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REPERCUSSIONS
ABROAD REGARDING RELOCATION
Although the foreign observers,
who were at the locations of relocation, wrote that the Ottoman
Government’s performance was perfect and done with care in
spite of war conditions, the western press preferred to mislead
the events. Likewise, although Edward Natan, the consul of
America in Mersin, reported that relocation has been carried
out regularly, (1) the Ambassador of U.S.A. in Istanbul, Morgantau,
has related the events in a completely opposite way to his
country and the American press has used these events against
Turks. According to the claims issued in the newspapers, Morgantau
bribed the Ottoman Government and purchased some Armenians
to send them to America; furthermore he has saved some English,
Russian and French citizens in Istanbul. A Turkish citizen
in U.S.A. reported all these lies and false information used
by the press on September 14th 1915 (2).
In the frame of the reports
of English consuls in Iran, claims such as killing of 1.000.000
Armenians was discussed in the English Parliament and the
parliament decided to protest the Turkish Government. Furthermore,
the “Blue Book” published about the Armenian events in England
included news claiming that over a third of 1.800.000 Armenians
claimed to exist in the Ottoman country were murdered. (3)
Against those ill — willed
publications, some objective Western press members have reported
that the events were falsely communicated on purpose. In an
article issued in a Stockholm newspaper which uses the headline
“Massacre in the Ottoman Province, Where the Armenians live”,
the absurdity of such claims and the reasons for creating
such false news were explained. (4)
The Ottoman Government has
declared the English claims to be false on January 4th
1917 with the signature of the Undersecretary of Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. (5) In the denial letter, it has been
expressed that the Armenian population living in the Ottoman
country has never reached 1.000.000, that this amount has
decreased due to the migrations that took place before the
war and the claims were denied. In the same document, it was
pointed out that the Germans were held responsible for the
murders of Armenians in an article of a certain issue of the
“Times”.
REFERENCE:
Halacoglu, Prof. Dr. Yusuf,
Facts Relating to the Armenian Displacement (1915), TTK Publication,
Ankara, 2001.
FOOTNOTES
1) See document 664.
2) See document 665
3) DH, EUM, 2nd
Branch, File 1, document 23 (see document 668)
4) DH, EUM, 2nd
Branch, File 1, document 76 (see document 669)
5) DH, EUM, 2nd
Branch, File 1, document 23 (see document 668).
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