Rasulain and the Arada Steppe During the Armenian Genocide, July 1915 – April 1916

In 1998, Raymond Kévorkian’s article “Le Sort des déportés dans les camps de concentration de Syrie et de Mésopotamie” put the so-called “destination areas” in the focus of research on the Armenian Genocide. Officially, the Ottoman government intended settling Armenian deportees, primarily in Zor district. In reality, the deportees were starved to death, abandoned to the desert or massacred. On the basis of official Ottoman documentation and rare first-hand evidence from the Chechen community of Rasulain, this article shows that district governor Ali Suad Bey initiated some limited relief and settlement projects. The central authorities, however, undid these efforts. At the same time, local Chechens opposed the settlement of Armenians as it interfered with their economic interests. They drew on an impressive network of contacts, denouncing alleged Armenian revolutionaries. In the end, the Chechens played a key role in the massacre of the deportees.