Collecting Sources

“...Lemkin used friends, friends of friends, and acquaintances of acquaintances too familiarize himself with a country. When he wanted to know which buttons to press in Uruguay, a country he had never visited, he sent an elaborate set of questions to a distant contact. He inquired into the status of its ratification drive and asked how it approved international treaties. He wrote to the leaders of the most influential political parties, the heads of the private women’s or civic groups, and the editors of prominent newspapers. He usually asked his contact to gauge the influence of the local Jewish community. He varied his pitch. If a country had not yet ratified the convention, he appealed for haste in doing so and often attached sample legislation from Denmark, an early implementer. If a country had experienced genocide in the past, he reminded its citizens of the human costs of allowing it.”

“In [Malatya?], where we were living, the Turkish [conquire?] came and said and said that they’re ready, and in a couple days, ‘We’re going to take you to another city.’! Nobody hardly believed that, but two days later some of those gendarmes came, and with their rifle butts hit the doors. 'Get out over there and get into the bunch. We’re going to take you to another city. All we’re doing is transporting you.' And that night, on the outskirts of Malatya, they separated the boys and the men, the boys over 10 years old, to one side of the city of Malatya and the children and the women to the other side. That night, we heard a lot of rifle shots and we saw the flashes on the other side of the city. A boy, about fifteen years old, he somehow or other had managed to escape and came to the bunch, and said that, ‘Forget about all the men [who] were killed by the Turks. Massacred, in cold blood.’” 

“The [defensive shutoff?] forty kilometers south of [?], south of Van, began on April 4th, 1915. And it extended to May 12th, 1915. And the first thing that happened in how we got into this fight… The Kurdish and Turkish forces in surrounding villages were massacring the Armenians. And, some of these Armenians escaped to [?], [which is?] the center of the province, and we got news that the turks were up to no good. And from Van, Ishkan and three others were sent by [?], the governor of the governor of the [?], the state of Van, sent them, then he sent also gendarmes who trapped them. They journeyed away and killed them. News came to us of this too, and we knew that the hour of reckoning was at hand. So on April 4th,1915, the first shots were fired and a battle was joined. We had elementary material, but during the fighting my father got hold of some sheets of tin. And with a wiring he had cut off telegraphs, telegraph wiring, he fashioned a canon. And this roared, and more gave us courage, than did damage to Turkish positions across the river from us. But it was a life or death struggle, of course, and we lasted for the duration to May 12th. The advancing Russian army, [what they have on guard?] [the guard, the-the-the front of the army] composed of [?], General [?], a thousand men came to within a day’s journey, and on April 12th, the Turks fled.”