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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
298
But when they reached their posts the World War broke out,
and Turkey joined the Central Powers in November 19 14.
The Armenians during the Great War.
On the outbreak of the Great War the Armenians held, at
the end of July 1914, a conference in Erzerum, at which they
discussed their attitude in case of war, in view of the fact that
their country was divided into two portions by the frontier.
Then some Young Turkish delegates arrived and, stating
that their Government intended to go to war with Russia,
endeavoured by golden promises of future autonomy to
get the Armenians to rebel against the Russians. But the
Armenians refused, expressing themselves strongly against
Turkey’s participation in the war, though they promised to
do their duty if war came.
The Young Turkish leaders were furious, and gradually
evolved a plan for exterminating the intractable Armenian
" vermin." A letter, dated February 18, 191 5, from a member
of the central committee of the Young Turks to Jemal Bey
at Adana (Cilicia)—who was the dictator in Syria during the
war—and written " by order of a responsible authority,"
states that the central committee had " decided to liberate
the fatherland from the tyranny of this accursed race, and to
bear upon its patriotic shoulders the disgrace which that step
will bring upon Osmanli history. The committee . . . have
decided to exterminate all Armenians living in Turkey,
withoutpermittinga single soul to escape, and have therefore
granted the Government plenary powers. The Government
will give to the valis and commanders of the anny the necessary
hints as to the arrangement of the massacres." l
Careful preparations were made for carrying this plan into
effect. Forces of gendarmes, selected for their anti-Christian
bias, were dispatched all over East Anatolia to look for arms
in the houses of the Christians ; numbers of the more promi
nent Armenians were arrested, some being examined under
torture in order to force them to reveal information about
stores of arms and espionage. Bands of all sorts of roughs
Sce A. M. Bencdictsen, Armenicn, p. 246 f., Copenhagen, 1925.
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