- Naim Bey
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Naim Bey was allegedly an Ottoman official, chief secretary of the Deportation Committee in Aleppo. "The Committee was charged by the Central Government of Turkey with the official responsibly of deporting via Aleppo the uprooted Armenians with the ultimate aim of exterminating them." [1] It is not clear if Naim Bey was an actual or a fictitious person.
Allegations in The Memoirs of Naim Bey
Main article: The Memoirs of Naim BeyAccording to A. Andonian, Naim Bey did not flee with the Turkish officials after the arrival of the British at Aleppo, but remained, and in order to calm his deeply disturbed conscience handed to Andonian many official documents under his disposal received from the Central Government as regard the exterminations of the Armenians. Andonian then arranged for publication in book form.
The Memoirs of Naim Bey was first published in London in 1920 with an introduction by Viscount Gladstone.
The telegrams printed in these memoirs state explicitly that the government had decided to annihilate all Armenians living in Turkey.[2]
According to the book there were huge massacres after 1916: at Ras-ul-Ain, the present terminus of the Baghdad Railway, where 70,000 were killed, and at Der-el-Zor, where 200,000 Armenians were slaughtered.[3]
If authentic, the documents provided in Naim Bey's memoirs are clear evidence supporting the claim of Armenian Genocide. Particularly incriminating are the telegrams of the wartime interior minister, Talaat Pasha. If authentic, they provide proof that Talaat Pasha gave explicit orders to kill all Turkish Armenians – men, women, and children.
“ One telegram dated September 16, 1915, notes that the Committee on Union and Progress had decided to destroy completely all the Armenians living in Turkey. Those who oppose this order and decision cannot remain on the official staff of the empire. An end must be put to their [the Armenians'] existence, however criminal the measure taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex nor to conscientious scruples.[4] ” References
- ^ The First Genocide of the 20th century by James Nazer, p. 63.
- ^ The Lions of Marash: Personal Experiences with American Near East Relief, 1919-1922 - Page 15 by Stanley Elphinstone Kerr
- ^ "Starving Armenians": America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After - Page 47 by Merrill D. Peterson
- ^ Andonian, The Memoirs of Naim Bey, p. 64.
Categories:- Armenian Genocide
- Witnesses of the Armenian Genocide
- Document forgeries
- Historical controversies
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