In Sabit Bey's Office

The Vali replied very coldly that there was no possibility of changing the order in any way, as it had been sent in just that form from Constantinople. He went on to say, however, that the Armenians had brought this on themselves, and told of reports of disloyalty that had already become current from Van and other places, and told of what he had discovered in Harpoot, saying that weapons and bombs had been found among the Armenians. I said to him, "Is this any reason for condemning to death all of the innocent women and children?" He answered rather indignantly that they were not condemned to death, but to be sent into exile. I spoke of what we had heard of the fate of our professors on the Diarbekir road, and he acknowledged that they had been attacked, as I have already mentioned. "But," he said, "we are going to send all these people very carefully. I am going to furnish them guards who will see to it that no one harms them." I called his attention to the reports that had already begun to come of the massacre and outrage of exiles from other provinces. He replied, "I am not responsible for what may have happened in other provinces, but for this province I am responsible, and I promise you that all of these people will be sent in safety to Ourfa. No one's nose shall bleed on the journey." That Vali, Sabit Bey, without hesitation took upon himself full responsibility for the manner of carrying out the deportation of the people in his province, and the Day of Reckoning will come when he must account for the way he met that responsibility. He was responsible for the miserable suffering or death not only of the vast majority of the Armenians in his own province, but also of scores of thousands of Armenians from northern provinces, who were relatively safe till they entered his province, but within his jurisdiction were massacred wholesale or done to death in ways more cruel than out-and-out massacre.

We raised the question of transportation for this multitude. The Vali replied that the government would provide for this. He said that wagons would be provided for all the families, one or two for each family, so that they might take their household goods with them, and that each person would be provided with an animal to ride. This promise was so absurd on the face of it that it brought us no comfort. No such large supply of animals was in existence in the province, and the military authorities had been so rigorous in commandeering animals that it was exceedingly difficult for a single family with money to spend to get a wagon to travel in. It was manifest that the Vali could not fulfill his promise, and events proved, later, how well-founded were our fears. When the day came for our neighbors to start, not a wagon was to be had, and only those who hired animals and paid for them could get any transportation whatever. Most of the people had to walk.

As so many of the Armenian men were in prison, we begged the Vali to release them, so that they could travel with their families. On this the Vali turned to me again and said, "I give you my promise that not a single man from this day on will be sent off from the prison. They shall all be released and allowed to accompany their families." How this promise was fulfilled I will narrate later. I have yet to hear of a single Harpoot man who survived to leave the province with his family.

We also asked for mercy for the aged, the sick and the infirm, for whom to start on such a journey would mean certain death. With regard to this obviously reasonable request the Vali said that, while he had no authority to spare any Armenian, man, woman or child, he would postpone the deportation of those feeble persons till the others had all been sent, and he hoped that some change in the orders might come. To give even Sabit Bey his due, I should say here that I know of a few individual cases in which this promise was fulfilled by his orders. But I also know of many cases where it was horribly violated, in spite of protests and appeals. I saw with my own eyes two bedridden old men driven out to their death, a woman in the pains of childbirth cursed and ordered into the street, and a feeble old lady literally dragged over the cobble stones by the police.

We then took up the question of how we could help the Armenians in their hour of need. The Vali was very ready to say that he would be glad to have us help them in any way we could. But it soon narrowed itself down to a permission to give them food and money, and as things turned out, this promise was largely nullified by the action of the local police. But the Vali himself hedged about our efforts with many limitations. He forbade our taking any of the property of the Armenians for storage. He said that we could buy their goods only at public auction. That we might not accept any of their money on deposit to remit to them later. The general attitude that he took with regard to all of these matters was that whatever the Armenians could not take with them should be taken charge of by the government and by no one else. This was an enormously profitable arrangement for the government, which thus made itself the legal heir to all the Armenians' wealth. It would have been even more profitable for the government if many Turks--including the Vali himself--had not forestalled the claims of the government.

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Last modified on 14 May 2006.