Witnesses and testimonies of the Armenian Genocide

Witnesses and testimony of the Armenian Genocide provide an important and valuable insight into the events during and after the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide was prepared and carried out by the Ottoman government in 1915 and the following years. As a result of the genocide, Armenians living in their ancestral homeland (at the time in the Ottoman Empire) were deported and systematically killed. The Republic of Turkey today denies the genocide, although the systematic massacres are recognized as genocide by most scholars.

A number of journalists, diplomats, soldiers, physicians, writers, and missionaries witnessed the Armenian Genocide, with hundreds of these witnesses from various European countries (Germany, Austria, Italy) and the United States experiencing the events firsthand. These witnesses have provided testimonies that are highly valued by historians as reliable reports of the tragedy. The eyewitness accounts of non-Armenian diplomats, missionaries and others provide significant evidence about the events and particularly the systematic nature of the deportations and subsequent massacres. Among these, missionaries experienced the events first hand and were instrumental in spreading the news about the massacres worldwide. Some missionaries had also provided detailed information about the events to heads of state such as Woodrow Wilson. Many of the missionaries provided clandestine relief and oftentimes saved the lives of many Armenians.

"It may look amazing, but the reality that what happened in 1915 was a mass murder was accepted by everybody having lived in that period, and was never the object of an argument."

Reacting to numerous eyewitness accounts, British politician Viscount Bryce and historian Arnold J. Toynbee compiled statements from survivors and eyewitnesses from other countries including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland, who similarly attested to the systematized massacring of innocent Armenians by Ottoman government forces. In 1916, they published The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915–1916. Although the book has since been criticized as British wartime propaganda to build up sentiment against the Central Powers, Bryce had submitted the work to scholars for verification prior to its publication. University of Oxford Regius Professor Gilbert Murray stated of the time, "the evidence of these letters and reports will bear any scrutiny and overpower any skepticism. Their genuineness is established beyond question." Other professors, including Herbert Fisher of Sheffield University and former American Bar Association president Moorfield Storey, affirmed the same conclusion.

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