OFFICIAL 1915 DOCUMENT SWEPT UNDER THE CARPET
Emre Can Daglıoglu 12.17.2014 21:43NEWS
Journalist Murat Bardakcı has announced that a Turkish Historical
Society [TTK] official removed ‘dispatch registers’ kept after the
deportation law was issued in 1915 from the Ottoman archives, and hid
them in the archive of another institution. According to Bardakcı,
this was done not by official procedure, but was the outcome of an
individual’s interference. Even the newly changed administration of
the Turkish Historical Society does not know where these documents
are located at present.
Murat Bardakcı, who has published the books titled ‘Talat PaÃ…~_a’nın
Evrak-ı Metrukesi’ (The Abandoned Documents of Talat Pasha) containing
documents and private correspondence on the Armenian question found in
the private archive of Talat Pasha, and ‘Ä°ttihatcı’nın Sandıgı’
(The Wooden Chest of the Unionist) containing the correspondence of
high-ranking Unionist leaders, has made striking statements regarding
the Ottoman archives, which state officials claim are open on every
occasion. Bardakcı said that a Turkish Historical Society [TTK]
official removed ‘dispatch registers’ kept after the deportation
law was issued in 1915 from the Ottoman archives, and hid them
in the archive of another institution. According to Bardakcı,
this was done not by official procedure, but was the outcome of an
individual’s interference. Even the newly changed administration of
the Turkish Historical Society does not know where these documents
are located at present. Bardakcı added that he guessed that the
‘records on abandoned properties [emval-i metruke]’ were in the same
location as the abovementioned dispatch registers, and that a proper
investigation could unearth all these documents.
Dispatch registers
The dispatch registers mentioned by Bardakcı are lists which include
the number and names of Armenians subjected to forced deportation
in 1915, and from which region they were deported. The dispatch,
or deportation, was carried out according to orders received from
central government, by the keeping of records by local administrators
who implemented the deportation process on the Armenians who were
forced out of their settlements, and the control and updating of these
records at the places they were sent to. The ‘records on abandoned
properties’, on the other hand, contained detailed information
regarding which assets or properties of the deported Armenians
were seized, the address, and number or kind of property, and also
in the same location as the abovementioned dispatch registers, and
also information on the Muslim refugees located in places from which
Armenians were evacuated from, or on the institutions and persons the
assets and properties were passed on to. Bardakcı points out that,
although they do not cover all areas of settlement, a significant
number of dispatch registers and abandoned property records are
presently in the archive. The reason Bardakcı presumes the abandoned
property records and dispatch registers are kept together is that the
Directorate for the Resettlement of Tribes and Refugees [‘Ä°skan-ı
AÃ…~_air ve Muhacirin Muduriyeti’] to which the task of dispatch was
assigned, was also charged with the classification and organization
of abandoned properties.
Taner Akcam: ‘These registers can lead us to very important
information’
Historian Taner Akcam’s comments on Murat Bardakcı’s claims:
“If the mentioned ‘dispatch registers’ are the books within which the
Armenians deported from each town and province are kept, then their
importance cannot be exaggerated. Because these registers could help us
access a lot of information, including first and foremost the numbers
of people exterminated. That is to say, from what we understand both
from the Union and Progress trials that began in Istanbul in 1919, and
from certain documents in the Ottoman archive, the ‘normal’ dispatch,
or deportation, had to be done according to these documents. The
Istanbul Court Martial Authority sought to access these documents
during the hearings, and asked after their location.
As far as we know, no document was delivered to the court during
those years. Similar records must have been kept at places identified
as destinations.
Now let us imagine that we have the names and numbers of 50 families
exiled from Zeitun and reached Aleppo, then we must also know how
many families were forced to set out from Zeitun. The gaps in the
figures could provide us detailed information regarding the acts of
extermination. What I can finally say is that the Turkish Historical
Society has acted in line with its reputation. Of course, one must
also ask: Why were the abandoned property records, along with the
dispatch registers, collected from the archives and concealed at a
different location?”
http://agos.com.tr/en/article/9974/official-1915-document-swept-under-the-carpet