The Turkish Rationale

November 11, 1916, The Literary Digest

"Why The Armenians Were Killed"

The Turkish Foreign Minister, Halil Bey, in an interview with The Associated Press on October 25, 1916, threw the blame of his government's massacre of the Armenians upon the Armenians themselves, on the grounds that they had risen in revolt.

December, 1916, New York Times Current History

"Turkish Foreign Minister's Defense of Armenian Massacres"

"If he would stay conquered and have no national aspirations and contribute his intelligence to the furtherance of Turkish wealth and comfort, the Turk would not massacre him or send him into exile." But despite this, "the Armenians rose when the Russians invaded Asia Minor and the Turkish government took the measure which had been outlined to the Armenian leaders beforehand." The Armenian organization made it impossible to confine the steps taken against Armenians to a single locality in rebellion, "because the organization was so perfect that only a sweeping measure at the first hint of an uprising could meet the situation."

November, 1918, World's Work Magazine, "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story."

Reproduced in The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From The American Press, 1915-1922, Richard Kloian, p. 237

"American Ambassador Morgenthau Appeals to German Naval Attache Humann in Constantinople"

Humann's response, "I have lived in Turkey ...and I know Armenians ...both Armenians and Turks cannot live together in this country. One of these races has to go. And I don't blame the Turks for what they are doing to the Armenians . ...The weaker must succumb. The Armenians desire to dismember Turkey; they are against the Turks and the Germans in this war, and they therefore have no right to exist here." (Censored)

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Last modified on October 22, 2009