THE ARMENIAN TRAIL OF TEARS
As Christians in a predominantly Muslim state, the Armenians occupied an extremely anomalous position, one which was made more difficult by widespread Armenian hopes for a Russian victory:
'From all countries, Armenians are hurrying to enter the ranks of the glorious Russian army. Let peoples remaining under the Turkish yoke receive freedom. Let the Armenian people of Turkey who have suffered for the faith of Christ receive resurrection for a new free life under the protection of Russia.'
Samson Harutunian, President of the Armenian National Bureau, Russia
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| Armenian nationalists |
In April 1915 after their defeat at Sarakamish, the Turks fell back through Armenian areas, keen to remove what they saw as a potential fifth column from their midst. Local Armenian resistance was more imagined than real, but the Turks responded with disproportionate, pre-emptive action. Turkey's minister of the interior Talaat Bey ordered the expulsion of the Christian Armenians to Aleppo in Syria, a journey of more than 500 miles.
The forced deportation of so many people in time of war without adequate food, shelter or transport was bound to create misery, and foreign observers warned of an impending humanitarian disaster.
'Such a mass deportation to a destination many hundreds of kilometres away without sufficient means of transport via areas that offer neither accommodation, nor food and are plagued with epidemic illness such as typhus will cost many lives, especially among women and children.'
Baron von Wangenheim, German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
As the Armenians were forcibly moved south, these dire predictions were fulfilled.
'Thousands herded together mostly women and children... sick lying everywhere. These people had been on the road six weeks. They don't know where they are to go. They had been attacked, robbed and killed.'
Tacy Atkinson, American missionary
Gomidas Institute (UK)
Their torment continued on reaching their destination.
'Out of 2,000 to 3,000 peasant women from the Armenian plateau who were brought here in good health, only 40 or 50 skeletons are left. The prettier ones are the victims of their gaolers' lust; the plain ones succumb to blows, hunger and thirst. Every day more than a hundred corpses are carried out of Aleppo.'
German Missions Staff Report, 8th October 1915
Gomidas Institute (UK)
Aleppo in northern Syria was more than 500 miles away from Armenia
The Turks accept that 300,000 Armenians died on this traumatic trail of tears, but most contemporary historians estimate the losses at closer to 800,000. Whether this was an act of centrally directed genocide or not is still a matter of furious debate. The Turkish government has always denied responsibility for causing this loss of life, claiming that the Armenians died of exposure, famine, and the actions of bad officials. However, it is difficult to see how the tragedy could have occurred without the initial deportation order of May 1915.
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