WHAT WAS THE DEMOGRAPHIC DATA BEFORE AND AFTER RELOCATION?

The Armenian committee members always distort and exaggerate the facts about Armenian population before and after the Relocation Implementation. They try to create a basis for their false claims by using war records, official records, church statistics and, reports of foreign missionaries. Some of numbers that is given about the Armenian population in the Ottoman territories are sometimes exceed to the total Armenian population of the Diaspora.

Armenian Population before the Relocation:

There are many different claims about Armenian population in the Ottoman territories; some figures are as follow:

 1.British Annual Register 1917               1.056.000 (1)

2.Patriarch Ormanyan                            1.579.000 (2)

3.The Armenian historian Kevork Aslan  1.800.000 (3) (In “Armenia and Armenians”, Aslan states the Armenian population in Anatolia 920.000, in Clicia (Adana, Sis, Maras) 180.000, in the other Ottoman territories 700.000, total 1.800.000)

4.German Priest Johannes Lepsius       1.600.000 (4)

5.Cuinet                                                            1.045.018 (5)

6.The French Yellow Book                       1.475.011 (6)

 7.The Armenian historian Basmajian    2.280.000 (7)

 8.Patriarch Nerses Varjabedyan              1.150.000 (8)

Official Ottoman census statistics are as follows:                            

The Ottoman Directory of Statistics was founded in 1892 The first director of the branch was Nuri Bey. Between 1892-1897 a Jewish Ottoman, Fethi Franco was appointed for the duty. From 1897 until 1903, an Armenian director was in charge, called Migirdic Shabanyan. Later, Mr. Robert an American was appointed (1903-1908). Between, 1908-1914 Mehmet Behic was the general director. (9)

As it is seen, in a very chaotic period when the Ottoman government was facing with the Armenian Issue on the international arena, the Ottoman Statistics were under the control of foreigners. At this point, the Ottoman statistics should be considered as the most objective documents about the Armenian population living in Ottoman territories.

* Ottoman census statistics for 1893            1.001.465

* Ottoman census statistics for 1906            1.120.748

* Ottoman census statistics for 1914            1.221.850 (10)

An evaluation of the three sources clarifies that, during the First World War, the Armenian population in the Ottoman territories was approximately 1.250.000.

The numbers of the Armenians, subjected to relocation was controlled from their departure until their arrival, between June 9, 1915 and February 8, 1916. The figures below are taken from pertinent Ottoman documents (11):

On the other hand, in the telegraph sent by the Director of Immigrants and Tribe Placement, ªükrü Bey on October 18, 1915 notified that “the number of the Armenians transported to Aleppo was about 100.000. (36) Meanwhile, it is understood from the records that an Armenian population of 120.000 people gathered in Diyarbakir as of September 18, 1915 and an Armenian population of 136.084 people gathered in Cizre as of September 28, 1915 to be sent to Musul and Zor region. (37) In a coded telegraph sent by ªükrü Bey from Nizip on November 3, 1915, it is expressed that transportation continued in a regular manner. (38)

As it is from the figures given above, the Armenian population subjected to relocation was 438.758 and 382.148 of these safely reached their new destinations. (40)

The number of casualties had occurred as follows: 500 people on the road between Erzurum and Erzincan; 2000 in Meskene, between Urfa and Aleppo and 2000 others on the outskirts of Mardin were massacred in attacks launched by bandits or nomadic Arabs. Another 5000 people were killed in attacks on convoys passing through Dersim. (41) It was understood from these documents that many people had also fallen victim to hunger while on the road. (42) Apart from these, some 25-30 thousand people had lost their lives when struck by fatal diseases such as typhoid and dysentery. (43) In all, an estimated 40 thousand casualties had been registered during relocation.

The remaining 10-16 thousand people were made at stay in provinces they had reached, when the implementation of relocation was brought to an end. For instance, on April 26, 1916, orders were given to provide the return to and the settlement in the province of Konya of those Armenians setting out form the province to new destinations. (44) On the other hand, many other Armenians are believed to have fled to either Russia or to Western countries, including the Unites States.

As a matter of fact, according to the pertinent documents, 50.000 of the Armenian soldiers serving in the Ottoman Army joined the Russian forces, and some other 50.000 Armenian soldiers went to America to be trained in the US Army to fight against the Turkish Army. In fact, the letter of an Armenian called Murad Muradyan- who was an advocate in Elazig later immigrated to America — shows such information. (45) In the concerned letter, Muradyan mentions that some Armenians were escaped to Russia and America and later 50.000 of those trained soldiers went to Caucassia. As it can be understood from all the concerned documents, many of Armenian subjects of the Ottoman State were scattered through various countries especially to U.S.A. and Russia, before and during the war. For example, Artin Hotomyan who was a tradesman in America sent a letter to the Chieftain of Security on January 19, 1915 and stated that thousands of Armenians migrated to U.S.A. and they were facing with hunger and hardships. (46)

REFERENCE:
Halacoglu, Prof. Dr. Yusuf-; Ermeni Tehcirine Dair Gercekler (1915), TTK Yayini, Ankara 2001.

FOOTNOTES

1)      Annual Record of Britannica, 1917

2)      Uras, Esat, Tarihte Ermeniler ve Ermeni Meselesi, Istanbul 1987

3)      Aslan, Kevork, Ermenistan ve Ermeniler, Istanbul 1914.

4)      Uras, Esat, a.g.e.

5)      Uras, Esat, a.g.e.

6)      1893-1897 Ermeni Isleri, Paris, 1897 Uras, Esat, a.g.e.

7)      Uras, Esat, a.g.e.

8)      Uras, Esat, a.g.e.

9)      Mazici, Nursen, Belgelerle Uluslar arasi Rekabette Ermeni Sorunu, Istanbul 1987.

10)      see. Karpat, Kemal, H. Ottoman Population 1830-1914 Demographic and Social Characteristic, The University Of Wisconsin Press, 1985 London.

11) Armenians of Kastamonu, Balikesir, Antalya, Istanbul, Urfa, Protestants and Catholics, the sick people, teachers, orphans and women with no guardian were not subjected to relocation.

12) DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number 68/77 (appendix-XXII).

13) DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number 68/77 (appendix -XXII).

14) DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number 69/250.

15) DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number 68/101.

16) The number of the immigrants from Diyarbakir is not determined. It is estimated that 20.000 Armenians were relocated from Diyarbakir.

17) DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number68/89.

18) code. number54/162

19) DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number68/72

20) Giresun, Perºembe, Ulubey, Sürmene, Tirebolu, Ordu and Görele are given in the same document (see. DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/41).

21) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/76.

22) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/66.

23) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number69/260.

24) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/67 (Appendix-XXIV)

25) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/79

26) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/73.

27) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/75 (Appendix-XXV).

28) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/66.

29) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number69/34.

30) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/93.

31) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/70 (Appendix-XXVII).

32) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/41.

33) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/84 (Appendix-XXVII).

34) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/41.

35) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/66.

36) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/80 (Appendix-XXVIII).

37) DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number68/71 (Appendix-XXIX); 2nd Branch, number68/84.

38) DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number68/101.

39) The number of Armenians transferred from Aleppo is approximately 100.000 (see. DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number68/80).

40) The figures can slightly differ. 

41) Coded telegraphs that were sent to the governors of Trabzon, Erzurum, Sivas, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Bitlis, Maras and Canik dated June 26, 1915. (code., number 54-A/112).

42) code., number 57/110.

43) see. DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number68/81; see. code., number 57/51.

44) code., number 63/119.

45) DH. EUM. 2^nd Branch, number2F/14.

46) see. DH. EUM. 2nd Branch, number2F/94.

« Back