The Aleppo protocols: histories of the Armenian genocide
Taner Akcam, Dicle Akar Bilgin & Matthias Bjørnlund
April 2014
Introduction
The archives of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, hold a series of protocols, each with
100 handwritten intake surveys (admission forms) t o t h e L e a g u e o f N a t i o n s a n d D a n i s h
Friends of Armenians reception house in Aleppo for Armenian genocide
survivors released from Muslim households during the period 1922 -1930.
A l l i n a l l t h e r e a r e s o m e 1 7 0 0 f o r m s i n t h i s highly important collection of
testimonies to every aspect of the Young Turk annihilation and assimilation process that began
in 1915. T h e 1 - p a g e f o r m s c o n t a i n t h e f u l l n a m e o f t h e s u r v i v o r a n d t h e
parents as well as place of birth and age – when such information is known
t o t h e s u r v i v o r , w h i c h i s n o t a l w a y s t h e c a s e . A l s o , t h e y c o n t a i n short
biographies of life during and after the genocide, a l o n g w i t h passport sized photographs of the
survivors w h o c a m e from all over the Ottoman Empire and h a d very diverse backgrounds.1
Thanks to the efforts of the League’s commissioner for women and children in the
Near East, Miss Karen Jeppe, a Dane, and her staff in Syria, these survivors were freed from
households where they most often lived as slaves or servants. Using a network of agents, priests,
businessmen, etc., in Anatolia/Asia Minor (mainly before the Turkish Republic was established in
1923), but mostly in Syria and Mesopotamia (Iraq), Jeppe’s organization was able to facilitate the
release of a substantial number of Armenians during the period from 1921 to 1927.2 This was part
of a larger League of Nations project, where the British physician Dr. W. A. Kennedy and the
American Near East Relief veteran missionary nurse Emma Cushman were in charge of a similar
operation in Constantinople (the latter having worked for the American Board/ABCFM to save
Armenians and Allied POWs in Konya during the war and afterwards in Greece).3
Now, for the first time the complete list of survivor testimonies from the Aleppo
protocols is gradually being made available online here at Armenocide, a comprehensive resource
for genocide scholars, historians of the Middle East and World War I, genealogists, and generally
interested laymen alike. It may sound paradoxical, but while all the testimonies are unique (they
each describe the fate of an individual or a family) and atypical (the ‘norm’ during the genocide was
to die, not survive or escape), many are also typical in the sense that there is a pattern that points to
1
the way the genocide was generally executed and to the possible survival strategies, in this case
mainly of women and children: The killing of the men and older boys, the deportations, the
massacres en route, fleeing and hiding, forced assimilation, etc., immense dramas condensed to a
few sentences. A case in point is the testimony of Farfure from Khunoos (Khnus/Hinis in the
Erzerum region in the direction of Mush),4 daughter of Manoog Amoershadjian, no. 246 in the
Aleppo protocols, 28 years old in 1923 when she was admitted to the reception home (it should be
noted that while all these testimonies were written down in English, they were done so on the spot
by staff members, Danes and others, who were not native speakers of the English language, which
explains the sometimes ‘clumsy’ sentence structures, etc.):
In the beginning of the war her husband was killed. She was deported with her mother in law about two
hours far from the city. The caravan of deportation was attacked by Kourds. Most of this unfortunate
people were killed or wounded. Farfure could flee with another Armenian lady. They went together to
one of environing villages but there they have been caught by officials of the Turkish government and
exiled there again. On the road she fled again, this time she did not go to a village but she made herself
a shelter under the ground where she lived a few months. Again the Turkish government located her
and this time she was sent to Haïni. A Kourd from there married her and Farfure lived seven years with
him. When Greeks and Armenians were permitted to leave Turkey, she fled from the Kourd, joined a
party of Greek refugees and came to Aleppo. Her cousin is in America. Servant in the city. Later she
was married to an Armenian here in the city. Left our care: June 29, 1923. Relatives by marriage.
Background and context: Karen Jeppe in Urfa
Karen Jeppe was trained as a teacher after having studied mathematics at the University of
Copenhagen, but the main part of her qualifications as League of Nations Commissioner stemmed
from her extensive experience and knowledge gained as field worker for the relief organization
Danish Friends of Armenians (Danske Armeniervenner, DA) attached to Johannes Lepsius’
Deutsche Orient Mission in Urfa (Sanliurfa; Edessa) from 1903 to 1918. Jeppe arrived in Urfa in
1903 where she was greeted by the legendary American missionary Corinna Shattuck,5 and she
immediately ventured to learn Armenian, Arabic, and Turkish. Soon after her arrival, Jeppe became
manager of the German orphanage in the city, a sizeable operation with some 300-350 Armenian
boys and girls.6 During the world war she, who had initially been quite positive toward the Young
Turks, witnessed was every step of the way: From the declaration of war to full-blown genocide,
from the growing hostility and radicalization of the local Muslim population, over the arrival of the
first deportation trains from Zeitun, Erzerum, and Harput (Kharpert, Harpoot), to torture, the
crushing of the desperate resistance in the Armenian quarter, the mass killings, and the deaths on
the roads and in the city.7
2
From early summer 1915 to June 1916,8 columns with thousands of destitute
Armenians on death marches were driven by gendarmes through Urfa on their way to the Syrian
Desert, and were often placed for short periods of time in tent camps or large buildings such as
camel sheds. Some of these columns stopped for the night outside one such building, the former
Deutscher Hülfsbund orphanage that was run by Karen Jeppe, but had now been taken over by the
Ottoman military.9 Here, Jeppe was among those who organized to feed and care for as many
surviving Armenians as possible, and like German, Ottoman, Austrian, and Swiss eyewitnesses –
Jakob Künzler, Fa’iz el-Ghusein, and Joseph Naayem, among others10 – she describes how the men
have usually been separated (and killed) at an early stage of the deportation, and how the deportees
were in an increasingly deteriorating physical condition.11
There is ample documentation that Jeppe, alongside Swiss, American, and German
missionaries and relief workers as well as a number of Kurds and Arabs, was thus personally
involved in trying to aid Armenian survivors from the persecutions and death marches. Not only by
feeding and nurturing them, but also by secretly sheltering some 30 Armenians, mostly men and
boys, inside her own home and dug under a flowerbed in her garden in Urfa, next to the house of
Künzler and near the German hospital.12 Among them were Kevork Garabedian, Bedros der
Bedrossian, and the local Apostolic priest Der Karekin (Karekin Vosgeritsian) with his wife,
daughter, and two sons.13 Some survived, some did not. If the Ottoman authorities had discovered
this during their frequent raids, Jeppe would most likely have been executed with the hidden
Armenians, and according to an Armenian eyewitness the extreme circumstances, a nervous
breakdown, as well as serious illness – malaria and typhus – led her to attempt suicide on several
occasions in her Urfa home during the extermination of the Armenians.14
In Aleppo
After recovering back home in Denmark, Karen Jeppe and her organization, the Danish Friends of
Armenians, decided that she should return to work among Armenian survivors in Aleppo, in what
had now become the French mandate of Syria. Shortly after arriving in 1921, Jeppe was appointed
League of Nations Commissioner for the Protection of Women and Children in the Middle East, an
appointment that secured her and her organization limited funding, but a substantial amount of
credibility and political and moral support. This was indeed needed as she and other aid workers
3
faced an enormous task: some 100,000 Armenians,15 mainly female and very often poor, diseased,
unemployed, orphaned, malnourished, and traumatized, were scattered around Syria, many eking
out an existence in refugee camps. Although Armenian and American organizations in particular
had been working to release Armenians since the end of the war, approximately 20,000-30,000 of
the women and children were still living in Muslim captivity, victims of kidnapping, forced
marriage, rape, and sexual slavery that had become de facto instruments of genocide from 1915
onward, as testified by numerous eyewitness accounts and diplomatic reports.16 And later, more
refugees were arriving every day from the Turkish republic, where continuing nationalist policies
were instrumental in driving out almost all of the remaining Christians of the country.17
The various post-war DA and League of Nations projects in and around Aleppo were
initially dominated and led by Danes under the supervision of Karen Jeppe, but they quickly
became truly international and interconnected projects: During the years from 1921 to 1946, when
the DA operation was finally terminated, the staff consisted of, e.g., the married couple Misak and
Lucia Melkonian (both adopted by Jeppe in Urfa before the genocide), and a number of other
Armenian genocide survivors – nurses, midwives, teachers (among them Herartian and Zormisian),
an agronomist in one of the handful of Armenian agricultural colonies or villages established under
Bedouin and French protection by Jeppe’s organization by the Balikh tributary between the rivers
Euphrates and Tigris, Harutiun Tchakerian at one of the Aleppo workshops, an Apostolic priest, the
doctors Der Ghazarian and Zakaria Kiledjian (the former working at the reception home, the DA
eye clinic, and the French St. Louis Hospital in Aleppo, the latter giving medical assistance and
distributing medicine to Armenians and Arabs in the surrounding villages), etc.
The non-Armenian staff included two Danes, the DA field worker Karen Bjerre and
Jenny Jensen, former field worker for the Danish organization Kvindelige Missions
Arbejdere/Women Missionary Workers/KMA attached to the German organization Deutsche
Hülfsbund in the Harput/Mamouret-ul-Aziz province during the genocide.18 An almost forgotten,
but vital figure was Leopold F. Gaszczyk, an ethnic Polish cadet (offiziers-Aspirant) in the AustroHungarian army corps (Orientkorps) consisting of some 400 officers and 8000 regular soldiers
deployed to the Ottoman Empire. Gaszczyk, already a veteran from the European theatre of war at
the age of 22, was sent to Aleppo and Damascus as a young interpreter, etc., shortly before the
armistice in 1918, but he went back to Constantinople after a few weeks and was demobilized.
4
After the war Gaszczyk wanted to aid the Armenian refugees he had recently seen and
pitied, so he came back, now as a Polish subject following the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
and the creation of an independent Poland. After having worked for Near East Relief to help
evacuate Armenian and Greek survivors from places like Sivas, Samsun, and Kayseri, as well as
Harput in the Mamouret-ul-Aziz province, he came back to Aleppo in 1923.19 Here he met Horome,
a widowed survivor of the Armenian genocide. They soon married, and both became members of
Jeppe’s organization, Leopold as Jeppe’s secretary and “attaché diplomatique,”20 Horome as leader
of the DA workshop that also employed Leopold Gaszczyk’s sister, Johanna Paritzi (Paritsi), and up
to 300 Armenian women producing high quality needlework.21 Further non-Armenian employees or
associates included the Swiss Dr. Monnier at DA’s clinic in the Aleppo refugee camp, and the
organization also co-operated with a French doctor in Rakka.
The colonies
The DA/League of Nations projects included the agricultural colonies with a school and an
orphanage by the Balikh river in Tineh (where Jeppe and her staff had a holiday residence, the socalled White House), Tel Armen, Tel Samen, and Charp Bedros. Besides from the educational
efforts, Jeppe considered the most viable long term solution to the refugee problem to be
colonization, i.e., settlement in enclaves. As prospects in 1923-1924 of establishing a truly
independent national home for the Armenians looked increasingly slimmer, and since only a limited
number of Armenians were able to migrate or make a living in the Syrian cities, Jeppe basically
took off where she left in Urfa before the war by working to establish permanent agricultural
settlements in the countryside.22 This seemed not only a practical solution; it was also a solution
that suited her beliefs that city life for the Armenians would lead to ghettoization, to moral and
physical degradation, and to the loss of Armenian culture and religion.23
Generally, Karen Jeppe, like many Armenians, had little trust in Western powers,
including the French colonial power in Syria, to prioritize the well-being of the Armenians over
political and economic interests, and history had already proved that such suspicions were well
founded.24 This mistrust was the main reason why Jeppe had at first been hesitant to accept
nomination as a League of Nations commissioner.25 She realized that the attention and sympathies
of Western nations were fleeting, and that her work had to be based on a much more solid, long
term, and tangible foundation. That foundation was to be the peaceful co-existence between local
5
Armenian, Bedouin, and Kurdish populations. Ideally, trust and lasting peace was to be built on the
foundations of the agricultural colonies.
The refugee camp
DA’s operation in the Aleppo refugee camp – ”the city of the 20,000” – included a soup kitchen,
the eye clinic, workshops, and house repair, and Armenian survivors were aided by the
organization in finding employment and relatives in and outside of Syria. Besides from teaching
various classes at the reception home, the organization furthermore gave financial or material
support to local Armenian educational institutions, especially to the nearby Apostolic Sahagian
School by the Saint Gregory Church which received 308 pupils, girls and boys, directly from the
reception home. These 308 Armenian schoolchildren were directly sponsored by Danes (see
Appendix A for an example of a report on, and a letter from, one of these students).26 But DA also
supported kindergartens, the Apostolic Cilician, Girtasiratz (Grtasirats), and Mesrobian schools in
and around the camp, as well as the ecumenical Usumnasirads (Ousomnasiratz) School and a
Protestant Armenian school.27
As for the workshops, few men or elderly women had survived the genocide, so the
various traditional Armenian handicrafts had to be basically relearned by the new generation.28 But
soon a regular industry was established that not only gave Armenians the opportunity to be selfsupporting, but also raised funds for the overall relief effort through the growing export of, e.g.,
needlework. For Jeppe, as well as for Protestant missionaries,29 industry was also in itself regarded
as therapeutic, even redeeming – including for the many Armenian rape victims, as she stated in a
letter to DA board member Ivara Nyholm from Ballerup, Denmark, in November 1924: ”Some will
perhaps understand the ennobling influence this work has on the raped young women, who will be
led through it back to the spirit of their people; anyway, it is one of the means to that end.” 30 Or as
Jeppe expressed it in a 1925 report to the League of Nations: ”We pursue with equal intensity two
aims; to rescue the women and children and to educate the rescued and give them a proper start in
the new life.”31
6
The partners
The international outlook, born out of necessity as well as inclination, of Karen Jeppe and her staff
was further reflected in the broad variety of organizations and individuals they worked with.
Besides from the League of Nations and the Danish Friends of Armenians, more or less extensive
and formalized cooperation was initiated with local Bedouin leaders like Hadjim Pasha, the French
authorities,32 Maria Jacobsen and Danish KMA in Lebanon, the Norwegian KMA-missionary Bodil
Biørn, Johannes Lepsius’ organization,33 the so-called Swiss Fund run from Basel by Dr. E.
Riggenbach,34 the Armenian and the American Red Cross, the British Lord Mayor’s Fund
(Armenian Refugees’ Fund), the Bishop of London’s Fund via Gertrude Patterson, the British Save
the Children Fund,35 the American Miss Anna Gilpin (she donated a Ford automobile), various
local Armenian relief organizations and the Apostolic Church, Fridtjof Nansen’s League of Nations
foundation, Near East Relief, the French organization Action Chrétienne en Orient (ACO) via the
Estonian missionary Anna Hedvig Büll (Anna Hedwig Bühl),36 Danish immigrants in America, the
Norwegian vice-consul in Aleppo, the International Bureau of Employment in Geneva, the
unorthodox Swedish pacifist theologian and preacher Natanael Beskow and the Swedish branch of
the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, which, among other things, bought a tractor for the
agricultural colonies, etc.37 Furthermore, donations were received from, and products were sold to,
a wide variety of countries all over the world, from Europe and USA to Australia, while used
clothing was shipped in from Denmark and Germany for free distribution in the refugee camp.38
The search stations and the reception home
The most extensive part of Jeppe’s work in Aleppo was arguably the mission to rescue Armenian
women and children in the region, the very reason she became a League of Nations commissioner.
Quite a bit has been written on the subject, but some lesser-known pieces of information should be
pointed out to further the understanding of this vast and often dangerous operation. In order to
locate the Armenians and facilitate their escape, search stations were established from 1922 in the
region under the leadership of Misak Melkonian, who directed the operation from Rakka (ArRaqqah). The other main stations were in Der Zor, run by Krikor Agha (Krikor Haygian) and his
wife (he had experience helping the British occupation forces find and release Armenians
immediately after the war), in Ras ul Ain (Ras al-Ayn) led by the agents Mourad and Garo, and in
Hassitche (Hassetche, Hasake, Al Hasakah) by the Khabur river led by a highly dedicated Armenian
7
named Vasil Sabagh. When he was killed by local Arabs for taking away “their” Armenians, a
Syrian Christian, Michael Dome, took over his post.39
The search stations were mainly placed in the Eastern parts of Syria and along the
Turkish border, and usually near French military posts for safety (see Appendix B for a map of the
stations). Using these stations as bases, the network of agents travelled the countryside, actively
searching for Armenians in Muslim households, be they Kurd, Turk, Arab, Cherkess, Chechen, etc.
Since both Jeppe, the League of Nations, and the French administration for various reasons were
against using force to have the Armenians released, stealth, bribery, and negotiations were the
preferred means. Jeppe, in her League of Nations capacity, was in fact commissioned to work not
only for the ”’reconstruction’ of families,” but also for ”’reconciliation’ among peoples,” so caution
and discretion was usually called for.40
Released Armenians were sheltered in tents in the Aleppo refugee camp for the first
six months or so until a proper, centrally located rescue/reception home could be found and
prepared. That was not an easy task in a city severely plagued by a lack of housing as well as
epidemics, unemployment, etc., so it was decided to build the home next to Jeppe’s private home
and offices which were located in the outskirts of town by the railroad tracks. 41 In 1922 the
reception house was established, and here the Armenian women and children first of all received
medical treatment, some 100 at any given time. Then they were photographed, given a haircut and a
bath, and had their experiences during genocide and captivity recorded in the protocols by the staff,
as described by Henni Forchhammer, Danish League of Nations delegate, feminist, and educator
after a visit to Aleppo in May 1926:
Lately, Armenian women have once more started to come to Miss Jeppe’s reception stations, as a good
deal of Kurds have been chased out of Turkey, and with them are many Armenian women. At the
reception home the refugees get the warmest welcome by Miss Jenny Jensen who has led this branch of
the operation for the last year.
First they must shower, and they usually have to be dressed from top to bottom – that is how ragged
and full of vermin they are. But before that they are photographed and their life story is briefly written
down.
One could sit for hours and look through these protocols; here, image after image unfolds of misery and
sometimes abuse, one has been buried alive, another has big burns on the body – such outright cruelty
is exceptional, though – many are diseased, especially suffering from syphilis and tuberculosis, they
immediately receive medical treatment and usually recuperate with amazing speed; during these 4 years
42
only few have died.
Sometimes these brief records were published in more detailed versions to be used in publications
by DA (see Appendix C for an example).
8
After having been admitted into the reception home, the survivors received housing in
dormitories, education, and vocational training, not only to acquire skills necessary to survive and
to provide for themselves, but also to become what was regarded as truly Armenian, i.e., Armenianspeaking Christians. In the Ottoman Empire, Apostolic Christianity, not language, was the principal
ethnic marker for Armenians. Depending on where in the empire they lived, Armenians could be
multilingual, have Turkish or Kurdish as their mother tongue, or speak Armenian dialects that were
incomprehensible to an Armenian-speaking Armenian from another part of the empire. But after
WWI and the genocide, when national as well as individual salvation and regeneration was of the
highest priority in the diaspora, the (Western) Armenian language was regarded and taught as ”the
’essence’ of identity,” at the expense of other languages. 43 As one of the Armenian orphans at the
Aleppo reception home, Harutiun Tchakerian, expressed it, the home was a Babylon where Arabic,
Kurdish, Turkish, and Laz was spoken alongside Armenian, a language many had to learn or relearn
after years in captivity.44 Many Western missionaries and aid workers consciously and actively
participated in this project of national recovery. As it has been stated in relation to the numerous
and all-important post-war, American-run Armenian orphanages:
The two hundred orphanages staffed and operated by Americans played an important role in rebuilding
the lives of the children who survived. Although the administrators of these orphanages could have
been cultural imperialists, they in fact recognized the importance of teaching the orphans about their
own history, as well as helping them relearn their native language, which many children had forgotten
while living in Muslim homes. The orphanages were also vital in offering children educational
opportunities; indeed, the few survivors we interviewed who were illiterate were those who had lost
their parents in the genocide but did not grow up in orphanages.
Because American and European orphanage personnel encouraged girls, as well as boys, to achieve
educational goals, the girls benefited from opportunities that might not have been available to them
otherwise. Many of the girls left the orphanages to pursue nursing or teaching careers, and some of the
survivors we interviewed indicated that they had somewhat resented getting married and adopting more
conventional Armenian gender roles. Hence, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of these
institutions in healing the wounds of the children they nurtured. The orphanages functioned as
”families” for the survivors who had lost parents as well as siblings. Here, orphans bonded to each
45
other, seeking to recreate the closeness they would otherwise have enjoyed with their own family.
After 1927, Armenians were still pouring into Syria from Turkey, driven out like thousands of
Kurds by the Kemalist regime. And even though the official League of Nations operation in Aleppo
was terminated that year, partly due to a lack of funding, political support, and public interest,
Armenians kept coming to the reception home, albeit in smaller numbers.46 As usual, most were
women and children, since Armenian men were often imprisoned or drafted and thus prevented
from fleeing. A case in point was Asnif Melidonian, who was expelled with her four small children
9
in 1930 and taken into Jeppe’s reception home while her husband was in the army. Her husband
finally got out of Turkey and found Asnik in Aleppo, but before that two of their children had died
of diseases, a common occurrence among impoverished Armenian refugees. The two surviving
children were sponsored by a Danish foster-mother.47
In the decade after World War II, the remnants of the DA operation in and around
Aleppo were wrapped up, and buildings, schools, etc. were mostly handed over to Armenian
organizations.48 But the legacy lives on, in books and documents as well as in places and people, in
the Karen Jeppe Armenian College (Karen Jeppe Gemaran)49 in the once more suffering city of
Aleppo where Jeppe lies buried and where one can still find the Sahagian School,50 in the small,
peaceful town of Gylling, Jeppe’s place of birth in mainland Denmark which hosts her archive and
a memorial stone raised in her honor, and in the very lives of the descendants of the hundreds of
survivors saved by her organization.
Appendix A
Typewritten report from May 1938 about an Armenian girl, Angel Hagopian, pupil at the Sahagian
School in Aleppo, with a letter in Danish from 1939, typewritten or dictated by Angel and
translated by DA.51 The report and the letter were sent to the sponsor in Denmark, Miss Dagny
Olsen in Kolding. It is stated in the report that Angel is from Sasun (Sason, Sassoun) in Turkey,
which in this case in all likelihood means that her parents, not Angel, were born there:
“No. 2: Angel Hagopian from Sasoun, Turkey, born 28 November 29.
The condition of Angel’s family is very pitiful. The father has been paralyzed for 7 years and is
confined to the bed. The mother is exhausted from caring for her sick husband and her 3 small
children. But she is brave and seeks work as a laundry woman to help out. Angel – the oldest
daughter – is a tall, beautiful girl, and even though she is dressed in rags she is tidy and clean. She
is very happy about a new pair of shoes that were sent to her as a gift from Danish Friends of
Armenians. If this family did not receive free soup and bread it would in no way be able to
overcome the difficulties it is subjected to. Though Angel suffers from the misfortune of the family,
she shows the same courage as her mother and tries to live through all difficulties with a smile on
her face. Despite the many troubles that Angel must endure, she is able to continue her studies in
the third grade at the Sahagian School, and she is praised by her teachers for her good conduct and
grades. Angel’s family is worthy of all possible assistance.”
10
“Aleppo, 29 December 1939.
Dear foster mother.
You sent me 3 kroner as a Christmas present. Many thanks for that. I was so happy and I ran
straight home to my mother and gave her the money. She was also very happy. We will buy many
nice things for Christmas. Now I know that you care for me. I also care for you a lot. I will be very
obedient and eager in school and [1 illegible word, probably “hjemme,” “at home”]. I know that
this will please you.
Many greetings from mother and me,
Your little foster daughter, Angel Hagopian.”
Appendix B
Undated, hand-drawn map of the League of Nations search stations.52
11
Appendix C
An example of two vastly expanded survivor testimonies (Astrig and Asaduhi, protocol nos. 0945
and 0946, their last names are not known) is found in the journal of DA, Armeniervennen (The
Armenians’ Friend) in 1926. More precisely, the testimonies were recorded by Jenny Jensen and
turned into an illustrated article to raise awareness of the plight of the surviving Armenians in Syria
and the troubles facing those who attempted to rescue them. Perhaps it was believed that the
somewhat unusual and ‘exotic’ or particularly sensational nature of these testimonies would appeal
to a Danish audience. Most often escapes or releases from Muslim captivity were relatively
uneventful, but as this and other examples show, there were sometimes drama and dangers
involved:53
”Astrig and Asaduhi. In Armeniervennen, July-August [1926], there is a picture of the little dancing
girls at their arrival here. [KMA missionary nurse] Miss Marie [Maria] Jacobsen has also mentioned
them in the same volume of the journal. I would like to tell a little more about these two little
knocked-about creatures, and I send photographs of them along with [the article] that show them as
they look now. Zekia and Fehine were their names when they arrived to the home in February this
year. We immediately changed their Arabic names into Armenian ones: Asaduhi and Astrig. They
remember nothing about their parents or their relatives; they were only around 2 years old when
they fell into the hands of a Gipsy tribe during the time of the deportations. The little ones only
know that they were raised for dancing from their earliest childhood through starvation and
beatings. This Gipsy tribe wandered from place to place, and the little girls – beautiful and graceful
as they were – brought them a good income, not only as dancing girls, but also as prostitutes
[”Glædespiger,” literally ”joy girls”]. The little 13 year old Asaduhi had already been married for
one year to an old Arab when she came here.
An Armenian who discovered the little ones approached our agent in Deir-el Zor; with the help of
the French government, [the agent] managed to free them and send them to us with an automobile.
They immediately created a sensation here in the house, as they were heavily tattooed, especially on
the hands; but it was mostly because they had rings in their noses, and we were not used to see this
here. For several months it was necessary to keep them under watch day and night because the
chiefs of the Gipsy tribe immediately came here to get them back. They tried in all kinds of ways,
through bribery and complaints to the government. It even went so far that when there was a flood
12
here for a couple of days, and the house was surrounded by water, an Arab tried to swim to a
balcony where one of the little girls sat and played with a doll; but luckily a big girl came and threw
a slipper at his head and took the little girl inside so that he did not succeed in getting a hold of her.
We did not hear from the Gypsies for some time and we were hoping that they had given up their
harassment; but we realized that we had another thing coming when we one day heard that the
Gipsy leader had dressed himself in an Armenian costume and had gone to the Armenian church to
get a hold of the girls that way; these girls were happy the day that they had come so far as to be
able to follow the other children to church. [Danish League of Nations representative] Miss [Henni]
Forchhammer writes about how interesting it is to see how the facial expression changes as they
begin to feel more and more comfortable. Astrig and Asaduhi quickly changed and they have
learned quickly how to speak and write Armenian.
Now we have had the joy that Asaduhi’s father has been found in America. It is often like a wonder
to us and the children that these things can happen. One day some people came from Kharput and
looked for relatives here. A woman suddenly stands still in front of Asaduhi and cries out: ’I’m sure
that this is my sister’s daughter. She looks just like my sister! Where does she come from? How old
is she?’ Of course, we could only tell that she came from the Deir-el-Zor region, and that we
believed her to be about 13 years old. ’If it’s her, then her father lives in America; I’ll write him and
ask if there’s a special mark from which he can recognize his child.’ The answer came: ’If it is my
little girl there must be a birthmark on the right thigh and a scar on the nose.’ The aunt came and
examined the child and it turned out that she had exactly those marks.
To us there is no doubt that it is his daughter that has been recovered. His wife died on the road, and
just then his little girl was robbed from him, one of the many victims from the deportation time. He
managed to hide himself and later escaped to America. The joy is of course great on both sides.
Such are God’s mysterious ways. We now hope that someday Astrig’s relatives will show up, too.
We wish that they may have a brighter future as their childhood has been unusually terrible. This
and other similar incidents give us encouragement and strength in our work.”
The League of Nations Archives, Geneva, “Records of the Nansen International Refugee Office, 1920-1947,”
“Registers of Inmates of the Armenian Orphanage in Aleppo, 1922-1930,” 4 vols. The exact number released by
Jeppe’s organization is hard to establish, since 1), some 200 Armenians were rescued but not registered during this
1
13
period, 2), a number of Armenians from Turkey and the Arab region found refuge at the Aleppo reception home after
the end of the League of Nations operation in 1927 and even after DA stopped recording new arrivals in October 1930,
but it must be close to 2000. Also, it is likely that some Armenians were rescued but went unrecorded by Jeppe’s
organization in 1921, before the League operation had begun. See below, Dicle Akar’s preface on www.armenocide.de ,
and, e.g., letter from Karen Jeppe, “Mod Afslutningen” (”Toward the End”), Aleppo, 20 February 1930, Karen Jeppes
Arkiv (Karen Jeppe Archives, hereafter KJ Archives), Gylling, Denmark. One of the protocols, nos. 1201-1300, is
located in Copenhagen in Rigsarkivet (Danish National Archives), De Danske Armeniervenners Arkiv (Archives of the
Danish Friends of Armenians, hereafter DA), 10158, “1919-1949,” “Forhandlingsprotokol,” pakke 1. Another protocol,
nos. 401-500, appears to be missing from the archives.
2
See, e.g., Matthias Bjørnlund, Det armenske folkedrab fra begyndelsen til enden [The Armenian Genocide from the
Beginning to the End], Kristeligt Dagblads Forlag 2013, passim; idem, “Karen Jeppe, Aage Meyer Benedictsen and the
Ottoman Armenians: National Survival in Imperial and Colonial Settings,” Haigazian Armenological Review, vol. 28,
2008, pp. 9-43; idem, “Scandinavia and the Armenian Genocide,” Armenian Weekly, special issue, April 2008, pp. 1922; Armen Manuk-Khaloyan, “’Rescued and Safe’: Armenian Orphans and the Experience of Genocide,” Center for
Armenian Remembrance Occasional Paper, www.centerar.org . According to their website, Center for Armenian
Remembrance (CAR) is also preparing to publish the Aleppo protocols.
3
See, e.g., Keith David Watenpaugh, “The League of Nations’ Rescue of Armenian Genocide Survivors, and the
Making of Modern Humanitarianism, 1920-1927,” American Historical Review, vol. 115, no. 5, 2010, p. 1323; Vahram
L. Shemmassian, ”The League of Nations and the Reclamation of Armenian Genocide Survivors,” in Richard G.
Hovannisian, ed., Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Confronting the Armenian Genocide, New Brunswick:
Transaction Publishers 2003, p. 85; “Miss Cushman Presented with the Gold Cross of Jerusalem,” The Orient, vol. 8,
no. 34, 24 August 1921, p. 336. On Armenians rescued from Turkish households and orphanages in and around
Constantinople, see, e.g., Ara Stepan Melkonian, “Armenian Orphans in the Care of the Armenian National Relief
Organisation of Istanbul on 31 October 1919,” 2007, http://www.gomidas.org/submissions/show/14 ; League of
Nations, Deportation of Women and Children in Turkey, Asia Minor, and the Neighbouring Territories: Report
Presented by the Fifth Committee, Geneva 1921.
4
We thank Abraham D. Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor, Long Island, New York, for clarifying the Khunoos = Khnus
equation.
5
On Shattuck, see Peter Balakian, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response,
HarperCollins 2003, pp. 83-84; The Missionary Herald, vol. CVII, no. 1, January 1911, p. 5; Emily Clough Peabody,
Corinna Shattuck, Missionary Heroine, Chicago: The Women’s Board of the Missions of the Interior 1913; Washington
Times, 24 May 1919.
6
On Jeppe in general, see also, e.g., Svend Cedergreen Bech, Hos et Folk Uden Land, GEC Gad 1982; Ingeborg Marie
Sick, Pigen Fra Danmark, København: Gyldendal 1945, 4. forøgede udg.; Mogen Højmark, Kun et Lille Lys: Karen
Jeppe, Armeniernes Moder, Wisby & Wilkens 2008; Kate Royster, Karen Jeppe og det armenske folk: et liv – et kald,
Herning: Special-Pædagogisk Forlag 2013; http://www.gyllingarkiv.dk/GyllingArkiv/MISAK.pdf ; 1915-10-28-DE002 on the armenocide website.
7
On Jeppe in Urfa, see also Ingeborg Marie Sick, Pigen fra Danmark, Gyldendal 1928, pp. 89-132; Karl Meyer,
Armenien und die Schweiz – Geschichte der Schweizerischen Armenierhilfe, Bern: Blaukreuz-Verlag 1974, pp. 94, 110;
Ephraim K. Jernazian, Judgment Unto Truth: Witnessing the Armenian Genocide, New Brunswick: Transaction
Publishers 1990, pp. 64-67; Bedros Der Bedrossian, Autobiography and Recollections, Philadelphia: Aiwa Press 2005,
passim.
8
Jakob Künzler, Im Lande Des Blutes und der Tränen. Erlebnisse in Mesopotamien während des Weltkrieges, Potsdam
1921, pp. 76ff.
9
Ingeborg Marie Sick, Pigen fra Danmark, Gyldendal 1945, 4th ed., pp. 59-60; Karl Meyer, Armenien und die Schweiz
– Geschichte der Schweizerischen Armenierhilfe, Bern: Blaukreuz-Verlag 1974, pp. 94, 110; Künzler, 1921, pp. 76ff.;
Jernazian, 1990, pp. 64-67; Bedrossian, 2005, passim; Helle Schøler Kjær, Danske vidner til det armenske folkemord,
Forlaget Vandkunsten 2010, pp. 63ff. See also Hans Lukas Kieser, ed., Die armenische Frage und die Schweiz, Zürich:
Chronos Verlag 1999.
10
Rev. Joseph Naayem, Shall this Nation Die?, New York: Chaldean Rescue 1920, passim; 1915-06-29-DE-002; 191508-13-DE-001; Abraham D. Krikorian & Eugene L. Taylor, ”Filling in the Picture: Postscript to a Description of a
Well-Known 1915 Photograph of Armenian Men of Kharpert Being Led Away under Armed Guard,” 13 June 2011,
Armenian News Network/Groong, http://www.groong.com/orig/ak-20110613.html
11
Sick, 1945, pp. 67-69.
12
E.g., Bedrossian, 2005, p. 83. The house actually belonged to the Swiss Dr. Andreas Vischer who was in Europe
when the war broke out and thus prevented from returning to Urfa: Sick, 1928, p. 28. On Künzler, see also the recent
English version of his book, Jakob Künzler, In the Land of Blood and Tears: Experiences in Mesopotamia during the
14
World War (1914-1918), ed. by Ara Ghazarians, foreword by Vahakn N. Dadrian, introduction by Hans-Lukas
Kieser, Arlington, MA: Armenian Cultural Foundation 2007 (1921). On Vischer and on the general situation in Urfa
during the genocide, see furthermore Taner Akcam, The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity: The Armenian
Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, Princeton University Press 2012, passim; Gertrud VischerOeri, “Erinnerungen an Urfa,” 1919, http://www.aga-online.org/texts/erinnerungen_an_urfa.php?locale=de ; HansLukas Kieser, Der verpasste Friede. Mission, Ethnie und Staat in den Ostprovinzen der Türkei 1839-1938, Zürich:
Chronos-Verlag 2000; Richard G. Hovannisian, ed., Armenian Tigranakert/Diarbekir and Edessa/Urfa, Costa Mesa,
CA: Mazda Publishers 2006; Hilmar Kaiser, ed. & intro., Eberhard Count Wolffskeel Von Reichenberg, Zeitoun, Mousa
Dagh, Ourfa: Letters on the Armenian Genocide, Princeton & London: Gomidas 2004, 2. ed., passim.
13
See the testimonies by Bedros der Bedrossian and Kevork Garabedian in DA, 10158, “1919-1949,” ”Diverse
materiale,” pakke 10.
14
According to Sick, 1928, p. 115, Rev. Francis Hayes Leslie, ABCFM field worker as well as US consul, went mad
because of the horrors and committed suicide. See also “Rev. Francis H. Leslie, of Oorfa,” The Missionary Herald, vol.
CXII, no. 1, January 1916, pp. 18-19. Initial reports (e.g., New York Times, 13 November 1915, and Indianapolis Star,
29 November 1915), claimed he was poisoned by “Turks” or the Ottoman authorities, but that is most likely not the
case. See also Charles F. Weeden, Jr., “At the Siege of Urfa,” Amherst Graduates’ Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 1, November
1920, pp. 14-21, on later occurrences in Urfa.
15
Razmik Panossian, The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars, London: Hurst & Co.
2006, p. 232, n. 83. For various estimates during the 1920s and 1930s, see T. H. Greenshields, The Settlement of
Armenian Refugees in Syria and Lebanon, 1915-1939, unpublished ph. d. thesis, Durham University 1978, pp. 84ff.
16
See, e.g., Matthias Bjørnlund, “’A Fate Worse than Dying’: Sexual Violence during the Armenian Genocide,” in
Dagmar Herzog, ed., Brutality and Desire: War and Sexuality in Europe’s Twentieth Century, Palgrave Macmillan
2009, pp. 16-58; Ugur Ümit Üngör, “Orphans, Converts, and Prostitutes: Social Consequences of War and Persecution
in the Ottoman Empire, 1914-1923,” War in History, vol. 19, no. 2, 2012, pp. 173-192; Ara Sarafian, ”The Absorption
of Armenian Women and Children Into Muslim Households as a Structural Component of the Armenian Genocide,” in
Omer Bartov & Phyllis Mack, eds., In God’s Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century, New York:
Berghahn Books 2001, pp. 209-221; Armeniervennen, vol. 6, nos. 7-8, July-August 1926, pp. 25-29; Donald E. Miller
& Lorna Touryan Miller, Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide, Berkeley: University of California
Press 1999; KJ Archives, letter from Jeppe to Benedictsen, 30 May 1922; Katharine Derderian, ”Common Fate,
Different Experience: Gender-Specific Aspects of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917,” Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 2005, pp. 1-25; Vahé Tachjian & Raymond H. Kévorkian, ”Reconstructing the Nation
with Women and Children Kidnapped During the Genocide,” (translated from the French by Marjorie R. Appel),
Ararat, vol. XLV, no. 185, Winter 2006, pp. 5-14; Lerna Ekmekcioglu, “A Climate for Abduction, A Climate for
Redemption: The Politics of Inclusion during and after the Armenian Genocide,” Comparative Studies in Society &
History, vol. 55, no. 3, 2013, pp. 522-553; Hilmar Kaiser, At the Crossroads of Der Zor – Death, Survival, and
Humanitarian Resistance in Aleppo, 1915-1917, Princeton & London: Gomidas Institute 2002; Martin Niepage, The
Horrors of Aleppo, Seen by a German Eyewitness; a Word to Germany's Accredited Representatives, London: T. Fisher
Unwin Ltd. 1917; Report of the Near East Relief for the Year Ending December 31, 1921, Washington: Government
Printing Office 1922.
17
See, e.g., Jenny Jensen, “Kristenforfølgelserne i Tyrkiet,” Armeniervennen, vol. 10, nos. 1-2, January-February 1930,
pp. 1-2.
18
On Jenny Jensen, see Bjørnlund, 2013, passim.
19
Leopold Gazczyk, ”Die armenische Flüchtlinge in Aleppo,” DA, 10158, “1919-1949,” ”Diverse materiale,” pakke 10,
Aleppo 1946. See also Robert-Tarek Fischer, Österreich im Nahen Osten: Die Grossmachtpolitik der
Habsburgermonarchie im Arabischen Orient 1633-1918, Wien, Köln, Weimar: Böhlau 2006, p. 266. Gaszczyk was
born in 1896 in the then Austrian part of Silesia (Schlesien, Śląsk). He fought the Russians on the Eastern front and the
Italians at Isonzo before being deployed to the Ottoman Empire via Belgrade. He was wounded three times in battle in
Europe: personal communication with Nadir Nadi Celik, Copenhagen, who acquired these biographical details from the
late professor Hermann Goltz in August 2009.
20
Letter from Jeppe to Åge Meyer Benedictsen, 29 March 1924, KJ Archives, Gylling.
21
Horome Gaszczyk, ”Eine liebe Erinnerung,” DA, 10158, “1919-1949,” ”Diverse materiale,” pakke 10, Aleppo 1946.
For an example of the needlework produced at the workshop: “De armeniske Haandarbejder,” Armeniervennen, vol. 20,
nos. 5-6, May-June 1940, p. 18: http://www.armenews.com/IMG/Armeniervennen_Maj_Juni_1940.pdf
22
For instance, financial support for the establishment of the colonies was provided, not by the French authorities or to
any large degree by the League of Nations, but by NGOs like the abovementioned Swedish branch of the Christian,
ecumenical International Fellowship for Peace and Reconciliation, an organization working for peaceful co-existence
between Muslims and Christians. This organization is still active: see, e.g., www.swefor.org/default.asp . For a list of
15
further contributors, see above and Rigsarkivet (Danish National Archives), Udenrigsministeriets Arkiver (Archives of
the Foreign Ministry, hereafter UM) 6. U. 300, ”Folkenes Forbund, Bilag,” ”League of Nations. Commission for the
Protection of Women and Children in the Near East. Second Meeting held at Geneva on Saturday, September 5 th,
1925.” ”Annex. Report of the Commission,” p. 4.
23
Jonas Kauffeldt, Danes, Orientalism and the Modern Middle East: Perspectives from the Nordic Periphery,
unpublished Ph. d., Florida State University 2006, p. 135.
24
Armeniervennen, Vol. 4, Nos. 11-12, November-December 1924, pp. 49-50.
25
KJ archive, letter from Jeppe to Benedictsen, 30 May 1922.
26
Leopold Gaszczyk, “Karen Jeppe und das armenische Schulwesen,” DA, 10158, “1919-1949,” ”Diverse materiale,”
pakke 10, Aleppo 1946.
27
On some of these schools, see, e.g., Nicola Migliorino, (Re)Constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: EthnoCultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis, New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books 2008, pp.
71-72.
28
See, e.g., KJ archive, letter from Jeppe to DA committee, 21 April 1923.
29
See, e.g., The New Near East, March 1926, p. 7.
30
KJ archive, letter from Jeppe to Nyholm, 22 November 1924.
31
UM, 6. U. 300, ”Folkenes Forbund, Bilag,” ”League of Nations. Commission for the Protection of Women and
Children in the Near East. Second Meeting held at Geneva on Saturday, September 5 th, 1925.” ”Annex. Report of the
Commission,” p. 3. Italics in original text.
32
KJ archive, letter from Jeppe to Benedictsen, 6 October 1924.
33
See the Lepsius Archives, Dr. Johannes Lepsius-Archiv an der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, LAH
1504-15183, letter from Benedictsen to Lepsius, Copenhagen, June 1921; LAH 311-3250, letter from Lepsius to
Benedictsen, Potsdam, 31 January 1925. See also, in general, Hans-Lukas Kieser, ”Johannes Lepsius: Theologian,
humanitarian activist and historian of Völkermord. An approach to a German biography (1858-1926),” in Anna
Briskina-Müller, Armenuhi Drost-Abgarjan, Axel Meissner, red., Logos im Dialogos: Auf der Suche nach der
Orthodoxie, Berlin: LIT Verlag 2011, pp. 209-229; Wolfgang Gust, “Verständnislose Auswüchse des Militarismus,”
Historicum, Herbst 2007, pp. 19-25.
34
On Emanuel (Eduard?) Riggenbach, see Hans-Lukas Kieser, ”Beatrice Rohner’s work in the death camps of
Armenians in 1916,” in Jacques Sémelin, C. Andrieu, S. Gensburger, eds., Resisting Genocide: The Multiple Forms of
Rescue, London: Hurst & Co. 2011, pp. 367-382; 1915-09-22-DE-002.
35
On the British Save the Children organization and the massive challenges that faced not only surviving Armenians in
Europe and the Middle East after the First World War, see, e.g., British Review, ed. by Austin Harrison, June 1920, p. 5:
“The Armenian children are in a worse state, if possible, and Austria is a land of dwarfed and stunted slowly dying
children. This is the business of us all. Could there be a more pressing or urgent cry, a plainer duty, or a more noble
revenge than ‘save the children’?”
36
On ACO, which was founded by Paul Berron and had branches in the Netherlands and Switzerland, see, e.g., Gerald
H. Anderson, Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 1999, pp. 57-58; Dans la
Fournaise: Epreuves des jeunes Arméniens, Strasbourg-Meinau: ACO 1938.
37
On and by Beskow, see note 22 and Natanael Beskow, Ett Martyrfolk i det Tjugonde Århundradet [A Martyred
People in the Twentieth Century], Stockholm: Birkagårdens Förlag 1921.
38
Further relevant literature includes Henni Forchhammer, ”Kolonierne i Syrien,” Armeniervennen, vol. 6, nos. 7-8,
July-August 1926, p. 31; Armeniervennen, vol. 6, nos. 11-12, November-December 1926, p. 48; Hanne Rimmen
Nielsen, ”Den hvide slavehandel. Bekæmpelse af handel med kvinder 1900-1950,” Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, vol. 19,
no. 3, 2001, pp. 10-24; Katherine Storr, Excluded from the Record: Women, Refugees, and Relief, 1914-1929, Bern:
Peter Lang 2010, pp. 282ff; Gyoung Sun Jang, The Sexual Politics of the Interwar Era Global Governance:
Historicizing the Women’s Transnational Movements With(in) the League of Nations, 1919-1940, Ann Arbor, MI:
ProQuest 2009, pp. 105ff; Daniel Gorman, The Emergence of International Society in the 1920s, Cambridge University
Press 2012, pp. 66-67; Vicken Babkenian, “’An S.O.S. from beyond Gallipoli’: Victoria and the Armenian Relief
Movement,” Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 81, no. 2, November 2010, pp. 250-276; Panayotis Diamadis”’Save the
Greek and Armenian Refugee Children’: South Australian Relief Efforts in the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian
Genocides,” in M. Tsianikas, N. Maadad, G. Couvalis, M. Palaktsoglou, eds., Greek Research in Australia:
Proceedings of the Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University June 2011, Flinders
University Department of Language Studies - Modern Greek: Adelaide, pp. 143-156; Niels Storgaard Simonsen,
“Johannes Hage og De Danske Armeniervenner,” Rytterskolen – Medlemsblad for Karlebo Lokalhistoriske Forening,
vol. 7, no. 3, 2013, pp. 11-12; Eva Lous, ”Karen Jeppe – Danmarks første befrielsesfilosof”, 2003,
www.fredsakademiet.dk; Panikos Panayi & Pippa Virdee, eds., Refugees and the End of Empire: Imperial Collapse
16
and Forced Migration in the Twentieth Century, Palgrave Macmillan 2011, passim; Karin Johnsson, “Flyktingslägret
vid Aleppo: De hemlösas hem,” Jorden Runt: Magasin för Geografi och Resor, vol. 1, no. 2, 1929, pp. 538-543.
39
UM, 6. U. 300, ”Folkenes Forbund, Bilag,” ”League of Nations. Commission for the Protection of Women and
Children in the Near East. Second Meeting held at Geneva on Saturday, September 5 th, 1925.” ”Annex. Report of the
Commission,” p. 3; Sick, 1928, pp. 159-161; Vahram L. Shemmassian, ”The League of Nations and the Reclamation of
Armenian Genocide Survivors,” in Richard G. Hovannisian, ed., Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Confronting the
Armenian Genocide, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers 2003, p. 99. Jernazian, 1990, p. 152, mentions a Vasil
Sabagh who was released with Jernazian from a Diarbakir (Diarbekir, Diyarkekir, Tigranakerd) prison in 1922/1923.
40
Shemmassian, in Hovannisian, ed., 2003, p. 85.
41
Karen Jeppe, ”Frk. Jeppe i Syrien,” Armeniervennen, vol. 2, nos. 11-12, November-December 1922, p. 45;
Armeniervennen, vol. 4, nos. 3-4, March-April 1924, p. 11.
42
Henni Forchhammer, “Karen Jeppes Aktiviteter i Aleppo,” Armeniervennen, vol. 6, nos. 7-8, July-August 1926, pp.
29-30. Some of the testimonies by these survivors can also be found in various issues of Armeniervennen, in KJ
archive, in publications like Sick, passim, etc. See also A. Hopf, Unter Verfolgung und Trübsal: Missions- und
Kulturbilder aus dem Orient, Meiringen: Walter Loepthien Verlag 1928, pp. 153-58.
43
Panossian, 2006, p. xi.
44
Harutiun Tschakerian, ”Zum 10 jährigen Todestage unserer geliebten Mutter Karen Jeppe 7.7. 1935 – 7.7. 1945,”
DA, 10158, “1919-1949,” ”Diverse materiale,” pakke 10, Aleppo 1945.
45
Miller & Miller, 1999, pp. 121-22. On the vital US relief efforts among Armenians in the Middle East, see, e.g.,
Balakian, 2003, passim; Joseph L. Grabill, Protestant Diplomacy and the Near East: Missionary Influence on
American Foreign Policy, 1810-1927, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1971, passim; Jay Winter, ed.,
America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915, Cambridge University Press 2003, passim; James L. Barton, Story of
Near East Relief (1915-1930): An Interpretation, New York: Macmillan 1930, passim.
46
Hampartzoum Mardiros Chitjian, A Hair’s Breadth From Death, London & Reading: Taderon Press 2003, pp. 26466.
47
Published letter from Karen Jeppe, “Afskedshilsen fra Karen Jeppe,” 1933?, KJ Archives.
48
See, e.g., Armenierbladet, vol 1, no. 1, June 1949, letter from Leopold Gaszczyk, pp. 5-6.
49
http://www.karenjeppegemaran.com/
50
http://sahagianschoolaleppo.com/
51
DA, 10158, “1919-1949,” “Børnemapper,” pakke 2, 1-44.
52
DA, 10158, “1919-1949,” from Gaszczyk’s report “Die Suchestationen Karen Jeppes Rettungsarbeit,” ”Diverse
materiale,” pakke 10, Aleppo 1946.
53
Gerda Mundt, Til Østerland – I Ord og Billeder, Gyldendal 1929, p. 109; Armeniervennen, vol. 6, nos. 11-12,
November-December 1926, pp. 44-46. See also the drama-documentary based on real events and commissioned by the
League of Nations, Karen Jeppe, 10/19 minutes, France 1926, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2zfv5x41cQ
17
1915-09-04-DK-001
Home: www.armenocide.net
Source: DK/RA-UM/Gruppeordnede sager 1909-1945. 139. D. 1,
”Tyrkiet - Indre Forhold”. Pakke 1, til 31 dec. 1916
Edition: Danish diplomatic sources
Departure of telegram: 04-09-1915
Arrival of telegram: 20-09-1915
Embassy/consular serial number: No. 113
Last updated: 30-09-2010
The minister in Constantinople (Carl Ellis Wandel) to the Foreign Minister (Erik Scavenius)
Report
No. 113
Konstantinopel, 4. September, 1915.
Fortrolig.
Hr. Udenrigsminister,
I Fortsættelse af mine ærbødigste Indberetninger Nr. LXXVIII [78] af 22. Juli, Nr. LXXXVII [87] af 31. Juli og Nr.
IC [99] af 18. August har jeg den Ære at indberette, at Armenierforfølgelserne bliver fortsat her med stor
Hæftighed, trods de Forestillinger, der er blevet gjort den herværende Regering, og om hvilke jeg allerede
har indberettet.
Ved Modtagelsen Mandag den 16. August bragte den tyske Ambassadør igen disse Forfølgelser paa Tale
overfor Storveziren og bad ham søge at bevæge sin Regering til at indstille dem,- især for saa vidt angaar de
armeniske Katolikker, der aldrig har deltaget i Revolutioner eller blandet sig i Politik og desuagtet er
Genstand for de mest haardnakkede Forfølgelser.
Endog de gregorianske Armeniere, der i den Grad har taget Afstand fra alle nationalistiske Ideer, at de endog
har givet Afkald paa deres Modersmaal og antaget det tyrkiske Sprog som deres eget, bliver forfulgt.
De Løfter, Storveziren gav den tyske Ambassadør, blev ikke holdte, og da Forfølgelserne og Myrderierne
vedblev, henvendte Hans Hellighed, Monseigneur Paul Pierre XIII, den armenisk-katolske Patriark, sig til den
herværende spanske Gesandt og bad ham idet katolske Spaniens Navn forsøge ved Henvendelse paany til
Storveziren at opnaa at man i det mindste respekterede de armeniske Katolikker.
Den spanske Gesandt, der indgik derpaa, og ved sidste Modtagelse i Mandags gjorde de Indvendinger
gældende overfor Storveziren, som Patriarken lagde ham i Munden, fortæller mig, at Hans Højhed, efter at
have hørt paa, hvad han sagde, lagde sin Forbavselse for Dagen over der passerede og at han, da Gesandten
med Bestemthed hævdede, at han havde Beviser for, at de Grusomheder, han paatalte, virkelig havde fundet
Sted, tog Notering deraf og lovede straks at give Ordre til at skaane de armeniske Katolikker.
Baade Gesandten og Patriarken er imidlertid overbevist om, at at disse frygtelige Forfølgelser ikke vil ophøre
bl. a. fordi Centralregeringen ingen Autoritet har overfor Myndighederne i Provinserne, der, naar det passer
dem, ingen Hensyn tager til de Ordrer, de modtager fra Konstantinopel, og – last not least – fordi Tyskerne
efter deres Mening i virkeligheden kun for en ren Forms Skyld gør Indvendinger mod Forfølgelserne og
Myrderierne.
Det er indlysende, siger de, at Tyskerne er interesserede i, at Armenierne bliver udryddet og at Grækerne
flygter af Skræk for, at det skal gaa dem ligesaa, saaledes at de (Tyskerne) uden Anstrængelse kan
bemægtige sig Tyrkiets Handel og blive de eneste Europæere, der har Fodfæste her.
Myndighederne i Provinsen og Ungtyrkerne, siger de, anser derfor ikke den tyske ambassadørs Henvendelse
til Regeringen for alvorlig ment.
Jeg skal i Korthed tillade mig at gøre Rede for de vigtige og sørgelige Meddelelser, der fra fuldstændig
paalidelig og sandfærdig Kilde er tilflydt mig om detsenest passerede, og som er af en saadan Natur, at de vil
vække almindelig Beklagelse overalt i den kristne Verden.
Tyrkerne gennemfører med stor Energi deres grusomme Hensigt, at udrydde det armeniske Folk.
I Brussa har de tvunget de bemidlede Armeniere til at betale Politiet 300 tyrkiske Pund (ca. 5000 d. kr.) pro
persona for at faa lov til at blive boende i Byen, og Dagen efter har de alligevel bortvist dem fra Byen med
deres Kvinder og Børn.
Om hvor disse ulykkelige Mennesker nu befinder sig og om hvilken Skæbne, der er overgaaet dem, efter at
de har maattet forlade deres Hjem, er det ikke muligt selv for den nærmeste Slægt at erholde Oplysning.
I Adana har Guvernøren ladet opslaa en Proklamation, der i en Oversættelse, paa Fransk, jeg har faaet fra
Patriarkatet, lyder som følger:
”1) Jusqu’à la fin du mois courant les arméniens se trouvant dans la ville même d’Adana doivent avoir
été expédiés au fur et à mesure et par groupes.
2) Les propriétaires des fabriques sises à Mersina et à Adana, ainsi que les employés de celles-ci qui
travaillent pour le compte du Département Militaire, son exemptés pour le moment: ils ne seront pas
expédiés et seront employés comme auparavant dans leur travaux.
3) Les familles dont les soutiens ou les maris sont en service militaire ne seront pas expédiés.
4) Tout le monde doit, à partir d’aujourd’hui, régler et mettre en ordre ses affaires et se tenir prêt à
l’ordre de monter en chemin de fer.
5) Il ne sera fait aucun cas de recours, qui seront faits faits pour une demande de prolongation de
délai ou d’autres empêchements.
6) L’expédition se fera quartier par quartier.
7) Il ne sera permis pour chaque famille que le transport d’une quantité de meubles de 150 kilos
seulement.
8) Pour les familles composées de plus 6 personnes, grandes ou petites, il sera permis le transport de
200 kilos de meubles.
9) La population musulmans de la ville et de la banlieue est obligée de fournir, pour cette expédition,
les moyens de transport.
10) La commission nommée pour s’occuper des moyens de transport, a commencé déjà ses travaux.
11) Les familles qui se seraient procuré elles-même leur moyens de transport, sont autorisées, en
vertu des pièces qui leur seront délivrées par les Commissaires de Police, à se rendre directement à
Badjou et de là à Alep.
12) Par le train qui sera préparé le samedi 15 du mois courant, seront expédiés les quartiers de Akdjé,
Nesjid, Saradjen, Kharab, Bagtché, Tchoukour, Kassab Bekir, Yarbachi, Tcinanli et Karan.
13) A partir de demain la population de ces quartiers devra absolument s’adresser à la Commission
d’inscription placée sous la présidence de Adil Bey dans le Commissariat de Police et après s’être fait
inscrire, devra prendre une pièce scellée et légalisée.
14) Ceux qui d’après l’inscription de leur état civil, sinon du nombre des habitants de ces quartiers et
qui actuellement résident ailleurs, leurs domiciles actuels ne seront pas pris en considération, mais ils
seront obligée d’aller se faire inscrire avec les habitants des quartiers auxquels ils appartiennent, et
de partir, dans la même journée, avec les habitants de leur quartier d’origine.
15) Pour l’expédition soit des familles de militaires, soit des personnes qui se trouveraient habitant
dans d’autres quartiers, il sera tenu compte, pour principe d’opération, de l’enregistrement de leur
état civil.
16) Toutes les opérations qui ne seront pas faites par inscription, ne seront pas prises en
considération.
17) La population de ses quartiers devra, au matin du jour désigné ci-haut à 12 heures à la turque,
avec ses bagages, tel qu’il est dit à l’Art. 7 et avec les membres de la famille, se trouver à la Nouvelle
Station.
18) On doit se rendre à Alep par la voie de Osmaniéh-Radjou.
19) Une Commission spéciale étant envoyée à Osmaniéh, sur la présentation des pièces,
conformément à l’Art. 13, distribuera à chaque famille, dans la mesure possible, des moyens de
transport et organisera les expéditions par groupes.
20) A l’arrivée à Osmaniéh la susdite Commission fera diligence pour l’installation et le bien-être des
groupes: par conséquent chaque quartier devra faire par l’intermédiarie de leur Mouhtar respectif,
recours à la susdite Commission.
21) La quantité des personnes employées dont le séjour a été décidé, avant être notifié aux bureaux
de la Police et de la Gendarmerie, il sera procédé, par les dits bureaux, à la séparation et au maintien
de ceux-ci.
22) Là sera délivré par la direction de la police, aux personnes ainsi exemptées, des documents
réguliers et légalisés, concernant leur maintien.
23) Si parmi la population des quartiers qui ont été avisées, il se trouvait des personnes, qui, à partir
de demain, ne se présenteraient pas et ne se feraient inscrire, ou qui ne se trouveraient pas présentés
à la Nouvelle Station au jour indiqué pour le départ soit le samedi 15 du mois courant à l’heure
indiqué ou qui chercheraient à trouver des ruses ou des prétextes, les Mouhtars et les Conseils des
vieillards sont obligés de prévenir les Autorités et si les habitants et le Mouhtar auraient contrevenu à
tout cela, ils seront considérés comme ayant agi contre l’Autorité Militaire et les ordres de l’état de
mobilisation et seront immédiatement déférés à la Cour Martiale et dans les 24 heures une sentence
sera donnée et exécutée.
24) Les ordres formelles, comme il convent, ayant été donnés à tous les bureaux. Il est préférable de
travailler à compléter ces préparatifs plutôt que de perdre du temps à chercher des prétextes et à
faire des démarches inutiles.
Août 1915.
I et her modtaget Brev fra Biskoppen fra Erzerum, Monseigneur Melchisédéchian, fortælles det, at Sognet
Khodirthchour, der bestod af 12 Landsbyer, er blevet fuldstændig evakueret, og at man intet ved om, hvad
der er blevet af den forsvundne Befolkning.
Den samme Prælat indberettede den 17. Juli dette Aar, at han selv ogsaa var blevet tvunget til at begive sig
til et ukendt Bestemmelsessted, og man har siden intet hørt fra ham.
Den tidligere Biskop i samme Distrikt, Monseigneur Ketchourian, begav sig samtidig paa Rejse til
Konstantinopel, men forsvandt undervejs.
Biskoppen i Karput [Harput; Kharpert], Monseigneur Israëlian, indberettede den 23. Juni til Patriarkatet, at han
havde modtaget Ordre til inden 48 Timer at forlade Byen med hele sin Menighed for at begive sig til Aleppo,
og man har senere erfaret, at denne Biskop og alle de Gejstlige, der ledsagede ham, er blevet overfaldet og
dræbt mellem Diarbekir og Urfa paa et Sted, hvor ca. 1700 armeniske Familier har lidt samme Skæbne.
Hele det ovennævnte sogns Befolkning anses for tabt.
Befolkningen i Sognene Diarbekir og Malatia er ogsaa blevet fordrevet fra deres Landsbyer, og man ved ikke,
hvad der er blevet af Biskopperne Tchélébian og Khatchadourian og deres Menigheder.
Man har ogsaa faaet Bekræftelse paa den sørgelige Meddelelse om at Ærkebiskoppen i Mardin, Monseigneur
Maloyan, og ca. 700 Katolikker af hans Menighed er blevet dræbte og om at Befolkningen i Byen Tallermen,
der udelukkende var katolsk, er blevet fuldstændig udryddet.
Man savner ganske Meddelelse om, hvad der er blevet af Biskoppen i Mouch, Monseigneur Topuzian og
hans Menighed, men man har Grund til at tro, at de ogsaa er blevet dræbt.
Man frygter ogsaa, at en lignende Skæbne er overgaaet de Gejstlige i Gurin og Menigheden sammesteds.
I Sognet Sivas har man kun skaanet Landsbyen Pirkinik, hvor Ærkebiskoppen, Monseigneur Ketchedjian, har
søgt Tilflugt. Han og en Gejstlig, der ledsagede ham, er de eneste overlevende.
Trebisond, Samson, [ulæseligt], Marsivan og Amassia er blevet fuldstændig evakueret, og man ved ikke hvad
der er blevet af de 47 Gejstlige, der fandtes i disse Byer.
Tarsus, Hedzin og Mersina har lidt samme Skæbne.
I Angora er alle Mændene blevet bortført fra Byen, og Kvinderne er blevet tvunget til at gifte sig med
Muhammedanere; ca. 6000 Mænd, ca. 70 Gejstlige og Biskoppen, Monseigneur Grégoire Bahaban, blev skudt
ned paa Vejen til det Sted, hvortil man havde forvist dem.
I Byen Ismid havde Regeringen givet ordre til, at de til Eskicheir forviste armeniske Katolikker skulde have Lov
til at vende tilbage til deres Hjem, men Guvernøren vilde ikke tilstede dem Adgang til Byen og sendte dem
tilbage. Det samme er hændt mange andre Steder.
Selv her i Konstantinopel bortfører man Armeniere og sender dem til Asien uden det er muligt at faa at vide,
hvor de bliver af.
Patriarkatet beregner, at Halvdelen af det armenisk-katolske Hiërarchi er gaaet tabt; 7 Biskopper, ca. 100
Præster, 70 andre Gejstlige og Tusinder og atter Tusinder af deres Menigheder er forsvundet.
Menigheden bestod tidligere af 16 Distrikter (Konstantinopel, Mardin, Diarbekir, Karput, Malatia, Sivas-tokat,
Mouch, Erzerum, Trebisond, Angora, Césarée, Brussa, Adana, Marache, Aleppo og Alexandrie [Alexandrette])
og af disse er ifølge de sidst hertil indløbne Efterretninger, bortset fra Konstantinopel, kun Marache, Aleppo
og Césarée indtil nu blevet skaanet.
Den Skæbne, der saaledes er overgaaet de katolske Armeniere, er med mulig endnu større grusomhed
overgaaet alle de andre Armeniere, idet Regeringens Hensigt, som jeg allerede har haft den Ære at
indberette, er fuldstændig at udrydde det armeniske Folk.
Med den mest udmærkede Højagtelse forbliver jeg, Hr. Minister, Deres ærbødigste
[Wandel]
Copyright © 2006-2010 Matthias Bjørnlund: www.armenocide.net A Documentation of the Armenian
Genocide in World War I. All rights reserved