GOMIDAS INSTITUTE ARMENIANS GENOCIDE DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

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United States Records on the Armenian Genocide

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of
Armenian
Genocide

ABOUT: This project is an expanding archival project which presents key primary documents on the 1915 destruction of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The project currently focuses on United States records because:
         (a) the United States was a neutral power for most of World War I (until April 1917). Consequently many of its nationals were in Ottoman Turkey in 1915, and they witnessed and recorded the treatment of Armenians; 
        (b) starting in October 1915, the United States government played a critical role in releasing information about the plight of Armenians. The United States had an ongoing humanitarian interest in the Armenian issue;
         (c) the records released by the United States government informed the world about the plight of Armenians and provided the documentary basis for the 1916 British Parliamentary Blue Book, The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16, the first systematic thesis on the Armenian Genocide;
        (d) today the official Turkish thesis on the Armenian Genocide denies the integrity, if not the existence, of United States records on the genocide of Armenians, as well as the integrity of the 1916 Blue Book. Consequently, the present documentary collection has great significance to current debates about the Armenian Genocide.

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THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES 
The US National Archives, based in Washington DC, is the largest depository of United States diplomatic and consular reports from Ottoman Turkey. These materials constitute a rich archive for the study of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Record Group 59, General Records of the Department of State, Internal Affairs of Turkey 1910-1929.
        * Race Problems  Index file and documents 
        * Political Files  Index and documents 
        * Natural Calamities and Disasters  Index and documents

Record Group 256, General Records of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace.
        * Special Reports and Studies   About this collection 
                                                             Index file and documents 
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THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Library of Congress is a major depository of archival records. Its collections include the private papers of Henry Morgenthau, the American ambassador to Ottoman Turkey between 1913-16. Morgenthau played a vital role by investigating the fate of Armenians in 1915 and informing the outside world. His papers are an invaluable source on the genocide of Armenians.
        * Papers of Henry Morgenthau, Sr.  Index file and documents
                                                                                            incl. Diaries 1913-1916 (Feb)

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HOUGHTON LIBRARY
Houghton Library is located in Cambridge, Mass. and contains the archives of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), a missionary organisation which was active among Ottoman Armenians for over a century. The ABCFM archives contain significant records on the genocide of Armenians.

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Last modified on 13 December 2006.