KIGHI ARMENIANS DEPORTED TWO DAYS AGO, WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM? EUROPEAN AND TURKISH TESIMONIES OF ATROCITIES AND AN ATTEMPT TO BLAME ONLY THE KURDS
(In the picture: Armenian Village of Gundemir, Kighi , (çewtlik), in the background: Bingol hills, the second picture: Kemah Bogazi, the Gorges of Kemah, South-East of Erzincan / Yerzenga, in Erzerum Province, Armenians butchury site in 1915)
On the 12th of June the deported Armenians already harrassed on their way, were seen by two European Nurses, travelling through Erzincan / Yerzenga:
“The misery was indescribable,” the two nurses, Thora von Wedel-Jarlsberg and Eva Elvers, reported with regard to a deportation convoy they had seen in Erzingjan. “Only 2 men were left, some of the women had gone insane; one cried out, ‘We wish to become Moslems. We wish to become Germans; whatever you want, but just save us. They’re going to take us to Kemagh now and cut our throats.’ While saying this, she made an appropriate gesture.”
(1915-08-21-DE-001, Enclosure)
The Armenian woman was well versed in the geography of death. “The location is very suitable for such things,” a German doctor from the Red Cross Hospital in Ersindjian reported. “It is the ravine through which the Euphrates leaves the Plain of Erzindjan to the west. The road follows the river for many kilometres; vertical rock walls make it impossible to escape to one side. A desolate area (Dersim) inhabited by rapacious mountain Kurds lies along the left bank of the Euphrates. If anything happens there, one can always blame the Kurds!”
The two nurses reported to the Armenian doctor, Kafafian, “Together with the rest of the deportees, two young female teachers who were trained at the American College in Charput were on their way through the Kemagh Valley when they were caught in crossfire on 10 June, ahead of them Kurds and behind them semi-regular troops. Frightened, they threw themselves on the ground and pretended to be dead. When the shooting stopped, they managed to return to Ersingjan. On 11 June, regular troops were sent out to 'punish the Kurds. Instead, they – the troops – slaughtered the entire defenceless crowd, the largest part of which consisted of women and children. From the mouths of Turkish soldiers who were personally present we had to hear how the women begged on their knees for mercy and how some of them threw their own children into the river."
(1915-08-21-DE-001, Enclosure)
"The soldiers said that it was the 86th Cavalry Regiment, under the leadership of all of its officers, that carried out this atrocious deed,” the two nurses continued. “They had required 4 hours to kill everyone. Ox carts were then waiting to transport the corpses to the river. That evening, you could watch the 'warriors’ come home, laden with stolen goods. 'Haven’t we done a good job?’ some of them asked. Our gendarme told us that he had just accompanied such a convoy of 3,000 women and children from Mama Chatun, 2 days from Erzerum, to Kemagh. 'All gone,’ 'Hep gitdi bitdi,’ he said.”
(1915-08-21-DE-001, Enclosure)
A German doctor from the Red Cross Hospital in Ersingjan confirmed the report, “Early on 12 June, Gehlsen, the pharmacist who can speak Turkish, saw a troop of 20 soldiers move out, ready for action. He asked one of the soldiers, whom he knew, where they were headed for. This man said they were going to the Kemach ravine. Armenians who were leaving had been attacked there. Yesterday evening the soldiers returned and Gehlsen attempted to find out what had happened. He acted very anti-Armenian and thus found out that a group of Armenian women and children had been surrounded in the ravine and, at a given order, all of them were shot down. The soldiers were sorry to shoot the pretty young women, but they had been ordered to do so. Many of the women had thrown their children into the river, while others were taken away by the Turks in order to bring them up in the Islamic faith. The women had not run away; they had all knelt down. The soldier stated that 3,000 people had been murdered in his presence and that only a few had escaped into the mountains, but that the Kurds knew all about that!"
"This account of the details concurs fully with that which (the Austrian) Major Dr. Pietschmann told us, who made the journey from Erzerum to here at almost the same time as the ladies,” said Armenien expert Mordtmann, confirming the reports of the two nurses.“
If Armenian deportees had successfully passed the ravine of death, they then entered what the American consul Davis called the "Slaughterhouse Vilayet”. Alma Johansson from Sweden reported that “the remains of the crowds from Keghi, Erzerum, Trapezunt, Samsun, Ersingan, etc., also arrived. Of those, actually only the women and children were still alive, and those who were still alive when they arrived in Mamuret ul Asis were finished off there. At the end of August, another crowd of 8,000 passed through Mamuret ul Asis, and as far as we have heard from the Turks, they were all killed."
(1915-11-22-DE-001, Enclosure 1 )
