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It is unfathomable that pro-genocide
forces still insist today there was no Armenian rebellion, even though
Armenian leaders of the period are on record attesting to their treachery...
as most of these Armenians originated from the Ottoman Empire, at one time or
another. Even in lands where they had established "colonies," they
were still regarded as "Turkish Armenians," as the New York Times
article, "The Black Company,"
made clear. In other words, the Armenians still keep insisting the Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire were all lambs led to the slaughter, when even their own
historians' evidence exposes them.
Here is an Armenian source, giving
us further illumination of the poor, innocent Armenians serving — in Boghos
Nubar's words — as "belligerents de facto." Let's now hear
from Vazkene Aykouni, in beginning excerpts of his fifth chapter entitled,
"A Brief Sketch of Armenian History," as appearing in Armenian
Affairs Magazine, circa 1950
After the article will be a
presentation of official communications from foreign diplomats outlining the
Armenians' treachery.
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A Brief Sketch of Armenian History
Mainly from French Studies (as translated by Edward Nadir)
By VAZKENE AYKOUNI
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V.
ON THE SIDE OF THE ALLIES
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From the beginning of the war Armenian
volunteers were organized into legions in the Caucasus, in Russian Armenia, with
Andranik, the famous revolutionary partisan Armenian leader, and other generals in
command. According to official statistics, thirteen per cent of the entire Armenian
population participated in active warfare, on various fronts, on the side of the
Allies. The total number of Armenians fighting with the Russians exceeded 250,000
men.
"There are so many students, both males
and females," wrote the Gazette de La Bourse, "who run away from home to
join the groups of Armenian volunteers that it is assuming the proportions of an
epidemic. Recently, seven students of the senior class of a school of commerce in
Alexandropol ran away to go to the front. One of them, a fifteen-year-old boy, who
had been forced to return, complained with tears in his eyes that he had not been
accepted, and added that he would go back regardless, and if rejected again would
commit suicide. . . . In the Armenian Seminary of Echmiadzin not a single day passed
without noticeable absences; as soon as war was declared, all the students of the
seventh grade enlisted in Andranik’s volunteer corps . . . Armenian women also did
not remain inactive. 'Linen Week,' at Kars and Alexandropol, sufficiently proves to
what extent they are capable of aid. In Kars alone, a town of 20,000, two railroad
cars filled with linen, tobacco and furs had been collected, and even gold jewelry,
which the women generously contributed with tears in their beautiful eyes. . . . A
poor old Armenian woman who, in my presence, heard of the heroic death of her only
son, struck her belly and shouted ‘may it be cursed for being no longer capable of
bearing children for our glorious army!' "
Armenians also fought on other fronts. When at
the end of 1918 the Legion d’Orient, created in November 1916 in Cyprus by Colonel
Romieu, was divided into the Armenian Legion and the Syrian Legion, the former
included, said Gustave Gautherot, "four Armenian battallions [sic], a platoon
of 37’s and a company of engineers in formation: that is, fifty officers and 3,660
men (of which 288 were French). There were also eight officers and seven hundred men
in the Cyprus base, and, in the Twenty-first and Twenty-third Syrian Company
assigned to remain in Syria, five officers and 546 men.
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| On 11 December
1918, a French battalion formed of 400 Armenians entered Dörtyol. . . . On December
17, 1918 a French unit led by Lieutenant Colonel Romieu landed in Mersin. In the
1,500-man unit there were only 150 French soldiers. The others were Armenian legions.
Kamuran Gurun, The Armenian File
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"...[I]n November, 1916, a new outlet for the
revenge-hungry Armenians was provided by the French government. Negotiations of Boghos
Nubar with French political and military authorities culminated in the formation of
the Légion d’Orient, an auxiliary force made up of Armenians and Syrians of
Ottoman origin. Ninety-five percent Armenian in composition, the Légion included
refugees, former prisoners of war, and permanent residents of Egypt, America, and
Europe. Under the command of General Edmund Allenby, the Légion, fighting in
Palestine, Syria, and finally Cilicia, won the plaudits of Clemenceau’s government
and its Entente allies."
Richard G. Hovannisian,
Armenia on the Road to Independence,' 1967 (see last link under "Pp.
67-68," for more.)
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Armenians from the USA arriving
at Port Said, probably by the end of
1917, wearing the khaki uniform of the French Foreign Legion. One source
says 2,000 came via the USA. Perhaps 4,000 of the Musa Dagh fighters
also were transported by the French to Port Said. |
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Seven hundred and fifty Armenian volunteers—former prisoners of
the Turks, expatriates, emaciated—arrived in Beirut on October 31, in the most miserable
condition and had themselves constituted into the Tenth Company. . . . These were joined
by eighty-six new volunteers recruited (December 2) in Damascus and were in the same sorry
state. The surplus men of the Tenth Company were to form with the seven hundred, also
untrained, of the Cyprus base, the Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Companies. Thus a new
battalion would be constituted."[12] The Fourth
Battalion later took over the Twenty-first Armenian Company of Castellorizo.
"Indeed, the Armenian of the Legion," continued Mr.
Gautherot, "possessed outstanding qualities for a soldier. Intelligent, educated,
often having had a substantial position in civilian life, he showed remarkable capacities
for rapid training; fond of handling arms and of military drill, he was proud of his
uniform."[13]
The October 10, 1918 communiqué published in the Temps was,
moreover, full of praise for the Armenian soldiers, "who were taking an active part
in the liberation of Syrian territories," and who had "shown the best military
qualities and the highest courage."
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Allenby with Iraq's King
Faisal in 1920 |
This is the telegram sent by General E. Allenby to the Armenian
National Delegation, October 12, 1918: "I am proud to have an Armenian contingent
under my command. They have fought brilliantly and contributed largely to our
victory."
Thousands of Armenians also volunteered for service in the armies of
their adopted countries—in France, in America, in England, and served the Allied cause
wholeheartedly and unselfishly.
However, Armenian blood was not shed only on the battlefield. Full
mobilization having been decreed over the whole Ottoman empire, it affected all the
subjects without any distinction of race or creed. Had not the Sultan already signed for
the "reforms," and had he not solemnly pledged to apply them without delay?
So Armenians in Turkey, in the military-age group, as their
compatriots elsewhere, donned army and work battalion uniforms. But they were never armed.
In Turkey, unlike elsewhere, they were doomed without a chance: "by the hundreds, by
the thousands, these poor men were sent to deserted spots and shot. Those who are spared
are subjected to hard labor, and one by one fall dead."[14]
12. La France en Sync et en Cilicie, pp.
138-139.
13. Ibid., p. 135.
14. René Pinon, La Suppression des Arméniens,
p. 29.
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As with all
pro-Armenian history, one must take a fine-toothed comb and go through the sludge in
order to pick the nuggets of true historical value. It's despicable what this
so-called historian claims in the latter two paragraphs. Of course the Armenians
were armed. Enver Pasha was counting heavily on 50,000 Ottoman-Armenians in the
life-or-death struggle that was to follow for the nation's existence, where every
able-bodied man was needed to ward off the mighty world powers threatening all
fronts. (That is what Aykouni was getting at when he wrote full mobilization
affected everyone "without any distinction of race or creed.")
...[T]he general
Congress of Dashnakstsutiun, sitting in Erzerum in the autumn of 1914, had been
offered autonomy by Turkish emissaries, if it would actually assist Turkey in the
war.
Akaby Nassibian, “Britain and the Armenian
Question, 1915-1923,” 1984, p. 107; in other words, the Turks were hoping to
enlist the aid of their own Armenian citizens in the desperate battle-for-survival
to follow, and were hoping to tempt them with a fuller autonomy than the one they
already possessed as a separate millet, that Richard Hovannisian himself pointed to in 1967. Let's have the
rare honest Armenian historian explain what happened:
When the world war broke out in
Europe, the Turks began feverish preparations for joining hands with the Germans. In
August 1914 the young Turks asked the Dashnag Convention, then in session in Erzurum,
to carry out their old agreement of 1907 and start an uprising among the Armenians
of the Caucasus against the Russian government. The Dashnagtzoutune refused to do
this and gave assurance that in the event of war between Russia and Turkey, they
would support Turkey as loyal citizens. On the other hand, they could not be held
responsible for the Russian Armenians.. The fact remains, however,
that the leaders of the Turkish-Armenian section of the Dashnagtzoutune did not
carry out their promise of loyalty to the Turkish cause when the Turks entered the
war. The Dashnagtzoutune in the Caucasus had the upper hand. They were swayed in
their actions by the interests of the Russian government and disregarded, entirely,
the political dangers that the war had created for the Armenians in Turkey. Prudence
was thrown to the winds; even the decision of their own convention of Erzurum was
forgotten and a call was sent for Armenian volunteers to fight the Turks on the
Caucasus front. [K.S.
Papazian, from Patriotism Perverted (pg. 37)]
Once the Armenians who
were conscripted deserted to the enemy in droves with their weapons, and
demonstrated other acts of treachery, naturally their weapons were going to be taken
away from them. They were assigned to the engineering corps, serving in labor
battalions... since they had to do something. Would it have been better to get sent
to the front, to die?
Of course, some of
these troops were mistreated, and some actually were massacred by revengeful
renegades. But as is often the case with this deceitfully told genocide tale, it is
only the suffering of the Armenians that are paid note to. The fact of the matter
is, Turkish soldiers were in an absolutely wretched state, as even these pro-Armenian sources testify.
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Now we don't know how true it
is, but since this "historian" is assuring us his claims are based on
"official figures," how interesting that he has gone over and above Boghos
Nubar's claims regarding the totals of Armenians who served as fighters. (Nubar:
190,000-200,000. Aykouni: over 250,000.) He also tells us this number constituted
13% of what he must have meant (with "entire") as the worldwide Armenian
population. Was Aykouni trying to tell us the worldwide population was around one
million less (at some 2 million) than what it really was, about 3 million? That
wouldn't make sense, as Armenians like to claim there were more than 3 million at
the time, usually 4 million and up. But that's what it sounds like, doesn't it?
That's really quite some
comment by the Armenian lady who lamented the fact that her womb could no longer
incubate future Armenian warriors!
The reality is as
such: most of the Armenian fighters originated from the Ottoman Empire. As one
example, here is the scoop behind how Armenians from just one province (Sivas) betrayed their nation.
The Armenians declared war on
their nation. They lost; so they decided to make a "genocide" out of it,
in very much an "unmanly" way... instead of facing up to their
responsibilities.
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| Documents outlining the war paint of the Armenians |
The Armenians had their war paint on even before
war began, in all corners of the Empire, according to other hostile foreign diplomats.
Just two of many examples:
"The Armenians of Deurt-yol [Dortyol-Mersin]
are now well armed with modern rifles, every male adult having one in his
possession."
British Consul Ralph Fontana in Aleppo to
his government, Oct. 21, 1913, FO, 371/1773, No. 52128
"One of the leaders.., Boghos Nubar
Pasha, has represented to me that the Armenian population of Cilicia would be ready to
enroll themselves as volunteers in support of a possible disembarcation at Alexandretta,
Mersina, or Adana on the part of the allied forces...."
Mr. Chetham to Sir Edward Grey, Nov. 12,
1914, FO, 371/2146, No. 70404
"Boghos Nubar is ready for
independence war under the command of Russia."
FO 371/2146-68433 Nov. 7, 1914 (The above
may not be a direct quote.) 
"David Tehermoff, a fairly wealthy
man and an Armenian friend.. informed me that the Armenians in Russia and Turkey were
extremely anxious that war would break out between Russia and Turkey, as in that event the
Armenians both in Russia and Turkey would endeavour to avenge themselves on the
Turks....He also stated that 60,000 Armenians, in the Caucasun on the frontier had already
volunteered to fight the Turks in the event of war breaking out...Their great ideal is to
obtain freedom of Armenian under the protection of Russia."
Mr. Kinby to the English government, Nov. 6,
1914, FO, 371/2146, No. 68443
"Monsieur Varandian, delegate of
Armenian Committee and speaking in its name requested me to ask you if His Majesty's
Government would be disposed to utilise services of
20,000 Armenian volunteers to operate a descent upon the coast of [Cilicia] in region of
Alexandretta. Half of the troops are ready in America rest the Balkans. Cyprus is
suggested as base. Armenian committee hope that by their cooperating in conquest of this
region they will secure its being placed under British protection."
Sir H. Bax Ironside stationed in Sofia,
Bulgaria, to the English government, March 3, 1915, FO/, 371/2484. no. 25167 (Alexandretta. was Iskenderun.)
"Arms and Ammunition for Armenians Russian [m.3.d?] asks
whether [?] it would join with France in providing arms and ammunition [in Alexandretta?]
for use by Armenians against Turks."
Sent by embassy to Foreign Minister Sutherland, Feb. 25 1915,
FO371/2484-22083
"Armenian volunteers are ready to participate in the
uprising in Cilicia."
FO 371/46942 (The above may not be a direct quote.)
"Armenia — Conversation with Lord Bryce. His proposal that
Russia should be approached to? Armenians that she would be prepared to agree to an
autonomous Armenia being eventually instituted under Russian protection." (This
document is said to reveal Armenians were under the command of Russians and in cooperation
with the French, their aim being the partition of the Ottoman Empire.)
FO 371/2485-30439 Mar. 6, 1915; Letters of British Foreign Secretary
Sir Edward Grey
(This report informs of an Armenian captain,
Torcam?, in how Armenians plan both the massacres to be committed against the Turks, and
the independence fight against the Ottomans in detail.)
FO 371/2485-126836 Sept 7 1915
The following New York Times account fills us
in on this Torcom, identified as a "Russian." He was probably an Armenian from
Russia.
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PLANS ARMENIAN CORPS TO FIGHT
FOR THE ALLIES
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Russian Officer Proposes to Obtain Recruits in Many Countries, Including America
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OCTOBER 19, 1915
LONDON, Oct. 18.--A dispatch to Reuter's Telegram Company from Petrograd says:
"Captain Torcom is planning to raise volunteer corps from the Armenians now
residing in the Balkans, Egypt, Italy, France, Great Britain, and the United States to
flight in the ranks of the Allies against Turkey.
"In an appeal with this end in view Captain Torcom says that the Armenians have
been unable to prevent the massacre of Armenians in Asia Minor by the Turks, but that
those living in other countries can help fight Turkey and that the allied powers will
not refuse them the honor of joining in the war against their oppressors.
"Captain Torcom's plan provides for the formation of a maximum of thirty
battalions and a minimum of ten battalions. Captain Torcom was wounded in the recent
fighting in Cilicia, but is now able to leave the hospital and is about to start for
London to get his plan in operation."
ADDENDUM, 10-06: Esat Uras fills us in a little
more on (as spelled in "The Armenians in History and the Armenian Question,"
1988, p. 906) Torkom. He was a Bulgarian Armenian. At the time of the Russian
withdrawal from the Caucasian front, leaving the Turkish population at the mercy of
the Armenians, Colonel Torkom became commander of Erzurum in December 1918.
"Torkom held a special military parade in order to intimidate the Moslem
population and after twenty-one gun salutes, he gave a speech in Armenian addressed to
General Odishelidze. In his speech, he announced that Armenia had declared its
independence. When Odishelidze discovered the meaning of the speech, he immediately
expelled him from the city."
It's possible Torkom took part in the
assassination attempt on Sultan Abdul Hamid, in 1905.
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Related:
Armenian Troops
Armenian Rebellion... in the Words of Armenians
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