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Year

1915

Item Detail

Constantinople (Istanbul), July 13, 1915: Morgenthau reported that Ottoman authorities had deported more than 40,000 Greeks from the Marmara coast and islands since May, and warned that “Turkish nationalistic policy is aimed at all christians and not confined to Armenians.”

Context

Three days after his first alarm, Morgenthau cabled Lansing again, now about the Ottoman Greeks. He reported that since May 1, 1915, Turkish authorities had deported more than forty thousand Greeks from the Aegean islands and the coast of the Sea of Marmara into interior Muslim villages, and had begun resettling Greek villages with Muslims. The Greek Patriarch had appealed to the German and Austrian ambassadors and been told the powers would tolerate no interference in Ottoman internal affairs. Morgenthau stated the conclusion plainly: “Turkish nationalistic policy is aimed at all Christians and not confined to Armenians.” The cable is early documentary evidence linking the Greek and Armenian Genocides as a single campaign against the empire’s Christian peoples.

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    US National Archives and Records Administration

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  • Document Contents

    Telegram 850, July 13, 1915, 5 p.m.; received July 16, 1:30 p.m. Green Cipher; references cable 841. The decode flags one “(#) Apparent omission.” Signed “American Ambassador, Constantinople.” NARA, RG 59, 867.4016 (decimal to verify); microfilm M353, roll 43, frame 0723. Classification canceled Jan. 8, 1958.