Interview: In 1915, the Swiss knew all the Armenian genocide through the press

One hundred years, the Swiss were very knowledgeable of the deportations and massacres perpetrated by the Young Turk regime against the Armenians. They provided generous assistance to survivors. The press of the time testifies.

Interview by Pascal Fleury

There are a century, the Swiss already knew everything that suffered the atrocities of Armenians in Turkey. “This is nothing less than the systematic destruction of a people, with the intention of establishing arrested in the Turkish Empire the exclusive domination of Islam,” wrote “Freedom” on the front page its edition of October 13, 1915. Why Switzerland Is is shown similarly secured at the time? And why, a century later, she has still not recognized the Confederation officially the genocide? The explanations of the historian Hans-Lukas Kieser, professor at the University of Zurich and specialist of Ottoman world.

In 1915, the Armenian tragedy was recounted in detail in the Swiss press. How do you explain such an interest in this distant conflict, in full World War?

Hans-Lukas Kieser: To understand this media focus, to remember history in 1915. drama Twenty years ago, the large-scale massacres had been perpetrated against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. It was between 1894 and 1896, under Sultan Abdülhamid regime. Emergency committees have launched solidarity actions. Their petition to the Federal Council to intervene with the major powers was signed by a record number of 450,000 people in a national humanitarian impulse that has far exceeded partisan or religious considerations. The Federal Council has not really changed, but private initiatives are then multiplied. Swiss missions were opened on the ground. In 1915, this vast support network, which was still in place, was reactivated. The public has been sensitized.

How the Swiss have they been informed of the atrocities suffered by the Armenians in 1915?

The most reliable information on the massacres and deportations were provided by missionaries of relief organizations on the ground. The best known of these eyewitnesses was the Appenzell Jakob Künzler who with his wife, was serving a mission hospital in Urfa in south-eastern Turkey today. Very active in the humanitarian movement, he provided valuable reports to relief committees in Switzerland and Germany. Other Swiss have played the same role as the director of an orphanage, Beatrice Rohner at Marash and Aleppo, who knew the area very well and languages. Information has also been submitted by the Armenian diaspora in Switzerland, informed, and by Ottoman Muslims opposed to the dictatorship of the Young Turks.

“The correspondence was sent by trusted people with mail being strictly censored. Codes were sometimes used, such as the German expression “Weapon” (poor) to “Armenian”. Some reports have gone through the German diplomatic channel, Switzerland does not have a diplomatic representative in Turkey at the time.

The Swiss showed great solidarity vis-à-vis the genocide survivors, as recently recalled the Armenian Catholicos Aram I. What help have they made on the ground?

Swiss aid concerned especially widows, orphans and young women who escaped slavery and forced marriage. Initially, it was to hide and feed. The rescue was very improvised, operating through networks of Muslim friends. The missionaries also hidden men, taking enormous risks to their own lives. In Urfa, for example, Künzler couple sheltered in the hospital under false identities. It provided them with clothes Bedouin smugglers that can lead them to safer areas in the south.

“From 1917, when the dictatorship was more tolerant once completed destruction of shelters have been opened. In Aleppo, the orphanage Beatrice Rohner welcomed more than a thousand children from 1916. In the same city, the Swiss trader Emil Zollinger has even hosted 2,000 refugees. Thanks to the huge financial support came from Switzerland and the United States, the victims were also able to receive food, clothing and medical services.

Humanitarian operations were also conducted in Switzerland …

During the war, mutual aid was limited primarily to clinics. Then, Switzerland has welcomed hundreds of orphans. The best-known work is that of the Waldensian pastor Antony Krafft-Bonnard, who founded an orphanage in 1921 in Begnins (VD), and the following year opened a center in Geneva. Some Swiss politicians have called for a “national home” for the Armenians in the Middle East. Federal Councillors Gustave Ador and Giuseppe Motta spoke in this direction before the League of Nations. But the action was limited in Switzerland. She however continued on the ground, Aleppo and Lebanon, with the management of orphanages and assistance in refugee camps, in collaboration with international organizations such as Near East Relief. Assistance to survivors lasted until the eve of the Second World War thanks to the loyalty of this “humanitarian Switzerland”.

In 1915, reading newspapers, the Swiss already knew all about the scale of atrocities suffered by the Armenians. How is it that a hundred years later, the Confederation still has not officially recognized the genocide?

This can be explained by the character of the international policy of Switzerland. For a century, in this case, it remains on its reservation, opting for a policy of interest. She willingly praises this “humanitarian Switzerland” which has taken a clear stand against genocide and crimes against humanity, but in terms of diplomacy, behaves just like a natural disaster had happened, refusing to take on the Historical facts. But do not put it in the long run, is to deny the …

“Swiss withholding such was observed this year, during the commemorations of the centenary of the genocide, as the pope or the German president will not chew their words. Such lack of courage could be against-productive in the long run. Especially as the historical problem of major crime is now denied accentuates the Middle East and that crimes against humanity are repeated, with new massacres and pushed people into exile.

“A recognition of the genocide by the government would also strengthen the criminal standard against racial discrimination. Is Switzerland wants to keep the universal perspective of this law? The recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights does not require sacrifice. But it is for Switzerland to affirm, while putting the best value.

***** The live Armenian drama in “Freedom”

The French-speaking press has dealt extensively and in detail of the “systematic annihilation” perpetrated against the Armenians in 1896 and 1915. If the term “genocide” does not appear – this neologism was created in 1944 – all criteria crime against humanity described therein black on white. Excerpts from “Freedom” of the time.

“… The Armenian question, which has and will do so much bloodshed, was created by the Sultan himself, who wanted to foment a violent hatred between Muslims and Christians, as it fears nothing as the Topics union between different religions … “

“The responsibility of the Sultan,” August 21, 1896

Mr. Schwarz, a pastor in Freiburg: “… We had no example of such a slaughter organized against an unarmed people, already oppressed for many generations. This people, accustomed by long servitude to have no more confidence in himself, was barbarously decimated; 150,000, maybe 300,000 people perished in the torture or suffering from dismal poverty to which they are reduced, but there was their fault … “” For Armenians, “September 23, 1896

“… Since the beginning of the war (World War, ed), Turks, taking advantage of the general confusion, sate their bigotry in the blood of innocent women, children, old people, nothing found favor in their eyes. News, absolutely reliable sources, tell us the horrors that are committed in the dark recesses of a dying empire, and we dare say that the horrors of European warfare are nothing compared to the atrocities of the barbaric peoples n have not yet been influenced by Christian ideas … “” The Armenian question “, 6 August 1915

“… The deportation of Armenian families in arid deserts, even assuming that these unfortunate arrive at their destination, is a disguised killing and those who go so miserable flock of women and children, under the kicks and butts Ottoman gendarmes, through the deserts of Mesopotamia, are worse off than those who were massacred in their homes and whose bullet or bayonet has finished one stroke anguish and suffering. (…) It is estimated that nearly one million the number of those who have been affected by the massacres and deportations … “

“The extermination of the Armenians”, 12 October 1915

“… The Christian Switzerland, facing these painful elements will do his duty. This is certain death to save the remains of this unfortunate Christian nation. We refuse our Armenian brothers our moral and material support? No ! More than ever, let’s be generous! … “

“Call to Switzerland”, November 23, 1915

> Panel discussion “Tomorrow there are a hundred years: genocide seen by the Swiss press,” Sarkis Shahinian (Switzerland-Armenia Association) and Gilles Soulhac, journalist, this Sunday, October 25th at 18: 30 pm, at the St-Gervais Theatre Geneva, close of the exhibition “Fragments”.

***** A taboo genocide

In Turkey, the use of the word “genocide” is still punishable. But increasingly many voices for the Turks found the memory. Like the grand-son of Jemal Pasha, the “butcher” of Armenians. See RTS2 on Sunday in “Armenian Genocide, the 1915 spectrum”.

http://www.laliberte.ch/news/dossiers/histoire-vivante/en-1915-on-savait-deja-tout-du-genocide-303932#.ViqM8yveJY-