Message #443

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The unit commanders asked for the establishing of the Martial Courts
for the practicing of the Penal Code, and for giving death penalty from
the Supreme Commander. The Supreme Commander said he was not
authorized to put the death penalty into practice at his discretion, but
that he had already applied for the enforcement of the discipline law. I
do not know whether the murderers were found or not.
At the end of January, if I am not mistaking on the 25th, Colonel
Torkom held a prayer ceremony, and a military parade containing 21
salute shots fired from the guns, in Erzurum. He explained, he did it
out of a necessity to improve the morale of the garrison, and to show
the townspeople the power of the garrison. During the parade, where
General Odichelitzé was present, Colonel Torkom read a speech, which
none of us understood, in Armenian from the notes he was holding.
We later learned that he declared the establishment of the
autonomous state of Armenia openly; and declared himself as the
administrative tsar of this autonomous state. General Odichelitzé upon
learning all about it expelled Colonel Torkom from Erzurum.
We understood that the government would never allow the
establishment of a free Armenian state. I used to hear frequently, that
the authorities at the Army Command Headquarters reproached the
Armenian administrators saying none of the equipment, which in fact
belonged to the Russian army, taken from the depots, and from the
fronts by the Armenians were handed over to the Armenians, that the
equipment were given to their control temporarily; that they were
entrusted to them for protection until the coming of the new troops.
Meanwhile, the Armenians had slaughtered the unarmed and innocent
civilian Turks in Erzincan. We heard that the Armenians were fleeing
towards Erzurum as the Ottoman units were approaching the region.
According to the information the General Headquarters received and
the according to the testimonies of the Russian officers coming from
Erzincan the Armenians had slaughtered some 800 Turks. Only an
Armenian was killed as a result of self-defense. We later learned that
the desperate unarmed Turks in Ilıca village, near Erzurum, were also
slaughtered.
On February 7, 1918, in the afternoon, the militias’ and soldiers’
gathering men in the streets of Erzurum in masses and sending them
to an unknown destination in groups attracted my attention. When I
inquired, they said they were sending them to the railway station to
sweep the snow on the rail tracks.