News from the Front - 26th May 2023
The weekly newsletter from from 1914-1918 - The First World War.
News from the Front exists to share great stories and interesting historical aspects of the First World War.
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One anniversary
The Armenian genocide
On the 24th of May 1915, the Entente powers condemned Ottoman actions against the Armenians, referring to them as "sub human crimes". The Ottoman Empire had entered the Great War in October 1914 on the side of the Central Powers and had begun the war with surprise naval attack on Russia, followed by land assaults, and then, in February 1915, an attempt to cross the Suez Canal and threaten British interests was made.
Like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire was a multi-ethnic agglomeration of peoples, the dominant being the Turks, but also including a significant minority of Armenians. The Armenia ethnic group, awkwardly, didn’t conform to the lines on the map and occupied the Armenia Plateau in the north-east of the empire with somewhere between 1½ - 2 million people living within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, with more living in Russian lands beyond.
Of course, this being eastern Europe, none of the borders conformed to the ethnicity of the people living within them, and there were, and had been, various machinations by various powers to incite insurrections, form new countries and develop breakaway regions to discomfit others. Despite an active Armenian nationalist movement that even the Turks had encouraged to upset the Russian applecart, and notwithstanding a recent history of looking to Russia for support, on the outbreak of war, the Armenian leaders were broadly loyal to the Empire and directed that men who were called up should serve in the Ottoman armies. In fact, the Armenian’s had been regarded the “most loyal” of all the ethnic groups and one of their leaders had been offered a place in the Turkish government in 1914 (Boghos Nubar turned the post down as he didn’t feel that he had a decent enough command of the Turkish language to participate properly). All this despite previous large-scale massacres in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Approximately 100 thousand Armenians joined the Ottoman forces and served during the opening months of the war. However, whilst the Armenian leadership supported the orders for the Ottoman call up, the Turks also expected them to call for Armenians in Russian territory to revolt against the Tsar; the leaders drew the line at this. At the same time, Armenians in Russia territory were also called up, but to the Russian side, and this, coupled with the absence of a call to arms in support of the Ottoman Empire, was interpreted as a sign of disloyalty.
In December 1914 and January 1915, the Battle of Sarikamish was fought and lost by the Ottomans. Estimates of the numbers of casualties are varied, but frostbite took a heavy toll even before the battle was fought. By the time the Ottoman forces pushed into the town of Sarikamish they were badly depleted, having lost around 25,000 men to the weather conditions alone; records show that the temperatures were consistently below -31 degrees centigrade and the under-equipped Ottoman soldiers suffered grievously. Now outnumbered by the Russian forces who had not been struggling about in the terrible mountainous conditions, the Ottoman force was in a precarious position.
The Russians were able to encircle the remaining forces and, although records are unclear, between this and losses prior to the battle it seems the Ottomans lost between fifty and eighty thousand men, possibly more. In the aftermath of the battle, the Turkish commander Enver Pasha sought to conceal the reasons for the defeat by blaming it on Armenian treachery. In fact, poor preparatory work (he had dismissed concerns over his army’s lack of winter equipment), a precarious supply situation and an underestimate of the Russian’s likely strength were the true cause.
Someone had to pay for the defeat and the Armenians were swiftly targeted. Those Armenians who had joined the army when called up were rewarded for their loyalty by being disarmed, separated from the rest of the army and either murdered or worked to death. At the same time, a program of persecution began to root all able-bodied Armenian men out of their villages and towns. As they were rounded up, the Armenians capable of putting up resistance were murdered, often after being tortured.
Of course, everything is more complicated than it seems on the first look, there had been some Armenian unrest. The first town to be cleared, Zeitun, had been resisting conscription orders, but subsequent uprisings, such as in the city of Van throughout April and May, were a reaction to the repressive acts of the Turks. At Van, a force of 1300 Armenians defended the population of some 30,000 people for 30 days, until Russian forces were able to relieve them. The scale of the Van uprising marked a tipping point for the Turks and further repression followed, including the arrest and murder of Armenians living in Constantinople.
A typical example of the persecution can be seen in the experience of the town of Baibourt. First the villages around the town were emptied of their Armenian inhabitants, and three-quarters of the population of the town were marched south. Then on the 1st of June, a final forced march of four or five thousand people completed the work. Within one week of the beginning of the action, all men over the age of 15 years of age had been murdered.
A contemporary source recounts the nature of the actions; “Persecutions, accompanied by horrible torture, have taken place in the Armenian village of Baghtchedjik or Bardizag (2,000 families), in Ovadjik (600 families), in Arslanbeg (600 families), in Döngöl (65 families), in Sabandja (1,000 families), in Ismid, etc. The inhabitants of Kurt-Belené (6,000 to 7,000 families) have been expelled. In Arabkir the Armenian population has been converted to Islam, after 2,000 males had been killed.”
It is unclear, and the key records from the period have been destroyed, whether the decision to engage in large scale repression and genocide was driven by pre-meditated intention or whether it simple grew out of failed military operations. What does seem clearer is that, despite post-war denials, it seems that the genocide was planned centrally as a deliberate programme of persecution. The leadership of the CUP (Committee of Union and Progress), the ruling party known as the “Young Turks”, seem to have been involved in directing the operations, with the actual repression being carried out by “special organisations” coordinated by the party and the war ministry.
What is clear in the scale and horror of the massacre of the Armenian people. Between April and August, with those men who might have been able to resist the persecution out of the way, the remaining population was rounded up and forced to march to camps in Northern Mesopotamia in modern day Syria. The plan seems to have been to march the Armenians to the swampy low-value land beyond Aleppo, but the marches themselves became a means of murdering large numbers of people. The forced marches killed thousands and contemporary accounts are harrowing;
“Women whose pains came upon them on the way had to continue their journey without respite. A woman bore twins in the neighbourhood of Aintab; next morning she had to go on again. She very soon had to leave the children under a bush, and a little while after she collapsed herself. Another, whose pains came upon her during the march, was compelled to go on at once and fell down dead almost immediately. There were several more incidents of the same kind between Marash and Aleppo.”
Chillingly the source goes on to report that of the people who set out on the journey, “There are about 30,000 exiles of whom we have no news at all, as they have arrived neither at Aleppo nor at Ourfa.”
For those that made it through the forced marches, there was little relief. Many, often women who were expropriated for Ottoman men, were forced to renounce their Christian faith in favour of Islam, while thousands were forced into concentration camps. A source from Syra recounts how, “At Aleppo all the churches and schools are full of exiled Armenians. Rich and poor, teachers and pupils, all are brothers there, victims of the same blow. The inhabitants of the city do their utmost to alleviate the suffering. Those that are deported---women, old men, children---are obliged to cross the deserts on foot, under the burning sun, often deprived of food and water. The most modest complaint is stifled by the most barbarous threats. Overpowered by fatigue, exhausted by hunger, mothers in despair leave on the way their infant children, often only six months old, and continue their journey . . . . . Even in this deplorable state, rapes and violent acts are everyday occurrences. . . . . . The Armenians deported from Hadjin could not be recognised as a result of their twelve days' journey.”
The Allies condemned the actions taking place in the Ottoman Empire and said that those who were responsible would be held personally responsible. The Turks responded that they were simply exercising their right to self-defence. In a rare moment of hope for the Armenians, the French rescued 4000 refugees from Port Said, evacuating them in five warships. Then, later in 1916, the British went as far as to commission a parliamentary report, compiled by Viscount Bryce and the historian Arnold Toynbee. Running to 746 pages, based on eyewitness reports and over 100 different sources, the report documented the Armenian genocide in painful detail. The accounts in this article are derived from the Bryce report.
The Germans, who were formally allied to the Ottomans, were forced to look on with uncomfortable silence, treading a fine line between personally loathing the actions, but unwilling to do anything officially in case it damaged the alliance. The Armenians had asked for formal German protection on April the 14th, but this was rejected. The German ambassador in Constantinople expressed his hope that the Turkish government would avoid “Christian massacres”, but was told that, given the poorly trained nature of the troops involved, it was inevitable that unfortunate incidents would occur. As the persecution spread, the German Vice-Consul at Erzerum was instructed to intervene to prevent massacres, but to do so in a way that avoided implying that the Germans were exercising a “right of protection over the Armenians or [to] interfere in with the activities of the authorities.” Hardly a rousing call for decisive action!
Despite official reticence, Germans who witnessed the events wrote letters to officials and tried to intercede on behalf of the Armenians. For example, “I want to beg our friends at home not to grow weary of making intercession for the members of the Armenian nation who are in exile here, If there is no visible prospect of a change for the better, a few months more will see the end of them all. They are succumbing in thousands to famine, pestilence and the inclemency of the weather. The exiles at Hama, Homs and in the neighbourhood of Damascus are comparatively better off. They are left where they are, and can look about for means of subsistence. But further East, along the Euphrates, they are driven from place to place, plundered and maltreated. Many of our friends are dead.”
Across the world, humanitarian efforts were made to raise funds to support the Armenians, many of these initiatives were to continue well after the war, but it was too little, too late. The damage was done. The Armenian peoples had been hollowed out and their long quest for justice begun. We’ll leave the final words to an Armenian poet, Avetik Isahakian, who wrote.
“So great is the anguish and suffering of the Armenians, so hideous and unprecedented that the infinity and fathomlessness of the universe must be considerate in gauging it; there are no words in the dictionaries to qualify the hideousness of the terrors. Not a single poet can find words…”
One news story
AEF “Hello girl” to be honoured
For those of you who enjoyed the long-read about the British Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, I bring news that a “hello girl” who served with the American Expeditionary Force is to be honoured in Wyoming. This shines a light on the American equivalent to the WAACS who served in the United States and France.
Described as Wyoming’s only “hello girl”, Anna Swanson’s grave will be marked with a “Veterans Marker” to commemorate her service.
A spokesman for the Casper’s Fort Caspar Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (catchy) said, “They took an oath to our country, served under commissioned officers, and wore uniforms and insignias, but they were denied Veterans benefits.”
The women served in the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit and were granted Veterans status in 1978, nine years after Anna Swanson passed away. Unlike the British WAACs, the use of women to free up men for service was more limited with telephony roles being the main activity.
One from the archives
Serbian troop mobilisation
This week’s “one from the archives” is a photo of Serbian troops heading towards the border as a part of the mobilisation of 1914 to face the Austro-Hungarians. It is wholly possible that a widespread war would been averted, or would have been more localised, if the Germans had not expressed their fulsome support to the Austro-Hungarians in the so-called “Blank Cheque”.
This letter gave the Austro-Hungarians the absolute backing of the German empire in their dispute with Serbia, caused by the association of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and was sent from the German chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, to the German Ambassador in Vienna.
The Austro-Hungarians, thus assured that, should the Russians support Serbia, the Germans would support them, were emboldened in their demands against Serbia. This meant that escalation was the likely course of action as each side believed that its allies were committed to the cause.
Here’s a translation of the “blank cheque” letter…
Berlin, July 6th 1914
Confidential. For Your Excellency’s personal information and guidance.
The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador yesterday delivered to the Emperor a confidential personal letter from the Emperor Franz Josef, which describes the present situation from the Austro-Hungarian point of view, and describes the measures which Vienna has in view. A copy is now being forwarded to Your Excellency.
I replied to Count Szagyeny today on behalf of the Kaiser, that the Kaiser sends his thanks to the Emperor Francis Joseph for his letter and would soon answer it personally. In the meantime the Kaiser desires to say that he is not blind to the danger which threatens Austria-Hungary and thus the Triple Alliance as a result of the Russian and Serbian Pan-Slavic terrorism. Even though the Kaiser is known to feel no unqualified confidence in Bulgaria and her ruler… he quite understands that the Emperor Franz Josef, in view of the attitude of Rumania and of the danger of a new Balkan alliance, is anxious to bring about an understanding between Bulgaria and the Triple alliance…
Finally, as far as Serbia is concerned, His Majesty the Kaiser cannot, of course, interfere in the dispute now going on between Austria-Hungary and that country, as it is a matter outside his jurisdiction. The Emperor Franz Josef may, however, rest assured that His Majesty will faithfully stand by Austria-Hungary, as is required by the obligations of his alliance and of his ancient friendship.
Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia on the 28th July 1914 and the rest is history.
Parish notices: There is unlikely to be a newsletter next week as I’m taking a break…
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