With long-overdue #ArmenianGenocide recognition seemingly near, it's worth recalling the courage of US diplomats who in 1915 exposed the massacres in real-time, trying in vain to get Washington to help the Armenian people. 1/6
Henry Morgenthau Sr., the US Ambassador on the ground, informed Washington in July 1915: “Persecution of Armenians assuming unprecedented proportions.”
He detailed “frequent instances of rape, pillage, and murder, turning into massacre, to bring destruction” to Armenians. 2/6
He detailed “frequent instances of rape, pillage, and murder, turning into massacre, to bring destruction” to Armenians. 2/6
The information Morgenthau persisted in communicating back to America was stark and horrific:
- “A campaign of race extermination is in progress”
- “Armenians mostly women and children…have been massacred” 3/6
- “A campaign of race extermination is in progress”
- “Armenians mostly women and children…have been massacred” 3/6
Washington ignored Morgenthau’s frequent & urgent pleas to respond to “a systematic plan to crush the Armenian race.” Morgenthau confronted Turkish authorities but the Interior Minister blithely responded, “Why can’t you let us do with these Christians as we please?” 4/6
Morgenthau continued pushing & even tried raising money to help Armenians escape to the US. But the American government did nothing, and he resigned in 1916, devastated by "my failure to stop the destruction of the Armenians."
1.5 million Armenians were killed. 5/6
1.5 million Armenians were killed. 5/6
Now, more than a century later, thanks in part to the documentary record and witness testimonies produced by individuals like Morgenthau, the US seems finally ready to admit the truth—that the Ottoman Empire perpetrated a genocide against the Armenian people. 6/6
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