Heir Apparent Blames ex-Ministers -nyt19181127
Heir Apparent Blames ex-Ministers
NOVEMBER 27, 1918
Abdul Medjid Effendi, heir to the Ottoman throne, who also received the correspondent, said that this last war had been the most disastrous in the history of Turkey, not because she was beaten "but because it made enemies of nations naturally our friends." He continued:
"The present Sultan and myself denounced the proposal that Turkey enter the war. Mohammed V., who was then reigning, showed weakness before a clique of adventurers like Tallat Bey and Enver Pasha, then Cabinet Ministers and now fugitives, whom Germany had fed with dreams of power.
"I am more ashamed of the Armenian atrocities committed during the war than of anything in our history, but I must insist that they were against the will of the present Sultan and the nation as a whole. They were instigated my unpatriotic ministers who were guaranteed in their places by their services to German militarism. The fanaticism of remote tribes in their dislike for their neighbors and the brutality of provincial officers served as the mediums, while the censored press here concealing the facts from the general public. The members of the imperial family tried to make use of their prestige against this, but were imprisoned in the, palace.
A hard copy of this article or hundreds of others from the time of the Armenian Genocide can be found in The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From The American Press: 1915-1922