Detections on Ottoman Armenians Enlightened by German Documents (1915-1918)

Abstract

Most of the current available local and foreign studies conducted regarding the Armenians who lived in Ottoman lands have dealt with the 1915 Relocation, reflecting the Turkish or Armenian point of view known in this subject, and strived for proving the accuracy of either of them. However, few of them achieved to put forward a different perspective. In light of this, a number of observations and detections about Ottoman Armenians in Bundesarchiv documents between May 1915 and October 1918 will be dealt with through a far different standpoint. The detections include the suspicion of the Turkish towards the Armenians working as a translator in Ottoman lands and the diplomatic and military problems thereof; some economic reasons rooting the animosity between Turks and Armenians; the superior and weak points of Armenians in commerce and their differences from the non-Muslim merchants; measures taken against Armenians due to Enver Pasha's approach towards them; problems due to the suspicions over Armenian officers working in mail and telegraph services; a foreign missionary attempt directed to the release of the Armenians arrested for planning a bomb attack in Izmir and the political social and economic consequences of this attempt; and daily events such as an affair of an Armenian and French; episodes from while a Danish woman who lived in Ottoman lands took her Armenian adopted child back to her country.

In the study, the obtained and less known observations and detections about Armenians will be evaluated while commented in light of the said archive documents.