Testimony: Forrest D. Yowell
The condition of the Christian population in the Interior has steadily grown worse within the past two years until now the Armenian and Greek deportees are in a condition worse than slavery.
The attitude of the Vilayet Government toward the Greeks who were being (and who are still) deported through Sivas-Harpoot-Diarbekir from the Black Sea Coast and the Konia district, seems to be one of extermination. From statistics obtained from American sources—persons who have come into contact with the deportees in the course of their work of relief—we have accounted for at least 30,000 who reached Sivas. Of this number 8,000 died on the route to Harpoot and 2,000 remained in Malatia (March). After many obstacles thrown in our way by Turkish official to prevent the N. E. R. from assisting these refugees were overcome, we were able to save thousands of lives by giving food, clothing and medical care.
However, 2,000 refugees died in Harpoot, Mezra, and scattered in villages near by. The remaining 20,000 were sent on toward Diarbekir, and it was not merely a coincidence, in my opinion, that days when terrible snowstorms were in progress were selected to send these people, three fourths of whom were women and children, out over almost impassible mountains, without food or covering of any kind, and where no shelter can be found. In all cases these people have been robbed of everything that can be taken from them before they have progressed but few days on their journey, and the most attractive girls taken into Moslem homes.
Of the 15,000 sent toward Diarbekir 3,000 died on the route and 1,000 died in Diarbekir. About 1,000 (all men) were taken by the Government to work on the roads between Harpoot and Diarbekir. They were given no pay, and their entire food allowance consisted of 200 grs. of bread per day and a little thin soup once a day. They had no shelter and were compelled to sleep out of doors in bitterly cold weather, without bedding or covering, and when they are too ill to work their food allowance is discontinued and they are allowed to die without medical care.
Of the 9,000 Greeks known to have been sent on toward Bitlis, nothing further is known on their fate, as all efforts of the Americans to get there or send relief has met with failure. This we do know, Bitlis is almost totally destroyed and is not capable of supporting more than a few thousand of people. As it also located in high mountains, reached by passes only through which vehicles cannot now travel, it can be safely assumed that few of the deportees sent toward Bitlis reached there.
In the Vilayet of Mamouret-Ul-Aziz the Near East Relief was not permitted to employ any Greek, for or without compensation; it was not allowed to take in any Greek children, orphans or destitute, an in many cases Greek men were forcibly taken by Moslems to work for them without compensation, and it was necessary for the Near East Relief to give them bread to prevent them from starving.
We were not allowed to take any Greek into our hospital or to give medical aid without a written permit from the Director of Sanitation, and the patient was compelled to call in person for the permit. In many cases the patient died before he succeeded in getting a permit and in the majority of cases they failed to get permits at all.
Cases are on record in Harpoot where money was paid to Turkish officials for such permits. Convalescents from our hospital were invariably taken by the Government and sent out over the mountains before they had regained near normal strength. In effect the authorities admitted to myself and other Americans that the Greeks were enemies of the Government and that they should be killed, and that those who assisted them were enemies of the Governor.
One American, whose name cannot be given now for obvious reasons, counted 1,500 dead Greeks on the road between Sivas and Malatia last December: another counted 128 dead Greeks on the road between Malatia and Harpoot, and was compelled to run a truck out of the road on many occasions to keep from running over the dead. I have personally seen hundreds of Greek bodies unburied and being devoured by dogs and vultures. The Moslems do not take the trouble to bury the bodies of the dead Christians, and the living have not the strength to perform this rite, were they allowed to do so.
The presence of Americans in Harpoot exercises a great moral influence on the general situation there, and I am strongly of the opinion that the withdrawal of the Americans would be signal for outbreaks and probably massacres. The situation is very tense, even with the presence of Americans there, and one prominent Turkish official told me personally that if we persisted in educating the Armenians and brought them up again where they would be a power in the Vilayet, the same thing would happen to them as happened in 1915.
In spite of the entirely humanitarian motives of the Americans in Harpoot, they are treated with the utmost rudeness and discourtesy by the Turkish officials, and everything possible is done by the Government to make their stay unbearable. I do not think that the Moslem population as a whole are in sympathy with the attitude of the Government and on the other hand, I have had some very concrete evidence to the contrary.
In conclusion, I beg to state that I have endeavored to confine myself strictly to facts as they are evidenced, and to base my statistics on the most reliable data obtainable under abnormal conditions. I feel that as an American citizen I should emphatically protest against the treatment accorded the American citizens, and more especially the helpless Christian subjects of the Turkish Empire by the Turkish Nationalist Government.
Note: Major Forrest D. Yowell was born in Upperville, Virginia on the 12 October 1882. He moved to Washington D.C. and in 1906 married Cora L Bowling. He later joined the Near East Relief (NER) and in October 1921 became director of the Harpoot unit. The above statement is excerpted from a report to Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State in Washington.