Witnesses and testimony provide an important and valuable insight into the events which occurred both during and after the Armenian genocide. The Armenian genocide was prepared and carried out by the Ottoman government in 1915 as well as in the following years. As a result of the genocide, as many as 1.5 million Armenians who were living in their ancestral homeland (at that time it was a part of the Ottoman Empire) were deported and murdered.
A number of journalists, diplomats, soldiers, physicians, writers, and missionaries witnessed the Armenian genocide, with hundreds of these witnesses from various European countries (Germany, Austria, Italy) and the United States experiencing the events firsthand. These witnesses have provided testimonies that are highly valued by historians as reliable reports of the tragedy. The eyewitness accounts of non-Armenian diplomats, missionaries and others provide significant evidence about the events and particularly the systematic nature of the deportations and subsequent massacres.
Overview Among these, missionaries experienced the events first hand and were instrumental in spreading the news about the massacres worldwide. Some missionaries had also provided detailed information about the events to heads of state such as Woodrow Wilson. Many of the missionaries provided clandestine relief and oftentimes saved the lives of many Armenians.
Reacting to numerous eyewitness accounts, James Bryce and Arnold Toynbee compiled statements from survivors and eyewitnesses from other countries including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland, who similarly attested to the systematized massacring of innocent Armenians by Ottoman government forces. In 1916, they published The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915–1916. Although the book has been criticized by Turkish denialists as propaganda to build up support for the war, Bryce had submitted the work to scholars for verification prior to its publication. University of Oxford Regius Professor Gilbert Murray stated of the time, "the evidence of these letters and reports will bear any scrutiny and overpower any skepticism. Their genuineness is established beyond question."Dadrian. History of the Armenian Genocide. p. 228 Other professors, including Herbert Fisher of Sheffield University and former American Bar Association president Moorfield Storey, affirmed the same conclusion.Dadrian. History of the Armenian Genocide. pp. 228–29
Other eyewitness accounts are from survivors of the Armenian genocide themselves. Today, there are only a "handful" of survivors alive. Many of these accounts were recorded on tape decades after the events. Hundreds of these testimonies and eyewitness accounts will be incorporated into the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education as part of archival research project for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
As asserted by Armenian historian Richard G. Hovannisian, "eyewitness accounts of decisive events may be as valuable as official dispatches and reports. It is in such version especially that the human element becomes manifest, affording insights not to be found in documents." Some survivor accounts have been turned into films such as Aurora Mardiganians' survivor story in the film Ravished Armenia.
In regards to the significance of eyewitness testimony, Genocide scholar Samuel Totten stated: First-person accounts by victims and others are capable of breaking through the numbing mass of numbers in that they provide the thoughts, the passions and the voices of those who experienced and/or witnessed the terrible calamity now referred to as genocide. And while first-person accounts serve many purposes among the most significant is the fact that authentic accounts constitute valuable testimony as to what it means to be caught up in the maelstrom of hatred and savagery that is genocide.
The report of the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau, Sr. is recognized to be one of the main eyewitness accounts of the genocide. Morgenthau published his memoirs about the Armenian massacres in a 1918 book Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. The book gives detailed documentation of the events and describes his appeals to stop the massacres.
Morgenthau's account and other books that provide testimonies to the events have been showcased around the world by the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute of Yerevan, Armenia through temporary exhibitions.
Notable witnesses and testimonies
Turkish Interviewed by Berliner Tageblatt in May 1915, Talat stated: "We have been blamed for not making a distinction between guilty and innocent Armenians. [To do so] was impossible. Because of the nature of things, one who was still innocent today could be guilty tomorrow. The concern for the safety of Turkey simply had to silence all other concerns. Our actions were determined by national and historical necessity."
Talat told German ambassador Johann von Bernstorff "What on earth do you want? The question is settled, there are no more Armenians."
"It is no use for you to argue . . . we have already disposed of three quarters of the Armenians; there are none at all left in Bitlis, Van, and Erzeroum. The hatred between the Turks and the Armenians is now so intense that we have got to finish with them. If we don't, they will plan their revenge."
On 3 August 1915, Talat met with US ambassador Morgenthau and told him "that our Armenian policy is absolutely fixed and that nothing can change it. We will not have the Armenians anywhere in Anatolia. They can live in the desert but nowhere else.""Either the Armenians were to eliminate the Turks, or the Turks were to eliminate the Armenians. I did not hesitate when I was confronted with this dilemma. My Turkishness prevailed over my profession. I figured, instead of wiping us out, we will wipe them out....On the question how I, as a doctor, could have murdered, I can answer as follows: the Armenians had become hazardous microbes in the body of this country. Well, isn't it a doctor's duty to kill microbes?" Salâhattin Güngör, "Bir Canlı Tarih Konuşuyor" [Living History Speaks], Resimli Tarih Mecmuası, part 3, vol.4, no. 43, July 1953, pp. 2444-45, cited in "Ottoman history has never opened its pages, even during the time of the Middle Ages, onto such determined murder[s] and large scale cruelty.""If you want to bloody the Armenian question politically, then you scatter the people in the Armenian provinces, but scatter them in a humane manner. Hang the traitors, even if there are thousands of them. Who would entertain hiding Russians [and] the supporters of Russians? But stop right there. You dared to annihilate the existence of an entire nation, not [only] their political existence. You are both iniquitous and incapable. What kind of conscience must you have to [be able to] accept the drowning, in the mountains and next to lakes, of those women, children and the elderly who were taken to the countryside!""With these acts we have [ruined] everything. We put an irremovable stain on the current administration."—Diary entry for 29 August–24 September 1915There is much debate as to whether Atatürk, at least partially, acknowledged the systematic nature of the massacres in 1915. According to David Gaunt and other historians, Kemal was "involved in completing genocide and ethnic cleansing in the years 1919 to 1924 [and] he used outright anti-Christian rhetoric to urge his cohorts to drive the last remaining Christians out". Historian Rouben Paul Adalian has argued that "Mustafa Kemal completed what Talaat and Enver had started in 1915"."These leftovers from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred, have been restive under Republican rule. They have hitherto lived on plunder, robbery and bribery, and become inimical to any idea or suggestion to enlist in useful labor and earn their living by the honest sweat of their brow."
"The World War I massacres against the Armenians (Ermenilere karşı katliam) [was] a shameful act (fazahat)."
Ottoman naval officer and statesman Rauf Orbay mentioned in his memoirs during a discussion with James Harbord: "Kemal used the 800,000 figure to describe the number of Armenian victims. He, in fact, 'disapproved of the Armenian massacres.' (Ermeni katlini o da takbih ediyordu)."Faiz El-Ghusein was exiled to Diyarbakir under the suspicion of supporting the Arab Revolt. While in Diyarbakir, El-Ghusein witnessed the massacres of Armenians in and around the area. El-Ghusein wrote much of what he witnessed in his book Martyred Armenia which provides an eyewitness account of the massacres and exposes its systematic nature. The account was originally published in Arabic in 1916 under the title "Massacres in Armenia" but was changed to Martyred Armenia under its English translation. In the foreword of the book, El-Ghusein states, "The war must needs come to an end after a while, and it will then be plain to readers of this book that all I have written is the truth, and that it contains only a small part of the atrocities committed by the Turks against the hapless Armenian people.""As to their preparations, the flags, bombs and the like, even assuming there to be some truth in the statement, it does not justify the annihilation of the whole people, men and women, old men and children, in a way which revolts all humanity and more especially Islam and the whole body of Moslems, as those unacquainted with the true facts might impute these deeds to Mohammedan fanaticism."
"Annihilation seemed to be the sole means of deliverance; they found their opportunity in a time of war, and they proceeded to this atrocious deed, which they carried out with every circumstance of brutality — a deed which is contrary to the law of Islam."Reşid Akif Paşa provided important testimony during a session of the Ottoman parliament on 21 November 1918. - Profile at Google Books The speech had outlined the process in which official statements made use of vague terminology when ordering deportation only to be clarified by special orders ordering "massacres" sent directly from the Committee of Union and Progress headquarters and oftentimes the residence of Talat Pasha himself."During my few days of service in this government I've learned of a few secrets and have come across something interesting. The deportation order was issued through official channels by the minister of the interior and sent to the provinces. Following this order the [CUP] Central Committee circulated its own ominous order to all parties to allow the gangs to carry out their wretched task. Thus the gangs were in the field, ready for their atrocious slaughter."