April 24 marks the Armenians' greatest religious holiday, the beginning of their "genocide," even though what is meant by "genocide" is the resettlement policy, a policy that was implemented a month later, after its first serious consideration on May 2. The only "deportation" that was being considered on April 24 was, ironically, one for the Turks — given that the Armenians were gaining the upper hand with their treacherous rebellion in Van:

"Until now approximately 4,000 insurgent Armenians have been brought to the region from the vicinity. The rebels are engaged in highway robbery, attack the neighbouring villages and burn them. It is impossible to prevent this. Now many women and children are left homeless. It is not possible nor suitable to relocate them in tribal villages in the vicinity. Would it be convenient to begin sending them to the western provinces?"

Telegram dated April 24, from the governor of Van, Cevdet Bey, to the Ministry of the Interior. [41]

24 April was also the day when U.S. President Woodrow Wilson received the following telegram from Catholicos Kevork of Etchmiadzin:

Honorable President, according to the most recent information we have received from Turkish Armenia, massacres have started there, and organized terror has endangered the existence of the Armenian community. At this delicate time, I address to the noble feelings of Your Excellency and of the great American nation, and request, in the name of humanity and the Christian faith, that your great Republic interfere immediately through its Diplomatic Representatives, to protect my people in Turkey left to the horrors of Turkish fanaticism. [53]

As Kamuran Gurun wrote in "The Armenian File," "For the telegram to be received on 24 April, it is necessary for the Catholicos to have learned beforehand of the arrest, and to have sent the telegram before the 24th. As the American Ambassador [Morgenthau] sent his telegram about the arrest on the 27th,[54] the telegram of the Catholicos is enough to point to the guilt of those who were arrested."


[41]: Genelkurmay, 1/1, KLS 44, File 207, F. 2.
[53]: USNA M-353/43, 867.4016/591/2, p. 658
[54]: USNA M-353/43, 867.4016/58, p. 651

 The typical number of the Istanbul Armenians who were arrested has been given as 235. This is the number Kamuran Gurun wrote, although some editions (and other Turkish sources as well) have erroneously reported "2,345." Johannes Lepsius testified in the 1921 Berlin trial of Talat Pasha's assassin that the initial number was 235 as well.

Some writers like Peter Balakian of "The Burning Tigris" have rounded off this figure to 250. It is important to keep in mind this was not the total figure, particularly if we take into account the Armenian leaders who were arrested throughout the country. We can never be sure of the exact number, because of the lack of documentation.

What are some other indications?

Since 2,345 has been mentioned in various Turkish sources, I fished around. Prof. Salahi Sonyel is one of those who I'm told cited this figure, providing a document reference, perhaps taking the word of another who had cited this reference. When Prof. Kemal Cicek checked this document, the number of arrested Armenians was actually given as 100. (Not very meaningful, because obviously the number surpassed that figure; perhaps this document related to another arrest, or part of the main arrest. But what is meaningful is that evidently no one has been able to document the mysterious "2,345" figure. What probably happened is that an extra digit was accidentally added to the 235 figure, and people just mindlessly keep repeating it.)

Ambassador Morgenthau is said to behind a report saying the number of arrested Armenians in Istanbul on April 24 was 100. This is probably the source with the "100" mentioned above.

There is also an English consular report which claims that 1,800 Armenian committee members had then been arrested in Istanbul. Admiral Calthorpe is said to be behind this one, and the source has been provided as (FO 608/78, (75631; WO 157/691/9), although it looks like these figures may not all be correct. Whether it was reported to all be on April 24 is yet to be determined.

ADDENDUM, 11.06:

The director of the Turkish archives, Yusuf Sarinay (whose report has apparently been partially presented below; we'll now add extra information), has examined the internal Ottoman documents and let's say it loud and clear:

The 2,345 figure was a mistake.

The number of arrested Armenians on "April 24" (Samantha Power wrote in her book that the process began in the night and went on until the next day, April 25) was 235.

Some zealous Armenian propagandists, from Dadrian on down, have taken this mistake and repeated it ("2,345" arrested sounds a lot worse than "235"), but other zealous genocidists, even Peter Balakian, have decided not to exploit this error, rounding the number off to 250. But think about it: going door to door in one night probably until the next day with what must have been not a terribly numerous police force, and arresting over two thousand people isn't even reasonable. If we say the arrest period was 24 hours, that would have meant (some 2,400 divided into 24) one hundred houses for the police to travel to per hour.

As for the British report of 1,800, the latest "intelligence" tells us that it's not known whether the 1,800 figure represented the total number of arrests throughout the nation, or only Istanbul; it was most likely the former. A reading of the document would hopefully clarify what the Brits were getting at.

The 235 were sent to Ayas and Cankiri prisons. The number of arrested increased in later times, but they were imprisoned elsewhere. These prisons were not large enough to accommodate a great number of prisoners.

The breakdown: 100 were sent to Cankiri, and the remainder (135) were sent to Ayas Prison, located in a small town near Ankara. (The report below puts the remainder at 180; so somebody is wrong.)

All of this information is from the Yusuf Sarinay report (archives director), which must be the same as what has been reported below. (The latest source's title reads "The Arrests of April 24.") This report has not been officially translated into English yet. The information is coming secondhand, but there is nothing like checking what the original has to say. Hopefully, the discrepancies will be clarified when this report becomes accessible.

For those arrested on April 24, and sent to Ayas:

According to a documnent dated Apirl 25, 1915, Armenians who had been arrested on the previous day were described as "leaders of the Armenian committees and those whose residence in Istanbul poses danger to public security."

A May 8, 1915 dated document tells us Vahram Torkumyan, Agop Nargileciyan, Karabet Keropoyan, Zare Bardizbanyan, Pozant Keçiyan, Pervant Tolayan, Rafael Karagösyan and Vartabet Komidas were released on May 8, 1915 on the order of the Minister of the Interior. (This parallels the information below, dated May 7th, but here the first names have also been provided. So these eight Armenians spent only two weeks in Cankiri Prison.

Others were also released later on.

According to a document dated August 31, 1915, (BOA.EUM. 2 S,ube 20/73), the number of Armenians released between 24 April and 31 August had reached thirty-five.

25 Armenians were found guilty and imprisoned in Ayas and Çankiri after their trial, and 57 persons were "deported" to Derzor. Among the arrested were 7 Armenians with foreign citizenship and these too were sent away to, presumably, Zor. The implied idea is that Zor was not a prison, but a far away place where these leaders could not stir trouble. What I would like to learn is how many officially got executed. No doubt the bulk of these arrested Armenians faced a fate that wasn't pretty, the lot of traitors of any nation.

Even if the majority were eventually killed, these Armenians went through a process of law, and a respectable number was released. Once again, Armenian propaganda reveals its ugly and deceptive face; they would have us believe all 235 were not only killed, but killed the same day they were arrested.