A Turkish Officer Speaks Candidly About the Armenian Deportations

Deportation Caravan During World War I

A Conversation with Turkish Police Captain Shukri

As we rode our horses side by side, our conversation about the deportations and massacres [continued, and] I finally reached a point where I was no longer able to restrain myself. Stiffened by this unfathomable and crushing story, I turned to Shukri, who was relating all this as if it were a children's fairy tale, and said, "But Bey, you are an elderly Muslim. How did you have this without feeling any remorse or guilt, when they were neither conspirators nor rebels? Won't you remain accountable for this innocent blood spilled, before God, the Prophet [Muhammad], and your conscience?"

"Not at all," he replied. "On the contrary, I carried out my sacred and holy obligation before God, my Prophet, and my caliph. . .A jihad was proclaimed. . .The Sheikhul-Islam [the highest Sunni religious authority] had issued a fatwa to annihilate the Armenians as traitors to our state, and the caliph, in turn, ratifying this fatwa, had ordered its execution. . . And I, as a military officer, carried out the order of my king. . . Killing people during war is not considered a crime now, is it?

Following this shameless and abhorrent statement, I fell silent, because there was nothing I could say in reply to an executioner who had likened the merciless massacre of unarmed, defenseless women and infants to killing people in war. In total, he was responsible for the murder of 42,000 innocent people.

Source: Armenian Golgotha, Grigoris Balakian

Over the years we have featured several articles looking at the Armenian Genocide from various perspectives.  A list of those articles can be found HERE.