Apparently, the Ottoman Turks were not very successful in "ethnically cleansing" the Armenians. The actions of " unarmed and innocent " Armenians continued even after they were all "exterminated".
The Russian Commander of the Second Armenian-Russian Fortress Artillery Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Tverdohlebov is one of the first hand witnesses of the Armenian atrocities during 1917-18. He wrote :
- Armenians always play the victim . They have always been successful in presenting themselves as a nation subjected to heavy torture, and oppression by "the uncivilized, bigoted Turks". The Russians who had close relations with the Armenians to a certain extent, have developed different views on their level of civilization .
- Armenians having considerably a vile, surprising and greedy character can only live off on others. I heard the Russian soldiers saying: " the Turks have only treated them roughly, but did not kill them. They should have killed them to the last man ". The Armenian troops among the Russian army have always been regarded as the most inferior.
- The things I personally witnessed and heard during the last two months until the Turkish army arrived Erzurum are beyond all the evil one would think of the Armenians. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, Armenians attacked Erzurum and the surrounding region in waves. The houses in Erzurum and in the villages were pillaged and the residents were exterminated .
- ... More than 800 unarmed Turks were massacred . They slaughtered the people as if they were sheep. They had the people whom they sentenced to death dig large ditches. They took people to the edges of those ditches in groups and after butchering them, they dumped the corpses in.
One of the Armenians was counting the corpses thrown into ditches and upon his saying: " Is there only 80 people? It can take 10 more, slaughter another 10 ". Arrogantly, ten more people were slaughtered, thrown into the ditch and the corpses were covered with earth.
This Armenian contractor is said to have ordered the taking out Turks from a building one by one. And he, just for fun, chopped the heads of some 80 people as they were coming out of the door . ( PP 51-52 )
- A contractor working at the Alaca Logistics Support Command, told us about a despicable event that took place on February 27. The Armenians nailed a Turkish woman upon a wall alive, took her heart out and placed it on her head . ( P 53 )
- ... We were unable to do anything to stop the massacres Armenians committed. We never did want these atrocities veiled by our names. ( P 63 )
- Now I am most grateful to God for not letting me leave the city with the Armenians, about whom the Roman historian Petroni said : " The Armenians are certainly human, but at home they go all on fours. "
And again about whom the Russian poet Lermontov justly said : " Thou art a slave, thou art a coward, and thou art an Armenian ."
After witnessing what they did in Erzurum before they left, and learning the number of the unarmed elderly people, women, and children whom they massacred. ( P 89 )
- In 1918, Armenians slaughtered 800 civilians in Erzincan. During the night of 26th-27th February 1918, Armenians killed 3,000 to 8,000 Turks in Erzurum .
I Witnessed and Lived Through, Lt. Col. Vladimir Nikolaevich Tverdohlebof -- Second Armenian-Russian Fortress Artillery Regiment, Erzurum 1917-18 ]
The Full Version : In English , French , Russian ( From the Original Copy )
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