Meeting The Requirements And Expenses Of Relocated Armenians

The Government has written notices to all provinces before beginning the Armenian relocation and requested them to take precautions to meeting all needs of the companies that would pass through their regions and to stock food.

Various orders have been given to Immigrant and Tribe Settling Directorate for food - beverage provision.  Sükrü Bey, the Immigrant and Tribe Settling Director was individually in charge for the determination and provision of the needs.  It is understood from the documents that a total of 2.250.000 kurus has been allocated to meet the needs of the companies and of this amount, 400.000 kurus has been allocated to Konya, 150.000 to Izmit province subdivision, 200.000 to Eskisehir province subdivision, 300.000 to Adana province, 300.000 to Halep province, 100.000 to Syria province, 300.000 to Ankara province,  500.000 to Mousul province.

Furthermore, the provinces could aid the immigrants from their own budgets and sometimes new money allocations were sent from the center in accordance with the condition of needs.  Meanwhile, a certain amount of money sent from America to be given to Armenian immigrants has been distributed to the Armenians under the knowledge of the government, by the American missioners and consuls.  Besides this, it has been understood that some Armenians living in America have secretly sent the money they collected among themselves to the Armenians subjected to immigration.

The Ottoman Government, while spending such great amounts of money for relocation on one hand, either delayed or completely canceled the debts owed either to the state or individuals of the Armenians subjected to migration. Likewise in a coded telegraph sent by Talat Pasha to Maras Governor on June 1, 1915, he requested not to take back the debts of Armenians and in another order sent to all provinces on August 4th 1915, the tax debts of the displaced Armenians were postponed .

On the other hand, health officers have been assigned to the migrating companies for providing therapy in case of illness.  Furthermore, the legal proceedings about the criminal suspects, who were among the ones subjected to migration, were delayed.

REFERENCE:

Halacoglu, Prof. Dr. Yusuf, Facts Relating to the Armenian Displacement (1915), TTK Publication, Ankara, 2001. 1) Coding Office, no 55/291; no 55/341; no 57/345; no 57/351 2) Coding Office, no 55/152; no 55/291; no 55/341; no 55-A/17; no 55-A/135; no 57/110 3) Coding Office, no 55-A/16 (telegraph dated August 18th 1331 / August 31st 1915) 4) Coding Office, no 55-A/17 5) The budget of the Directorate of Settlement of Tribes and immigrants for the year 1331 was 78.000.000 kurus and 1332 budget was 200.000.000 kurus and this amount was spent for the Armenians, Greeks and Arabs subjected to relocation and the Muslims coming from the regions invaded by the enemy (BA, BEO, no. 334063). 6) Coding Office, no 53/305, no 55-A/118 7) Coding Office, no 60/281 8) Coding Office, no 60/178 9) Coding Office, no 54-A/268 10) Coding Office, no 54-A/226 11) With a notification sent from the Courthouse and Sects Ministry to the Office of the Grand Vizier, it is notified that a decision for judging the ones that are migrated at the locations they are sent to and the ones that are not migrated at the locations they were at (BA, BEO, no. 3