Message #468

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After Antranik’s placing himself in his bed comfortably, we passed on
the other room. We dismissed following the talks we held about the
implementation of the tasks Antranik had assigned us.
Resisting for another two days did not seem implausible at all. On the
other hand it was possible to resist not just for two days but forty-two
days as we had well-constructed wired trenches, strong city walls, a
two times bigger defense force that was not only capable of resisting
the attacking kurds but to the orderly units of a well organized army.
We were absolutely right in repelling the kurdish attacks; because,
the Turkish government had already warned us expressing that the
kurds were not complying with the orders issued, and that they were
unable to keep them from fighting. In other words, the burden of
defending ourselves from the kurdish raids was placed on our
shoulders.
On my way back, I saw that the fires, I mentioned above, were being
taken under control and even put out. The city, when observed from
outside, looked quite calm. It was quite evident that there were no
signs, or danger, of breaking out of massacres.
On returning to the artillery headquarters I gave my orders for
declaring the guns hors de combat. They could have been destroyed
within two days at the most. I was receiving reports pertaining to the
withdrawal of the infantry units in the dark from my officers. I hardly
found an opportunity to get in touch with Colonel Morel, and I
conveyed all the reports to him. He told me that all the counter
measures were taken, that reserve troops and reinforcements were
sent to the city, and that there was no reason to feel anxious about.
I went home and slept at about 1 o’clock. At about 2 or 3 o’clock in
the morning, I heard several distant rifle shots coming from the city.
I heard the sounds of rammed doors in the city. I heard the same
foot steps of the touring Armenian detachments who were gathering
the townsmen in the daylight, as well as the voices of people. There
were no signs of coming help. Having observed the arresting of the
townspeople, I suddenly developed a feeling that the Armenians were
getting ready for massacres feverishly and fervently.
After having evaluated the situation I came to the conclusion that:
first, while were fighting with the Turks honorably and defending
Erzurum, those blood-thirsty and coward Armenian “freedom fighters”
were deceiving us with what they did from behind. They started to
carry out full-scale massacres on the unarmed elderly, women, and children without worrying about libeling their own names before the
world public opinion, let alone libeling the reputation of the Russian
officers. Those who did not know enough about the developments
might have thought that the Russian officers were helping the
Armenians in realizing their activities. Secondly, the attackers could
have been the orderly Turkish forces. If they were not there yet, they
would have come the other day at dawn, or later in the day. Fighting
against the orderly Turkish units did not have any place neither in the
peace plans of our Army Command nor in our given tasks.