One noteworthy point during that process of charting a course towards genocide were the resolutions and decisions of the 1910 Saloniki Congress of Ittihad, briefly mentioned in the introduction of this work. Even though it was primarily the ongoing tensions in Macedonia and Albania that had triggered these decisions in 1910, one of the main targets covered by the broad sweep of these decisions were the Armenians. Internal secret communications, relayed through letters in 1906 and 1907(nearly four years earlier) disclose the fact that the Armenians were labeled as the arch enemies of the Muslims of Turkey and the Caucausus, "to be dealt with accordingly." The letters were signed by two medical doctors, Drs. Nazım and Şakir, [1] the prime architects of the World War I Armenian genocide, both of whom were condemned to death by the 1919 Turkish Court Martial as arch perpetrators. In his 8 December 1907 letter, Şakir openly conceded, for example, that Ittihad's previous agreements with the Armenians, and the promises made to them, had no value whatsoever. He described these promises as baits to exploit the latter's resources for the benefit of the struggling Young Turks, and for the end of gaining sufficient strength to settle scores with them in due course of time. After reproducing this letter Turkish historian Bayur noted the relative carelessness with which these ominous declarations of future intent were made in writing. [2]
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1. Y. H. Bayur, Türk Inkilabı Tarihi, vol. 2, part 4, (Ankara: Turkish Historical Society, 1952), pp. 85-7, involving two letters dated 23 November 1906, and 22 September 1906; for the 3 January 1908 letter see pp. 125-6; for the same letters see also Ahmed Bedevi Kuran, Inkilap Tarihimiz ve İttihad ve Terakki (The history of our revolution and Union of Progress), (Istanbul: Tan, 1948), pp.214,215.
2. Bayur, Türk Inkilabı Tarihi, [n1], p.130.
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