October 1
U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing delivers a note to German Ambassador Bernstorff relating to the massacres of the Armenians.
October 1
The governor-general of Sivas Province, Ahmed Muammer, travels to Amasia and elsewhere to inspect the completion and effect of the massacres in preparation for Talaat's inspection trip.
October 1
600 Armenian orphan boys are Turkified in Herek.
September
(General Vehib Pasha reported during the postwar court martial that in September 1915, Behaeddin Shakir assembled and used murdering cutthroats in the Third Army Zone [the six eastern or Armenian provinces of Turkey].)
October 4
The Interior Ministry advises against the need of opening orphanages and prolonging the life of Armenian children.
October 7
By this date the number of deported Armenians still living is estimated at 360,000 minimum, and the number of Armenians dead is estimated at 800,000 minimum.
October 7
$75,000 is collected in the United States for relief for the Armenian deportees.
October 7
In the British House of Lords a general discussion of the Armenian situation takes place. Lord Bryce, Lord Crewe, and Lord Cromer condemn the Turkish barbarities.
October 8
Talaat requests from provincial officials documents proving Armenian 'treason' against Turkey to justify the massacres.
October 10
45 Armenians are arrested in Adrianople (Edirne), and 1,600 Armenians are deported.
October 12
Orders are issued forbidding marriage with Armenian women.
October 13
In Berlin an announcement is made that the story of the Armenian massacres is an Allied fabrication.
October 15
The dean of the Realschule (the German technical school) in Aleppo and German professors there protest against the massacres of the Armenians to the German Foreign Office.
October 15
16,000 Armenian deportees are observed at Afiyon-Karahisar and 80,000 at Konia (Konya).
October 15
6,000 Turkish soldiers stage the final attack on the Armenians defending themselves in Urfa. 400 Turkish troops are killed as Armenians defend to the last.
October 16
Immunity from prosecution is guaranteed to those carrying out the massacres of the Armenians in Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor).
October 16
16,000 Armenian deportees from Bursa and Izmid (Izmit) leave Afiyon-Karahisar for Konia (Konya).
October 16
Lord Bryce remarks that Germany could stop the massacres if it wished to do so.
October 16
20,000 Armenian deportees in transit are murdered in the city and environs of Urfa.
October 18
The governor-general of Sivas Province, Ahmed Muammer Bey, inspects the carrying out of his orders for the deportation and destruction of the Armenians in the province, in anticipation of Talaat's inspection trip which occurs shortly thereafter.
October 18
A large public gathering to protest the massacres of the Armenians by the Turkish government is held in the Century Theater in New York. Rabbi Wise, B. Cochrane, Dr. Barton, and H. Holt are the main speakers.
October 18
Mufti Zade Zia, a Turkish propagandist, writing in New York describes the Armenians as traitors.
October 22
The Turkish Embassy in Washington accuses the Armenians of treason against the Ottoman state.
October 25
Halil Bey of Menteshe, the Vice-President of the Turkish Chamber of Deputies and president of the State Council, becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs.
October 25
Instructions are issued requesting that within one week documents be sent to the Interior Ministry indicting the Armenian people as traitors.
October 27
20,000 Armenian deportees are reported in Konia (Konya) on this date.
October 28
Numerous Armenian families are deported from Adrianople (Edirne) at midnight without prior notice upon the order of Acting Governor-general Zekerie.
October 28
Per earlier instructions sent by Talaat, 80,000 Armenian deportees left the Konia (Konya) station for xxxanti on this date on their way to their 'final destination.' These 80,000 were deportees from cities near Constantinople and from the Armenian communities in the western parts of Turkey.
October 31
Instructions are issued advising that the special measures taken against the Armenians be conducted in places beyond the view of foreigners and especially the American consuls.
October 31
Instructions are issued for the trial by court martial of any Armenian reporting the events of the deportations to any foreigner.
November 3
Doctor Schacht, a German army physician, stationed near the village of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) village, reports counting 7,000 severed Armenian heads (skulls) in Sabgha District near the Euphrates River.
November 4
The German consul in Mosul reports that Halil Pasha's soldiers had massacred the Armenians north of Mosul and were preparing to massacre the Armenians in the city of Mosul.
November 5
On this date, 10,000 Armenian deportees are reported in xxxanti, 20,000 deportees in Tarsus, 40,000 deportees in Islahiye, and 50,000 deportees in Katma.
November 5
150,000 Armenian deportees are reported scattered between Adana and Aleppo crossing the Amanos Range.
November 5
20,000 Armenian deportees are reported in Adana.
November 8
The Turkish authorities again make preparations to deport the 200,000 Armenians of Constantinople.
November 11
Jemal Pasha, as commander of Syria, seeks to court martial the dean of the Realschule in Aleppo and other German signatories of the protest of October 15 for publicizing the Armenian events in Cilicia.
November 13
20,000 Armenian deportees are reported in the Hawran District of Trans-Jordan. (On November 15, 1918, only 450 of this group of 20,000 were reported alive.)
November 13
On this date, 10,000 Armenian deportees were reported in Intille (Intili) and 150,000 deportees were reported in Katma living under terrible conditions, disease-wracked and starving.
November 14
The Anglican and the Orthodox Churches ask U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to pressure the German government to intervene with the Turkish government to stop the massacre of the Armenians.
November 15
The German Charge d'affaires Baron Konstantin von Neurath, welcomes the new ambassador, Paul Count von Wolff-Metternich, who represented Imperial Germany from this date until October 3, 1916. The Charge d'affaires had been in charge of the German diplomatic representation in Turkey since October 2, 1915, when Hohenlohe had departed.
November 16
The fields in Bakche District were reported littered with the corpses of many thousands of Armenians who had starved to death while being deported through here.
November 17
Sir Robert Cecil protests the Turkish charge that the massacres were a response to an Armenian revolt, and charges that they were the result of a premeditated plan on the part of the Turkish government.
November 18
A circular telegram is sent ordering the deportation of Armenian children.
November 18
Talaat leaves Constantinople for an inspection tour of Anatolia. He returns on December 18.
November 25
Up to this date, 500,000 Armenian deportees are estimated to have passed through xxxanti (northwest of Adana).
November 26
1,010 Armenians are deported from the village of Mamure (Mamura) in Adana District.
December 1
The fields around the village of Mamure (Mamura) are reported littered with several thousand corpses of starved or murdered deportees who had been traveling through.
December 4
10,000 Armenian bachelors are deported from the city of Constantinople up to this date. A list is prepared of 70,000 Armenian individuals to be deported from Constantinople.
December 6
A circular telegram instructs that no Armenian is to be left alive in the eastern provinces.
December 7
The German ambassador Wolff-Metternich goes to the Sublime Porte in connection with the massacres and is told that nothing could be discussed until Talaat's return.
December 9
Orders are issued in Aleppo Province for the deportation of 400 Armenian orphans previously placed in an orphanage.
December 12
180,000 Armenian refugees from Turkey who had reached Tiflis (Tbilisi) are reported to be in dire conditions.
December 14
Orders are issued for the killing of Armenian priests.
December 15
A circular telegram clarifies that the purpose of the deportations is annihilation.
December 16
Instructions are issued advising against slowing the deportations and urging the dispatch of the deportees to the desert.
December 18
Talaat returns from Anatolia. German Ambassador Wolff-Metternich is told by Talaat that the Turks are not killing innocents.
December 22
Orders are issued forbidding the acceptance from any Armenian of an application of exemption from the deportations.
December 25
Orders are issued for the deportation of all children except those who did not remember their parents.
December 29
On this date, of the estimated 210,000 refugees who had reached the Caucasus, only 173,000 are reported still living, almost 40,000 having died as a result of privations and disease. Of the remaining 173,000, 105,000 were from Van Province, 48,000 from Bayazid (Bayazit) District, 20,038 from Mush District.
December 30
A circular telegram, as a follow-up on the telegram of December 15, instructs that Armenians desiring to convert to Islam are to be notified that their Islamization must take place after they reach their final destination. In view of the earlier instructions clarifying the purpose of the deportations as annihilation, the new instructions imply that Armenians are no longer to be allowed to escape destruction for any reason.
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Click on the names of highlighted cities, towns, and other locations to view a map of the genocide.
July 1
2,000 Armenian soldiers in the Turkish Army used as laborers are massacred near the city of Kharput.
July 1
The first convoy of deportees leaves the seaport of Trebizond for the south.
July 1
The governor-general of Sivas announces that the first convoy of deportees from the city are to leave by July 5 in groups according to street residence. A total of 48,000 persons are deported. The governor, commissioner of police, two parliamentary deputies, the qadi (the chief religious judge), and the mufti (the religious chief) tell the Armenians that they were being resettled for the duration of the war in order to forestall any resistance.
July 2
Bands of 4,000 chetes operating out of the mountains around Erzinjan begin daily raids against the southward bound convoys of Armenian deportees.
July 2
The deportation decree is issued in the city of Mush.
July 4
For the record an official German protest is registered with the Grand Vizier. The protest is left unanswered by the Turkish government.
July 4
Neshed Pasha leaves Sivas with three regiments and artillery to subdue the Armenians resisting in Shabin-Karahisar.
July 5
In Diyarbekir 2,000 Armenian soldiers working in labor corps are killed.
July 5
The first convoy of deportees leaves the city of Sivas. Every day for 16 days an average of 400 families leave, the overwhelming majority being slain on route to the Syrian Desert. The last convoy departs from the city on July 20.
July 6
By this date up to 1,000 Armenian families had left Trebizond in convoys headed south.
July 7
The male members of 800 Armenian families in the town of Kharput are killed.
July 8
Zaven, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, appeals to the Minister of Justice, Ibrahim Bey, who replies that he cannot intervene in matters concerning the War Ministry.
July 10
2,700 persons are killed in a second massacre in Mardin.
July 11
The beginning of a four-day massacre in Mush under the combined orders of parliamentary deputy Elias, vice-governor Servet, and Governor-general Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda, Talaat's brother-in-law.
July 11
The Interior Ministry instructs that the Armenian villages be settled with Muslim immigrants.
July 12
The government advises all governors-general that Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) District is saturated and that the rest of the deportees be routed to Kirkuk District in northern Iraq, to the south of Aleppo, and to the east of Syria.
July 12
Instructions are issued to distribute Armenian orphans to Turkish homes.
July 13
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins. During the whole month the greatest concentration and universalization of massacring and murdering occurs in every province of Turkey.
July 13
The last convoy, containing all the remaining Armenians in the city, leaves Kharput.
July 13
Zaven, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, is declined an audience with Talaat.
July 14
Jemal, Commander of Aleppo's Fourth Army Corps, protests to Dr. Reshid, the governor-general of Diyarbekir Province about the dumping of dead bodies in the Euphrates River and advises burial. From June 22 to July 17, a period of 25 days, a steady stream of bodies of massacred Armenians floats down the Euphrates River.
July 16
Bodies from Kharput Province and Erzerum Province float down the Euphrates to Jerablus, where they are seen and identified by German officers.
July 18
In the region of Dersim, 3,000 Armenians are killed by the Turks. Almost all of the large Kurdish population of Dersim refuses to participate in the massacres and even shelters many Armenians.
July 21
First day of the Turkish attack on Musa Dagh (Musa Ler in Armenian).
July 23
The Italian consul at Trebizond reports about the barbarities he had witnessed.
July 23
The seventh anniversary of the 1908 restoration of the liberal Constitution of 1876 is celebrated.
July 24
Talaat sends instructions to Urfa, Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor), and Diyarbekir to bury the bodies of those fallen by the roadside and not throw them in ditches, lakes, or rivers.
July 24 to August 1
The registration and classification of all prisoners from Sivas is carried out. This was done in accordance with a directive in general circulation.
July
Behaeddin Shakir, chief of the Special Organization in Erzerum Province, telegrams Nazim Bey Resneli via Sabit Bey, the governor-general of Kharput Province, inquiring whether the Armenians deported from there are being exterminated or just being convoyed.
July
Behaeddin Shakir instructs the governor-general of Kastamonu Province to begin the deportation of the Armenians there.
July
Talaat informs the Ittihad party organization in Malatia explaining that half of the loot captured from the Armenians is being assigned to the Central Committee of Ittihad in Constantinople, and the other half is to be distributed to chetes. (On December 12, 1918, the Turkish newspaper, Sabah, reported that each chete in the Malatia area received as a result 15,000 Turkish pounds.)
July
Governor-general Reshid Pasha reports to the Interior Ministry that the deportation of the Armenians from Kastamonu Province is completed.
July
Behaeddin Shakir sends a cipher telegram to the governor-general of Adalia Province, Sabur Sami Bey, asking him what steps he was taking at a time, when in Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Sivas, and Trebizond Provinces, not a single Armenian remains because they have all been sent in the direction of Mosul and Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor). Sabur sends a copy of the telegram to Talaat to show that he had received these indirect instructions.
July
The vice-governor of Yozgat District, in Angora Province, reports to the Interior Ministry that 68,000 Armenians had been slain in the district.
July
Sabit, the governor-general of Kharput Province, informs the Interior Ministry that all the road are filled with the bodies of women and children and time cannot be found to bury them.
July 28
The governor-general of Erzerum Province reports of widespread looting and rape.
July 28
The Interior Ministry issues a circular telegram instructing that the Muslim population be settled in the large Armenian villages.
July 28
The deportation of the Armenians of the town of Aintab begins.
July 28
The deportation of the Armenians of the town of Kilis begins.
July 28
The deportation of the Armenians of the town of Adiaman begins.
July 28
Professor Kakig Ozanian of the American College and others from Marsovan (Merzifon), together with the Armenian community leader Dikran Diranian and others from Samsun, are transported to the prisons of Sivas to be killed.
July 30
A mass arrest of Armenians in the city of Angora is carried out. Those arrested are slain the next day at a place six hours distance from the city of Angora.
July 30
The withdrawal of the Russian Army from the city of Van begins.
July 31
The mass murder of Armenian community leaders of Constantinople imprisoned in Ayash and Chankri is carried. They are killed along with the Armenians of Angora arrested the day before.
August 1
The deportation of 25,000 Armenians from Adabazar, near Constantinople, begins
August 1
20,000 deportees arrive in Aleppo.
August 1
Mass torture inflicted on 500 Armenians in the prisons of Adabazar.
August 2
Ambassador Henry Morgenthau reports that on this day Talaat told him that the Ittihad Committee had carefully considered in all its details the matter of crushing the Armenians, and that the policy which was being pursued was that which had been officially adopted. He also told Morgenthau that the deportations were not the result of hasty decisions but of careful and prolonged deliberation. Talaat, moreover, indicated that three quarters of the Armenians had already been disposed of, and none were left in Bitlis, Van, and Erzerum.
August 2 to August 7
For six nights, Armenian prisoners, mostly intellectuals, held in Gok-Medrese in Sivas, which was a Seljuk structure in use as a temporary prison, were taken out and slain.
August 3
150,000 deportees arrive in Aleppo from various unspecified places.
August 3
4,500 Armenian deportees from Seghert and 2,000 deportees from Mezre arrive near Aleppo.
August 3
15,000 Armenians arrive in Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor).
August 3
In response to unofficial German protests about large-scale murders, rapes, and tortures inflicted on the Armenian deportees on the highways, which was creating a bad impression on the Americans, a circular telegram is sent advising against attacking and raping Armenians on the highways.
August 3
Officials are instructed not to appropriate the 'abandoned goods' of the Armenians for personal use.
August 3
60,000 Armenian deportees from unspecified places arrive near Aleppo.
August 4
Talaat sends a circular telegram to all governors and officials expecting accountability for the 'abandoned goods.'
August 6
Eighteen Armenians are publicly hanged in the town of Everek near Kayseri.
August 7
The Armenians of Mersin (Mersine) are deported.
August 7
The listing of all real estate seized from the Armenians is requested by the Interior Ministry.
August 10
All the Armenians of Chorum are deported via Boghazli and xxxanti with the Syrian Desert their purportedly ultimate destination.
August 8 to August 12
The Armenian intellectuals imprisoned in the Sifahdiye Medrese (a Muslim religious school) in Sivas, are taken out from the city and slain. There were 36 extermination centers in the area of Sivas. 5,000 Armenian intellectuals imprisoned in the Gok Medrese and the Sifahdiye Medrese, both Seljuk structures in use as temporary prisons, were taken to these 36 execution centers and slain.
August 10
A circular telegram calls for the registration of all Muslim creditors of the Armenians.
August 11
Instructions are issued that Turkish settlers be sent via Angora, Sivas, and Kayseri to Kharput and others via Konia (Konya) and Adana to Diyarbekir.
August 11
Armenian women married to Turks are deprived of the right of inheritance.
August 11
The last of 84 Armenian intellectuals, who were brought to the Ayash prison and who over the course of the weeks had been taken out in small groups to be murdered at various times, was killed. The longest-held was in prison in Ayash for 105 days.
August 12
The end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. First day of the three day holiday of Bairam. No massacres were carried during these three days as it was time off for rest.
August 12
Enver reports that to date 200,000 Armenians had been slain.
August 12
In Aleppo Province 200,000 Armenian deportees are reported in transit to the desert
August 12
Boghos Nubar, a leading Armenian from Egypt, who had never been in Turkey, but who had been instrumental in Paris in pressing Turkey to introduce reforms in the Armenian provinces, was tried in absentia by a Turkish court martial and sentenced to death for treason.
August 13
The deportation of the Armenians of Izmid (Izmit), Baghchejik (Bardizag), Bursa, and Adabazar begins.
August 13
Instructions are issued to avoid deportees from coming to rest near military installations.
August 13 to August 17
From the Central Prison of city of Sivas where many Armenian intellectuals, political leaders, and the leading men of the villages surrounding Sivas were imprisoned, 15,000 Armenians were taken out and slain in the 36 extermination centers of the region.
August 13
Instructions are sent out to the committees liquidating the 'abandoned goods' of the Armenians and directions given about methods for depositing the moneys obtained.
August 14
Saturday, the third and last day of Bairam.
August 16
50,000 deportees are observed on the road from xxxanti to Aleppo.
August 18
The New York Times reports of a plan for the destruction of the whole Armenian nation.
August 19
250 Armenians are killed in the city of Urfa in a massacre by Turks inaugurating the first attempt to uproot the Armenians of Urfa. The Armenians of Urfa begin the defense of their city.
August 19
Lord Bryce reports that 500,000 Armenians had been murdered in Turkey.
August 21
The War Ministry requisitions for the military forty-one kinds of articles of merchandise from the Armenians.
August 21
A general order is issued for the liquidation of the closed commercial stores of the Armenians.
August 23
A second massacre of Armenians in Urfa is organized.
August 25
The War Ministry requisitions all soap found in the homes and stores of the deported Armenians.
August 26
The War Ministry requisitions for its military supply depots all wood, coal, and copper found in the homes and stores of deported Armenians.
August 26
The Armenian poet, Daniel Varoujan, together with the poet physician Rupen Sevak, and others, are murdered by chetes while incarcerated in the Ayash prison.
August 26
60,000 deported Armenians in the Aleppo area are ordered to leave for Hawran, an Arab district in northern Trans-Jordan.
August 26
The Armenian Catholics in Angora are arrested.
August 28
Instructions are issued forbidding the purchase of property from Armenian deportees.
August 28
The students of the Sanasarian Academy in the city of Sivas are murdered in the town of Gemerak some thirty miles southwest of Sivas.
August 31
Talaat tells the German ambassador, Prince Ernst Hohenlohe-Langenburg, that the Armenian Question no longer exists. Hohenlohe had assumed the German ambassadorship on July 20.
September 2
4,750 Armenians are murdered in Jezire.
September 3
10,000 survivors from the Armenians deported from Bursa and Izmid (Izmit) arrive in Konia (Konya).
September 3
The New York Times reports that Izmid (Izmit) had been put to the torch and the Armenians massacred.
September 3
15,000 Armenian deportees are reported at Eskishehir, 5,000 at Alayund, and 2,000 at Chai.
September 6
In Marsovan (Merzifon), of the 62 Armenian girls who had been saved by American missionaries, on this date only 21 remained. 21 others had been abducted by Turks.
September 6
The Interior Ministry orders all Armenian schools to be placed at the disposal of Turkish authorities.
September 7
Massacres of Armenians are carried out in Yozgat District.
September 7
The War Ministry instructs that the goods requisitioned from the Armenians are to be distributed to the Third, Fourth, and Iraq Armies.
September 7
The second Liquidation Commission in Kayseri is organized.
September 8
5,000 Armenian deportees are reported at xxxanti.
September 10
On the fifty-third day of the Armenian defense in Musa Dagh, 4,058 persons are rescued by three English and one French warship, which transport the survivors to Port Said in Egypt.
September 11
6,000 Armenian deportees in transit left Adana in the direction of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor).
September 12
A Fifth Army notice advises that the Islamization of Armenian soldiers is the responsibility of the civilian authorities.
September 13
The Turkish Red Crescent Society asks that all cotton goods, and other necessities be granted to the organization from the 'abandoned goods' of the Armenian deportees.
September 14
The New York Times reports the murder of 350,000 Armenians.
September 14
The survivors of Musa Dagh arrive in Port Said.
September 15
In a circular letter Talaat explains that the real intention of sending the Armenians to the Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) Desert is to annihilate them.
September 16
Talaat sends instructions by circular telegram to mete out the same fate to the Armenian women and children that had been dealt to the Armenian men.
September 16
A circular dispatch is issued advising caution against the looting of the property of foreigners, with special mention of Singer Sewing Machine Company property.
September 16
Talaat send a telegram to Ali Suad Bey, Governor of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor), explaining his responsibilities.
September 17
A circular telegram instructs all district attorneys to sign and seal the account books cataloguing the properties seized from the Armenians.
September 18
In Aleppo, Nuri and Ali Bey consult about the future massacre of the Armenian remnants in the Syrian Desert at Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor).
September 21
A circular telegram authorizes the seizure of all Armenian schools and authorized their placement under the control of local education committees.
September 22
Weekly reports on the number of Armenians dead is requested.
September 22
The War Ministry requisitions for the use of the army all wood and coal in the homes and stores of Armenian deportees.
September 23
300 Armenians are killed in a massacre at Urfa.
September 23
11,000 Armenian deportees from 26 different villages are observed at Afiyon-Karahisar.
September 24
The vice-governor of Bolu, Mufid, wires the Interior Ministry that the Armenians of Bolu are about to be deported.
September 24
The local Ittihad Secretary informs the Interior Ministry that 61,000 Armenians had been deported up to this date from Chankri and Angora. He also reports that the Muslims of Angora Province worship the Ittihad party and government for its committed deeds and that the same can be secured in Bolu if the same measures are taken there.
September 25
The Sanitation Division of the War Ministry requisitions all the medical implements and pharmaceuticals held by Armenians.
September 25
24 Armenian schools in Kayseri alone are requisitioned in four days.
September 26
A Law on Abandoned Goods is ratified by the Ottoman Senate legalizing ex post facto the looting by the government of the properties of the Armenians.
September 27
The Interior Ministry by circular telegram orders the deportation of all Armenian women, children, and the sick.
September 28
The German ambassador in the United States, Johann Heinrich Count von Bernstorff, suggests that the stories about massacres in Turkey are fabricated
September 28
A circular telegram advises that all Armenian property now belongs to the Turkish government.
September 28
The governor-general of Diyarbekir Province, Dr. Reshid, reports to the Interior Ministry that more than 120,000 Armenians have been deported from Diyarbekir Province.
September 29
By this date 10,000 Armenian deportees had arrived at Afiyon-Karahisar, 50,000 had arrived at Konia (Konya), 10,000 had arrived at Intille (Intili), while 150,000 were reported at Katma.
September 30
The deportees from Yalova, Angora, and Kastomuni (Kastamoni) are numbered at 250,000.Leave a comment:
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Click on the names of highlighted cities, towns, and other locations to view a map of the genocide.
April 1
The mass arrest of Armenian political leaders is carried out in Sivas and other provinces.
April 2
General robbery and arrests of Armenians are reported throughout Bitlis and Erzerum Provinces.
April 2
In Sivas Province, battalions of gendarmery and 4000 chetes begin regular attacks on Armenian villages with increasing brutality.
April 3
(Easter week) Mass arrests and a search for weapons are carried out in Marash and Hadjin (Hajen), with the seizure of all arms, including household knives. Numerous rapes during the house searches are reported.
April 5
In Marash Turks demand 5,000 jackasses from the Armenians in an excuse to loot.
April 8
Turkish emigrants from Bosnia are settled by the government in the villages of Zeitun District. 8,000 Turkish regulars are reported in Zeitun.
April 8
The famous monastery of Zeitun is burned by the Turks.
April 9
Turks declare a meeting in Marash to deport the Armenians. The Turkish government forbids civilian action on the ground that the March 16 Army command covered the situation.
April 11
Talaat tells the Armenian parliamentary deputy Bedros Halajian that there will be no massacres.
April 12
Widespread attacks on, and looting of, Armenian villages in Bitlis and Erzerum Provinces are fed by the accusation that the Armenians caused the war.
March
(toward the end of the month) The Turkish government forbids American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to send coded messages to the American consuls and deprives him of his diplomatic prerogative of receiving communications uncensored.
April 14
The governor-general of Van, Tahir Jevdet invites the Armenian parliamentary deputies from Van and the Dashnak leader Ishkhan to attend a conference.
April 15
Armenian refugees from villages surrounding the city of Van arrive and notify the inhabitants that 80 villages in Van Province were already obliterated and that 24,000 Armenians had been killed in three days.
April 16
The Armenian leaders Vramian and Ishkhan are slain during the night in the Kurdish village of Hirj by chetes on orders from Governor-general Tahir Jevdet.
April 17
Friendly Kurds inform the inhabitants of Van of the assassination of Vramian and Ishkhan.
April 17
The Armenians organize defense against the sudden attack by Turkish forces on the city of Van. (They hold out until advance units of the Russian Army consisting of Armenian volunteers arrive to their rescue on May 23, 1915).
April 18
Until the end of April 32,000 more Armenians are slain in the villages of Van Province, including the inhabitants of remote villages.
April 18
In Erzerum, Turkish civilians declare intentions to hold a meeting. The Army forbid it. Similar gatherings in other centers are also forbidden on the grounds that the Army is the agency responsible for handling the Armenians.
April 18
The Governor-general of Van Province demands that the Armenians of the city of Van surrender their weapons. The Armenians refuse as chete units were harassing the surrounding villages.
April 19
House searches are made in Diyarbekir and widespread persecution takes place.
April 20
The deportation of the 25,000 Armenians of Zeitun is completed.
April 20
The first large-scale arrests of Armenians are made in Diyarbekir upon the orders of Governor-general Reshid.
April 20
Twenty Armenian Social Democratic Hnchak Party members are brought to the Central Prison in Constantinople to face court martial. They are hanged publicly on June 2, 1915.
April 24
250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders are arrested in Constantinople and sent to Chankri and Ayash, where they are later slain.
April 24
The editors and staff of Azadamart, the leading Armenian newspaper of Constantinople, are arrested, and on June 15 are slain in Diyarbekir, where they had been transported and imprisoned.
April 24
The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople and Zohrab, Armenian deputy in the Ottoman Parliament, petition the Grand Vizier, Said Halim, the Minister of the Interior Talaat, and the President of the Senate, Rifat, on behalf of the arrested Armenians of Constantinople. Though approached separately, all three give identical answers; that the government is isolating the Armenian leadership and dissolving the Armenian political organizations.
April 26
Three Armenians are hanged publicly in Mush without trial.
April 27
A second meeting in Erzerum to organize a communal massacre is disbanded by the government as interference in the affairs of the Army.
April 27
26 Armenian leaders are arrested in Marsovan (Merzifon). A two-week-long search for weapons is started accompanied by acts of violence and the abuse of women.
April 29
Russian citizens of Armenian origin are arrested in Constantinople.
April 29
The disarming of the Armenians of Constantinople is carried out with many outrages.
April 30
The vice-governor of Erzinjan begins the persecution of the Armenians with the arrest of many intellectuals.
May 1
The arrest of the Armenian professors and teachers of the American Euphrates College in Kharput is started.
May 2
Halil Pasha's forces are defeated by the Russian Army in the Caucasus and in northern Iran, and retreat to Van, Bitlis, and Mush, where they participate in the massacre of the Armenians.
May 2
3,000 English and French civilians are arrested in Constantinople.
May 3
House searches are made in Aleppo.
May 3
Macedonian Turkish immigrants are installed in Zeitun by the government.
May 3
The deportations from the villages of Erzerum Province are started.
May 4
The mass arrests of Armenian leaders in Aintab are begun.
May 4
200 Armenian leaders in Erzerum are arrested.
May 5
Arrests and persecutions begin in Kharput.
May 6
Allied nationals in Beirut (Beyrut) are deported to Damascus and dispersed from there.
May 6
The New York Times reports that the Young Turks had adopted a policy to annihilate the Armenians.
May 9
Lord Grey, British Minister of Foreign Affairs, sends a message to Enver holding him personally responsible should anything happen to the 3,000 captive English and French civilians.
May 10
950 prominent Armenians are arrested in Diyarbekir on orders from Dr. Reshid, the governor-general of Diyarbekir Province.
May 10
The Armenian refugees from Zeitun found in Marash, who had previously been spared deportation, are removed to the Syrian Desert.
May 12
Vartkes, an Armenian deputy in the Ottoman Parliament, visits Talaat to protest the arrests of April 24.
May 14
English and French civilian prisoners are deported to the interior of Anatolia.
May 14
38 Armenian community leaders are arrested in the town of Chomaklu in Kayseri Province and shortly thereafter executed.
May 15
The Armenian community leaders in the town of Bayburt are arrested and subsequently killed in Urbajioghli-Dere.
May 15
Armenians are deported from the northern villages of Erzerum Province.
May 18
Courts martial are set up in Marash to try the Armenian leaders arrested there shortly earlier.
May 19
Advance troops of the Russian Army in the Caucasus led by Armenian volunteers reach Van and lift the siege of city.
May 19
Armenians in the Khnus region of Erzerum Province are massacred.
May 21
Regular Russian Army forces arrive in Van. They begin the cremation of the dead in the city and in the villages of the province. 55,000 dead are identified as Armenians.
May 21
Armenian parliamentary deputy Vartkes visits Police Commissioner Osman Bedri to protest the arrests of the Constantinople Armenian community leaders.
May 22
Turkish refugees are settled in the emptied Armenian villages of the Tortum District of Erzerum Province.
May 24
A note is sent by the Allied Powers to the Turkish Cabinet holding it responsible for the massacres of the Armenians.
May 25
Armenian parliamentary deputies Zohrab and Vartkes are arrested in Constantinople and later murdered while in custody in Kara-Kopru.
May 27
German Marshal Otto Liman von Sanders reports that the deportations were planned by the Committee of Union and Progress, and received the approval of all the ministries, and that the execution of the plans was placed in the hands of the governors-general, their subordinates, and the police.
May 27
The promulgation of the Temporary Law of Deportation, months after the depopulation of the Armenian settlements had been initiated.
May 27
2,000 Armenians are deported from Marash.
May 27
300 Armenians arrested on May 10 in Diyarbekir are murdered while in custody.
May 29
Talaat is reported to have said that he was going to give to the Armenians a new and final residence.
May 29
630 Armenians arrested on May 10 in Diyarbekir are murdered in the village of Bisheri while in custody and their bodies are thrown in the Tigris River.
May 31
Two weeks of outrages perpetrated against the Armenians of the town of Chomaklu under the guise of forcing the Armenians to give up their arms are ended.
May 31
German Ambassador Hans von Wangenheim advises against German interference in the deportations.
June 3
Ayub Bey, an arch-assassin, leaves Adana for Aleppo in connection with the organizing of massacres.
June 4
Enver issues a circular dispatch classified secret and urgent concerning the deportations.
June 7
The first convoy of Armenian deportees leave Erzinjan toward Kemakh on their way to the Syrian Desert.
June 7
The Armenian Prelate of Shabin-Karahisar, Vaghinag Vartabed, is assassinated.
June 7
The Armenians of Constantinople appeal to the German and the Austrian Embassies to prevent the deportations and associated outrages, but receive no satisfactory reply.
June 7
The Armenians arrested in Sivas on April 1 and transported to Angora Province are murdered in the woods of Meshedler-Yeri. The mass slaughter is witnessed by Greek woodcutters who report the news to the Armenians of Sivas.
June 8
The second convoy of deportees from Erzinjan leaves for the Syrian Desert.
June 9
The third convoy of Armenians departs from Erzinjan.
June 9
Three Armenian medical officers, Dr. Hairanian, Dr. Baghdasar Vartanian, and Dr. Maksud, serving in the Turkish Army are murdered in the city of Sivas.
June 10 to June 13
Over a period of four days the Armenians deported from the towns and villages of Erzerum Province are slaughtered in a major massacre at Kemakh.
June 13
The War Ministry orders the seizure of all the domestic animals of the Armenians.
June 13
The War Ministry notifies that the permits given to Armenians exempting them from the deportations and safety certificates are only provisional and temporary.
June 13
25,000 Armenians are murdered by the fourth day of the Kemakh massacre. The 86th Cavalry Brigade with its officers and the 2nd Reserve Cavalry Division of the Turkish Army participate in the slaughter.
June 13
Instructions concerning procedures for the deportations and urging extreme strictness are sent to provincial governors.
June 14
Subhi Bey, the assistant to the Undersecretary of the Interior Ministry asks for a list of Armenians working in the shipyards, docks, and arsenals of the Ministry of the Marine.
June 14
The third convoy of Armenian deportees from the town of Bayburt departs.
June 14
300 Armenian community leaders are arrested in Shabin-Karahisar.
June 15
Twenty members of Armenian Social Democratic Hnchak Party are publicly hanged in Constantinople as a signal to the provinces to intensify measures.
June 15
Twelve Armenian community leaders are publicly hanged in Sivas.
June 15
The Armenians of Shabin-Karahisar organize defense against chete forces and the regular Turkish Army.
June 16
3,500 Armenian men are seized in a mass arrest in Sivas Province.
June 17
Talaat is reported to have declared that he will uproot the internal enemy.
June 17
1,213 Armenian men are arrested in Marsovan (Merzifon).
June 17
8,500 Armenians withdraw into the ruined castle of Shabin-Karahisar to defend themselves against the Turks.
June 18
160 families are deported from city of Erzinjan.
June 19
A second convoy composed of 300 families leaves the city of Erzerum.
June 21
The governor-general of Aleppo, Jelal Bey, resigns in protest against the deportation order and the massacres.
June 21
Talaat sends instructions to prevent the populace from robbing the abandoned goods of the Armenians.
June 23
The Interior Ministry advises provincial governors that the Commission on Abandoned Goods will have charge of the resettlement of Turkish Muslim immigrants.
June 23
The Interior Ministry advises taking the precaution of separating the convoys of Armenian deportees by a distance of five hours.
June 23
The wholesale arrest of 1,500 men is carried out in Sivas Province.
June 23
First large-scale massacre of Armenian men is carried out in the town of Kharput.
June 23
Wholesale arrests are made in Bitlis of the scattered remnant Armenians who had escaped the previous series of massacres.
June 23
Massacres of Armenian Christians, Maronites, Nestorians, Europeans, Catholics, and other non-Muslim people in the city of Mardin are carried out under the direct order of Dr. Reshid, the governor-general of Diyarbekir Province.
June 24
The Armenian notables of Trebizond are sent by boat toward Samsun, and on the way are thrown, tightly bound together, into the Black Sea.
June 25
The massacre of Armenians of Bitlis is carried out under the direct orders of Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda.
June 26
The remaining Armenian men in Sivas are arrested.
June 25
A government decree instructs the 30,000 Armenians in Trebizond to leave the city within 5 days.
June 26
An decree issued in Erzerum orders all Armenians to leave for Syria.
June 26
An decree issued in Samsun orders all Armenians to leave within 15 days.
June 28
The previously arrested Armenian educators and community leaders in Kharput are transported from prison to be murdered.
June 29
Vartkes and Zohrab, two Armenian deputies in the Ottoman Parliament, deported from Constantinople, arrive in custody in Aleppo.
June 30
3,000 Armenians from the city of Erzerum are murdered while being deported.
June 30
6,000 Armenians from Zeitun arrive in the Konia Desert and nearby malarial marshes.Leave a comment:
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1915
January 1
The Ittihad representative of Bursa reports to the Ittihad Central Committee that local criminals and bandits have been registered in the Special Organization.
January 1
Nuri, the vice-governor of Gavar District in Van Province, receives orders from the military governor to kill the Armenian soldiers in the Turkish Army who were stationed in his district.
January 5
The Turkish government publicly charges that Armenian bakers in the army bakeries of Sivas were poisoning the bread of the Turkish forces. The bakers are cruelly beaten, despite the fact that a group of doctors prove the charge to be false by examining the bread and even eating it. As this marks an attempt on the part of the government to incite massacre, the government does not rescind the charge.
January 8
Turkish and Kurdish chetes (Halil Pasha's "First Corps") attack Armenian and Assyrian villages in northwest Persia. They remain around the city of Tavriz (Tabriz) and the city of Urmia from January 8 until January 29, 1915. From Urmia alone, more than 18,000 Armenians, together with many Assyrians and even Persian Muslims, flee to the Caucasus.
January 12
Ahmed Muammer, the governor-general of Sivas Province, orders the destruction of Tavra-Koy and other strategically located villages around the city of Sivas in order to make future defense impossible for the Armenians. Inside the city of Sivas strategically-located buildings were requisitioned.
January 16
The last actions of the Battle of Sarikamish are reported. The Turkish army is totally defeated and almost destroyed with a loss of 70,000 men out of 85,000.
January 19
Enver arrives in Sivas by automobile from Erzerum after his calamitous defeat at Sarikamish. He instructs the Army to accept only his orders and none hereafter from the German commanders and to draft at once all those deferred in the 20 to 40 age group, along with all males between the ages of 18 and 20 and 45 to 52.
January 22
Enver arrives in Constantinople by automobile from Sivas. After his arrival, he makes a speech congratulating the Armenians for admirably doing their duty on the Caucasian Front and elsewhere. Enver seeks to lull the Armenians of Constantinople who had not yet experienced the general persecutions in the provinces because of the presence of a large European community in the city.
January 23
Enver, now actively Minister of War again, issues a general order to shoot all persons resisting his orders.
February 2
Talaat advises German Ambassador Count Hans von Wangenheim that the war is the only propitious moment to conclude the Armenian Question.
February 10
S. Pasdermadjian, the Second Director of the Ottoman Bank, is murdered in the presence of German Major-General Posseldt, who reported that no investigation was carried or was any attempt made by the Turkish authorities to apprehend the guilty parties.
February 10
Enver's brother-in-law, Hafiz Hakki, dies of typhus and is replaced by Mahmud Kamil as Commander of the Third Army (Erzerum).
February 14
Tahir Jevdet, the governor-general of Van Province, is reported saying that the government must begin finishing the Armenians in Van at once.
February
The vice-governor of Mush orders 70 gendarmes to attack the village of Koms and to kill the Armenian Dashnak leader Rupen and all persons with him. Rupen and his companions resist and eventually escape to the Caucasus.
February 19
Talaat, Osman Bedri, and other Ittihadist leaders decide in a meeting that should Allied naval ships force the Dardanelles, the Turks would burn Constantinople, blow up the Hagia Sophia, and slaughter the Christian inhabitants. Kerosene is distributed to all police stations in Constantinople for ready use in such an eventuality.
February 21
An attack by chetes on the village of Purk near Shabin-Karahisar results in looting, murder, rape.
February 26
Vramian, an Armenian parliamentary deputy from Van, writes Talaat advising him to remove the large number of chetes in Van Province.
February 27
In Sivas Province a general attack is reported on many Armenian villages accompanied by raping, looting, and an increasingly larger number of killings.
February 27
In the village of Chomaklu in Kayseri Province and in other places, the government demands all weapons from the Armenians.
March 1
In Marash, the Armenians in the Turkish Army are deprived of their uniforms and arms.
March 3
A dispatch from the Ittihad Central Committee is released announcing the decision to exterminate the Armenians.
March 3
Armenian soldiers in the Erzerum army area are deprived of their uniforms and arms.
March 3
The British decide to attack the Dardanelles.
March 5
In Van Province, regular gendarmes and chetes are reported attacking many villages inhabited by Armenians and Assyrians.
March 7
A search for weapons is conducted in Iskenderun (Alexandretta) and a mass arrest of Armenians carried out.
March 9
Chetes and regular Army units attack Zeitun. Six Turkish gendarmes are killed by individuals resisting the attack.
March 12
Massacres and robberies are carried in Alashkert District as part of a general campaign led by the chetes forces against the Armenian villages of the district.
March 12
Mass arrests of Armenians are carried out in Dortyol and a public announcement is made that those arrested would be sent to work on road construction near Aleppo. They are never heard of again.
March 12
Enver leaves for Berlin to see Kaiser Wilhelm II.
March
A traveling commission of parliamentary deputies tours all the cities of Anatolia. The commission includes Dr. Fazil Berki, parliamentary deputy from Chankri, Ubedulla, parliamentary deputy from Smyrna, and Behaeddin Shakir, member of the Central Committee of the Ittihad Party. They address the Turkish population in the mosques describing the Armenians as internal enemies which must destroyed.
March
In Sivas Province the population in all the Armenian villages is disarmed.
March 14
Sahag, the Catholicos of Cilicia, advises the Armenians of Zeitun not to resist under any conditions.
March 16
Russian forces advance between Urmia and Tavriz.
March 18
An Allied attack on the Dardanelles begins.
March 18
In Zeitun, the Turkish forces arrest many of the remaining Armenian notables and intellectuals whom they torture and finally kill.
March 19
Six Armenian soldiers from the town of Gurun are publicly hanged in Sivas to frighten the Armenian population.
March 19
Greek recruits are massacred near Smyrna.
March
Omer Naji, a circulating Ittihad propagandist, travels to Aleppo, Adana and nearby towns to arouse the Muslims.
March 24
Chetes and gendarmes attack Armenians in the towns of Bayburt (Papert) and Terchan in Erzerum Province, and in Bitlis.
March 26
Sahag, Catholicos of Cilicia, renews his instruction to the Armenians of Zeitun not to resist.
March 26
Thirty more Armenian community leaders are arrested in Zeitun.
March 28
The Armenian Dashnak leader, Murad, resists arrest in Sivas and flees to the mountains, and after many daring escapes reaches the Caucasus.
March 28
Hamid, the governor-general of Diyarbekir Province, is removed for opposing the order of massacre, and is replaced by Dr. Reshid.
March 29
In Aleppo, the capital of the province, Jemal Pasha falsely announces that the Armenians of Zeitun are in revolt and therefore he is instructing the military authorities, to the exclusion of the civilian government, to take measures to punish the Armenians.
March 29
Artillery and three regiments of the regular army are sent to Zeitun as reinforcements for the three battalions which had arrived in the town in January and February.
March 30
Mass beatings and tortures are inflicted on the Armenians of Chomaklu.
March 31
In Marash, Turks announce a mass meeting to prepare a massacre. Acting under the terms of the March 29 order, the government forbids civilians to take matters into their own hands.
March 31
Deportation of Armenians from Zeitun begins. Some of the inhabitants are sent to the Konia Desert in central Anatolia. The rest are sent to Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) in the Syrian Desert.
March
Azadamart, the leading Armenian newspaper in Constantinople is closed by an order of the government issued through the office of the Police Commissioner of Constantinople, Osman Bedri. 300 Turkish pounds in the petty cash box are stolen. The printing presses are removed to the Ittihad Press, where the organ Tanin was published by the CUP, with Huseyin Jahid (Yalchin) as editor-in-chief, and Ahmed Emin as associate editor.Leave a comment:
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Chronology of the Armenian Genocide
Credit:
ANI
Armenian National Institute
1914
February 21
A Turkish boycott of Armenian businesses is declared by the Ittihadists. Dr. Nazim travels throughout the provinces to implement the boycott.
February 26
The police spy David notifies Reshad Bey, Chief of the Political Section of the Constantinople Police Department that he is providing the names, biographies, pictures, and speeches about reform, as well as other data, of two thousand leading Armenians.
March 2
Parliamentary elections held in Turkey with only candidates approved by the CUP winning seats.
March 14
The Ittihadist Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda, the vice-governor of Seghert, is appointed governor-general of Bitlis Province.
July 28
Negotiations are started between the Turkish and German Imperial governments.
August 1
Germany declares war on Russia. Beginning of World War I.
August 2
A secret treaty of alliance is signed between Turkey and Germany virtually placing the Turkish armed forces under German command.
August 3
The Turkish government sends sealed envelopes containing a general mobilization order to district and village councils, with the strict instructions that they were not to be opened until further notice. A fortnight later, with the approval of the Ittihad Committee, instructions are issued to open the envelopes.
August 8
Censorship of all telegraphic communication is announced by the government.
August 18
Looting is reported in Sivas, Diyarbekir, and other provinces, under the guise of collecting war contributions. Stores owned by Armenian and Greek merchants are vandalized.
August 18
1,080 shops owned by Armenians are burned in the city of Diyarbekir.
August 22
The male population between the ages of 20 and 45 is conscripted by the Turkish armed forces.
August 28
Turkish troops are garrisoned in Armenian schools and churches in Sivas Province. In the city of Sivas, 56,000 soldiers of the 10th Army Corps are quartered in and around the Christian districts.
September 8
The Turkish government abrogates the Capitulations (the commercial and judicial rights of the Europeans in the Ottoman Empire).
September 11
The Armenian National Assembly, composed of civil and religious representatives, meets in Constantinople and advises Armenians in the provinces to remain calm in the face of provocation.
September 27
The Dardanelles Straits are closed to foreign shipping.
September 27
News reaches Constantinople about the demand made by the government of the Armenian population in Zeitun to turn in its weapons, including all types of knives.
September 30
The government distributes arms to the Muslim residents of the town of Keghi in Erzerum Province on the excuse that the Armenians there were unreliable.
October 1
All foreign postal services in Turkey are closed on government order.
October 1
Nazaret Chavush, the most notable Armenian leader in Zeitun, is murdered on the order of Haidar Pasha, governor of Marash.
October 7
News reaches Constantinople of looting under the guise of war contributions in Shabin-Karahisar.
October 10
News that 'the war contribution' looting of Armenians was continuing in Diyarbekir Province.
October 10
In Zeitun, all the Armenian notables are called to a meeting. About three score attend and are immediately arrested.
October 13
News of requisitions imposed on Armenian businesses as 'war contributions' reaches Constantinople from every province.
October 13
News reaches Constantinople of starvation and the spread of disease in Sivas Province because of the desperate conditions created by the 'war contributions' campaign conducted against the Armenians.
October 17
Bands of chetes begin looting, violating women and children, and large-scale murdering in Erzerum Province
October 17
Leaders of the Armenian nationalist Dashnak party organization in Erzerum are arrested.
October 22
Enver authorizes the combined German-Turkish navy to carry out a stealth attack on Russia without declaration of war.
October 29
Hostilities are opened between Turkey and Russia with the shelling of the Russian Black Sea coast by Ottoman naval vessels under German command.
November 2
Russia formally declares war against the Ottoman Empire.
November 9
News from the interior of Turkey reaches the Armenian community of Constantinople that persecutions already exceed earlier actions against the Armenians.
November 11
A Proclamation of Jihad, directed against England, France, and Russia, is issued in Constantinople legitimating the formation of the chete organizations.
November 13
Unfounded accusations are launched against the Armenians that they had revolted and were preparing to join the Russian forces.
November 14
The village of Otsni in Erzerum Province is attacked at night by chete forces. The local Armenian priest and many other Armenians are killed. Every house is looted. The first attacks by chete forces on the Armenian villages of Erzerum are reported.
November 18
The Jihad Proclamation is read in all the provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
November 19
Mass executions of Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army takes place in various public squares for the purpose of terrorizing the Armenians, while with voluntary contributions, Armenians were building several hospitals for the use of the Turkish army through the Red Crescent Society.
November 20
Orders are issued from Constantinople instructing the provincial administrators to oust all Armenian functionaries in the service of the Ottoman government.
November 21
In Mush, Ittihadist agents distribute arms to the Turkish population after arousing them with false stories of Armenian outrages.
November 23
Previously undisturbed Armenian schools and churches in Sivas Province, together with many private residences, are requisitioned by the Turkish army for use as barracks. The carts, horses, and other travel equipment of the Armenian villagers in the provinces are confiscated.
November 26
Robbery and looting on a large scale is reported in Van Province.
November 26
The War Ministry distributes explosives, rifles, and other equipment to the irregular forces of the Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa).
November 26
Enver's uncle, Halil Pasha, the military governor of Constantinople, begins organizing Special Organization units in Constantinople by enrolling criminals released from prison.
November 29
Halil Pasha instructs the governor of Izmid (Izmit) to identify leaders for Special Organization units and to release criminals from prisons to join these bands.
November 29
The vice-governor of Izmid (Izmit) arms the Special Organization with weapons supplied by the War Ministry.
November 29
Chete forces consisting of intentionally released convicts are armed by the government in Van Province. In the region of Van requisitions take the form of open robbery and looting.
November 30
Having completed his job organizing the Special Organization in Artvin, Behaeddin Shakir is instructed to move on to Trebizond.
November 30
The central command of the Special Organization sends instruction for supplying the chete bands with money, vehicles, and others equipment.
December
The beginning of a series of isolated murders to terrorize the Armenian population.
December 1
Reports reach Constantinople that raids by irregular chete forces on the Armenian villages of Erzerum Province are continuing.
December 2
Turks loot the properties of subjects of Allied nations.
December 3
The Ittihad Inspector of Balikesir sends a message to Dr. Nazim of the central committee of the Special Organization via Midhat Shukri, the Central Secretary of Ittihad, that the Interior Ministry and the Ittihad Committee, in accordance with issued orders, are busy organizing the irregular chete bands.
December 5
Reports continue reaching Constantinople that chete raids on the Armenian villages of Erzerum Province are continuing.
December 6
Armenians are put to use as porters of army supplies in Erzerum, Trebizond, and Sivas Provinces under the worst of cold winter conditions for the purpose of letting them die of overwork and illness.
December 14
The Turkish Cabinet charges Enver with command of the offensive on the Caucasian front and assigns Talaat the position of Acting Minister of War while retaining his position as Minister of the Interior.
December 22
An attack by the Ottoman Third Army corps opens the Battle of Sarikamish on the Caucasian Front.
December 23
Foreign missionaries abandon the interior of Turkey as crosses on missions are broken by the Turks and replaced by crescents.
December 31
Sahag Odabashian, the newly appointed Prelate of Erzinjan, while traveling from Constantinople via Sivas to Erzinjan, where he was to be installed in office, is slain in the village of Kanli-Tash, near Shabin-Karahisar, by six chetes organized by Ahmed Muammer, the governor-general of Sivas Province.
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