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SÖYLEDİKLERİ VE YAZDIKLARI<br />

must refrain from measures which might cause massacre” . The<br />

evidences abo<strong>ve</strong> indicate that the relocation was not arranged with<br />

the aim of destroying the Armenians.<br />

Some pro-Armenian writers claim that the Ottoman archi<strong>ve</strong>s<br />

being opened up with a delay (due to the need for classification)<br />

was a ploy on the part of the go<strong>ve</strong>rnment to eliminate the kind of<br />

documents that would pro<strong>ve</strong> the Ottoman Go<strong>ve</strong>rnment’s decision<br />

to exterminate. They argue that in the aftermath of the war the<br />

İttihatçıs (members of the Union and Progress Party) collected and<br />

destroyed the documents implicating them. Yet, in the Ottoman<br />

recording system all incoming and outgoing documents would be<br />

filed into logs. Once a document was filed into the records, there<br />

was no way to destroy it. Besides, the large numbers of<br />

communications sent out by the Sublime Porte (Prime Ministry)<br />

arri<strong>ve</strong>d in various provincial centers throughout the empire. A<br />

great part of these were the circulars sent from the capital city to<br />

more than one go<strong>ve</strong>rnor office. So, e<strong>ve</strong>n if we were to assume that<br />

the copies kept in the capital city were destroyed, it would be<br />

practically impossible to cofrect and destroy the multitude of their<br />

originals kept at various centers.<br />

There is another piece of clear evidence indicating that the<br />

go<strong>ve</strong>rnment of the time had no intention of exterminating the<br />

Armenians. Members of the gangs that attacked the Armenian<br />

convoys and those officials who exploited the Armenian plight,<br />

neglected their duties or abused their powers were court martialled<br />

and punished. Until 1918, that is, until the Mondros Armistice,<br />

1,397 persons recei<strong>ve</strong>d various kinds of sentences in this context,<br />

with more than half of them being executed during the tenure of<br />

the Union and Progress Go<strong>ve</strong>rnment. Obviously, the Nazi SS, SA<br />

and the Gestapo officers, responsible for the Jewish genocide, were<br />

punished only for not carrying out the genocide effecti<strong>ve</strong>ly, and not<br />

for the kind of reasons mentioned abo<strong>ve</strong>.<br />

Acts of Genocide, most of the acts perpetrated in the Jewish<br />

genocide committed by the Nazis were “the killing of persons<br />

belonging in the group”, that is, the act described in Article 2(a) of<br />

the Con<strong>ve</strong>ntion. These massacres took place in the gassing to<br />

death of the Jews after they were transported, that is, deported to<br />

the camps where they were kept under conditions they would not<br />

be able to survi<strong>ve</strong> for long. In other words, the deportation itself<br />

was not an act of genocide causing deaths. On the other hand, the<br />

Gündüz Aktan<br />

257

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