Note 231 — A SUMMARY OF ARMENIAN HISTORY UP TO AND INCLUDING THE YEAR 1915.

In the pamphlet Vérité sur le mouvement révolutionnaire Arménien et les mesures gouvernementales, the following passages occur: “The Imperial (Ottoman) Government abstained from exercising any pressure or adopting any repressive measures against the Armenians until the day the revolt broke out at Van towards the middle of April, 1915” (page 10); “No coercive measure was decreed by the Imperial Government against the Armenians until the date of their armed revolt, which took place at Van and in the other military zones in the course of the month of June, of the year 1915, and until they had made common cause with the enemy forces” (page 15). These statements are direct falsehoods, as is also the statement (page 12) that—“After the occupation of Van by the Russians and Armenians, the Moslem population of the town was pitilessly massacred.” We have authoritative neutral testimony (e.g., Docs. 120, 121, 122 and 15) on both these points, by which the Turkish statements are refuted. Yet these lying statements are the pivot of the whole apologia presented in this pamphlet.