We can cite the documentation for the Armenian genocide even before it began in earnest. We know that in April 1915. Ottoman rulers issued a proclamation ordering the deportation of all Armenians to designated "vilayets"-or provincesmainly within eastern Turkey. Subsequent memoranda filed with the State Department by missionaries. businessmen. diplomatic personnel. and educatorsnow available for review at the U.S. Archivesindicate that 600.000 Armenians alone died in the deportations carried out only between April and December of the genocides first year. The American consul posted to one of the major deportation provinces of eastern Turkey. Leslie A. Davis. notes in a number of written reports sent to Washington yet never acknowledged in the public debate on the Armenian genocide until today. that Americans living in the region labeled it as the "slaughterhouse vilayet." In a December 30. 1915 dispatch to the United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
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