Ambassador Morgenthau's Story (1918) is the title of the published memoirs of Henry Morgenthau Sr., U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, until the day of his resignation from the post.[1] The book was dedicated to the then U.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilson, and it took over two years to complete. The ghostwriter for Henry Morgenthau was Burton J. Hendrick; however, a comparison with official documents filed by Morgenthau in his role as ambassador shows that the book must have been structured and written extensively by Morgenthau himself.
The book is a primary source regarding the Armenian genocide, and the Greek genocide during the last years of the Ottoman Empire. When published, the book came under criticism by two prominent American historians regarding its coverage of Germany in the weeks before the onset of the war.[citation needed]
Contents
The former U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Morgenthau relates his experience with German-Ottoman relations during the World War I. He referred to the CUP as the "boss system" inside the Ottoman Empire, and related how it proved useful to the German Empire to bring the Ottomans to their side. He also outlines the details of Germany's influence in preventing the sale of American warships to Greece, their plans for new territories, coaling stations, indemnities and the closing of the Dardanelles to separate the Russian Empire from the Allies during the World War I. It also contains information about Ottoman Empire's abrogation of the capitulations.
The book includes this picture of the Armenian refugees at Van. The Van had an Armenian provisional government which gave relief to the destitute.
Morgenthau reported from the Ottoman cities of Aleppo and Van. He quoted the testimonies of the consulate officials who justified the deportations as necessary and who also suggested a supposed complicity of the Armenian population of Van with the incoming Russian forces that had overtaken the city, a pretext they used as a justification for the persecution of all ethnic Armenians.
In his memoirs, Morgenthau later wrote that:
When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact.
Audio recording of Chapter 24, "The Murder of a Nation", from Ambassador Morgenthau's Story.Photograph of Mehmet Talat Pasha as provided in his memoirs
It took some time before the story of the Armenian atrocities reached the U.S. Embassy with all its details. Ambassador Morgenthau subsequently raised the issue in person with Talaat Pasha and Enver Pasha. When Morgenthau asked both whether the information reaching the embassy was reliable, they regarded it as a mere manifestation of the disorders that had prevailed inside the Armenian provinces for many years. When the consular reports came from Van and Urfa, both Enver and Talaat Pasha dismissed them as wild exaggerations.
The ambassador asked the U.S. Government to intervene, but the United States was not a participant in the World War I at the time and could only have made written or verbal protests to the Ottoman authorities. This was not done and Morgenthau was left without leverage beyond his personal rapport with those in power; when that failed too, he then drew international media attention to the ongoing Armenian genocide, organized private relief efforts and helped create the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (ACASR).
Reception
According to Thomas de Waal, the evidence in the book was so damning that some Armenian Genocide deniers have tried to disprove it, although much of the book's contents are verified by diplomatic cables and Morgenthau's access to the Ottoman leaders has been corroborated by other sources.[3]
Caption from the book: "THOSE WHO FELL BY THE WAYSIDE. Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian provinces, in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms---massacre, starvation, exhaustion---destroyed the larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation"
Caption from the book: A RELIC OF THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES AT ERZINGAN. Such mementos are found all over Armenia".[2]
Original republished in 2003 by the Gomidas Institute, with an introduction by Ara Sarafian. A new and enhanced version of this edition was published by the Gomidas Institute in 2016. ISBN978-1909382213.
Morgenthau, Henry (2004). United States Diplomacy on the Bosphorus: The Diaries of Ambassador Morgenthau, 1913-1916. Compiled with an introduction by Ara Sarafian. London: Taderon Press (Gomidas Institute). ISBN978-1903656402.
Evans, John Marshall (2016). Truth Held Hostage: America and the Armenian Genocide – What Then? What Now?. Foreword by Dickran Kouymjian. London: Gomidas Institute. ISBN978-1909382268.
Notes
↑ Morgenthau, Henry (1919). Ambassador Morgenthau's Story (1ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company. Retrieved June 23, 2016– via Internet Archive.
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through the mass murder of around one million Armenians during death marches to the Syrian Desert and the forced Islamization of others, primarily women and children.
İsmail Enver, better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman military officer, revolutionary, and convicted war criminal who formed one-third of the dictatorial triumvirate known as the "Three Pashas" in the Ottoman Empire.
Henry Morgenthau was a German-born American lawyer and businessman, best known for his role as the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Morgenthau was one of the most prominent Americans who spoke about the Greek genocide and the Armenian genocide of which he stated, "I am firmly convinced that this is the greatest crime of the ages".
Mehmed Talaat, commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha, was an Ottoman politician and convicted war criminal who served as the de facto leader of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1918. Talaat Pasha was chairman of the Union and Progress Party, which operated a one-party dictatorship in the Empire; during World War I he became Grand Vizier. He was one of the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide and other ethnic cleansings during his time as Minister of Interior Affairs.
Ottoman Armenian casualties refers to the number of deaths of Ottoman Armenians between 1914 and 1923, during which the Armenian genocide occurred. Most estimates of related Armenian deaths between 1915 and 1918 range from 0.67 to 1.87 million.
Aram Andonian was an Armenian journalist, historian and writer.
The Three Pashas also known as the Young Turk triumvirate or CUP triumvirate consisted of Mehmed Talaat Pasha (1874–1921), the Grand Vizier and Minister of the Interior; Ismail Enver Pasha (1881–1922), the Minister of War; and Ahmed Djemal Pasha (1872–1922), the Minister of the Navy, who effectively ruled the Ottoman Empire after the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état. According to historian Hans-Lukas Kieser, Talaat's power increased over time and eclipsed the others after 1913–1914.
The deportation of Armenian intellectuals is conventionally held to mark the beginning of the Armenian genocide. Leaders of the Armenian community in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople, and later other locations, were arrested and moved to two holding centers near Angora. The order to do so was given by Minister of the Interior Talaat Pasha on 24 April 1915. On that night, the first wave of 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals of Constantinople were arrested. With the adoption of the Tehcir Law on 29 May 1915, these detainees were later relocated within the Ottoman Empire; most of them were ultimately killed. More than 80 such as Vrtanes Papazian, Aram Andonian, and Komitas survived.
The defense of Van was the armed resistance of the Armenian population of Van against the Ottoman Empire's attempts to massacre the Ottoman Armenian population of the Van Vilayet in the 1915 Armenian genocide. Several contemporaneous observers and later historians have concluded that the Ottoman government deliberately instigated an armed Armenian resistance in the city and then used this insurgency as the main pretext to justify beginning the deportation and slaughter of Armenians throughout the empire. Witness reports agree that the Armenian posture at Van was defensive and an act of resistance to massacre. The self-defense action is frequently cited in Armenian genocide denial literature; it has become "the alpha and omega of the plea of 'military necessity'" to excuse the genocide and portray the persecution of Armenians as justified.
Screamers is a 2006 documentary film directed by Carla Garapedian, conceived by Peter McAlevey and Garapedian and produced by McAlevey. The film explores why genocides have occurred in modern day history and features talks from Serj Tankian, lead vocalist of the American alternative metal band System of a Down, whose grandfather is an Armenian genocide survivor, as well as from human-rights activist, journalist, and professor, Samantha Power, as well as various other people involved with genocides in Rwanda and Darfur. Screamers also examines genocide denial in current-day Turkey, and the neutral trend that the United States generally holds towards genocide.
The Istanbul trials of 1919–1920 were courts-martial of the Ottoman Empire that occurred soon after the Armistice of Mudros, in the aftermath of World War I.
Ara Sarafian is a British historian of Armenian origin. He is the founding director of the Gomidas Institute in London, which sponsors and carries out research and publishes books on modern Armenian and regional studies.
The Remaining Documents of Talaat Pasha, also known in Turkey as The Abandoned Documents of Talaat Pasha and Talaat Pasha's Black Book, is the title of a 2008 book by the Turkish journalist Murat Bardakçı. It reproduces in modern Turkish script a selection of documents from the WWI period by Mehmed Talaat Pasha, the Ottoman Empire's Grand Vizier and Minister of Interior, that deal with the relocations of both Muslim Turks and Armenians and the expropriation of abandoned Armenian and Greek property. Its full English title is The Remaining Documents of Talaat Pasha: Documents and Important Correspondence Found in the Private Archives of Sadrazam Talaat Pasha about the Armenian Deportations.
Heath Ward Lowry is the Atatürk Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies emeritus at Princeton University and Bahçeşehir University. He is an author of books about the history of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey.
Witnesses and testimony provide an important and valuable insight into the events which occurred both during and after the Armenian genocide. The Armenian genocide was prepared and carried out by the Ottoman government in 1915 as well as in the following years. As a result of the genocide, as many as 1.5 million Armenians who were living in their ancestral homeland were deported and murdered.
The Gomidas Institute is an independent academic institution "dedicated to modern Armenian and regional studies." Its activities include research, publications and educational programmes. It publishes documents, monographs, memoirs and other works on modern Armenian history and organizes lectures and conferences. The institute was founded in 1992 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It is based in London and maintains a United States branch in Cleveland. British-Armenian historian Ara Sarafian serves as its executive director. Since 1998, the institute has been publishing a quarterly journal titled Armenian Forum. The institute is named after Komitas.
The Ottoman Empire came into World War I as one of the Central Powers. The Ottoman Empire entered the war by carrying out a small surprise attack on the Black Sea coast of Russia on 29 October 1914, with Russia responding by declaring war on 2 November 1914. Ottoman forces fought the Entente in the Balkans and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. The Ottoman Empire's defeat in the war in 1918 was crucial in the eventual dissolution of the empire in 1922.
The Blue Book, Political Truth or Historical Fact is a 2009 documentary film by Gagik Karagheuzian about the Armenian genocide denial.
Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide is a 2018 academic book by Hans-Lukas Kieser, published by Princeton University Press. It is a biography of Talaat Pasha. As of 2018 there had been no recent biographies of Talaat, nor of Enver Pasha, in western European languages. The book discusses the author's thesis that Talaat was co-Father of the Nation to modern Turkey along with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as well as Talaat's rule and significance.
Bibliography of the Armenian genocide is a list of books about the Armenian genocide:
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