The Genocide against the Ottoman Armenians: German Diplomatic Correspondence and Eyewitness Testimonies

In: Genocide studies international: official publication of the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Band 9, Heft 1, S. 22-60

Abstract

This contribution documents and analyses the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during 1915 and 1916 and is based mainly on the German diplomatic correspondence of the time, which is preserved at the Political Archives of the German Foreign Office, in Berlin. In the introduction, I refer to the Turkish nation state building process during 1912–1921 and its effects on the Christian populaces of the Ottoman Empire. In the second part, I focus on the various, apparently coordinated, measures directed against the Ottoman Armenians. A special subsection is dedicated to the clandestine intelligence organization Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa (Special Organization), which planned, implemented, and largely conducted the destruction of the Armenians in such a conspiratorial way that its activities escaped even the attention of Turkey's most important military ally, Germany. The final part discusses Germany's involvement in the destruction of Ottoman Armenians, Aramaic-speaking Christians, and Greek-Orthodox Christians against the background of 50 years of scholarship in history and genocide studies.