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Various quotes by Turkish leaders, beginning with multiple quotes from the three rulers of wartime (WWI) Turkey:
Enver Pasha:
One of the triumpharate rulers publicly declared on 19 May 1916... :
"The Ottoman Empire should be cleaned up of the Armenians and the Lebanese. We have destroyed the former by the sword, we shall destroy the latter through starvation."
In reply to US Ambassador Morgenthau who was deploring the massacres against Armenians and attributing them to irresponsible subalterns and underlings in the distant provinces, Enver's reply was... :
"You are greatly mistaken. We have this country absolutely under our control. I have no desire to shift the blame onto our underlings and I am entirely willing to accept the responsibility myself for everything that has taken place."
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Talat Pasha:
In a conversation with Dr. Mordtmann of the German Embassy in June 1915...:
"Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate (grundlich aufzaumen) its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention."
After the German Ambassador persistently brought up the Armenian question in 1918, Talat said "with a smile"... :
"What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians."
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Cemal Pasha:
To a German officer upon seeing the deportations in Mamure said... :
"I am ashamed of my nation (Ich schame mich fur meine Nation)."
Minister of the Interior of Turkey publicly declared on March 15 that on the basis of computations undertaken by Ministry Experts... :
“800,000 Armenian deportees were actually killed... by holding the guilty accountable the government is intent on cleansing the bloody past."
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Prince Abdul Mecid:
Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne, during an interview... :
"I refer to those awful massacres. They are the greatest stain that has ever disgraced our nation and race. They were entirely the work of Talat and Enver. I heard some days before they began that they were intended. I went to Istanbul and insisted on seeing Enver. I asked him if it was true that they intended to recommence the massacres which had been our shame and disgrace under Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could get from him was: 'It is decided. It is the program.'”
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Mustafa "Ataturk" Kemal:
Founder of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and revered throughout Turkey, in an interview published on August 1, 1926 in The Los Angeles Examiner, talking about former Young Turks in his country... :
“These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule.”
Enver Pasha:
One of the triumpharate rulers publicly declared on 19 May 1916... :
"The Ottoman Empire should be cleaned up of the Armenians and the Lebanese. We have destroyed the former by the sword, we shall destroy the latter through starvation."
In reply to US Ambassador Morgenthau who was deploring the massacres against Armenians and attributing them to irresponsible subalterns and underlings in the distant provinces, Enver's reply was... :
"You are greatly mistaken. We have this country absolutely under our control. I have no desire to shift the blame onto our underlings and I am entirely willing to accept the responsibility myself for everything that has taken place."
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Talat Pasha:
In a conversation with Dr. Mordtmann of the German Embassy in June 1915...:
"Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate (grundlich aufzaumen) its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention."
After the German Ambassador persistently brought up the Armenian question in 1918, Talat said "with a smile"... :
"What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians."
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Cemal Pasha:
To a German officer upon seeing the deportations in Mamure said... :
"I am ashamed of my nation (Ich schame mich fur meine Nation)."
Minister of the Interior of Turkey publicly declared on March 15 that on the basis of computations undertaken by Ministry Experts... :
“800,000 Armenian deportees were actually killed... by holding the guilty accountable the government is intent on cleansing the bloody past."
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Prince Abdul Mecid:
Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne, during an interview... :
"I refer to those awful massacres. They are the greatest stain that has ever disgraced our nation and race. They were entirely the work of Talat and Enver. I heard some days before they began that they were intended. I went to Istanbul and insisted on seeing Enver. I asked him if it was true that they intended to recommence the massacres which had been our shame and disgrace under Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could get from him was: 'It is decided. It is the program.'”
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Mustafa "Ataturk" Kemal:
Founder of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and revered throughout Turkey, in an interview published on August 1, 1926 in The Los Angeles Examiner, talking about former Young Turks in his country... :
“These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule.”