Greatest Single Horror Perpetrated In the History of Humanity
The massacre and deportation of the Christian Armenians is characterized by Henry Morganthau, former United States Ambassador to Turkey as “the greatest single horror ever perpetrated in the history of humanity.” The former Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in his report to the State Department at Washington, also stated emphatically that the deportation of Armenians was carried out on orders issued by the Turkish government.”
“The Turkish authorities had stopped all communication between the provinces and the capital in the naive belief that they could consummate this crime of the ages before the outside was aware of it,” declared Mr. Morganthau, “But the information filtered through. It came from consuls, from missionaries, from foreign travelers and even from Turks. We soon learned that orders had been issued to the governors of the provinces to send into exile the entire Armenian population, and local officers, with a few exceptions carried out these instructions. All the able-bodied men had either been drafted into the army or disarmed. The remaining people, old men, women and children, were subjected to the most cruel and outrageous treatment.”
“Few nations have suffered as much,” says Morganthau. Carefully prepared estimates, based on reports that have come to the Committee from every part of the Near East, show that there are 3,950,000 destitute refugees, a large proportion of them in exile. The capitulation of Turkey has made accessible to the Committee this great mass of suffering humanity. Thousands of women and children are dying every day from actual starvation. One of the greatest difficulties Relief Workers have experienced is getting enough workmen, who are themselves sufficiently fed, to bury those who die of starvation.”
“The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief will conduct, from January 12th to 19th, a nation-wide campaign to raise $30,000,000 for the relief and rehabilitation of the starving and destitute people.”