Dr. David Gaunt Introduces Audience to New Findings on Assyrian and Armenian Genocides

STAFF REPORT

Dr. David Gaunt Photo: Barlow Der Mugrdechian

Dr. David Gaunt, Professor of History at Södertörn University College, Stockholm, Sweden, gave a lecture entitled "Massacres and Resistance: The Genocide of the Armenians and Assyrians Based on New Archival Evidence" on Tuesday evening, May 8, 2007. The lecture, part of the Spring 2007 Lecture Series of the Armenian Studies Program, was co-sponsored with the Assyrian American National Federation (AANF) and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).

The lecture was based on findings from Dr. Gaunt's recently published book Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I (Gorgias Press, 2006).

Dr. Gaunt spoke about an interesting occurrence that took place in Turkey two weeks before his lecture. He was invited to Turkey to see if it would be possible to work with historians from Turkey in a scientific way. He thought there was a window of opportunity so that cooperation could take place, but in Dr. Gaunt"s words, "It didn't work out too well."

The area that was to be jointly studied was on the Turkish border, near Syria and Iraq, but in Turkey. There were formerly Christian (Armenian and Assyrian) villages there, which were then converted to Islam by the Ottoman Turks. Scientists found an opening in the ground and discovered 38 bodies, thought to be Armenians and Assyrians, who had been massacred in World War I. The grave was in a very isolated place, where it would have been easy to get rid of people, since there were many storage holes and other natural caves. Yusuf Halaçoglu, President of the Turkish Historical Society, who frequently denies the Armenian Genocide, had Turkish archaeologists examine the site and then claimed that "Turks were massacred by Armenians."

Halaçoglu challenged Dr. Gaunt to come to the site, hoping that Dr. Gaunt would ask for forgiveness and state that he had misstated his assertions about the Armenian Genocide. On April 23 and April 24, they set out to meet in the small village where the mass grave had been discovered. The hole was examined by Dr. Gaunt to see what had been discovered. What he discovered was that there were no bones at all in the hole. Dr. Gaunt believed that the site had been manipulated and tampered with before his arrival, but the Turkish officials became angry with him, because they thought that he would agree with their position and statements about the site.

All of this was going to be used as an example by Halaçoglu, that there was no Armenian Genocide. The Turkish government is so convinced that nothing happened, yet they still manipulate evidence.

Dr. Gaunt conducted research for his book in three Ottoman Turkish provinces-Diarbekir, Bitlis, and Van, and the Persian province of Azerbaijan. These are the areas that he concentrated on and conducted research in Russian, western European, and Turkish archives.

Dr. Gaunt is a social historian and for him there were many interesting questions. Who was doing the killing of Christians in 1915 and what were the reasons behind the killings? He especially wanted to understand how it was that neighbor was killing neighbor. How do you kill someone you know, your neighbors?

Dr. Gaunt showed the audience a map of the area in question, which had a mixed Armenian and Assyrian population. There were Christian Orthodox Assyrians, Catholic Chaldean Assyrians, and Assyrians of the Nestorian Church. There were many Assyrians in the Kharpert area who spoke Armenian, and who mixed in well with the population.

Dr. Gaunt has also researched the deportation routes that have not before been seen on the usual maps-Erzerum-Diarbekir-Mardin to Mosul for example.  This new information was from Assyrian documentation-the Assyrians usually were in place for a little longer than the Armenians, especially in mixed population areas. The Armenians were always arrested first-the notables, clergy, wealthy merchants, physicians were put into prison and tortured and killed. Then this would be extended to other religious groups. It gave the initial appearance that the Assyrians were not being deported, but they were deported, only later. Dr. Gaunt"s book Massacres, Resistance, and Protectors documents 250 separate massacres of Armenians in villages and towns.

Dr. Gaunt was surprised to find that a large number of Ottoman Turkish officials refused to carry out the orders of the massacres and deportations. Some sent letters to Constantinople, protesting against the planned actions against the Armenians. High officials sometimes were reassigned and kaimakans (officials) were murdered if they did not accept the orders. The governor of the region would report that Armenian rebels had killed these men-however the families of the kaimakans knew what had happened. All of these Turks who protested, were witnesses to what the central Government was planning, namely the Armenian Genocide.

In Diarbekir, the governor most responsible for the massacres was Mehmet Reshid Bey, a military doctor, one of the first Young Turks, and a member of the "Special Organization" (Teshkilati Mahsusi). When he was asked why he, as a doctor, could have committed such a loss of life, he said, "As a doctor it is my responsibility to remove microbes from the body of the nation."

Mehmet Reshid was not above manufacturing evidence. He purported to find a cache of weapons by going through the Armenian houses. We actually know the exact number of weapons, because it was reported to the military-they found 12 weapons. Rafael de Nogales, a Venezuelan mercenary for the Turkish army, when shown the pictures of the weapons, saw them as a falsification. De Nogales had an interview with Reshid, where Reshid said he had an order from Talaat Pasha to "Burn. Destroy. Kill." Three words. Reshid was scaring the government by constantly talking about kaimakans that were killed by the Armenians and large numbers of weapons that the Armenians had. His killing of Armenians was so extensive, that even the German government, allies of Ottoman Turkey, tried to force the government to dismiss him. Reshid deported or killed 120,000 Armenians from his province by September 1915.

Dr. Gaunt presented much valuable new information to the audience, from a perspective that many had not heard of before. Following his lecture there was an opportunity for a question and answer period.