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ARMENIANS
NOT SUBJECTED TO RELOCATION
The relocation decision
has not been applied to all Armenians. At the beginning, a
part of the Armenians living in the regions (In Urfa, Germis
and Birecik, Erzurum, Aydin, Trabzon, Edirne, Canik, Cannakkale,
Adapazari, Halep, Bolu, Kastamonu, Tekirdag, Konya and Karahisar-i
sahib) have been kept out of the scope of migration. (1) But,
thereafter, when it has been certain that these people were
also involved in various severity events, majority of them
been subjected to migration. (2) The ill and the blind were
not subjected to relocation and the Catholic and the Protestant
ones, the soldiers and their families, the officers, merchants,
some workers and masters were not subject to migration, either.
Likewise, in the telegraphs sent to the provinces, it is requested
not to move the ill, the blind, the disabled and the old and
to settle them in the city centers. (3)
With the telegraphs
sent to the related provinces on August 2, 1915 and August
15th 1915, it has been ordered not to subject the
Armenians from the Catholic and Protestant sects to migration
and to settle them in the cities they were currently in and
to notify the number of their population. (5) The ones that
have been subjected to migration by mistake have been settled
in the cities they were currently in. (6). But among the ones
that were kept out of the scope of migration, the ones that
were observed to have harmful actions have been sent to new
settlement regions regardless of their being Catholic or Protestant.
(7)
In the coded
telegraph sent to the provinces on August 15 1915, the Armenians
providing service as officers and health personnel in the
Ottoman army and their families have not been subjected to
migration and left at their locations. (8) Besides this, the
Armenians working in the branches of Ottoman Bank, in the
Turkish Tobacco Monopoly and in some consulates have not been
subjected to relocation, either, as long as they remained
loyal to the government and their good behavior continued.
Furthermore, orphans and widowed
women have not been subjected to migration and have been taken
under protection in the villages and orphanages. (10) The
children, who became orphans during the transportation have
been sent to Sivas and settled in the orphanages there. (11)
A general order was issued on April 30, 1916 about
the Armenian families needing protection. With this order,
the families with no guardians, whose male members either
were transported or were in military service, were settled
in the villages and towns, where there were no Armenians and
their catering were met from the Immigrants’ Allowance. The
children up to 12 were given to Muslim families at locations,
where the orphanages were not sufficient and their education
and development have been provided. 30 kurush was paid to
the poor Muslim families to meet the expenses of the children
from the Immigrants’ Allowance. Young and widowed women were
permitted to marry Muslim men with their own will. (12)
REFERENCE:
Halacoglu, Prof. Dr. Yusuf,
Facts Relating to the Armenian Displacement (1915), TTK Publication,
Ankara, 2001
FOOTNOTES
1) Coding Office, no 54-A/155;
no 56/ 114; no 56/ 225; no 56/ 226; no 57/89; no 57/177; no
59/ 218
2) Coding Office, no 54-A/271;
no 54-A / 272 (July 22nd 1331/ August 4th
1915)
3) Coding Office, no 56/27;
no 67/186
4) Coding Office, no.
54-A/ 251; no 55/20
5) Coding Office, no.
56/112 (September 6th 1331/ September 19th
1915, to Konya province)
6) About this issue, orders
have been sent via telegraph to Sivas (Coding Office 56/176),
Mamuretülaziz and Diyarbekir provinces (Coding Office no 56/172)
on September 14th 1331 / September 26th
1915; to Konya (Coding Office, no 58/2) and Ankara (Coding
Office, no 58/159) provinces on 1 Tesrinisani 1331 / November
14th 1915.
7) A telegraph in this
way has been sent to Adana province on August 1331 / September
2nd 1915 (Coding Office, no. 55-A/23).
8) Coding Office, no.
55/18
9) Coding Office, no 56/36
(September 3rd 1331 / September 16th
1915); no 56/243 (September 17th 1331 / September
30th 1915); no 56/360 (September 28th
1331 / October 11th 1915).
10) Coding Office, no 54/411;
no 54/450; no 54-A / 325
11) Coding Office, no 61/18-20
12) This order has been
sent to Adana, Erzurum, Edirne, Halep, Hüdavendigar, Sivas,
Diyarbekir, Mamuretülaziz, Konya, Kastamonu, Trabzon provinces
and Izmit, Canik, Eskisehir, Karahisar-i sahib, Maras, Urfa,
Kaysri, Nigde possessorships (Coding Office, no 63/147) and
to Ankara province on May 17th 1332 / May 30th
1916 (Coding Office no 64/162).
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