DOCUMENT REFLECTS CUP’S DEPORTATION POLICY
By Ari Sekeryan on February 17, 2015
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Special for the Armenian Weekly
Sait Molla was a lawyer, member of the Turkish Council of State, and
founder of the Anglophile Society (Ingiliz Muhipleri Cemiyeti). In
1918, he began to publish a daily paper in Istanbul calledTurkce
Ãstanbul. On March 25, 1919, the newspaper published what it claimed
was the Letter of Instruction from the head office of the Committee
of Union and Progress (CUP) to the Special Organization (Teþkilat-ý
Mahsusa) units as the deportation of Armenians during the genocide
began.
On March 25, 1919, Turkce Ãstanbul published what it claimed was the
Letter of Instruction from the head office of the Committee of Union
and Progress (CUP)
The newspaper called it “A Tragic and Dreadful Document,” and noted
it was reprinting the document without making any changes. The Letter
of Instruction consists of 10 articles that describe the steps to
be taken in the deportation process. These are the same steps that
scholars like Taner Akcam, Donald Bloxham, and Uður Umit Ungor have
described as being part of the deportations.
Of course, the authenticity of such a document is not guaranteed.
Turkce Istanbul neglected to mention the source of the letter.
Moreover, the archives of the CUP disappeared following the defeat
of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
Regardless of these questions, however, it is noteworthy that there
were Ottoman Turkish dailies like Turkce Ãstanbul, Alemdar, and Peyam,
which criticized the CUP and discussed the topic intensively in the
wake of World War I.
The text of the newspaper’s piece follows.
‘A tragic and dreadful document’
Article 1. Close all of the Armenian associations by using the third
and fourth articles of the Law of Associations; arrest the executive
members who were opposing the CUP government, deport them to provinces
such as Mosul and Baghdad, and kill them en route or at their final
destination.
On March 25, 1919, Turkce Ãstanbul published what it claimed was the
Letter of Instruction from the head office of the Committee of Union
and Progress (CUP)
Article 2. Collect all of the weapons of the Armenians.
Article 3. Prepare Muslim public opinion through appropriate means,
organize some planned incidents–like Russia did in Baku–in cities
such as Van, Erzurum, and Adana, where the Armenians by their own
actions have earned the hatred of the Muslims.
Article 4. Leave the implementation totally to the general populace
in provinces like Erzurum, Van, Mamuretulaziz, and Bitlis, and use
the troops and military forces to appear as if they are preventing
the massacres. On the contrary, support Muslims with military force
in places like Adana, Sivas, Bursa, Ãzmit, and Ãzmir.
Article 5. Apply [measures] of annihilation to school teachers and
especially to men below 50. (Leave the women and children to be
converted to Islam.)
Article 6. Clear away the families of those who managed to run away and
take measures to cut off their ties with their hometowns completely.
Article 7. Discharge all Armenian officials from all government
offices and branches by accusing them of spying.
Article 8. Annihilate the men serving in the army by the military in
an appropriate fashion.
Article 9. Start all measures at the same time in order to leave no
time to prepare means of defense.
Article 10. Keep this letter of instruction private and take utmost
care to keep it between one or two persons.
It is a reality that those Armenians who were deported were killed
and annihilated in accordance with the letter of instruction written
above. While we avoid elaborating on it further, we publish the
document exactly the same.
Turkce Ãstanbul
March 25, 1919
Editor’s Note: Similar documents were published in the Turkish press
during the post-World War I years.