Source: File: Armenian
intellectuals jailed and later executed on the night of April 24, 1915.jpeg,
[online] Available at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:April24
Victims.jpg> Accessed: 15 December 2015].With thousands of years of history gone,
That had passed
in the Caucasus region
Of Eurasia - the
home of Armenians -
Here, their
kingdom over centuries, saw
The shifting of
control between empires.
Held over more than five hundred years
Within the Ottoman Empire, given dual
Allowance for autonomy - yet control
Reigned Christians, with lesser rights,
Than for those who ruled over lands.
Armenian progress made suspicions,
As Turkish resented their successes -
While lessons are made in the past;
Warnings can be ignored by those
Future generations, in new decisions.
As empires rise they also crumble -
Applying to the Ottomans too, who
Set to resolve Armenian question -
Whose national protests resulted
By Turkish act of 1890s massacres.
The Armenian hopes raised 1908
With the 'Young Turks' of Turkey -
Yet ambitions of an emerging state
Was to 'Turkify' their country; only
To see other outsiders as threats.
Within the new conflicts of 1914,
Saw sides of Turkey with Germany
And Austro Hungarian Empires - all
Leading to defences of Gallipoli,
Against an invading forces of allies.
Suspicions formed of internal traitors,
Came in emergence of Armenians,
To give Russians volunteer battalions;
Prompting actions on eastern front
In Turkish permission for genocide.
The date, 24 April 1915, started with
Arrests of Armenian Intellects, who
Were executed - while the ordinary
Armenians were forced from homes,
Led naked to Mesopotamian deserts.
Eight months on and a whistle blow
Of such sufferings, became known
To the western public - came stories
Of death journeys reported by Bryce,
Issued by the Daily Telegraph editor.
With alphabet references to cover
Exact locations and names of those
Who would be identified, to include
One official Turk in a position; unable
To halt persecutions or deportations.
From X, those exiled were permitted
To gain shelter for too short a time -
Allowed security, until police orders
Forced them to leave for Y - when
5000 driven out of a town under lash.
People treated little more as cattle,
Into the streets and wagons, driven
To encampments - 500 taken away,
As rest remained, as some bribed
Way into town, until driven out again.
Such treatments also incurred cost,
As each ousting forced people to pay
In transportation of all their goods -
Along with Police, taking bribes in
Bakshishes, acceptance for favours.
Within any morning of the camp,
Witnesses saw Police approach
A section - People ordered to take
Tents down - using clubs people
Were told to march to destination Y.
Under vicious force the Armenians
Would embark, to know a journey
Might involve facts of starvation,
Murder, taking of girls - all unless
They gave money for a days respite.
The repetitive orders were given -
'Down with the tents' - to lack
All respect for infirm or the sick
Or the old - backed by stick or whip;
Only money might buy another day.
Amalgamation of the Armenians
Included those from Z, transported
By wagon tracked by Circassians -
Who followed with murderous acts
Of robbery; Gendarmes retaliated.
Despite able men serving in army
Of Turkey in loyalty, their families
Might be pushed out - declared by
Petition of marriage, a wife was
Accepted only by payment charges.
Stories came by reported rumors,
To arrive under representatives,
Via United States - whose hospitals
Openly witnessed those Armenians
Who paused on the death marches.
As written by the reporter Bryce,
Who told how reports came from
Place K - how only in three weeks
Prior, two hundred chief Armenians
Were taken and moved by wagons.
At night, they were conveyed
To a river bank and murdered -
40 people at a time - another
Said how days before Armenian
Men were taken of every faiths.
Tied together, stripped and
Moved - their whereabouts lost.
While women and girls taken
To Turkish villages - all to be
Distributed out to whoever.
One wealthy Armenian man,
Had wife and daughters taken
Away, to leave him crazed - as
300 boys, witnessed by a railway
Official saw them circumcised.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Journey
to Death - Terrible Stories of Armenian Sufferings - A Million Lives. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 15 December.
P.4. Col.7. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12041969/Daily-Telegraph-December-15-1915.html
[Accessed: 15 December 2015].
Source: File: The
Armenian Genocide. Online Available at:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide> Accessed 11 December
2015
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 15 December 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone
#worldwaroneremembered #WW1Armenians
