Historical Reference

Elazig, Harput, Kharput, or Mamuret-ul Azi, Turkey

KHARPUT Armenian Massacres

Elaziz is the former Mamuret-ul Aziz. After the Armenian Massacres Kharput deminished in importance and Elaziz became the dominant city in the region. Kharput was the site of a US Consulate to the Ottoman Empire. In 1915 US Consul Leslie Davis was a witness.

"MAMURET AZIZ (Mamuret-ul Aziz) is a small vilayet In Asiatic Turkey, established in 1880, on the upper Euphrates. It has a population of about 500,000 Mohammedans, Armenians and Kurds, and produces wine, wool, carpets, etc."

The International Cyclopædia  A Compendium Of Human Knowledge  Revised With Large Additions Editor-In-Chief H. T. Peck, Ph.D., L.H.D. Professor In Columbia University Associate Editors Selim H. Peabody, Ph.D., Ll.D. Charles F. Richardson, A.M. President Of The University Of Illinois Professor In Dartmouth College In Fifteen Volumes Vol. Ix New York Dodd, Mead & Company 1900

1465 Uzun Hasan Sultan of the Ak Koyunlu Turkmen attacked Dulkadir and ravaged the Dulkadir capital of Elbistan and occupied Harput.

"KHARPUT, the most important town in the Kharput (or Mamuret el-Aziz) vilayet of Asia Minor, situated at an altitude of 4350 ft., a few miles south of the Murad Su or Eastern Euphrates, and almost as near the source of the Tigris, on the Samsun- Sivas-Diyarbakir road. Pop. about 20,000. The town is built on a hill terrace about 1000 ft. above a well watered plain of exceptional fertility which lies to the south and supports a large population. Kharput probably stands on or near the site of Carcathiocerta in Sophene, reached by Corbulo in A.d. 65. The early Moslem geographers knew it as Hisn Ziyad, but the Armenian name was Khartabirt or Kharbirt, whence Kharput. Cedrenus (11th century) writes Xapxore. There is a story that in 1122 Joscelin (Jocelyn) of Courtenay, and Baldwin II., king of Jerusalem, both prisoners of the Amir Balak in its castle, were murdered by being cast from its cliffs after an attempted rescue. The story is told by William of Tyre, who calls the place Quart Piert or Pierre, but it is a mere romance. Kharput is an important station of the American missionaries, who have built a college, a theological seminary, and boys' and girls' schools. In November 1895 Kurds looted and burned the Armenian villages on the plain; and in the same month Kharput was attacked and the American schools were burned down. A large number of the Gregorian and Protestant Armenian clergy and people were massacred, and churches, monasteries and houses were looted. The vilayet Kharput was founded in 1888, being the result of a provincial rearrangement, designed to ensure better control over the disturbed districts of Kurdistan. It has much mineral wealth, a healthy climate and a fertile soil. The scat of government is Mezere, on the plain 3 m. S. of Kharput."
The Encyclopaedia Britannica A Dictionary Of Arts, Sciences, Literature And General Information Eleventh Edition Volume Xv Italy To Kyshtym New York The Encyclopedia Britannica Company 1911

Turkish Rugs: Elazig Carpet 19th c. Rippon-Boswell lot 24 Oriental ... Rippon-Boswell Elazig Carpet 19th c. lot 24. ... Description: ELAZIG Origin: East Anatolia, 19th century. Size: ca. 286 x 100 cm. Estimate EUR: 4700 ... Turkish Rugs Turkish Carpets Oriental Rugs the O'Connell Notes Aug 15, 2008 ... Turkish Rugs: Elazig Carpet 19th c. Rippon-Boswell lot 24. Ezurum. Turkish Rugs: Ezurum Prayer Kilim d. 1868 lot 24a ... The Kurdish People: an Analysis by language, geography, religion ... Oct 26, 2000 ... Cayirli, Elazig, Sivas, Varto, Also in Austria, .... also Elazig, Sivas, Tunceli, others, Alevi (Alawi), Yezidi, ...

Leslie A. Davis US Consul witness to the Armenian Massacres

New York Times Book Notes By EDWIN MCDOWELL Published: November 15, 1989

"A small publisher in New Rochelle, N.Y., is shipping copies of a book that could play a role in the debate over American foreign and domestic policy. The book is entitled ''The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917'' (Aristide D. Caratzas Publisher). It is said to be the first published eyewitness report by a diplomat about the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians who lived in the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a resolution designating April 24, 1990, as a day of remembrance ''of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923'' at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. The resolution, now before the full Senate, is opposed by the Bush Administration and others on the ground that it could jeopardize relations with Turkey.

The eyewitness report - by Leslie A. Davis, the United States consul in eastern Asia Minor - was uncovered in the National Archives by Susan K. Blair, a historian and editor. Ms. Blair has written a 35-page introduction to the book, and in her acknowledgments she says that she was guided and encouraged by Barbara Tuchman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, whose grandfather, Henry Morgenthau Sr., was the United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time.

Mr. Davis submitted his report to the State Department for internal use, and it was classified as confidential. The full text of that report is in the book, as well as copies of Mr. Davis's consular dispatches to the United States Embassy in Constantinople, his photographs of victims and his letters to Mr. Morgenthau. In one of those letters, Mr. Davis - who retired from the foreign service in 1941, at age 65, after having also served in Russia, Portugal and Scotland - says the punishment inflicted upon the Armenians ''is so severe, the tragedy is so terrible, that one cannot contemplate it and certainly cannot live in the midst of it without being stirred to the depths of one's nature.'' "
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE3DF1231F936A25752C1A96F948260&&scp=9&sq=Leslie%20Davis%20Consul&st=cse

REPORT OF LESLIE A. DAVIS, AMERICAN CONSUL, FORMERLY AT HARPUT ...

The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917 (Hardcover)
by Leslie A. Davis (Author), Susan Blair (Editor)

Leslie A. Davis appointed Consul to Batum Russia.

 

Leslie A. Davis transfered to Kharput April 1914

CONSULS SHIFTED ON MERIT SYSTEM; Of 44 Nominations Sent to the Senate by President Only 15 Are New Appointments. Special to The New York Times. April 10, 1914, Friday Page 3