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January 1

The Armenian deportees concentrated in Suruj District, near Urfa, are sent out toward Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) under very severe winter conditions, completely lacking food, shelter, and suitable clothing.

January 5

Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda seeks to oust Ali Suad, the Arab governor of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) District, for lack of severity by applying directly to Talaat.

January 8

The immediate deportation to the desert of the Armenians working on the railroads or in railway construction is ordered.

January 11

Instructions are sent to prevent foreign officers from photographing dead Armenians.

January 13

U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau during his farewell visit with Talaat is told of the pointlessness of speaking about the Armenians.

January 15

A second circular telegram is issued by the Interior Ministry to prevent photographing of the dead.

January 17

The governor-general of Aleppo is instructed to send the Armenians deported from the northern provinces directly to their final destinations.

January 23

The governor-general of Aleppo informs Talaat that only 10% of the Armenian deportees remain alive, and that measures are being taken to dispose of them also.

January 23 to March 10

During this period of 47 days, of 486,000 Armenian deportees, 364,500 are reported to have been killed by the Turks or to have died because of the hardships of the deportations.

January 24

The War Ministry orders all Armenian soldiers remaining alive in the Turkish armies to be converted to Islam and to be circumcised.

January 24

The governor-general of Aleppo orders the vice-governor of Aintab to deport the remaining Armenian women in Aintab.

January 26

German Marshal Colmar von der Goltz is appointed Commander of the Eastern Front.

January 28

A circular telegram orders the destruction of orphans.

January 29

Fifty thousand Armenian deportees are reported concentrated at Intille (Intili).

January 29

The Interior Ministry provisionally exempts from deportation Armenians needed for the running of the railways. Their families and children, however, are ordered to be deported to the desert.

January 29

The Interior Ministry orders the deportation of the Armenians constructing roads as soon as the construction work is finished.

January 31

The vice-governor of Aintab District informs the governor-general of Aleppo Province that the Armenian women and children have been handed over to Kurds.

January 31

In a period of two and a half days, 1,029 Armenians die of the rigors of the deportations in the town of Bab, northeast of Aleppo.

January

A French translation of a spurious book prepared by Talaat's office charging the Armenians with treason and revolution is published.

February 3

According to Lord Bryce, 486,000 Armenians deportees were still living: 100,000 were to be found between Damascus and Maan, 12,000 at Hama, 20,000 at Homs, 7,000 at Aleppo, 4,000 at Maara, 8,000 at Bab, 5,000 at Munbij (Munbuj), 20,000 at Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain), 10,000 at Rakka, and 300,000 at Zor.

February 3

A circular telegram instructs that orphans not old enough to remember their parents be sent from Aleppo to Sivas. The rest are to be sent to Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) and no expenditures are to be made for their existence.

February 4

Marshal Liman von Sanders replaces Marshal Colmar von der Goltz as Commander of the Caucasian, or Eastern, Front.

February 9

Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda, the governor-general of Aleppo Province, and the Aleppo Commissioner of Police begin to remove 10,000 Armenian deportees from the environs of Aleppo.

February 9

The commander of the labor battalions for the railroad in Cilicia is instructed to deport the wives of the workers and to tell them that their husbands will follow them.

February 10

The deportation commissioner in Aleppo requests funds from the Interior Ministry to cover the expenses of destroying the orphans in the area.

February 10

Erzberger, a German Reichstag representative, visits Enver and Talaat, to protest the massacres and the excesses of the deportations.

February 14

Fifty thousand Armenians are reported murdered at Intille (Intili).

February 14

Fifty thousand deportees are reported at Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain).

February 16

An American application to send relief to the Armenians is rejected by Turkey.

February 16

Talaat sends a circular letter to Urfa, Aintab and Kilis requesting documents to indict the Armenians.

February 16

The Russian Army occupies Erzerum. Only a handful of captive Armenian women are found alive in the entire province.

February 16

U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing asks the German Ambassador Bernstorff to stop the Armenian tragedy.

February 22

Henry Morgenthau arrives in New York.

February 23

Count Wolff-Metternich, the German ambassador in Turkey, visits Talaat and Halil Bey, the newly-appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the Armenian Question with them because of the representations of the United States to the German government.

February 28

A few Armenian soldiers in the Turkish Army in Aleppo are forcibly converted to Islam.

February

Marshal Liman von Sanders claims to have stopped the deportation of many Armenians from Adrianople (Edirne).

February

Tahir Jevdet, Enver's brother-in-law, the governor-general of Van Province, travels via Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain) to Adana, where shortly before he had been appointed governor-general, replacing Ismail Hakki.

March 1

The second deportation of the Armenians of Adrianople (Edirne) begins.

March 1

The Interior Ministry is informed from Aleppo that the Armenians who fled from Mardin had been killed.

March 4

A circular telegram instructs that Armenians of military age are to be put to work only outside inhabited areas.

March 10

A report is send to the Interior Ministry from Aleppo informing that 75% of the Armenians previously in the desert are now dead, and only 25% remain alive.

March 14

Kerim Refi, described as a very savage Rumelian Turk, is appointed vice-governor of Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain) and arrives from Constantinople. He speeds up the massacres of the Armenian deportees concentrated in Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain), which had gotten off to a slow start. The massacres extend over a period of five months. Kerim Refi utilizes primarily chete forces, including one extremely wild tribe of Circassians.

March 20

Talaat is informed from Aleppo that 95,000 Armenians had died from sickness and other causes in the past week: 30,000 in Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain), 35,000 in Bab and Meskene, 10,000 in Karluk (Karlik), and 20,000 in Dipsi, Abu Herir (Abuharar), and Hama.

March 20

Instructions are sent to seize the Armenian orphans with the pretext of giving them food and to kill them.

March 23

In Aleppo an attempt is made to force all Armenian soldiers in labor corps to become Muslims and to give up their Armenian names.

March 29

The Turkish government officially rejects foreign relief for the Armenian deportees.

April 6

Fourteen thousand Armenians are massacred in Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain). Twenty-four thousand deportees are reported still living in Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain).

April 14

By this date, 70,000 Armenians are reported massacred at Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain).

April 15

The Russian Army occupies Trebizond. With the exception of a few Armenian orphans and widows secretly sheltered by Greeks, no Armenians are found in the city.

April 15

A battalion of the Turkish 4th Army Engineers arrives in Ras-el-Ain (Ras ul-Ain) from Damascus to assist in massacring the Armenians.

April 15

Nineteen thousand Armenian deportees arrive near the Khabur River.

April 16

The New York Times reports that German Catholics had placed the number of massacred Armenians at 1,000,000, and that they held England at fault for this great crime.

April 19

Fifty to 100 Armenian deportees are reported to be dying of starvation every day in Meskene, Abu Herir (Abuharar), Sabkha (Sebka), and Hammam (Hamam).

April 28

The Turkish government again rejects foreign relief for the Armenians.

May 3

According to the New York Times, before the fall of Erzerum, 15,000 Armenians had been massacred in the nearby town of Mamakhatun, west of the city of Erzerum.

May 10

Shaikh-ul-Islam (Turkish religious chief) Khairi resigns under pressure. Musa Kiazim, a war criminal, succeeds him as Shaikh-ul-Islam and as Minister of Pious Foundations.

May 12

One thousand, four hundred Armenian orphans are distributed to various places by the Ittihad Committees.

May 21

News is received concerning the fate of 19,000 deportees in one caravan, of whom 16,500 are reported killed on the banks of the Khabur River, northeast of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor), and 2,500 survivors are reported having arrived at Mosul.

May 24

The New York Times reports that 80,000 Armenians had died of starvation around Damascus.

May 30

Sixty thousand Armenian deportees are reported scattered between Hejaz District in central Arabia and Aleppo in northern Syria.

May

Seventy-two thousand Armenian deportees are reported in Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) District.

June 3

The report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions on the massacres of Erzerum is published.

June 7

All the Armenians remaining in the Aleppo area are ordered to leave for Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor).

June 20

The Armenians working in labor corps in Sivas are instructed to convert to Islam. At least 95% refuse.

June 25

Seven thousand Armenian soldiers stationed in Sivas are imprisoned for nine days in the old Seljuk buildings where formerly the civilian Armenian leaders and intellectuals had been imprisoned before being killed.

June 30

Ambassador von Wolff-Metternich reports to the German Chancellor that Ittihad is devouring the remaining Armenian refugees.

June 30

On the argument that those who refuse are going to be deported into the desert again, the proposal is made to the Armenian labor battalions in Damascus and to the civilian deportees that they become Muslims. Very few Armenians accept.

June

The Arab governor of Der-el-Zor (Deir el-Zor) District, Ali Suad, is sent to Baghdad for refusing to carry out the extermination of the deportees. He is replaced by Salih Zeki, the former vice-governor of Everek in Kayseri Province, reputed for his cruelty.

Next Segment — 1916 (July-December) Segments of the Chronology