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Photograph of a village on Lake Van, an area of Turkey populated largely by ethnic Armenians. The area was one of the first targeted on a large scale when Turkey turned on its Armenian citizens. Photo from Ambassador Morgenthau's Story by Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey from 1913 to 1916.
Text:
Fishing village on Lake Van
In this district about 55,000 Armenians were massacred

Photograph of a village on Lake Van, an area of Turkey populated largely by ethnic Armenians. The area was one of the first targeted on a large scale when Turkey turned on its Armenian citizens. Photo from Ambassador Morgenthau's Story by Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey from 1913 to 1916.

Image text

Fishing village on Lake Van

In this district about 55,000 Armenians were massacred

Other views: Larger

Wednesday, August 11, 1915

"Under a third measure, [Vice-Governor] Atif and [Police Chief] Behaeddin arrested the city's prominent Armenians, regardless of denomination. And on the night of August 11, 1915, the local military commander and the police chief, having previously taken all 'restrictive,' precautionary measures, arrested all the remaining Armenians. Telling them, 'The police department wants you,' they filled up the prisons and various buildings that had been converted into prisons with Armenians.

The prominent prisoners—lawyers, bankers, merchants, and Armenian government officials—were taken out on the road in the first caravan, under the supervision of the police commissioner, the prison warden, police, soldiers, and officers."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the account of Grigoris Balakian of the extermination of the Armenians of Ankara, Turkey. Vice-Governor Atif and Police Chief Behaeddin and were sent by Interior Minister Talaat Pasha to replace the prior Governor General of Ankara, Mazhar, who resisted deporting the Armenians and resigned his position. The authorities divided the Armenians into caravans which were individually sent from the city, in some cases the Armenians pulling wagons bearing the weapons that would be used to kill them.

Source

Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918 by Grigoris Balakian, pp. 83, 84, copyright © Introduction and Translation 2009 by Peter Balakian, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2009-00-00

Tags

1915-08-11, 1915, August, Turkey Turns on its Armenian Citizens, Armenia, Ankara