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Translated by The Genocide Archive Project
Title: Here is the Truth in the Black Covered Book
From a series appearing in the Istanbul daily Hurriyet, 25 April 2005
By Murat Bardakci
Prime Minister Talaat Pasha had carefully recorded the post 1915 population
movements and statistics in a 10x15 cm size notebook, kept with care to this
day by his wife Hayriye and Talaat’s granddaughter Aysegul Bafrali.
According to Talaat Pasha’s notes, the number of Armenians subjected to
mandatory deportations in accordance with the “Temporary Deportation Law”
issued on 27 May 1915 is 924,158. The city where the exile was enforced the
most extensively was Sivas with 141,592 people, while the province of Konya
was the least with 4,381 people.
The figures about the Armenian deportations make up the third section of
Talaat Pasha’s black covered notebook. The Pasha first notes the number of
Armenians that were subjected to mandatory deportations on the pages devoted to the deportations. Then, he provides a list of how many Armenians and the
provinces of the Empire against which the Law of Deportations were enforced.
Later in the notebook, the breakdown of Armenian orphans not deported is
given per province, followed by a summary of the buildings, real estate,
farms, mines and franchises left behind by or expropriated from Armenians.
According to Talaat Pasha’s notes, the number of Armenians subjected to
mandatory deportations in accordance with the “Temporary Deportation Law”
issued on 27 May 1915 is 924,158. The city where the exile was enforced the
most extensively was Sivas with 141,592 people while the province of Konya
was the least with 4,381 people.
However, it can be seen that the Pasha shows 270 fewer deportees in one of
the provinces.
THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENT OF THE DEPORTATIONS
Being a primary document on the Armenian deportations, the above list appears in the black covered book of Prime Minister Talaat Pasha as shown.
After this page comes a breakdown of the orphans and a summary of the
buildings, real estate, farms, mines and franchises left behind by the
Armenians.
Talaat Pasha Joins the Debate 90 Years Later
The Prime Minister “the Minister of the Interior and the architect of the
Deportations” Talaat Pasha, is speaking today for the first time since the
events of 1915 exactly 90 years ago and taking part in the deportation
discussions with documents in his private archive that haven’t been published up to now!
Yesterday, I had written the following on my page in my introduction of
the article series as well. The deportation numbers and other information
found in this series are based upon a 10x15 cm size notebook I took with the
intention of publishing from Talaat Pasha’s wife Hayriye and Talaat’s
granddaughter Aysegul Bafrali that belonged to the Pasha and other documents
of his that have been with me for years. The black covered book in which the Pasha had the post 1915 population movements and statistics recorded
has three parts: the Muslim refugees, the Armenian deportees, those Greeks
and Arabs that likewise have been deported for anti-state activities and
the real-estate that was left behind by the non-Muslims.
At the very start of the series, I must draw your attention to one matter:
Due to the lack of essential, realistic studies on these subjects up to now,
the numbers in the black covered notebook of Talaat Pasha and his other
documents may sound very strange or even high to some of us. However, with
every single one of them being a primary source, these numbers are like
defense exhibits against the ˜genocide” accusations full of exaggerated
figures.
Let the willingly ignorant among us who say, “We not only slaughtered the
Armenians but the Kurds too. Let us apologize for the genocide we perpetrated and let the issue be settled” cast no shadow and let our
academics lay the shallow “we didn’t kill them; they killed us” aside
and take a learned approach.
Let Leylegian rest assured. We turned Talat Pasha’s tomb into a dump.
You must have seen it in the newspapers: the president of the organization
based in Brussels called ˜European Armenian Federation”, Laurent Leylegiyan,
made some strange demands last week from the Turkish government.
Evidenced by his demands that betray a complete harmony between his name and
his mindset, Mr. Leylekyan wanted the demolition of the mausoleum of Talaat
Pasha in Istanbul, and a change to street names named after ˜Talaat” and “Enver”; and the closing of the museums showing the Armenian crimes against the Turks; and the laws banning the mention of the “genocide”.
After reading Leylegian’s drivel, I remembered an old Iranian saying,
'Diváne rá kalem nist', in other words, “˜the fool will not be charged for
sinning” and laughed. However, what I saw in the vicinity of Sisli turned
my smile into a bitter grimace and I thought we had already carried out
some of Leylegian’s demands on our own.
Yesterday morning I went to photograph the tomb of Talaat Pasha on the Hill
of Eternal Liberty at Sisli for the purpose of using the pictures in the
series and instead of a tomb, I came across a dump! As if a new revolt had
taken place at the site where the mausoleums of Talaat, Enver, Mahmut Sevket, and Midhat Pashas along with the martyred soldiers in the revolt of
March 31 are found. The lock of the mausoleum below the monument was broken and the tomb downstairs had now become the destination for drunkards. The
tombs in the park were being used as beer cases. In short, everything was heart rending.
The same place was in the same shape days before the reinterring of Enver Pasha’s ashes from Tajikistan. After I had brought the situation to light,
it was hastily cleaned up but following the funeral of the Pasha, all had
returned to the same routine.
Let the president of European Armenian Federation, Laurent Leylegian, rest
assured and not go through the trouble of making such demands of the Turkish
government. As long as the Metropolitan Municipality which is in charge of
the Hill of Eternal Liberty maintain its indifference, there will not
remain a any evidence of the tombs “ not only Talaat Pasha“ but also those
martyrs who are in their eternal sleep here, unless the site is turned over
to the Military!
He was a Postal Clerk but Became a Prime Minister
You must surely know of Talaat Pasha, for whom we have been naming boulevards, streets, neighborhoods and schools, but let me briefly remind you anyway.
His full name being Mehmed Talaat, Talaat Pasha was born in Edirne on 20
August 1874. He lost his father at a young age and entered the Postal and
Telegraphic service to feed his family. He became a founder of Ittihad &
Terakki. He was arrested for his activities against the regime of Abdul
Hamid and was jailed for 25 months and then was exiled to Salonica.
Employed as a mailman here, Mehmed Talaat was elected to Parliament from Edirne after the proclamation of the Second Constitution in 1908. He was made Interior Minister in the cabinet of Hussein Hilmi Pasha, and Minister of Postal and Telegraph Service in the cabinet of Kucuk Said Pasha. Talaat was one of the planners of the raid on the Sublime Porte on 23 January
1913, and one of the three top leaders of the Ittiahad & Terakki Party
together with Enver and Jemal Pashas. He became the Interior Minister once
again in the cabinet of Said Halim Pasha created on June 13, and personally
oversaw the Armenian deportations in 1915. He was made prime minister on 4
February 1917 and received the title “pasha”.
Having resigned on 8 October 1918, upon our defeat in WWI, Talaat Pasha left
Turkey with the other Ittihad & Terakki leaders during the night of 2 November on a German submarine. He first went to Russia, then to Germany.
Talaat Pasha was declared as the “greatest enemy” by Diaspora Armenians
because of the measures he took in the Armenian events in Anatolia during
the war years, and was murdered in Berlin in the morning of 15 March 1921, by an Armenian partisan called Sogomon Tehlirian with a bullet to his neck.
Tehlirian was acquitted in the German court where he was tried. The ashes
of the Pasha were brought to Istanbul from Berlin on 25 February 1944, 24
years after the murder and were interned at the Hill of Eternal Liberty with
great military ceremony.
--
-------------------------------------+----------------------------------
David Davidian <[email protected]> |We can't solve problems by using
Genocide Archive Project, Inc. | the kind of thinking we used
92 Brookside Ave | when we created them. -Einstein
Belmont, MA 02478 |
--
**************************
Dennis R. Papazian, Ph.D.
Professor of History
Director, Armenian Research Center
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
4901 Evergreen Road
Dearborn, MI 48128-1491
O 1-313-593-5181
O Fax 1-313-593-5219
Home: 201-505-1591
Home Fax 201-746-0217
************************
Title: Here is the Truth in the Black Covered Book
From a series appearing in the Istanbul daily Hurriyet, 25 April 2005
By Murat Bardakci
Prime Minister Talaat Pasha had carefully recorded the post 1915 population
movements and statistics in a 10x15 cm size notebook, kept with care to this
day by his wife Hayriye and Talaat’s granddaughter Aysegul Bafrali.
According to Talaat Pasha’s notes, the number of Armenians subjected to
mandatory deportations in accordance with the “Temporary Deportation Law”
issued on 27 May 1915 is 924,158. The city where the exile was enforced the
most extensively was Sivas with 141,592 people, while the province of Konya
was the least with 4,381 people.
The figures about the Armenian deportations make up the third section of
Talaat Pasha’s black covered notebook. The Pasha first notes the number of
Armenians that were subjected to mandatory deportations on the pages devoted to the deportations. Then, he provides a list of how many Armenians and the
provinces of the Empire against which the Law of Deportations were enforced.
Later in the notebook, the breakdown of Armenian orphans not deported is
given per province, followed by a summary of the buildings, real estate,
farms, mines and franchises left behind by or expropriated from Armenians.
According to Talaat Pasha’s notes, the number of Armenians subjected to
mandatory deportations in accordance with the “Temporary Deportation Law”
issued on 27 May 1915 is 924,158. The city where the exile was enforced the
most extensively was Sivas with 141,592 people while the province of Konya
was the least with 4,381 people.
However, it can be seen that the Pasha shows 270 fewer deportees in one of
the provinces.
THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENT OF THE DEPORTATIONS
Being a primary document on the Armenian deportations, the above list appears in the black covered book of Prime Minister Talaat Pasha as shown.
After this page comes a breakdown of the orphans and a summary of the
buildings, real estate, farms, mines and franchises left behind by the
Armenians.
Talaat Pasha Joins the Debate 90 Years Later
The Prime Minister “the Minister of the Interior and the architect of the
Deportations” Talaat Pasha, is speaking today for the first time since the
events of 1915 exactly 90 years ago and taking part in the deportation
discussions with documents in his private archive that haven’t been published up to now!
Yesterday, I had written the following on my page in my introduction of
the article series as well. The deportation numbers and other information
found in this series are based upon a 10x15 cm size notebook I took with the
intention of publishing from Talaat Pasha’s wife Hayriye and Talaat’s
granddaughter Aysegul Bafrali that belonged to the Pasha and other documents
of his that have been with me for years. The black covered book in which the Pasha had the post 1915 population movements and statistics recorded
has three parts: the Muslim refugees, the Armenian deportees, those Greeks
and Arabs that likewise have been deported for anti-state activities and
the real-estate that was left behind by the non-Muslims.
At the very start of the series, I must draw your attention to one matter:
Due to the lack of essential, realistic studies on these subjects up to now,
the numbers in the black covered notebook of Talaat Pasha and his other
documents may sound very strange or even high to some of us. However, with
every single one of them being a primary source, these numbers are like
defense exhibits against the ˜genocide” accusations full of exaggerated
figures.
Let the willingly ignorant among us who say, “We not only slaughtered the
Armenians but the Kurds too. Let us apologize for the genocide we perpetrated and let the issue be settled” cast no shadow and let our
academics lay the shallow “we didn’t kill them; they killed us” aside
and take a learned approach.
Let Leylegian rest assured. We turned Talat Pasha’s tomb into a dump.
You must have seen it in the newspapers: the president of the organization
based in Brussels called ˜European Armenian Federation”, Laurent Leylegiyan,
made some strange demands last week from the Turkish government.
Evidenced by his demands that betray a complete harmony between his name and
his mindset, Mr. Leylekyan wanted the demolition of the mausoleum of Talaat
Pasha in Istanbul, and a change to street names named after ˜Talaat” and “Enver”; and the closing of the museums showing the Armenian crimes against the Turks; and the laws banning the mention of the “genocide”.
After reading Leylegian’s drivel, I remembered an old Iranian saying,
'Diváne rá kalem nist', in other words, “˜the fool will not be charged for
sinning” and laughed. However, what I saw in the vicinity of Sisli turned
my smile into a bitter grimace and I thought we had already carried out
some of Leylegian’s demands on our own.
Yesterday morning I went to photograph the tomb of Talaat Pasha on the Hill
of Eternal Liberty at Sisli for the purpose of using the pictures in the
series and instead of a tomb, I came across a dump! As if a new revolt had
taken place at the site where the mausoleums of Talaat, Enver, Mahmut Sevket, and Midhat Pashas along with the martyred soldiers in the revolt of
March 31 are found. The lock of the mausoleum below the monument was broken and the tomb downstairs had now become the destination for drunkards. The
tombs in the park were being used as beer cases. In short, everything was heart rending.
The same place was in the same shape days before the reinterring of Enver Pasha’s ashes from Tajikistan. After I had brought the situation to light,
it was hastily cleaned up but following the funeral of the Pasha, all had
returned to the same routine.
Let the president of European Armenian Federation, Laurent Leylegian, rest
assured and not go through the trouble of making such demands of the Turkish
government. As long as the Metropolitan Municipality which is in charge of
the Hill of Eternal Liberty maintain its indifference, there will not
remain a any evidence of the tombs “ not only Talaat Pasha“ but also those
martyrs who are in their eternal sleep here, unless the site is turned over
to the Military!
He was a Postal Clerk but Became a Prime Minister
You must surely know of Talaat Pasha, for whom we have been naming boulevards, streets, neighborhoods and schools, but let me briefly remind you anyway.
His full name being Mehmed Talaat, Talaat Pasha was born in Edirne on 20
August 1874. He lost his father at a young age and entered the Postal and
Telegraphic service to feed his family. He became a founder of Ittihad &
Terakki. He was arrested for his activities against the regime of Abdul
Hamid and was jailed for 25 months and then was exiled to Salonica.
Employed as a mailman here, Mehmed Talaat was elected to Parliament from Edirne after the proclamation of the Second Constitution in 1908. He was made Interior Minister in the cabinet of Hussein Hilmi Pasha, and Minister of Postal and Telegraph Service in the cabinet of Kucuk Said Pasha. Talaat was one of the planners of the raid on the Sublime Porte on 23 January
1913, and one of the three top leaders of the Ittiahad & Terakki Party
together with Enver and Jemal Pashas. He became the Interior Minister once
again in the cabinet of Said Halim Pasha created on June 13, and personally
oversaw the Armenian deportations in 1915. He was made prime minister on 4
February 1917 and received the title “pasha”.
Having resigned on 8 October 1918, upon our defeat in WWI, Talaat Pasha left
Turkey with the other Ittihad & Terakki leaders during the night of 2 November on a German submarine. He first went to Russia, then to Germany.
Talaat Pasha was declared as the “greatest enemy” by Diaspora Armenians
because of the measures he took in the Armenian events in Anatolia during
the war years, and was murdered in Berlin in the morning of 15 March 1921, by an Armenian partisan called Sogomon Tehlirian with a bullet to his neck.
Tehlirian was acquitted in the German court where he was tried. The ashes
of the Pasha were brought to Istanbul from Berlin on 25 February 1944, 24
years after the murder and were interned at the Hill of Eternal Liberty with
great military ceremony.
--
-------------------------------------+----------------------------------
David Davidian <[email protected]> |We can't solve problems by using
Genocide Archive Project, Inc. | the kind of thinking we used
92 Brookside Ave | when we created them. -Einstein
Belmont, MA 02478 |
--
**************************
Dennis R. Papazian, Ph.D.
Professor of History
Director, Armenian Research Center
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
4901 Evergreen Road
Dearborn, MI 48128-1491
O 1-313-593-5181
O Fax 1-313-593-5219
Home: 201-505-1591
Home Fax 201-746-0217
************************
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