Deir ez-Zor
A town on the Euphrates in the Syrian desert, to which Armenians deported from Anatolia were sent in 1915. The British Blue Book of 1916 calls it the largest depot of the exiles.
Deir ez-Zor lies on the Euphrates in eastern Syria. A German missionary who passed through in the summer of 1915 describes it as a large town in the desert about six days’ journey from Aleppo, and found deported Armenians from a village near Zeitun crowded into its inn after four weeks on the road (Bryce and Toynbee, Treatment of Armenians doc. 145, pp. 566–567). The editor of the British Blue Book of 1916 writes that of the places on the Euphrates where the exiles were quartered, Deir ez-Zor was the largest depot (Bryce and Toynbee, Treatment of Armenians historical summary, p. 645). See the Destruction of the Armenian and Assyrian Christians.
What happened here
- 1915 to 1916, firm dateThe Destruction of the Armenian and Assyrian Christians
From April 1915 the Ottoman government deports Armenians from across the empire toward the Syrian desert, and the American ambassador reports massacre, starvation and the destruction of a people. Assyrian Christians of Urmia and Hakkari are attacked in the same months.