War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

FAILEDEXPECTATIONSONBOTHSIDES 113

AmericansfromPalestine,MoritzRothschildandIsaacCohn;anda
youngRussianemigre,MinnaWeizmann,theyoungestsisterof
ChaimWeizmannandaleaderoftheZionistWorldCongress.Hir-
ingJews for suchwork,however,provedrisky.TheBritishseized
WeizmanninCairoandreturnedhertoRussiain May,whileCohn
workedforBritishintelligence."
ItisunclearhowmuchOppenheim'sactivityinTurkey,particu-
larly hispan-Islamicandhate-filledanti-Ententepropaganda,helped
toinflametheTurkishpersecutionofothernon-Turkishpeoplesin
theOttomanEmpire,includingChristiangroupsliketheArmenians.
TheTurkishmassacreofamillionormoreArmeniansineastern
AnatoliabeganinApril 1915 andlastedintothefollowingyear.The
Portewasstillinfectedwithanexcessivenationalism,pan-Turanism,
andxenophobiathatcollectivelysoughtto transformtheTurkish
partoftheempirefromamultinationalstateintooneofrelative
ethnichomogeneity.TheYoungTurksaccusedtheArmeniansofsym-
pathizingwiththeneighboringRussiansandofplanningamassive
revoltagainstTurkey.
Germany'slaissez-faireattitudetowardthemassacresresultedfrom
WidespreadindifferenceamongGermanofficials,bothinBerlinand
Turkey,who viewedtheArmeniansasaninferiorandbackwardpeople
unworthyofattention.TheGermansweremorallycallousanddid
simplywhattheybelievedpoliticallyexpedient,whichmeantkeep-
ingTurkeyinthewarratherthanapplyingstrongpressureonthe
Porteto haltthepersecution."Evidencerecentlyproducedfrom
TurkishsourcesimplicatestheGermansevenmoresignificantlyin
theghastlyaffair. ItindicatesWidespreadcomplicityonthepartof
WilhelmII,ofhigh-rankingGermanofficersstationedinTurkey,of
OrientalistslikeErnstjackhandPaulRohrbach,andoftheambas-
sador,Wangenheim.^68
TheGermansrarelymusteredthecouragetocriticizetheTurkish
policy,andafterOctober 1915 theyevenforbadetheirownpressto
discussArmenianaffairs."On 4 JulyandIIAugustWangenheim
andhisdeputyattheConstantinopleembassy,ErnstFurstzu
Hohenlohe-Langenburg,didexpressmilddispleasureabouttheper-
secutiontothePorte,buttheambassadorstudiouslyavoidedinter-
cedingonbehalfoftheArmenians."Wangenheim'ssuccessor,Paul