely announces that
the Armenians of Zeitun are in revolt and therefore
he is instructing the military authorities, to the
exclusion of the civilian government, to take
measures to punish the Armenians. |
|
3/29/1915 |
Artillery and three
regiments of the regular army are sent to Zeitun as
reinforcements for the three battalions which had
arrived in the town in January and February. |
|
3/30/1915 |
Mass beatings and
tortures are inflicted on the Armenians of Chomaklu. |
|
3/31/1915 |
In Marash, Turks
announce a mass meeting to prepare a massacre.
Acting under the terms of the March 29 order, the
government forbids civilians to take matters into
their own hands. |
|
3/31/1915 |
Deportation of
Armenians from Zeitun begins. Some of the
inhabitants are sent to the Konia Desert in central
Anatolia. The rest are sent to Der-el-Zor (Deir
el-Zor) in the Syrian Desert. |
|
3/31/1915 |
Azadamart, the leading
Armenian newspaper in Constantinople is closed by an
order of the government issued through the office of
the Police Commissioner of Constantinople, Osman
Bedri. 300 Turkish pounds in the petty cash box are
stolen. The printing presses are removed to the
Ittihad Press, where the organ Tanin was published
by the CUP, with Huseyin Jahid (Yalchin) as
editor-in-chief, and Ahmed Emin as associate editor. |
|
4/1/1915 |
The mass arrest of
Armenian political leaders is carried out in Sivas
and other provinces. |
|
4/2/1915 |
General robbery and
arrests of Armenians are reported throughout Bitlis
and Erzerum Provinces. |
|
4/2/1915 |
In Sivas Province,
battalions of gendarmery and 4000 chetes begin
regular attacks on Armenian villages with increasing
brutality. |
|
4/3/1915 |
(Easter week) Mass
arrests and a search for weapons are carried out in
Marash and Hadjin (Hajen), with the seizure of all
arms, including household knives. Numerous rapes
during the house searches are reported. |
|
4/5/1915 |
In Marash Turks demand
5,000 jackasses from the Armenians in an excuse to
loot. |
|
4/8/1915 |
Turkish emigrants from
Bosnia are settled by the government in the villages
of Zeitun District. 8,000 Turkish regulars are
reported in Zeitun. |
|
4/8/1915 |
The famous monastery of
Zeitun is burned by the Turks. |
|
4/9/1915 |
Turks declare a meeting
in Marash to deport the Armenians. The Turkish
government forbids civilian action on the ground
that the March 16 Army command covered the
situation. |
|
4/11/1915 |
Talaat tells the
Armenian parliamentary deputy Bedros Halajian that
there will be no massacres. |
|
4/12/1915 |
Widespread attacks on,
and looting of, Armenian villages in Bitlis and
Erzerum Provinces are fed by the accusation that the
Armenians caused the war. |
|
4/13/1915 |
(toward the end of the
month) The Turkish government forbids American
Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to send coded messages
to the American consuls and deprives him of his
diplomatic prerogative of receiving communications
uncensored. |
|
4/14/1915 |
The governor-general of
Van, Tahir Jevdet invites the Armenian parliamentary
deputies from Van and the Dashnak leader Ishkhan to
attend a conference. |
|
4/15/1915 |
Armenian refugees from
villages surrounding the city of Van arrive and
notify the inhabitants that 80 villages in Van
Province were already obliterated and that 24,000
Armenians had been killed in three days. |
|
4/16/1915 |
The Armenian leaders
Vramian and Ishkhan are slain during the night in
the Kurdish village of Hirj by chetes on orders from
Governor-general Tahir Jevdet. |
|
4/17/1915 |
Friendly Kurds inform
the inhabitants of Van of the assassination of
Vramian and Ishkhan. |
|
4/17/1915 |
The Armenians organize
defense against the sudden attack by Turkish forces
on the city of Van. (They hold out until advance
units of the Russian Army consisting of Armenian
volunteers arrive to their rescue on May 23, 1915). |
|
4/18/1915 |
Until the end of April
32,000 more Armenians are slain in the villages of
Van Province, including the inhabitants of remote
villages. |
|
4/18/1915 |
In Erzerum, Turkish
civilians declare intentions to hold a meeting. The
Army forbid it. Similar gatherings in other centers
are also forbidden on the grounds that the Army is
the agency responsible for handling the Armenians. |
|
4/18/1915 |
The Governor-general of
Van Province demands that the Armenians of the city
of Van surrender their weapons. The Armenians refuse
as chete units were harassing the surrounding
villages. |
|
4/19/1915 |
House searches are made
in Diyarbekir and widespread persecution takes
place. |
|
4/20/1915 |
The deportation of the
25,000 Armenians of Zeitun is completed. |
|
4/20/1915 |
The first large-scale
arrests of Armenians are made in Diyarbekir upon the
orders of Governor-general Reshid. |
|
4/20/1915 |
Twenty Armenian Social
Democratic Hnchak Party members are brought to the
Central Prison in Constantinople to face court
martial. They are hanged publicly on June 2, 1915. |
|
4/24/1915 |
250 Armenian
intellectuals and community leaders are arrested in
Constantinople and sent to Chankri and Ayash, where
they are later slain. |
|
4/24/1915 |
The editors and staff
of Azadamart, the leading Armenian newspaper of
Constantinople, are arrested, and on June 15 are
slain in Diyarbekir, where they had been transported
and imprisoned. |
|
4/24/1915 |
The Armenian Patriarch
of Constantinople and Zohrab, Armenian deputy in the
Ottoman Parliament, petition the Grand Vizier, Said
Halim, the Minister of the Interior Talaat, and the
President of the Senate, Rifat, on behalf of the
arrested Armenians of Constantinople. Though
approached separately, all three give identical
answers; that the government is isolating the
Armenian leadership and dissolving the Armenian
political organizations. |
|
4/26/1915 |
Three Armenians are
hanged publicly in Mush without trial. |
|
4/27/1915 |
A second meeting in
Erzerum to organize a communal massacre is disbanded
by the government as interference in the affairs of
the Army. |
|
4/27/1915 |
26 Armenian leaders are
arrested in Marsovan (Merzifon). A two-week-long
search for weapons is started accompanied by acts of
violence and the abuse of women. |
|
4/29/1915 |
Russian citizens of
Armenian origin are arrested in Constantinople. |
|
4/29/1915 |
The disarming of the
Armenians of Constantinople is carried out with many
outrages. |
|
4/30/1915 |
The vice-governor of
Erzinjan begins the persecution of the Armenians
with the arrest of many intellectuals. |
|
5/1/1915 |
The arrest of the
Armenian professors and teachers of the American
Euphrates College in Kharput is started. |
|
5/2/1915 |
Halil Pasha's forces
are defeated by the Russian Army in the Caucasus and
in northern Iran, and retreat to Van, Bitlis, and
Mush, where they participate in the massacre of the
Armenians. |
|
5/2/1915 |
3,000 English and
French civilians are arrested in Constantinople. |
|
5/3/1915 |
House searches are made
in Aleppo. |
|
5/3/1915 |
Macedonian Turkish
immigrants are installed in Zeitun by the
government. |
|
5/3/1915 |
The deportations from
the villages of Erzerum Province are started. |
|
5/4/1915 |
The mass arrests of
Armenian leaders in Aintab are begun. |
|
5/4/1915 |
200 Armenian leaders in
Erzerum are arrested. |
|
5/5/1915 |
Arrests and
persecutions begin in Kharput. |
|
5/6/1915 |
Allied nationals in
Beirut (Beyrut) are deported to Damascus and
dispersed from there. |
|
5/6/1915 |
The New York Times
reports that the Young Turks had adopted a policy to
annihilate the Armenians. |
|
5/9/1915 |
Lord Grey, British
Minister of Foreign Affairs, sends a message to
Enver holding him personally responsible should
anything happen to the 3,000 captive English and
French civilians. |
|
5/10/1915 |
950 prominent Armenians
are arrested in Diyarbekir on orders from Dr.
Reshid, the governor-general of Diyarbekir Province. |
|
5/10/1915 |
The Armenian refugees
from Zeitun found in Marash, who had previously been
spared deportation, are removed to the Syrian
Desert. |
|
5/12/1915 |
Vartkes, an Armenian
deputy in the Ottoman Parliament, visits Talaat to
protest the arrests of April 24. |
|
5/14/1915 |
English and French
civilian prisoners are deported to the interior of
Anatolia. |
|
5/14/1915 |
38 Armenian community
leaders are arrested in the town of Chomaklu in
Kayseri Province and shortly thereafter executed. |
|
5/15/1915 |
The Armenian community
leaders in the town of Bayburt are arrested and
subsequently killed in Urbajioghli-Dere. |
|
5/15/1915 |
Armenians are deported
from the northern villages of Erzerum Province. |
|
5/18/1915 |
Courts martial are set
up in Marash to try the Armenian leaders arrested
there shortly earlier. |
|
5/19/1915 |
Advance troops of the
Russian Army in the Caucasus led by Armenian
volunteers reach Van and lift the siege of city. |
|
5/19/1915 |
Armenians in the Khnus
region of Erzerum Province are massacred. |
|
5/21/1915 |
Regular Russian Army
forces arrive in Van. They begin the cremation of
the dead in the city and in the villages of the
province. 55,000 dead are identified as Armenians. |
|
5/21/1915 |
Armenian parliamentary
deputy Vartkes visits Police Commissioner Osman
Bedri to protest the arrests of the Constantinople
Armenian community leaders. |
|
5/22/1915 |
Turkish refugees are
settled in the emptied Armenian villages of the
Tortum District of Erzerum Province. |
|
5/24/1915 |
A note is sent by the
Allied Powers to the Turkish Cabinet holding it
responsible for the massacres of the Armenians. |
|
5/25/1915 |
Armenian parliamentary
deputies Zohrab and Vartkes are arrested in
Constantinople and later murdered while in custody
in Kara-Kopru. |
|
5/27/1915 |
German Marshal Otto
Liman von Sanders reports that the deportations were
planned by the Committee of Union and Progress, and
received the approval of all the ministries, and
that the execution of the plans was placed in the
hands of the governors-general, their subordinates,
and the police. |
|
5/27/1915 |
The promulgation of the
Temporary Law of Deportation, months after the
depopulation of the Armenian settlements had been
initiated. |
|
5/27/1915 |
2,000 Armenians are
deported from Marash. |
|
5/27/1915 |
300 Armenians arrested
on May 10 in Diyarbekir are murdered while in
custody. |
|
5/29/1915 |
Talaat is reported to
have said that he was going to give to the Armenians
a new and final residence. |
|
5/29/1915 |
630 Armenians arrested
on May 10 in Diyarbekir are murdered in the village
of Bisheri while in custody and their bodies are
thrown in the Tigris River. |
|
5/31/1915 |
Two weeks of outrages
perpetrated against the Armenians of the town of
Chomaklu under the guise of forcing the Armenians to
give up their arms are ended. |
|
5/31/1915 |
German Ambassador Hans
von Wangenheim advises against German interference
in the deportations. |
|
6/3/1915 |
Ayub Bey, an
arch-assassin, leaves Adana for Aleppo in connection
with the organizing of massacres. |
|
6/4/1915 |
Enver issues a circular
dispatch classified secret and urgent concerning the
deportations. |
|
6/7/1915 |
The first convoy of
Armenian deportees leave Erzinjan toward Kemakh on
their way to the Syrian Desert. |
|
6/7/1915 |
The Armenian Prelate of
Shabin-Karahisar, Vaghinag Vartabed, is
assassinated. |
|
6/7/1915 |
The Armenians of
Constantinople appeal to the German and the Austrian
Embassies to prevent the deportations and associated
outrages, but receive no satisfactory reply. |
|
6/7/1915 |
The Armenians arrested
in Sivas on April 1 and transported to Angora
Province are murdered in the woods of
Meshedler-Yeri. The mass slaughter is witnessed by
Greek woodcutters who report the news to the
Armenians of Sivas. |
|
6/8/1915 |
The second convoy of
deportees from Erzinjan leaves for the Syrian
Desert. |
|
6/9/1915 |
The third convoy of
Armenians departs from Erzinjan. |
|
6/9/1915 |
Three Armenian medical
officers, Dr. Hairanian, Dr. Baghdasar Vartanian,
and Dr. Maksud, serving in the Turkish Army are
murdered in the city of Sivas. |
|
6/10/1915 |
Over a period of four
days the Armenians deported from the towns and
villages of Erzerum Province are slaughtered in a
major massacre at Kemakh. |
|
6/13/1915 |
The War Ministry orders
the seizure of all the domestic animals of the
Armenians. |
|
6/13/1915 |
The War Ministry
notifies that the permits given to Armenians
exempting them from the deportations and safety
certificates are only provisional and temporary. |
|
6/13/1915 |
25,000 Armenians are
murdered by the fourth day of the Kemakh massacre.
The 86th Cavalry Brigade with its officers and the
2nd Reserve Cavalry Division of the Turkish Army
participate in the slaughter. |
|
6/13/1915 |
Instructions concerning
procedures for the deportations and urging extreme
strictness are sent to provincial governors. |
|
6/14/1915 |
Subhi Bey, the
assistant to the Undersecretary of the Interior
Ministry asks for a list of Armenians working in the
shipyards, docks, and arsenals of the Ministry of
the Marine. |
|
6/14/1915 |
The third convoy of
Armenian deportees from the town of Bayburt departs. |
|
6/14/1915 |
300 Armenian community
leaders are arrested in Shabin-Karahisar. |
|
6/15/1915 |
Twenty members of
Armenian Social Democratic Hnchak Party are publicly
hanged in Constantinople as a signal to the
provinces to intensify measures. |
|
6/15/1915 |
Twelve Armenian
community leaders are publicly hanged in Sivas. |
|
6/15/1915 |
The Armenians of
Shabin-Karahisar organize defense against chete
forces and the regular Turkish Army. |
|
6/16/1915 |
3,500 Armenian men are
seized in a mass arrest in Sivas Province. |
|
6/17/1915 |
Talaat is reported to
have declared that he will uproot the internal
enemy. |
|
6/17/1915 |
1,213 Armenian men are
arrested in Marsovan (Merzifon). |
|
6/17/1915 |
8,500 Armenians
withdraw into the ruined castle of Shabin-Karahisar
to defend themselves against the Turks. |
|
6/18/1915 |
160 families are
deported from city of Erzinjan. |
|
6/19/1915 |
A second convoy
composed of 300 families leaves the city of Erzerum. |
|
6/21/1915 |
The governor-general of
Aleppo, Jelal Bey, resigns in protest against the
deportation order and the massacres. |
|
6/21/1915 |
Talaat sends
instructions to prevent the populace from robbing
the abandoned goods of the Armenians. |
|
6/23/1915 |
The Interior Ministry
advises provincial governors that the Commission on
Abandoned Goods will have charge of the resettlement
of Turkish Muslim immigrants. |
|
6/23/1915 |
The Interior Ministry
advises taking the precaution of separating the
convoys of Armenian deportees by a distance of five
hours. |
|
6/23/1915 |
The wholesale arrest of
1,500 men is carried out in Sivas Province. |
|
6/23/1915 |
First large-scale
massacre of Armenian men is carried out in the town
of Kharput. |
|
6/23/1915 |
Wholesale arrests are
made in Bitlis of the scattered remnant Armenians
who had escaped the previous series of massacres. |
|
6/23/1915 |
Massacres of Armenian
Christians, Maronites, Nestorians, Europeans,
Catholics, and other non-Muslim people in the city
of Mardin are carried out under the direct order of
Dr. Reshid, the governor-general of Diyarbekir
Province. |
|
6/23/1915 |
The Armenian notables
of Trebizond are sent by boat toward Samsun, and on
the way are thrown, tightly bound together, into the
Black Sea. |
|
6/25/1915 |
The massacre of
Armenians of Bitlis is carried out under the direct
orders of Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda. |
|
6/25/1915 |
A government decree
instructs the 30,000 Armenians in Trebizond to leave
the city within 5 days. |
|
6/26/1915 |
An decree issued in
Erzerum orders all Armenians to leave for Syria. |
|
6/26/1915 |
A decree issued in
Samsun orders all Armenians to leave within 15 days. |
|
6/26/1915 |
The remaining Armenian
men in Sivas are arrested. |
|
6/28/1915 |
The previously arrested
Armenian educators and community leaders in Kharput
are transported from prison to be murdered. |
|
6/29/1915 |
Vartkes and Zohrab, two
Armenian deputies in the Ottoman Parliament,
deported from Constantinople, arrive in custody in
Aleppo. |
|
6/30/1915 |
3,000 Armenians from
the city of Erzerum are murdered while being
deported. |
|
6/30/1915 |
6,000 Armenians from
Zeitun arrive in the Konia Desert and nearby
malarial marshes. |
|
7/1/1915 |
2,000 Armenian soldiers
in the Turkish Army used as laborers are massacred
near the city of Kharput. |
|
7/1/1915 |
The first convoy of
deportees leaves the seaport of Trebizond for the
south. |
|
7/1/1915 |
The governor-general of
Sivas announces that the first convoy of deportees
from the city are to leave by July 5 in groups
according to street residence. A total of 48,000
persons are deported. The governor, commissioner of
police, two parliamentary deputies, the qadi (the
chief religious judge), and the mufti (the religious
chief) tell the Armenians that they were being
resettled for the duration of the war in order to
forestall any resistance. |
|
7/2/1915 |
Bands of 4,000 chetes
operating out of the mountains around Erzinjan begin
daily raids against the southward bound convoys of
Armenian deportees. |
|
7/2/1915 |
The deportation decree
is issued in the city of Mush. |
|
7/4/1915 |
For the record an
official German protest is registered with the Grand
Vizier. The protest is left unanswered by the
Turkish government. |
|
7/4/1915 |
Neshed Pasha leaves
Sivas with three regiments and artillery to subdue
the Armenians resisting in Shabin-Karahisar. |
|
7/5/1915 |
In Diyarbekir 2,000
Armenian soldiers working in labor corps are killed. |
|
7/5/1915 |
The first convoy of
deportees leaves the city of Sivas. Every day for 16
days an average of 400 families leave, the
overwhelming majority being slain on route to the
Syrian Desert. The last convoy departs from the city
on July 20. |
|
7/6/1915 |
By this date up to
1,000 Armenian families had left Trebizond in
convoys headed south. |
|
7/7/1915 |
The male members of 800
Armenian families in the town of Kharput are killed. |
|
7/8/1915 |
Zaven, Armenian
Patriarch of Constantinople, appeals to the Minister
of Justice, Ibrahim Bey, who replies that he cannot
intervene in matters concerning the War Ministry. |
|
7/10/1915 |
2,700 persons are
killed in a second massacre in Mardin. |
|
7/11/1915 |
The beginning of a
four-day massacre in Mush under the combined orders
of parliamentary deputy Elias, vice-governor Servet,
and Governor-general Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda,
Talaat's brother-in-law. |
|
7/11/1915 |
The Interior Ministry
instructs that the Armenian villages be settled with
Muslim immigrants. |
|
7/12/1915 |
The government advises
all governors-general that Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor)
District is saturated and that the rest of the
deportees be routed to Kirkuk District in northern
Iraq, to the south of Aleppo, and to the east of
Syria. |
|
7/12/1915 |
Instructions are issued
to distribute Armenian orphans to Turkish homes. |
|
7/13/1915 |
The Muslim holy month
of Ramadan begins. During the whole month the
greatest concentration and universalization of
massacring and murdering occurs in every province of
Turkey. |
|
7/13/1915 |
The last convoy,
containing all the remaining Armenians in the city,
leaves Kharput. |
|
7/13/1915 |
Zaven, Armenian
Patriarch of Constantinople, is declined an audience
with Talaat. |
|
7/14/1915 |
Jemal, Commander of
Aleppo's Fourth Army Corps, protests to Dr. Reshid,
the governor-general of Diyarbekir Province about
the dumping of dead bodies in the Euphrates River
and advises burial. From June 22 to July 17, a
period of 25 days, a steady stream of bodies of
massacred Armenians floats down the Euphrates River. |
|
7/16/1915 |
Bodies from Kharput
Province and Erzerum Province float down the
Euphrates to Jerablus, where they are seen and
identified by German officers. |
|
7/18/1915 |
In the region of
Dersim, 3,000 Armenians are killed by the Turks.
Almost all of the large Kurdish population of Dersim
refuses to participate in the massacres and even
shelters many Armenians. |
|
7/21/1915 |
First day of the
Turkish attack on Musa Dagh (Musa Ler in Armenian). |
|
7/23/1915 |
The Italian consul at
Trebizond reports about the barbarities he had
witnessed. |
|
7/23/1915 |
The seventh anniversary
of the 1908 restoration of the liberal Constitution
of 1876 is celebrated. |
|
7/24/1915 |
Talaat sends
instructions to Urfa, Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor), and
Diyarbekir to bury the bodies of those fallen by the
roadside and not throw them in ditches, lakes, or
rivers. |
|
7/24/1915 |
The registration and
classification of all prisoners from Sivas is
carried out. This was done in accordance with a
directive in general circulation. |
|
7/25/1915 |
Behaeddin Shakir, chief
of the Special Organization in Erzerum Province,
telegrams Nazim Bey Resneli via Sabit Bey, the
governor-general of Kharput Province, inquiring
whether the Armenians deported from there are being
exterminated or just being convoyed. |
|
7/25/1915 |
Behaeddin Shakir
instructs the governor-general of Kastamonu Province
to begin the deportation of the Armenians there. |
|
7/26/1915 |
Talaat informs the
Ittihad party organization in Malatia explaining
that half of the loot captured from the Armenians is
being assigned to the Central Committee of Ittihad
in Constantinople, and the other half is to be
distributed to chetes. (On December 12, 1918, the
Turkish newspaper, Sabah, reported that each chete
in the Malatia area received as a result 15,000
Turkish pounds.) |
|
7/27/1915 |
Governor-general Reshid
Pasha reports to the Interior Ministry that the
deportation of the Armenians from Kastamonu Province
is completed. |
|
7/27/1915 |
Behaeddin Shakir sends
a cipher telegram to the governor-general of Adalia
Province, Sabur Sami Bey, asking him what steps he
was taking at a time, when in Erzerum, Van, Bitlis,
Diyarbekir, Sivas, and Trebizond Provinces, not a
single Armenian remains because they have all been
sent in the direction of Mosul and Der-el-Zor (Deir
el-Zor). Sabur sends a copy of the telegram to
Talaat to show that he had received these indirect
instructions. |
|
7/27/1915 |
The vice-governor of
Yozgat District, in Angora Province, reports to the
Interior Ministry that 68,000 Armenians had been
slain in the district. |
|
7/28/1915 |
Sabit, the
governor-general of Kharput Province, informs the
Interior Ministry that all the road are filled with
the bodies of women and children and time cannot be
found to bury them. |
|
7/28/1915 |
The governor-general of
Erzerum Province reports of widespread looting and
rape. |
|
7/28/1915 |
The Interior Ministry
issues a circular telegram instructing that the
Muslim population be settled in the large Armenian
villages. |
|
7/28/1915 |
The deportation of the
Armenians of the town of Aintab begins. |
|
7/28/1915 |
The deportation of the
Armenians of the town of Kilis begins. |
|
7/28/1915 |
The deportation of the
Armenians of the town of Adiaman begins. |
|
7/28/1915 |
Professor Kakig Ozanian
of the American College and others from Marsovan
(Merzifon), together with the Armenian community
leader Dikran Diranian and others from Samsun, are
transported to the prisons of Sivas to be killed. |
|
7/30/1915 |
A mass arrest of
Armenians in the city of Angora is carried out.
Those arrested are slain the next day at a place six
hours distance from the city of Angora. |
|
7/30/1915 |
The withdrawal of the
Russian Army from the city of Van begins. |
|
7/31/1915 |
The mass murder of
Armenian community leaders of Constantinople
imprisoned in Ayash and Chankri is carried. They are
killed along with the Armenians of Angora arrested
the day before. |
|
8/1/1915 |
The deportation of
25,000 Armenians from Adabazar, near Constantinople,
begins. |
|
8/1/1915 |
20,000 deportees arrive
in Aleppo. |
|
8/1/1915 |
Mass torture inflicted
on 500 Armenians in the prisons of Adabazar. |
|
8/2/1915 |
Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau reports that on this day Talaat told him
that the Ittihad Committee had carefully considered
in all its details the matter of crushing the
Armenians, and that the policy which was being
pursued was that which had been officially adopted.
He also told Morgenthau that the deportations were
not the result of hasty decisions but of careful and
prolonged deliberation. Talaat, moreover, indicated
that three quarters of the Armenians had already
been disposed of, and none were left in Bitlis, Van,
and Erzerum. |
|
8/2/1915 |
For six nights,
Armenian prisoners, mostly intellectuals, held in
Gok-Medrese in Sivas, which was a Seljuk structure
in use as a temporary prison, were taken out and
slain. |
|
8/3/1915 |
150,000 deportees
arrive in Aleppo from various unspecified places. |
|
8/3/1915 |
4,500 Armenian
deportees from Seghert and 2,000 deportees from
Mezre arrive near Aleppo. |
|
8/3/1915 |
15,000 Armenians arrive
in Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor). |
|
8/3/1915 |
In response to
unofficial German protests about large-scale
murders, rapes, and tortures inflicted on the
Armenian deportees on the highways, which was
creating a bad impression on the Americans, a
circular telegram is sent advising against attacking
and raping Armenians on the highways. |
|
8/3/1915 |
Officials are
instructed not to appropriate the 'abandoned goods'
of the Armenians for personal use. |
|
8/3/1915 |
60,000 Armenian
deportees from unspecified places arrive near
Aleppo. |
|
8/4/1915 |
Talaat sends a circular
telegram to all governors and officials expecting
accountability for the 'abandoned goods.' |
|
8/6/1915 |
Eighteen Armenians are
publicly hanged in the town of Everek near Kayseri. |
|
8/7/1915 |
The Armenians of Mersin
(Mersine) are deported. |
|
8/7/1915 |
The listing of all real
estate seized from the Armenians is requested by the
Interior Ministry. |
|
8/10/1915 |
All the Armenians of
Chorum are deported via Boghazli and Bozanti with
the Syrian Desert their purportedly ultimate
destination. |
|
8/10/1915 |
A circular telegram
calls for the registration of all Muslim creditors
of the Armenians. |
|
8/11/1915 |
Instructions are issued
that Turkish settlers be sent via Angora, Sivas, and
Kayseri to Kharput and others via Konia (Konya) and
Adana to Diyarbekir. |
|
8/11/1915 |
Armenian women married
to Turks are deprived of the right of inheritance. |
|
8/11/1915 |
The last of 84 Armenian
intellectuals, who were brought to the Ayash prison
and who over the course of the weeks had been taken
out in small groups to be murdered at various times,
was killed. The longest-held was in prison in Ayash
for 105 days. |
|
8/11/1915 |
The Armenian
intellectuals imprisoned in the Sifahdiye Medrese (a
Muslim religious school) in Sivas, are taken out
from the city and slain. There were 36 extermination
centers in the area of Sivas. 5,000 Armenian
intellectuals imprisoned in the Gok Medrese and the
Sifahdiye Medrese, both Seljuk structures in use as
temporary prisons, were taken to these 36 execution
centers and slain. |
|
8/12/1915 |
The end of the Muslim
holy month of Ramadan. First day of the three day
holiday of Bairam. No massacres were carried during
these three days as it was time off for rest. |
|
8/12/1915 |
Enver reports that to
date 200,000 Armenians had been slain. |
|
8/12/1915 |
In Aleppo Province
200,000 Armenian deportees are reported in transit
to the desert. |
|
8/12/1915 |
Boghos Nubar, a leading
Armenian from Egypt, who had never been in Turkey,
but who had been instrumental in Paris in pressing
Turkey to introduce reforms in the Armenian
provinces, was tried in absentia by a Turkish court
martial and sentenced to death for treason. |
|
8/13/1915 |
The deportation of the
Armenians of Izmid (Izmit), Baghchejik (Bardizag),
Bursa, and Adabazar begins. |
|
8/13/1915 |
Instructions are issued
to avoid deportees from coming to rest near military
installations. |
|
8/13/1915 |
From the Central Prison
of city of Sivas where many Armenian intellectuals,
political leaders, and the leading men of the
villages surrounding Sivas were imprisoned, 15,000
Armenians were taken out and slain in the 36
extermination centers of the region. |
|
8/13/1915 |
Instructions are sent
out to the committees liquidating the 'abandoned
goods' of the Armenians and directions given about
methods for depositing the moneys obtained. |
|
8/14/1915 |
Saturday, the third and
last day of Bairam. |
|
8/16/1915 |
50,000 deportees are
observed on the road from Bozanti to Aleppo. |
|
8/18/1915 |
The New York Times
reports of a plan for the destruction of the whole
Armenian nation. |
|
8/19/1915 |
250 Armenians are
killed in the city of Urfa in a massacre by Turks
inaugurating the first attempt to uproot the
Armenians of Urfa. The Armenians of Urfa begin the
defense of their city |
|
8/19/1915 |
Lord Bryce reports that
500,000 Armenians had been murdered in Turkey. |
|
8/21/1915 |
The War Ministry
requisitions for the military forty-one kinds of
articles of merchandise from the Armenians. |
|
8/21/1915 |
A general order is
issued for the liquidation of the closed commercial
stores of the Armenians. |
|
8/23/1915 |
A second massacre of
Armenians in Urfa is organized. |
|
8/25/1915 |
The War Ministry
requisitions all soap found in the homes and stores
of the deported Armenians. |
|
8/26/1915 |
The War Ministry
requisitions for its military supply depots all
wood, coal, and copper found in the homes and stores
of deported Armenians. |
|
8/26/1915 |
The Armenian poet,
Daniel Varoujan, together with the poet physician
Rupen Sevak, and others, are murdered by chetes
while incarcerated in the Ayash prison. |
|
8/26/1915 |
60,000 deported
Armenians in the Aleppo area are ordered to leave
for Hawran, an Arab district in northern
Trans-Jordan. |
|
8/26/1915 |
The Armenian Catholics
in Angora are arrested. |
|
8/28/1915 |
Instructions are issued
forbidding the purchase of property from Armenian
deportees. |
|
8/28/1915 |
The students of the
Sanasarian Academy in the city of Sivas are murdered
in the town of Gemerak some thirty miles southwest
of Sivas. |
|
8/31/1915 |
Talaat tells the German
ambassador, Prince Ernst Hohenlohe-Langenburg, that
the Armenian Question no longer exists. Hohenlohe
had assumed the German ambassadorship on July 20. |
|
9/2/1915 |
4,750 Armenians are
murdered in Jezire. |
|
9/3/1915 |
10,000 survivors from
the Armenians deported from Bursa and Izmid (Izmit)
arrive in Konia (Konya). |
|
9/3/1915 |
The New York Times
reports that Izmid (Izmit) had been put to the torch
and the Armenians massacred. |
|
9/3/1915 |
15,000 Armenian
deportees are reported at Eskishehir, 5,000 at
Alayund, and 2,000 at Chai. |
|
9/6/1915 |
In Marsovan (Merzifon),
of the 62 Armenian girls who had been saved by
American missionaries, on this date only 21
remained. 21 others had been abducted by Turks. |
|
9/6/1915 |
The Interior Ministry
orders all Armenian schools to be placed at the
disposal of Turkish authorities. |
|
9/7/1915 |
Massacres of Armenians
are carried out in Yozgat District. |
|
9/7/1915 |
The War Ministry
instructs that the goods requisitioned from the
Armenians are to be distributed to the Third,
Fourth, and Iraq Armies. |
|
9/7/1915 |
The second Liquidation
Commission in Kayseri is organized. |
|
9/8/1915 |
5,000 Armenian
deportees are reported at Bozanti. |
|
9/10/1915 |
On the fifty-third day
of the Armenian defense in Musa Dagh, 4,058 persons
are rescued by three English and one French warship,
which transport the survivors to Port Said in Egypt. |
|
9/11/1915 |
6,000 Armenian
deportees in transit left Adana in the direction of
Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor). |
|
9/12/1915 |
A Fifth Army notice
advises that the Islamization of Armenian soldiers
is the responsibility of the civilian authorities. |
|
9/13/1915 |
The Turkish Red
Crescent Society asks that all cotton goods, and
other necessities be granted to the organization
from the 'abandoned goods' of the Armenian
deportees. |
|
9/14/1915 |
The New York Times
reports the murder of 350,000 Armenians. |
|
9/14/1915 |
The survivors of Musa
Dagh arrive in Port Said. |
|
9/15/1915 |
In a circular letter
Talaat explains that the real intention of sending
the Armenians to the Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) Desert
is to annihilate them. |
|
9/16/1915 |
Talaat sends
instructions by circular telegram to mete out the
same fate to the Armenian women and children that
had been dealt to the Armenian men. |
|
9/16/1915 |
A circular dispatch is
issued advising caution against the looting of the
property of foreigners, with special mention of
Singer Sewing Machine Company property. |
|
9/16/1915 |
Talaat send a telegram
to Ali Suad Bey, Governor of Der-el-Zor (Deir
el-Zor), explaining his responsibilities. |
|
9/17/1915 |
A circular telegram
instructs all district attorneys to sign and seal
the account books cataloguing the properties seized
from the Armenians. |
|
9/18/1915 |
In Aleppo, Nuri and Ali
Bey consult about the future massacre of the
Armenian remnants in the Syrian Desert at Der-el-Zor
(Deir el-Zor). |
|
9/21/1915 |
A circular telegram
authorizes the seizure of all Armenian schools and
authorized their placement under the control of
local education committees. |
|
9/22/1915 |
Weekly reports on the
number of Armenians dead is requested. |
|
9/22/1915 |
The War Ministry
requisitions for the use of the army all wood and
coal in the homes and stores of Armenian deportees. |
|
9/23/1915 |
300 Armenians are
killed in a massacre at Urfa. |
|
9/23/1915 |
11,000 Armenian
deportees from 26 different villages are observed at
Afiyon-Karahisar. |
|
9/24/1915 |
The vice-governor of
Bolu, Mufid, wires the Interior Ministry that the
Armenians of Bolu are about to be deported. |
|
9/24/1915 |
The local Ittihad
Secretary informs the Interior Ministry that 61,000
Armenians had been deported up to this date from
Chankri and Angora. He also reports that the Muslims
of Angora Province worship the Ittihad party and
government for its committed deeds and that the same
can be secured in Bolu if the same measures are
taken there. |
|
9/25/1915 |
The Sanitation Division
of the War Ministry requisitions all the medical
implements and pharmaceuticals held by Armenians. |
|
9/25/1915 |
24 Armenian schools in
Kayseri alone are requisitioned in four days. |
|
9/26/1915 |
A Law on Abandoned
Goods is ratified by the Ottoman Senate legalizing
ex post facto the looting by the government of the
properties of the Armenians. |
|
9/27/1915 |
The Interior Ministry
by circular telegram orders the deportation of all
Armenian women, children, and the sick. |
|
9/28/1915 |
The German ambassador
in the United States, Johann Heinrich Count von
Bernstorff, suggests that the stories about
massacres in Turkey are fabricated. |
|
9/28/1915 |
A circular telegram
advises that all Armenian property now belongs to
the Turkish government. |
|
9/28/1915 |
The governor-general of
Diyarbekir Province, Dr. Reshid, reports to the
Interior Ministry that more than 120,000 Armenians
have been deported from Diyarbekir Province. |
|
9/29/1915 |
By this date 10,000
Armenian deportees had arrived at Afiyon-Karahisar,
50,000 had arrived at Konia (Konya), 10,000 had
arrived at Intille (Intili), while 150,000 were
reported at Katma. |
|
9/30/1915 |
The deportees from
Yalova, Angora, and Kastomuni (Kastamoni) are
numbered at 250,000. |
|
10/1/1915 |
U.S. Secretary of State
Robert Lansing delivers a note to German Ambassador
Bernstorff relating to the massacres of the
Armenians. |
|
10/1/1915 |
The governor-general of
Sivas Province, Ahmed Muammer, travels to Amasia and
elsewhere to inspect the completion and effect of
the massacres in preparation for Talaat's inspection
trip. |
|
10/1/1915 |
600 Armenian orphan
boys are Turkified in Herek. |
|
10/2/1915 |
(General Vehib Pasha
reported during the postwar court martial that in
September 1915, Behaeddin Shakir assembled and used
murdering cutthroats in the Third Army Zone [the six
eastern or Armenian provinces of Turkey].) |
|
10/4/1915 |
The Interior Ministry
advises against the need of opening orphanages and
prolonging the life of Armenian children. |
|
10/7/1915 |
By this date the number
of deported Armenians still living is estimated at
360,000 minimum, and the number of Armenians dead is
estimated at 800,000 minimum. |
|
10/7/1915 |
$75,000 is collected in
the United States for relief for the Armenian
deportees. |
|
10/7/1915 |
In the British House of
Lords a general discussion of the Armenian situation
takes place. Lord Bryce, Lord Crewe, and Lord Cromer
condemn the Turkish barbarities. |
|
10/8/1915 |
Talaat requests from
provincial officials documents proving Armenian
'treason' against Turkey to justify the massacres. |
|
10/10/1915 |
45 Armenians are
arrested in Adrianople (Edirne), and 1,600 Armenians
are deported. |
|
10/12/1915 |
Orders are issued
forbidding marriage with Armenian women. |
|
10/13/1915 |
In Berlin an
announcement is made that the story of the Armenian
massacres is an Allied fabrication. |
|
10/15/1915 |
The dean of the
Realschule (the German technical school) in Aleppo
and German professors there protest against the
massacres of the Armenians to the German Foreign
Office. |
|
10/15/1915 |
16,000 Armenian
deportees are observed at Afiyon-Karahisar and
80,000 at Konia (Konya). |
|
10/15/1915 |
6,000 Turkish soldiers
stage the final attack on the Armenians defending
themselves in Urfa. 400 Turkish troops are killed as
Armenians defend to the last. |
|
10/16/1915 |
Immunity from
prosecution is guaranteed to those carrying out the
massacres of the Armenians in Der-el-Zor (Deir
el-Zor). |
|
10/16/1915 |
16,000 Armenian
deportees from Bursa and Izmid (Izmit) leave
Afiyon-Karahisar for Konia (Konya). |
|
10/16/1915 |
Lord Bryce remarks that
Germany could stop the massacres if it wished to do
so. |
|
10/16/1915 |
20,000 Armenian
deportees in transit are murdered in the city and
environs of Urfa. |
|
10/18/1915 |
The governor-general of
Sivas Province, Ahmed Muammer Bey, inspects the
carrying out of his orders for the deportation and
destruction of the Armenians in the province, in
anticipation of Talaat's inspection trip which
occurs shortly thereafter. |
|
10/18/1915 |
A large public
gathering to protest the massacres of the Armenians
by the Turkish government is held in the Century
Theater in New York. Rabbi Wise, B. Cochrane, Dr.
Barton, and H. Holt are the main speakers. |
|
10/18/1915 |
Mufti Zade Zia, a
Turkish propagandist, writing in New York describes
the Armenians as traitors. |
|
10/22/1915 |
The Turkish Embassy in
Washington accuses the Armenians of treason against
the Ottoman state. |
|
10/25/1915 |
Halil Bey of Menteshe,
the Vice-President of the Turkish Chamber of
Deputies and president of the State Council, becomes
Minister of Foreign Affairs. |
|
10/25/1915 |
Instructions are issued
requesting that within one week documents be sent to
the Interior Ministry indicting the Armenian people
as traitors. |
|
10/27/1915 |
20,000 Armenian
deportees are reported in Konia (Konya) on this
date. |
|
10/28/1915 |
Numerous Armenian
families are deported from Adrianople (Edirne) at
midnight without prior notice upon the order of
Acting Governor-general Zekerie. |
|
10/28/1915 |
Per earlier
instructions sent by Talaat, 80,000 Armenian
deportees left the Konia (Konya) station for Bozanti
on this date on their way to their 'final
destination.' These 80,000 were deportees from
cities near Constantinople and from the Armenian
communities in the western parts of Turkey. |
|
10/31/1915 |
Instructions are issued
advising that the special measures taken against the
Armenians be conducted in places beyond the view of
foreigners and especially the American consuls. |
|
10/31/1915 |
Instructions are issued
for the trial by court martial of any Armenian
reporting the events of the deportations to any
foreigner. |
|
11/3/1915 |
Doctor Schacht, a
German army physician, stationed near the village of
Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) village, reports counting
7,000 severed Armenian heads (skulls) in Sabgha
District near the Euphrates River. |
|
11/4/1915 |
The German consul in
Mosul reports that Halil Pasha's soldiers had
massacred the Armenians north of Mosul and were
preparing to massacre the Armenians in the city of
Mosul. |
|
11/5/1915 |
On this date, 10,000
Armenian deportees are reported in Bozanti, 20,000
deportees in Tarsus, 40,000 deportees in Islahiye,
and 50,000 deportees in Katma. |
|
11/5/1915 |
150,000 Armenian
deportees are reported scattered between Adana and
Aleppo crossing the Amanos Range. |
|
11/5/1915 |
20,000 Armenian
deportees are reported in Adana. |
|
11/8/1915 |
The Turkish authorities
again make preparations to deport the 200,000
Armenians of Constantinople. |
|
11/11/1915 |
Jemal Pasha, as
commander of Syria, seeks to court martial the dean
of the Realschule in Aleppo and other German
signatories of the protest of October 15 for
publicizing the Armenian events in Cilicia. |
|
11/13/1915 |
20,000 Armenian
deportees are reported in the Hawran District of
Trans-Jordan. (On November 15, 1918, only 450 of
this group of 20,000 were reported alive.) |
|
11/13/1915 |
On this date, 10,000
Armenian deportees were reported in Intille (Intili)
and 150,000 deportees were reported in Katma living
under terrible conditions, disease-wracked and
starving. |
|
11/14/1915 |
The Anglican and the
Orthodox Churches ask U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
to pressure the German government to intervene with
the Turkish government to stop the massacre of the
Armenians. |
|
11/15/1915 |
The German Charge
d'affaires Baron Konstantin von Neurath, welcomes
the new ambassador, Paul Count von Wolff-Metternich,
who represented Imperial Germany from this date
until October 3, 1916. The Charge d'affaires had
been in charge of the German diplomatic
representation in Turkey since October 2, 1915, when
Hohenlohe had departed. |
|
11/16/1915 |
The fields in Bakche
District were reported littered with the corpses of
many thousands of Armenians who had starved to death
while being deported through here. |
|
11/17/1915 |
Sir Robert Cecil
protests the Turkish charge that the massacres were
a response to an Armenian revolt, and charges that
they were the result of a premeditated plan on the
part of the Turkish government. |
|
11/18/1915 |
A circular telegram is
sent ordering the deportation of Armenian children. |
|
11/18/1915 |
Talaat leaves
Constantinople for an inspection tour of Anatolia.
He returns on December 18. |
|
11/25/1915 |
Up to this date,
500,000 Armenian deportees are estimated to have
passed through Bozanti (northwest of Adana). |
|
11/26/1915 |
1,010 Armenians are
deported from the village of Mamure (Mamura) in
Adana District. |
|
12/1/1915 |
The fields around the
village of Mamure (Mamura) are reported littered
with several thousand corpses of starved or murdered
deportees who had been traveling through. |
|
12/4/1915 |
10,000 Armenian
bachelors are deported from the city of
Constantinople up to this date. A list is prepared
of 70,000 Armenian individuals to be deported from
Constantinople. |
|
12/6/1915 |
A circular telegram
instructs that no Armenian is to be left alive in
the eastern provinces. |
|
12/7/1915 |
The German ambassador
Wolff-Metternich goes to the Sublime Porte in
connection with the massacres and is told that
nothing could be discussed until Talaat's return. |
|
12/9/1915 |
Orders are issued in
Aleppo Province for the deportation of 400 Armenian
orphans previously placed in an orphanage. |
|
12/12/1915 |
180,000 Armenian
refugees from Turkey who had reached Tiflis
(Tbilisi) are reported to be in dire conditions. |
|
12/14/1915 |
Orders are issued for
the killing of Armenian priests. |
|
12/15/1915 |
A circular telegram
clarifies that the purpose of the deportations is
annihilation. |
|
12/16/1915 |
Instructions are issued
advising against slowing the deportations and urging
the dispatch of the deportees to the desert. |
|
12/18/1915 |
Talaat returns from
Anatolia. German Ambassador Wolff-Metternich is told
by Talaat that the Turks are not killing innocents. |
|
12/22/1915 |
Orders are issued
forbidding the acceptance from any Armenian of an
application of exemption from the deportations. |
|
12/25/1915 |
Orders are issued for
the deportation of all children except those who did
not remember their parents. |
|
12/29/1915 |
On this date, of the
estimated 210,000 refugees who had reached the
Caucasus, only 173,000 are reported still living,
almost 40,000 having died as a result of privations
and disease. Of the remaining 173,000, 105,000 were
from Van Province, 48,000 from Bayazid (Bayazit)
District, 20,038 from Mush District. |
|
12/30/1915 |
A circular telegram, as
a follow-up on the telegram of December 15,
instructs that Armenians desiring to convert to
Islam are to be notified that their Islamization
must take place after they reach their final
destination. In view of the earlier instructions
clarifying the purpose of the deportations as
annihilation, the new instructions imply that
Armenians are no longer to be allowed to escape
destruction for any reason. |
|
1/1/1916 |
The Armenian deportees
concentrated in Suruj District, near Urfa, are sent
out toward Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) under very
severe winter conditions, completely lacking food,
shelter, and suitable clothing. |
|
1916 |
|
1/5/1916 |
Mustafa Abdulhalik
Renda seeks to oust Ali Suad, the Arab governor of
Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) District for lack of
severity by applying directly to Talaat. |
|
1/8/1916 |
The immediate
deportation to the desert of the Armenians working
on the railroads or in railway construction is
ordered. |
|
1/11/1916 |
Instructions are sent
to prevent foreign officers from photographing dead
Armenians. |
|
1/13/1916 |
U.S. Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau during his farewell visit with Talaat is
told of the pointlessness of speaking about the
Armenians. |
|
1/15/1916 |
A second circular
telegram is issued by the Interior Ministry to
prevent photographing of the dead. |
|
1/17/1916 |
The governor-general of
Aleppo is instructed to send the Armenians deported
from the northern provinces directly to their final
destinations. |
|
1/23/1916 |
The governor-general of
Aleppo informs Talaat that only 10% of the Armenian
deportees remain alive, and that measures are being
taken to dispose of them also. |
|
1/23/1916 |
A French translation of
a spurious book prepared by Talaat's office charging
the Armenians with treason and revolution is
published. |
|
1/24/1916 |
During this period of
47 days, of 486,000 Armenian deportees, 364,500 are
reported to have been killed by the Turks or to have
died because of the hardships of the deportations. |
|
1/24/1916 |
The War Ministry orders
all Armenian soldiers remaining alive in the Turkish
armies to be converted to Islam and to be
circumcised. |
|
1/24/1916 |
The governor-general of
Aleppo orders the vice-governor of Aintab to deport
the remaining Armenian women in Aintab. |
|
1/26/1916 |
German Marshal Colmar
von der Goltz is appointed Commander of the Eastern
Front. |
|
1/28/1916 |
A circular telegram
orders the destruction of orphans. |
|
1/29/1916 |
50,000 Armenian
remnants are reported concentrated at Intille
(Intili). |
|
1/29/1916 |
The Interior Ministry
provisionally exempts from deportation Armenians
needed for the running of the railways. Their
families and children, however, are ordered to be
deported to the desert. |
|
1/29/1916 |
The Interior Ministry
orders the deportation of the Armenians constructing
roads as soon as the construction work is finished. |
|
1/31/1916 |
The vice-governor of
Aintab District informs the governor-general of
Aleppo Province that the Armenian women and children
have been handed over to Kurds. |
|
1/31/1916 |
In a period of two and
a half days, 1,029 Armenians die of the rigors of
the deportations in the town of Bab, northeast of
Aleppo. |
|
2/3/1916 |
According to Lord
Bryce, 486,000 Armenians deportees were still
living: 100,000 were to be found between Damascus
and Maan, 12,000 at Hama, 20,000 at Homs, 7,000 at
Aleppo, 4,000 at Maara, 8,000 at Bab, 5,000 at
Munbij (Munbuj), 20,000 at Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain),
10,000 at Rakka, and 300,000 at Zor. |
|
2/3/1916 |
A circular telegram
instructs that orphans who do not remember their
parents be send from Aleppo to Sivas; the rest are
to be send to Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) and no
expenditures are to be made for their existence. |
|
2/4/1916 |
Marshal Liman von
Sanders replaces Marshal Colmar von der Goltz as
Commander of the Caucasian, or Eastern, Front. |
|
2/9/1916 |
Mustafa Abdulhalik
Renda, the governor-general of Aleppo Province, and
the Aleppo Commissioner of Police begin to remove
10,000 Armenian deportees from the environs of
Aleppo. |
|
2/9/1916 |
The commander of the
labor battalions for the railroad in Cilicia is
instructed to deport the wives of the workers and to
tell them that their husbands will follow them. |
|
2/10/1916 |
The deportation
commissioner in Aleppo requests funds from the
Interior Ministry to cover to the expenses of
destroying the orphans. |
|
2/10/1916 |
Erzberger, a German
Reichstag representative, visits Enver and Talaat,
to protest the massacres and the excesses of the
deportations. |
|
2/14/1916 |
50,000 Armenians are
reported murdered at Intille (Intili). |
|
2/14/1916 |
On this date 50,000
deportees are reported at Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain). |
|
2/16/1916 |
An American application
to send relief to the Armenians is rejected by
Turkey. |
|
2/16/1916 |
Talaat sends a circular
letter to Urfa, Aintab and Kilis requesting
documents to indict the Armenians. |
|
2/16/1916 |
The Russian Army
occupies Erzerum. Only a handful of captive Armenian
women are found alive in the entire province. |
|
2/16/1916 |
Marshal Liman von
Sanders claims to have stopped the deportation of
many Armenians from Adrianople (Edirne). |
|
2/16/1916 |
Tahir Jevdet, Enver's
brother-in-law, the governor-general of Van
Province, travels via Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain) to
Adana, where shortly before he had been appointed
governor-general, replacing Ismail Hakki. |
|
2/16/1916 |
U.S. Secretary of State
Robert Lansing asks the German Ambassador Bernstorff
to stop the Armenian tragedy. |
|
2/22/1916 |
Henry Morgenthau
arrives in New York. |
|
2/23/1916 |
Count Wolff-Metternich,
the German ambassador in Turkey, visits Talaat and
Halil Bey, the newly-appointed Minister of Foreign
Affairs, to discuss the Armenian Question with them
because of the representations of the United States
to the German government. |
|
2/28/1916 |
A few Armenian soldiers
in Turkish Army in Aleppo are forcibly converted to
Islam. |
|
3/1/1916 |
The second deportation
of the Armenians of Adrianople (Edirne) begins. |
|
3/1/1916 |
The Interior Ministry
is informed from Aleppo that the Armenians who fled
from Mardin had been killed. |
|
3/4/1916 |
A circular telegram
instructs that Armenians of military age are to be
put to work only outside inhabited areas. |
|
3/10/1916 |
A report is send to the
Interior Ministry from Aleppo informing that 75% of
the Armenians previously in the desert are now dead,
and only 25% remain alive. |
|
3/14/1916 |
Kerim Refi, described
as a very savage Rumelian Turk, who is appointed
vice-governor of Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain) arrives
from Constantinople. He speeds up the massacres of
the Armenian deportees concentrated in Ras-el-Ain
(Ras ul-Ain), which had gotten off to a slow start.
The massacres extend over a period of five months.
Kerim Refi utilizes primarily chete forces,
including one extremely wild tribe of Circassians. |
|
3/20/1916 |
Talaat is informed from
Aleppo that 95,000 Armenians had died from sickness
and other causes in the past week: 30,000 in
Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain), 35,000 in Bab and Meskene,
10,000 in Karluk (Karlik), and 20,000 in Dipsi, Abu
Herir (Abuharar), and Hama. |
|
3/20/1916 |
Instructions are sent
to seize the Armenian orphans with the pretext of
giving them food and to kill them. |
|
3/23/1916 |
In Aleppo an attempt is
made to force all Armenian soldiers in labor corps
to become Muslims and to give up their Armenian
names. |
|
3/29/1916 |
The Turkish government
officially rejects foreign relief for the Armenian
deportees. |
|
4/6/1916 |
14,000 Armenians are
massacred in Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain). 24,000
deportees are reported still living in Ras-el-Ain
(Ras ul-Ain). |
|
4/14/1916 |
By this date, 70,000
Armenians are reported massacred at Ras-el-Ain (Ras
ul-Ain). |
|
4/15/1916 |
The Russian Army
occupies Trebizond. With the exception of a few
Armenian orphans and widows secretly sheltered by
Greeks, no Armenians are found in the city. |
|
4/15/1916 |
A battalion of the
Turkish 4th Army Engineers arrives in Ras-el-Ain
(Ras ul-Ain) from Damascus to assist in massacring
the Armenians. |
|
4/15/1916 |
19,000 Armenian
deportees arrive near the Khabur River. |
|
4/16/1916 |
The New York Times
reports that German Catholics had placed the number
of massacred Armenians at 1,000,000, and that they
held England at fault for this great crime. |
|
4/19/1916 |
50 to 100 Armenian
deportees are reported to be dying of starvation
every day in Meskene, Abu Herir (Abuharar), Sabkha
(Sebka), and Hammam (Hamam). |
|
4/28/1916 |
The Turkish government
again rejects foreign relief for the Armenians. |
|
5/3/1916 |
According to The New
York Times, before the fall of Erzerum, 15,000
Armenians had been massacred in the nearby town of
Mamakhatun, west of the city of Erzerum. |
|
5/10/1916 |
Shaikh-ul-Islam
(Turkish religious chief) Khairi resigns under
pressure. Musa Kiazim, a war criminal, succeeds him
as Shaikh-ul-Islam and as Minister of Pious
Foundations. |
|
5/12/1916 |
1,400 Armenian orphans
are distributed to various places by the Ittihad
Committees. |
|
5/21/1916 |
News is received
concerning the fate of 19,000 deportees in one
caravan, of whom 16,500 are reported killed on the
banks of the Khabur River, northeast of Der-el-Zor
(Deir el-Zor), and 2,500 survivors are reported
having arrived at Mosul. |
|
5/22/1916 |
72,000 Armenian
deportees are reported in Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor)
District. |
|
5/24/1916 |
The New York Times
reports that 80,000 Armenians had died of starvation
around Damascus. |
|
5/30/1916 |
60,000 Armenian
deportees are reported scattered between Hejaz
District in central Arabia and Aleppo in northern
Syria. |
|
6/3/1916 |
The report of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
on the massacres of Erzerum is published. |
|
6/7/1916 |
All the Armenians
remaining in the Aleppo area are ordered to leave
for Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor). |
|
6/14/1916 |
The Arab governor of
Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) District, Ali Suad, is sent
to Baghdad for refusing to carry out the
extermination of the deportees. He is replaced by
Salih Zeki, the former vice-governor of Everek in
Kayseri Province, reputed for his cruelty. |
|
6/20/1916 |
The Armenians working
in labor corps in Sivas are instructed to convert to
Islam. At least 95% refuse. |
|
6/25/1916 |
7,000 Armenian soldiers
stationed in Sivas are imprisoned for nine days in
the old Seljuk buildings where formerly the civilian
Armenian leaders and intellectuals had been
imprisoned before being killed. |
|
6/30/1916 |
Ambassador von
Wolff-Metternich reports to the German Chancellor
that Ittihad is devouring the remaining Armenian
refugees. |
|
6/30/1916 |
On the argument that
those who refuse are going to be deported into the
desert again, the proposal is made to the Armenian
labor battalions in Damascus and to the civilian
deportees that they become Muslims. Very few
Armenians accept. |
|
7/1/1916 |
Lord Bryce submits to
Lord Grey, British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, his
book on The Treatment of the Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire. |
|
7/5/1916 |
The massacre of the
7,000 Armenian troops imprisoned in Sivas begins.
The massacre lasts for twenty-one days with an
average of 1,000 killed every three days. |
|
7/6/1916 |
The Russian Army
occupies Bayburt and Erzinjan. |
|
7/10/1916 |
The U.S. Congress
proposes a day of commemoration for the collection
of funds for the Armenians. |
|
7/15/1916 |
The Turkish Army on the
Caucasian Front loses 60,000 men to starvation,
disease and other causes, leaving effectively only
20,000. Marshal Liman von Sanders attributes these
losses to the destruction of Turkish agricultural
production because of the deportations of the
Armenians. |
|
7/19/1916 |
The U.S. House of
Representatives adopts the resolution introduced in
the U.S. Senate establishing a day of commemoration
for the Armenian victims. |
|
7/23/1916 |
In order to further the
Islamization and Turkification of the Armenian
remnants in the Hawran District, all the Armenian
clerics found there are murdered by the Turks. |
|
7/23/1916 |
The proposal is made to
the Armenian military doctors in Sivas that they
become Muslims. Almost all refuse and are at once
killed. |
|
8/1/1916 |
The Interior Ministry
abolishes the Armenian Patriarchate and the legal
rights of the Armenian community (the Millet Ermeni)
on the grounds that there was no Armenian community
left in Turkey. |
|
8/7/1916 |
Newly-appointed U.S.
Ambassador to Turkey, Abram E. Elkus, leaves for
Constantinople. |
|
8/8/1916 |
15,000 Armenian
deportees are removed from Aleppo to the desert. |
|
8/12/1916 |
The Turkish government
again refuses aid to the Armenian deportees by a
neutral commission. |
|
8/13/1916 |
Salih Zeki, the
governor of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor), informs Talaat
that he is changing the location of the deportees. |
|
8/14/1916 |
200,000 Armenian
deportees are reported killed in massacres by this
date in the Zor District, at a delta formed by the
juncture of the Khabur and Euphrates River near
Suwar (Suvar), Marrat (Marat), and Elbusayra. |
|
9/3/1916 |
A five member
commission of Turks arrives in the Hawran District
to convert the Armenian deportees to Islam. |
|
9/5/1916 |
The government orders
all Armenian orphans to be given Turkish names. |
|
9/7/1916 |
60,000 more Armenian
deportees are reported massacred in the Der-el-Zor
(Deir el-Zor) area. |
|
9/16/1916 |
Turkish authorities
enter American consular offices to search for
British records. |
|
9/27/1916 |
The German Cabinet, in
its 86th session, discusses the Armenian massacres. |
|
10/3/1916 |
Count Wolff-Metternich
leaves his post as ambassador to Turkey, recalled by
the German General Staff at the request of Enver
because he had protested against the Armenian
massacres. Wilhelm Radowitz is interim ChargÈ
d'affaires for Germany until November 16 and the
arrival of the new ambassador, Richard von Kuhlmann. |
|
10/4/1916 |
Wilhelm Radowitz
reports to the German Chancellor Theobald von
Bethman Hollweg that of the two million Armenians in
Turkey, one and half million had been deported. Of
these 1,175,000 were dead; 325,000 were still
living. |
|
10/5/1916 |
The Turkish government
confiscates by a provisional law all the real estate
of the Armenians. |
|
10/8/1916 |
U.S. President Woodrow
Wilson, acting on the resolution of Congress,
proclaims these two days "Armenian Relief Days." |
|
10/11/1916 |
A highly secret Ittihad
convention is convened in Constantinople to review
existing policy toward the Armenians and to decide
on a future course of action. |
|
11/16/1916 |
The appointment of the
new German ambassador in Constantinople, Richard von
K¸hlmann, who serves until July 1917, when he is
promoted to the office of Foreign Minister. |
|
12/4/1916 |
Omer Naji, an
inspector-general of the Ittihad Committee, is
reported to have announced that Ittihad is seeking
to organize a purely Turkish state. |
|
1/4/1917 |
Mr. Goppert of the
German Embassy, visits Enver, Talaat and Foreign
Minister Halil to convey that forcible Islamization
had no connection with military necessity or the
security of the state and must be stopped
immediately. |
|
1917 |
|
2/4/1917 |
Talaat becomes the
Grand Vizier of Turkey. |
|
2/14/1917 |
Halide Hanum, the
Turkish female author, and head of an orphanage
established in Syria, receives 70 Armenian orphans
in her orphanage in order to Turkify them. |
|
2/15/1917 |
Another group of 70
Armenian orphans are sent to an orphanage in Lebanon
to be Turkified. |
|
3/5/1917 |
The government
distributes by rail to various villages and towns
400 Armenian orphans from Aleppo. |
|
3/5/1917 |
350 Armenian orphans
from an Armenian orphanage in Syria are given to
surviving relatives, no matter how distantly
related, in order to keep them from falling into the
hands of the Turks. |
|
3/11/1917 |
Allied forces occupy
Baghdad. |
|
3/15/1917 |
20,000 Armenians in the
city of Aleppo are reported in extreme distress. |
|
3/15/1917 |
The Turkish government
declines American offers of aid to the Armenian
survivors. |
|
3/20/1917 |
In Aleppo District,
45,000 Armenian deportees are reported living in
dire conditions. Of these, 10,000 were women, while
the rest were mainly orphaned children. |
|
3/23/1917 |
The governor-general of
Damascus, Huseyin Kiazim, reports that there are
60,000 Armenian deportees in Damascus District, of
which only 10% were capable of doing any kind of
work. |
|
3/23/1917 |
10,000 Armenian
deportees are reported in the city of Damascus, and
30,000 Armenian deportees are reported in Homs and
Hama. |
|
3/26/1917 |
Ernst E. Cristoffel, a
German missionary in Malatia, who witnessed the
massacres and deportations, estimates that 1,000,000
Armenians had been murdered. |
|
4/1/1917 |
12,000 Armenian
deportees are murdered in Buseira, near Der-el-Zor
(Deir el-Zor). |
|
4/14/1917 |
The Turkish government
orders all surviving Armenians in Urfa District to
be Turkified. |
|
4/20/1917 |
Turkey breaks relations
with the United States. |
|
6/1/1917 |
The Turkish government
orders the Turkification and Islamization of the
surviving Armenian Catholics. |
|
9/1/1917 |
The appointment of the
new German ambassador in Constantinople, Johann
Heinrich Count on Bernstorff (former ambassador to
Washington). Bernstorff served until October 27,
1918. |
|
11/5/1917 |
The Interior Ministry
orders the deportation of all Armenian employees on
the railroads. |
|
11/27/1917 |
President Woodrow
Wilson urges former ambassador Henry Morgenthau to
write a book based on his experiences. |
|
12/9/1917 |
Allied forces occupy
Jerusalem. |
|
1/9/1918 |
The Aleppo Police
Department obtains the list of all the Armenian
labor battalion workers constructing the Aleppo
Normal School for the selection of those to be
killed. |
|
1918 |
|
1/28/1918 |
The German General Hans
Friedrich von Seeckt, at the time Chief of Staff of
the Turkish Army, is instructed to prevent Turkish
atrocities against the Armenians of the Caucasus,
since the Russian armies had fallen apart in the
aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the Turks
were advancing almost unopposed. |
|
2/27/1918 |
The Interior Ministry
requests without delay the lists of Armenian
employees on the railways. |
|
3/3/1918 |
The Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk is signed by Russia, Turkey, and
Germany. The hostilities with Russia are officially
ended. Talaat declares that he will grant amnesty to
the Armenians. |
|
3/12/1918 |
Enver orders the
killing of all civilian Armenians over five years of
age and remaining Armenians in the Turkish military
within 48 hours. The Germans attempt to stop the
Turks from committing this massacre. |
|
3/12/1918 |
Turkish forces reoccupy
Erzerum. |
|
3/26/1918 |
The governor-general of
Aleppo Province sends a list of the Armenian railway
employees to the Military Commissioner for Railways. |
|
4/1/1918 |
The Military
Commissioner for Railways sends a reply to Osman
Bedri, the governor-general of Aleppo Province
relating to the destruction of the Armenian railway
workers, and on the same day the list is delivered
to the Aleppo Police Department, which was serving
as the concentration and transit center for the
deportations and massacres. |
|
4/5/1918 |
Turkish forces reoccupy
Van. |
|
4/13/1918 |
Turkish forces occupy
Kars. |
|
4/14/1918 |
The registration book
of all the remaining Armenian construction workers
(the labor battalions of the Turkish Army) is sent
to the Aleppo Police Department. |
|
4/15/1918 |
The Turkish government
announces that upon his return from the Peace
Conference at Brest-Litovsk, Talaat will grant
amnesty to the Armenians in Turkey. Practically, it
is an empty gesture for the benefit of the
Europeans, as most surviving Armenians were living
outside of Turkey proper and those still left in
Turkey were being systematically destroyed. |
|
4/24/1918 |
Enver returns from
Batum to Constantinople and reports that he will be
issuing instructions for the return of 'peaceful'
Armenians. |
|
4/28/1918 |
Turkey formally
recognize the Transcaucasian Federative Republic
consisting of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. (The
Federation dissolves on May 28.) |
|
5/28/1918 |
An Armenian Republic is
proclaimed in Russian Transcaucasia. |
|
6/9/1918 |
Hindenberg wires Enver
asking Turkish forces to evacuate all Caucasian
areas except Kars, Ardahan, and Batum. The Turks
ignore the demand. Local massacres are reported
throughout the occupied areas. |
|
6/24/1918 |
2,000 remaining
Armenians are massacred in Kara-Kilise in Turkey. |
|
6/28/1918 |
The Turkish government
condemns 14,000 Armenians to hard labor to destroy
these remnants. |
|
6/28/1918 |
Sultan Mehmet V Reshad,
who had been a complete a rubber-stamp for the
Ittihadists, dies. He is succeeded by Mehmet VI
Vahideddin. |
|
7/5/1918 |
Avedis Aharonian,
President of the Armenian Delegation, meets with
German ambassador to Constantinople, Count
Bernstorff, on behalf of the Armenian Republic. |
|
7/24/1918 |
The Armenians are
supposedly granted amnesty, and Ismail Janbolat, the
Deputy Minister of the Interior, is given charge of
the return of the Armenian deportees. |
|
7/29/1918 |
Hinderburg sends a
message to Enver urging restraint in the treatment
of the Armenians in the Caucasus. |
|
9/15/1918 |
The three-day massacre
by Turkish military forces under the command of Nuri
Pasha (Enver's younger brother) and Halil Pasha
(Enver's uncle) results in the death of 30,000
Armenian civilians in the city of Baku. |
|
9/19/1918 |
Allied forces open a
large-scale offensive on the Syrian Front, aided by
an Armenian Legion recruited from Armenian colonies
throughout the world. |
|
10/1/1918 |
Allied forces capture
Damascus. |
|
10/2/1918 |
Bulgaria signs an
armistice with the Allies. The Armenian refugees in
Bulgaria are now safe as the Bulgarian government
stops returning them to Turkey. |
|
10/8/1918 |
Allied forces capture
the city of Beirut (Beyrut). |
|
10/8/1918 |
The Ittihad Cabinet of
Enver, Jemal, and Talaat resigns. All three prepare
to flee the country. |
|
10/26/1918 |
Allied forces occupy
the city of Aleppo. With the arrival of the British
and French armies and the Armenian Legion, 125,000
remnants of the deported Armenians are rescued from
the desert |
|
10/29/1918 |
The Ittihad Central
Bureau resigns and the Party decides secretly to
reorganize as the Tejeddut Firkasi (Regeneration
Party). Talaat, Enver, Osman Bedri, Behaeddin
Shakir, and more than thirty other Ittihadist
ringleaders decide to flee to Germany. |
|
10/29/1918 |
120,000 Turkish gold
pounds and jewelry is transferred from the Ittihad
Party to the Tejeddut Party, the newly-organized
front of the Ittihadists. This money and jewelry was
just a small part of the property of the Armenians
misappropriated by the Ittihad Party. |
|
10/29/1918 |
Dr. Nazim takes with
him to Germany 65,000 Turkish gold pounds and
600,000 Turkish gold pounds of valuation in jewelry
from the so-called abandoned goods of the Armenians. |
|
10/30/1918 |
An armistice is signed
at Mudroa between Turkey and the Allies. The
Armistice agreement makes provisions for the release
of Armenian internees and the return of the Armenian
deportees to their homes. |
|
11/1/1918 |
The Ittihad Party, with
120 delegates attending, convenes under the guise of
the Tejeddut Party. |
|
11/2/1918 |
Talaat, Enver, Jemal
flee Turkey on a German freighter. |
|
11/3/1918 |
The second session of
the Ittihad convention as the Tejeddut Party is held
under the chairmanship of Ismail Janbolat Bey,
Talaat's former assistant. An Executive Committee of
twenty-one members is elected. |
|
11/4/1918 |
The third session of
the Ittihad convention instructs its provincial
branches to go underground and announces their
abolishment. |
|
11/5/1918 |
All Ittihadist clubs in
Anatolia are closed. The units go underground. |
|
11/11/1918 |
A general Armistice is
declared between the Allies and the Central Powers. |
|
12/11/1918 |
Talaat, Enver, and
Jemal are summoned by the Fifth Committee of the
Turkish Parliament to appear for an inquiry within
ten days. |
|
2/1/1919 |
A court martial to
address war crimes in convened in Constantinople. |
|
1919 |
|
2/6/1919 |
Dr. Reshid, former
governor-general of Diyarbekir Province and a major
war criminal, commits suicide. |
|
2/26/1919 |
During the tenth
session of the court martial on the Yozgat
massacres, testimony was presented that the local
gendarmery commander, Tevfik, had purchased 50,000
Turkish gold pounds-worth of Armenian-owned
property. |
|
3/5/1919 |
The eleventh session of
the trial on the Yozgat massacres is held. |
|
3/8/1919 |
An imperial decree is
published in Constantinople calling for the court
martial of the Ittihadist leaders. |
|
3/13/1919 |
The Grand Vizier, Ahmet
Tevfik Pasha, attempts to justify the massacres on
the basis of false accusation against the Armenians. |
|
3/24/1919 |
The twelfth session
taking testimony on the massacres at Yozgat is held. |
|
3/30/1919 |
During the Yozgat
trial, shots are fired in the courtroom in an
attempt to disrupt the court martial. |
|
4/5/1919 |
The fifth session of
the trial on the Trebizond massacres is held. |
|
4/12/1919 |
Kemal Bey, the chief
culprit of the Yozgat massacres, sentenced to death
by the military tribunal, is publicly hanged. |
|
4/15/1919 |
The court martial
investigates the role of the Ittihad Party in the
Armenian massacres. |
|
5/4/1919 |
The second session of
the tribunal investigating the Ittihad Party reveals
that the Ittihad cabinet ministers were
simultaneously serving as executive members of the
Ittihad Party. |
|
5/5/1919 |
The thirteenth session
of the trial on the Trebizond massacres is held. |
|
5/6/1919 |
The third session of
the tribunal on the Ittihad Party reveals that the
original Convention of the Ittihad had consisted of
only 300 members. |
|
5/8/1919 |
The fourth session of
the Ittihad tribunal is held. |
|
5/8/1919 |
180,000 Turkish gold
pounds are requisitioned from the Tejeddut Party. |
|
5/8/1919 |
The fifth session of
the Ittihad tribunal and the trial of the Young Turk
propagandist, Zia Gokalp, is held. |
|
5/11/1919 |
The sixteenth session
of the trial on the Trebizond massacres is held. |
|
5/15/1919 |
The eighteenth session
of the trial on the Trebizond massacres is held. |
|
5/19/1919 |
A mass meeting of
100,000 persons organized by Constantinople Police
Department protests the May 14 landing of the Greek
Army at Smyrna. |
|
5/19/1919 |
Mustafa Kemal lands at
Samsun on assignment from the Ministry of War and
the Grand Vizier in Constantinople as
inspector-general of central Anatolia. Kemal begins
organizing new Turkish armies to oppose the Allies.
Former Ittihadist leaders join forces with Kemal. |
|
5/28/1919 |
On the first
anniversary of independence, the Republic of Armenia
declares the unification of Caucasian and Turkish
Armenia. |
|
6/10/1919 |
Talaat, Enver, Jemal,
and Dr. Nazim, charged with war crimes by the
Turkish court martial, are condemned to death in
absentia. |
|
7/1/1919 |
The Constantinople
branch of the Ittihad Party plans to send Javid, Dr.
Adnan, and his wife Halide Hanum, as their delegates
to the Congress convened in Sivas by Mustafa Kemal.
To escape trial for war crimes, Javid had been in
hiding in Turkey for eight months following the
Armistice. |
|
8/3/1919 |
The trial on the
Kharput massacres begins. Halil Pasha is heard as a
witness. Evidence is introduced revealing that
Behaeddin Shakir used two separate ciphers, one for
use with the Sublime Porte, the other for use with
the War Ministry. |
|
8/13/1919 |
Halil Pasha and Kuchuk
Talaat, both accused war criminals, escape from
Constantinople to join Kemal's forces. |
|
11/2/1919 |
Jelal Bey (the former
governor-general of Aleppo Province until May 1915,
when he had resigned in protest against the order to
exterminate the Armenians, whereupon he had been
transported to Konia (Konya), where he had remained
in office until the end of 1916) was appointed
Governor-general of Aleppo Province again. |
|
12/1/1919 |
Francois Georges-Picot,
former French High Commissioner in Syria, and
Mustafa Kemal hold a secret meeting in Sivas
concerning the status of Cilicia. Kemal demands that
the French Army including the Armenian volunteer
forces serving with it be withdrawn. Picot agrees,
leaving defenseless the Armenian survivors in
Cilicia, who had returned home from their ordeals in
the desert. |
|
1/19/1920 |
The Allies formally
recognize the independence of Armenia. |
|
1920 |
|
1/19/1920 |
Tried in Constantinople
in absentia, Behaeddin Shakir is sentenced to death
and Dr. Nazim to fifteen years hard labor. |
|
1/21/1920 |
Turkish Nationalist
forces affiliated with Mustafa Kemal attack Marash. |
|
2/5/1920 |
10,000 Armenians are
massacred in Marash. |
|
4/1/1920 |
The Ittihadists
distribute relief funds to party members in hiding
in Turkey accused of crimes and to those who had
fled to foreign countries. |
|
4/22/1920 |
The United States of
America officially recognizes the Independent
Republic of Armenia. |
|
4/23/1920 |
The Ottoman government
in Constantinople announces that it will seek a new
review by higher judicial bodies of the sentences
against those tried by the courts martial. |
|
4/25/1920 |
United States President
Woodrow Wilson receives an invitation from the San
Remo Conference to determine the borders of Armenia. |
|
5/1/1920 |
The French and Turkish
Nationalists agree to an armistice. |
|
6/22/1920 |
Jemal Oguz, the
murderer of the poet Daniel Varoujan and other
Armenian intellectuals, escapes from custody with
the assistance of the Military Governor of
Constantinople. |
|
6/29/1920 |
Five war criminals
tried for the massacres in Erzinjan, all of whom had
conveniently escaped from custody, are sentenced in
absentia. |
|
8/5/1920 |
The court martial
condemns to death Nusret, vice-governor of Bayburt
District. |
|
8/10/1920 |
The Treaty of Sèvres is
signed. According to articles 226, 227, 228, 229,
230 pertaining to the massacres, the Turkish
government promises to hand over all documents and
any persons requested by the Allies. Articles 88 and
89 recognize Armenia as a free and independent
state. |
|
8/15/1920 |
The Turkish Nationalist
and Bolshevik forces form an alliance. |
|
11/22/1920 |
President Woodrow
Wilson presents his delineation of the borders of
Armenia. A week later Armenia is partitioned by
Turkish Nationalist forces and Sovietized by Russian
Bolsheviks. |
|
11/25/1920 |
Of 10,000 Armenians
living in Hadjin (Hajen), only 480 survive a
massacre by Turkish Nationalist forces. |
|
12/30/1920 |
The trial on the
massacres in Mosul begins. |
|
1/3/1921 |
An acquittal is handed
down for those accused of the massacre in Adrianople
(Edirne). |
|
1921 |
|
1/18/1921 |
The Ottoman government
abolishes the courts martial. |
|
1/20/1921 |
The Turkish Nationalist
Pact demands the inclusion of Armenia, Smyrna, and
Thrace in Turkish territory. |
|
1/21/1921 |
The trial on Erzerum
massacres is reviewed by a new and higher court. |
|
1/21/1921 |
Naim Jevad, an accused
war criminal, is sent by Enver as an envoy from
Moscow to Constantinople. |
|
2/8/1921 |
Mustafa Pasha,
presiding judge of the court martial which had
condemned Nusret to death on August 5, 1920, was
acquitted of the charge of having joined in a
conspiracy against the government after six months
of imprisonment and a trial. The trial signals the
beginning of the reversal of the policy on bringing
the Ittihadists to justice. |
|
2/11/1921 |
After a ten-months
siege, Aintab capitulates to Turkish Nationalist
forces. |
|
2/17/1921 |
The trial on the Keghi
massacres is held. |
|
2/18/1921 |
Some of the war
criminals are acquitted. |
|
2/24/1921 |
The investigation of
the Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) massacres begins. |
|
3/10/1921 |
The investigation of
the Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) massacres continues. |
|
3/15/1921 |
Talaat is assassinated
in Berlin by an Armenian student, Soghomon
Tehlirian. Talaat had been condemned to death by the
Turkish court martial on July 11, 1919. (In 1943,
the Turkish government removed the remains of Talaat
from Nazi Germany and enshrined them with great
ceremony on Liberty Hill in Constantinople.) |
|
6/1/1921 |
The German Foreign
Office obstructs the former German Consul at Aleppo,
Rossler, from testifying in the Berlin court trying
Talaat's assassin. |
|
6/2/1921 |
Tehlirian's trial is
held in Berlin. |
|
6/3/1921 |
Tehlirian is acquitted. |
|
12/6/1921 |
Said Halim is
assassinated in Rome. |
|
4/7/1922 |
Jemal Azmi, the
governor-general of Trebizond during the massacres,
and Behaeddin Shakir are assassinated in Berlin. |
|
1922 |
|
7/25/1922 |
Jemal Pasha, the former
Minister of the Marine and the Fifth Army commander
in Syria, is assassinated in Tiflis (Tbilisi). |
|
8/26/1922 |
Anarchy spreads in
Smyrna as the Turks press in on the city. |
|
9/9/1922 |
The advance guard of
the Turkish Army enters Smyrna and pillages Armenian
and Greek homes and stores. Armenians and Greeks are
killed in the thousands. Religious institutions,
including the Armenian Prelacy in Smyrna, are
ransacked. |
|
9/13/1922 |
The burning of Smyrna
by the Turks. Within 24 hours, 50,000 houses, 24
churches, 28 schools, 5 consulates, 7 clubs, 5
banks, and an unknown number of stores and
warehouses are destroyed. |
|
11/20/1922 |
The first Lausanne
Conference is convened. |
|
2/4/1923 |
The Lausanne Conference
deadlocks over the Armenian Question. |
|
1923 |
|
4/23/1923 |
The second Lausanne
Conference is convened. |
|
7/24/1923 |
Treaty of Lausanne
signed by Turkey and the Allies excludes all mention
of Armenia or the Armenians. The new Turkish
Nationalist state is extended international
recognition. The Ottoman Empire goes out of
existence. |
|
8/23/1923 |
The Turkish Nationalist
congress, known as the Grand National Assembly,
meeting in Ankara ratifies the Lausanne Treaty. The
Allies begin to evacuate the following day from all
places in Turkey that had been occupied in
accordance with the terms of the Armistice of
October 30, 1918. |
|
10/29/1923 |
The Republic of Turkey
is proclaimed by the Turkish Grand National Assembly
with Mustafa Kemal as its President. |
|
8/22/1939 |
While addressing his
military commanders at Obersalzburg, a week before
the invasion of Poland, and the start of World War
II, Adolph Hitler speaks of his orders "to kill
without pity or mercy all men, women, and children
of Polish race or language," and concludes his
remarks by saying: "WHO STILL TALKS NOWADAYS OF THE
EXTERMINATION OF THE ARMENIANS?" |