Turkish authorities periodically express readiness to open their archives to shed light on events of 1915.  Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has quite recently made such a statement. However, there are all grounds to think that even if Ankara does it, the archives will contain falsified documents.

Ara Sarafian was recently in Turkey, where he visited Ayash, near Ankara. His visit resulted in a high profile article in the Turkish daily, Radikal (24 April 2012).

Following his return to London, we asked Ara Sarafian some questions about his trip to Turkey. 

- Why did you go to Ayash?

- I have been working on a project related to the fate of Armenians who were arrested in Constantinople on 24 April 1915. Around 85 of these prisoners were sent to Ayash, the rest of them to Chankiri. I wanted to get a sense of Ayash and to test some of my information.

- Who were the Ayash prisoners, what was their background?

- The majority of the prisoners who were sent to Ayash were intellectuals who were also supporters of Armenian political parties. You have to remember that these were legal parties, and not illegal ones as Turkish state intellectuals like to suggest. Professionally, they were mostly writers, poets, teachers, and journalists. A handful of them were none of the above and were released. The prisoners who remained in prison had no idea of what lay in store for them.

- What happened to these prisoners?

- The majority of the prisoners were murdered in 1915. A few were taken away and killed individually in small numbers, but the majority of them were killed in two operations. One group was sent to Angora (Ankara) where they were deported with other Armenians from that city. All members of their caravan were killed soon afterwards, reportedly around Alma Dag. These prisoners were not heard from again. Another group was taken away from Ayash and killed in a massacre at Ayash Beli. They too disappeared.

- How do you know such details?

- Some of the people who were released gave detailed accounts of what they saw. However, we do not have actual eyewitness accounts of the killings. We simply know that these people disappeared while in state custody. However, several well placed Turks -- some involved in the massacres -- informed Armenian intermediaries about these killings. Some boasted about them at the time.

- What do official Turkish historians say about these prisoners?

- Until very recently, they said very little. However, a few years ago, the head of the Turkish State Archives, Yusuf Sarinay, argued that the Ayash prisoners were guilty "komitajis" who were imprisoned until the end of World War I, when they were released. However, Sarinay's work was contrived. Neither the archival records he used, or the arguments he presented, supported his central claim about the guilt of the people concerned, and more importantly, their ultimate fate.

- If Sarinay was here, what would you say to him? How would you challenge him?

- Since Sarinay and I agree on the identities of the prisoners who were sent to Ayash in 1915, I would focus on their fate. Sarinay claims that over 70 prisoners were released from Ayash at the end of World War I. Since he is the former head of the Turkish State Archives, he should be able to show evidence that the 70 prisoners were still alive in 1918, or afterwards. If these prisoners remained alive, as he has claimed, then he should produce evidence, such letters from the prisoners, prison records, or release orders. He could also produce evidence of their activities as prominent journalists and members of Armenian communities after 1918. However, he cannot do so, because the people disappeared after they were arrested. In fact, if he had such evidence, he certainly would have presented to argue his case in his own work. Instead, the evidence he produced was contrived.