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the Turkish Government’s explanation concerning the necessity of the measures due toArmenian liaison with the Russians, British, and the French. 1901915 was replete with notes and reports about the state implemented annihilation andextermination of the Armenian nation. The Ambassador alone dispatched over 10 reportsregarding the persecution of the Armenians and their fate. Nevertheless, Sweden was silent.2.1.2 1916On January 15, 1916, Anckarsvärd dispatched a report written by the Swedish Military AttachéWirsén, in which the situation of the military operations in Turkey was described. Commentingon the shortage of food, the report pointed out the straits partly as a result of bad harvests inAnatolia. This was due to lack of labour since “so many men had been enlisted and in large areasthe most able-bodied population, i.e. the Armenians, have been subjected to the saddestfate…” 191The Swedish Military Attaché, Wirsén, arrived in Constantinople at the end of December,1915, which explains the absence of military reports in regard to the Armenian massacres duringthat year. In one of his very first briefings on the situation in the Ottoman Empire, sent to MajorO. M. Francke at the Swedish General Staff’s Headquarter in Stockholm, Wirsén depicts thetension that has arisen between the Turks and Germans due to some actions taken by the formerwhich has had a negative impact on German financial interests. He added: “That the persecutionof Armenians is also being by the Turks insidiously blamed on the Germans is probably knownin Sweden.” 192 He also made the following comment:I am being treated with remarkable cordiality by the leading Turks in the War Ministry. The Turkshave now indeed started to initiate negotiations for direct trade contacts with Sweden, and Iassume that it is mostly therefore I am receiving my share of sunshine. 193On February 22, DN reports that “The Turks are now fleeing from that part of Armenia,where the Turkish gendarmerie during last September drove thousands of women and childreninto their houses, after which these were set on fire, so that the stench from the burned corpsesfilled the air.” 194Wirsén did not waste much time in gathering information and soon upon his arrival he startedto send letters and reports regarding the situation in the Ottoman Turkey. In his February reporton the war situation in Turkey, Wirsén writes the following in regard to the Caucasian front,where the Russian army advances:190 SvM, October 11, 1915.191 RA, UD, nr. 20, January 15, 1916.192 KA, Generalstaben, letter 1 & 2, January 31, 1916.193 KA, Generalstaben, letter 1 & 2, January 31, 1916.194 DN, February 22, 1916.44