12.05.2018

This photograph, which is kept in the Norwegian royal archive, represents an Armenian with the surname Papazyan, who stands in the Syrian desert, near the Euphrates basin.

There are bones in the picture, which are the bones of those martyred Armenians, who were thrown into the waters of the Euphrates.

The bones of the killed and strangled Armenians, were scattered through the Euphrates basin, clearly testify the horrors of the genocide committed by the Turks. According to eyewitnesses, the caravans of the Armenian refugees passing along the Euphrates river, were regularly attacked by Turks and Kurds, and the corpses were thrown into the river. There were so many corpses of Armenians, so that they had created a natural dam, hindering the flow of the river water and causing the Euphrates came out of its natural course, deviating within a few miles.

Years later, the bones of the corpses in the river covered the fields of Northern Syria.

“At the beginning of the deportation from their homeland Western Armenia, the caravans of Armenians were consisted of thousands of people, and at the time of reaching the area of Aleppo, only a few hundred people were left… The fields were covered with blackened, swollen and unpleasant smells, air intoxicated corpses, naked, raped bodies. Many of the displaced Armenians in pairs were thrown into the Euphrates for fish-food by Turkish gendarmes, and sometimes mocking the unfortunate, Turks poured a little flour to the handfuls of people who were starving, that they were licking it to extend their agony”.

A part from Armin Wegner's letter to the US President Wilson:

Source of the photo; Norwegian Royal Archives Collection