NEW DOCUMENT ON THE TURKISH ANTI-ARMENIAN POLICY IN 1934

armradio.am
04.11.2008 16:17

The US Department of State recently discovered a document proving
that over 1934 the Turkish government continued its genocide policy
towards the Armenian population.

In a letter sent from the US Embassy in Ankara, Ambassador Robert
P. Skinner summarizes the way in which the Turkish government
constrained the remaining Armenians living in Anatolia, to give up
their properties before being exiled from their hearths, independent
correspondent Jean Eckian informed.

Robert P. Skinner indicates that: "It is probable, that their expulsion
is quite simply a step moreover of the Turkish government in its
policy stated to make of Anatolia a space purely inhabited by Turks."

Moreover, the dating of this letter shows that the crime committed
against the Armenians is not something which can simply be relegated
to the Ottoman time.

The full text of Ambassador Robert P. Skinner’s letter, dated March 2,
1934, is presented below:

"I have the honor to bring to the Department’s attention such details
as have reached the Embassy from several sources concerning the recent
deportations of Armenians from the interior of Anatolia to Istanbul.

The deportees began to arrive at Istanbul some six weeks ago and
they are quartered by the Armenian Church and its auxiliary relief
organizations in Churches, school houses and abandoned buildings in
the villages of Oteköy and Yeniköy. About 600 Armenians are now being
taken care of. They are from various towns and villages of Anatolia.

It is assumed by most of the deportees that their expulsion from
their homes in Anatolia is a part of the Government’s program of
making Anatolia a pure Turkish district.

They relate that the Turkish police, in towns and villages where
Armenians lived, attempted to instigate local Moslem people to drive
the Armenians away. These efforts failed completely. The authorities
then brought in Turks from Rumeli and intimated to them that they
could take over the Armenian possessions. This new element, however,
instead of taking a hostile attitude toward the Armenians became
most congenial with them. These two means failing, the Armenians
were told that they had to leave at once for Istanbul. They sold
their possessions receiving for them ruinous price. I have been told
that cattle worth several hundred liras a head had been sold for as
little as five liras a head. My informant stated that the Armenians
were permitted to sell their property in order that no one of them
could say that they were forced to abandon it. However, the sale
under these conditions amounted to a practical abandonment.

The Armenians were obliged to walk from their villages to the
railways and then they were shipped by train to Istanbul. Local relief
organizations are doing their best to attempt to find employment is
found. However, the size of the task is staggering. Local sympathetic
people have been canvassed to contribute money for their relief.

The real reasons for the deportations are unknown. A few Armenians
believe that it is due to their superior business methods which
arouses jealousy among certain Turkish elements. The Armenians are
know for their energy and thoroughness in business and many of them
believe that they suffering now for these qualities. It is likely,
though, that their removal is simply one step in the government’s
avowed policy of making Anatolia purely Turkish."

–Boundary_(ID_ZvBRFbdCzqCcyRnPVc2 dHQ)–