By Ari Sekeryan - 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 called Türkçe İstanbul. 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 (Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa) units as the deportation of
Armenians during the genocide began.
On March 25, 1919, Türkçe İstanbul published what it
claimed was the Letter of Instruction from the head office of the Committee of
Union and Progress (CUP) On March 25, 1919, Türkçe İstanbul 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
Akçam, Donald Bloxham, and Uğur Ümit Üngör have described as being part of the
deportations.
Of course, the authenticity of such a document is not
guaranteed. Türkçe 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 Türkçe İstanbul, 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, Türkçe İstanbul published what it
claimed was the Letter of Instruction from the head office of the Committee of
Union and Progress (CUP) On March 25, 1919, Türkçe İstanbul 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, İzmit, and İzmir.
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.
Türkçe İstanbul
March 25, 1919
Editor’s Note: Similar documents were published in the
Turkish press during the post-World War I years.
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