Conditions In The Near East:
Report Of The American Military Mission To Armenia
From: Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord, United States Army.
To: The Secretary of State.
Without visiting the Near East it is not possible for an American to realize even faintly the respect, faith, and affection with which our country is regarded throughout that region.JAMES G. HARBORD,
Whether it is the world-wide reputation which we enjoy for fair dealing, a tribute perhaps to the crusading spirit which carried us into the Great War, not untinged with hope that the same spirit may urge us into the solution of great problems growing out of that conflict, or whether due to unselfish and impartial missionary and educational influence exerted for a century, it is the one faith which is held alike by Christian and Moslem, by Jew and Gentile, by prince and peasant in the Near East.
It is very gratifying to the pride of Americans far from home.
Major General, United States Army, Chief of Mission.
On Board U. S. S. Martha Washington, October 16, 1919
[Armenia is] an area about as large as Montana, without political identity, but existing in 1914 in two parts, the eastern belonging to Russia, which consisted of Kars and Erivan, and some portions of the present territory of Azarbaijan: the remainder being Turkish Armenia, comprised in the Villayets of Van, Bitlis, Erzerum, Diarbekir, Kharput, and Cilicia,
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For over 12 of the 25 centuries of its history Armenia enjoyed independence within borders that shifted with the events of the times. Its last king, Leon VI, an exile from his own land, spent his last years in the effort to bring about an understanding between France and England, then in the struggle of the Hundred Years War, and actually presided at a peace conference near Boulogne in 1386, which brought about the understanding which led to the end of that war.
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...though at an earlier period 16 Byzantine Emperors were of that race, and ruled the eastern Empire with distinction. Many individuals, and even colonies, however, played a part in distant lands. Europe, India, and Persia welcomed them. They were translators, bankers, scholars, artisans,
artists, and traders, and even under their tyrannical masters filled posts which called for administrative ability, became ambassadors and ministers, and more than once saved a tottering throne. They carried on trades, conducted commerce, and designed and constructed palaces. Nevertheless as a race they were forbidden military service, taxed to poverty, their property confiscated at pleasure, and their women forced into the harems of the conqueror. Such slavery leaves some inevitable and unlovable traces upon the character, but in the main the Armenian preserved his religion, his language, and his racial purity, persecution bringing cohesion.
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In 1876 a constitution for Turkey was drawn up by the Armenian Krikor Odian, secretary to Midhat Pasha the reformer, and was proclaimed and almost immediately revoked by Sultan Abdul Hamid.
The foregoing inadequately sketches the story of the wrongs of Armenia down to our own times. From 1876 it is a story of massacre and of broken and violated guaranties.
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On the route traveled by the mission fully 50,000 orphans are to-day receiving Government or other organized care. We estimate a total of perhaps half a million refugee Armenians as available to eventually begin life anew in a region about the size of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, to which would be added those, not refugees, who might return from other lands. The condition of the refugees seen in the Transcaucasus is pitiable to the last degree. They subsist on the charity of the American relief organizations with some help, not great, however, from their more prosperous kinsmen domiciled in that region. Generally they wear the rags they have worn for four years. Eighty per cent of them suffer from malaria, 10 per cent from venereal troubles, and practically all from diseases that flourish on the frontiers of starvation. There are also the diseases that accompany filth, loathsome skin troubles, and great numbers of sore eyes, the latter especially among the children. The hospitals are crowded...
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All circumstances considered, the relief administration in the Trans-caucasus seems to have been conducted with more than average energy. It has rescued the refugees there from starvation, and brought the name of America to a height of sympathy and esteem it has never before enjoyed in this region. It extends now throughout the Near East, and is felt by the wild, ragged Kurd, the plausible Georgian, the suspicious Azarbaijan, the able Armenian, and the grave Turk with equal seriousness. With it or probably because of it there has come widespread knowledge of the Fourteen Points submitted by the President, and "self-determination" has been quoted to the mission by wild Arabs from Shamar and Basra, by every Government in Transcaucasia; by the mountaineers of Daghestan, the dignified and able chiefs of the Turkish Nationalist movement at Sivas and Erzerum, and the nomad Kurds who 10 minutes before had fired at our party thinking us to be Armenians.
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Meantime, the Armenian, unarmed at the time of the deportations and massacres, a brave soldier by thousands in the armies of Russia, France, and America during the war, is still unarmed in a land where every man but himself carries a rifle.
Senate Document No. 266, 66th Congress, 2d Session. Washington
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Anna & Karen Vrtanesyan
Armenia House
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also:
Frequently Asked Questions about the Armenian Genocide
Armenian National Institute
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