11.12.2009

AGMI reprinted the little known book by Ferriman Duckett titled The Young Turks and the Truth about the Holocaust at Adana in Asia Minor during April 1909, which for the first time was published in London in 1913. The book is a valuable source on the Armenian massacres in Adana in 1909, which heralded upcoming genocide organized by Ottoman Turks. This book is a detailed account of the horrible massacres organized by Turkish authorities with the mass participation of the Turkish population of the Adana district.

The refference to the bloody and violent events was titled as Holocaust, since many victims were burned alive. The city of Adana and surrounding Armenian towns and villages also were set to fire.

In the introduction of the book Ferriman Duckett wrote:

I had heard of the Armenian Massacres in Armenia and Constantinople in the years 1894-5-6 and like many others, I had attributed them to an Armenian reckless revolutionary movement, but being at Adana during the 1908 massacres of Cilicia, I was an eye-witness of the indescribable carnage, unimaginable savagery and monstrous tortures to which the Armenians were subjected. I could not understand the cause as I saw no revolutionary movement, no political agitation on the part of the most unfortunate victims-the Armenians. In spite of my deep emotions and disgust I abstained from an immediate publication of what I saw and heard of those Mongolian atrocities, which are a disgrace to a reasoning humanity. I contented myself by taking notes of what I saw, or heard from other eye-witnesses, consular reports and trustworthy correspondents, and then I carefully followed the attitude of the Ottoman Government, the conscientious investigations of Parliamentary Commission, and the unjust proceedings of Martial Courts.

“The innocence of the Armenians is proved beyond all doubt, and the barbarity of the Turks likewise confirmed, and the official communiqués of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, issued on April 23rd, 1909, and that of the Grand Vizier on August the 8th, state our view. If just punishment of the real offenders had followed the ministerial edicts, I should have ascribed all these atrocities to ignorance and fanaticism and would not accuse the Government for its strange conduct, but justice worked in the wrong direction, utterly ignoring the circular issued by the Grand Vizier, that is to say, instead of the principal authors and promoters of the great crime, they punished a few poor ignorant tools, and many innocent Armenians who had to defend themselves, seven of whom in fact were in no way connected with the disorders, they being at the time hidden in foreign consulates and other establishments and therefore used no arms whatever, as it was proved by strict investigations. All these contradictions and unjust proceedings confused me more and more and I decided to search out the guilty and responsible persons. I did so, and now that I know all, I accuse the Government and the Young Turk Committee, who had the destiny of the country in their hands, and I am now going to show it in this little book…”

Before concluding the Adana massacre and naming all perpetrators the author wrote: “The Turks, once more, succeeded in going unpunished under the very nose of the Christian and civilized Europe, then turned round and laughed, and laughed. Shame to civilized Europe, shame to the 20th century humanity”

Those words were written in 1913, just two years before the 1915 final solution of the Armenian Question in the Ottoman Empire started.

Aghababyan Levon was born in 1887 in Baghesh and graduated from the Sanasaryan College. From 1908 to 1914 he was first a teacher then a headmaster at the national colleges of Akshehir and Kutahya. He was a teacher of mathematics, opened a private school in Kutahya which worked for only three years and also was an editor of “Azatamart”. He was a victim of the Armenian Genocide.

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