User:Apocolocynthosis/Armenian notables deported from the Ottoman capital in 1915

In the larger framework of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire Armenian community leaders all over the country were arrested.

In a first wave in the night from 24 to 25 April 1915 (Red Sunday - Կարմիր Կիրակի) 235 to 270 Armenian leaders of Constantinople, clergymen, physicians, editors, lawyers, teachers, party members, etc. were arrested upon an instruction of the Ministry of the Interior. A second wave brought the figure to 500 or 600.

There were further deportations from the capital. In the end of August 1915 about 150 Armenians with Russian nationality were deported from Constantinople to Ankara and Mudshur.

The action of 24 April 1915 was operated by Chief of Police of Constantinople Bedri Bey. Few of the detained were released the same weekend as writer Alexander Panossian (1859-1919) before even being transferred to Anatolia. Most of the arrested were sent after identification of the particulars from Central Prison over Sarai Burnu by steamer No. 67 of the Şirket company to the railway station of Haydarpaşa. After waiting for ten hours they were sent by special train in the direction of Ankara the next day. The train was under way with 220 Armenians. An Armenian train conductor got a list of names of the deportees. It was handed over to the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Zaven Der Yeghiayan, who right away tried in vain to save as many deportees as possible. The only foreign ambassador to help him in his efforts was US ambassador Morgenthau. After a train journey of 20 hours the deportees got off in Sincanköy (near Ankara) Tuesday noon. At the station Ibrahim, the director of the Central Prison of Constantinople, did the triage. The deportees were divided into two groups.

One group was sent to Çankırı (and Çorum between Çankırı and Amasia) and the other to Ayaş. Those separated for Ayaş were transported in carts for a couple of hours further to Ayaş. Almost all of them were killed several months later in gorges near Ankara. Only ten (or thirteen ) deportees of this group were granted permission to turn back to the capital from Ayaş.

Those sent to Çankırı continued their journey first by train until Ankara and then in carts till Çankırı. After a week in the military barracks they were allowed to stay in town at their own expenses, with the condition that they remain under supervision, whereas those sent to Ayaş were kept jailed in garrison.

About 150 political prisoners were detained in Ayaş, about 150 intellectual prisoners in Çankırı.

Totally twelve deportees were granted permission to come back to the capital from Çankırı. A group of 20 latecomers arrested on 24 April arrived in Çankırı around 7 or 8 May 1915. The deportees who came free did this through the intercession of influential persons who they found through their own means. Five deportees from Çankırı were freed upon intervention of ambassador Henry Morgenthau.

A first convoy with 56 prisoners left Çankırı on 11 or 18 July with no survivors. The remaining deportees were under the protection of governor Mazhar Bey who defied the secret instructions of Talat Pasha, minister of the interior. Mazhar was replaced end of July 1915 by central committee member Atif Bey who started the elimination of the Armenian population of the province of Ankara in August 1915. A second convoy (with 30 deportees ) left Çankırı on 19 August. Their fate is better known as (one or) two of them survived (Aram Andonian being one of them).

Four deportees were granted permission to come back from Konya.

After the Armistice of Mudros several surviving Armenian intellectuals came back to Constantinople, which was under allied occupation. They started a short but intense literary activity that was ended by the kemalist victory (1922-1923).

List of Armenians deported
''Below is a list of Armenians deported from the Ottoman capital (İstanbul) during the First World War, as made available by the Ottoman archives and Armenian sources. The names are in English and Armenian. The 'armistice' mentioned in the list refers to the Armistice of Mudros 30 October 1918.''