Captain Emory Niles[1] and Mr. Arthur Sutherland were Americans ordered by the United States Government (in 1919) to investigate the situation in eastern Anatolia. Their report was to be used as the basis for granting relief aid to the Armenians by the American Committee for Near East Relief.
See also Mavi Boncuk Posting dated 23rd August 2008:
See also: An American Military Observer of the Turkish Independence War by
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Dispossession and Forced Migration in the Late Ottoman Empire: Distinct Cultures and Separated Communities pp. 38-90 by Dawn Chatty / The Contemporary Middle East (No. 5)
OTAP Archive: Other: Scholarly Resources
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Dispossession and Forced Migration in the Late Ottoman Empire: Distinct Cultures and Separated Communities pp. 38-90 by Dawn Chatty / The Contemporary Middle East (No. 5)
Dispossession and Forced Migration in the Late Ottoman Empire: Distinct Cultures and Separated Communities pp. 38-90 by Dawn Chatty / The Contemporary Middle East (No. 5)
Americans Investigating Anatolia by Brian Johnson
KEYWORDS: Turkey, Transcaucasia, Ottoman Empire, Democratic Republic of Armenia, American Committee for Near East Relief, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Harbord Commission, Emory Niles, Arthur Sutherland, James Barton, World War I
In 1990, Professor Justin McCarthy revealed the existence of a report, which he had discovered in the US National Archives, of a survey of eastern Anatolia in the summer of 1919 by two Americans, Emory Niles and Arthur Sutherland. Their account is one of the first descriptions of this region by outside observers after World War I. However, the document lacks a critical component, Niles and Sutherland's field notes, which the authors emphasized should be read in conjunction with their report. McCarthy assumed that the missing information was lost, perhaps destroyed, but he surmised that if it ever came to light, it would surely enhance our understanding of the period. Niles and Sutherland's field notes have not been destroyed, nor are they lost. Two identical copies exist in the archives of the former American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Istanbul. This paper describes Niles and Sutherland's mission to eastern Turkey and places it in historical context. It also speculates why the results of their investigation were probably ignored and eventually forgotten. A digital copy of their original field notes is appended. (A print version of this essay, without the notes, was published in The Journal of Turkish Studies, 34/2 (2010), 129–147.)
Americans Investigating Anatolia: The 1919 Field Notes of Emory Niles and Arthur Sutherland, Brian Johnson, The Journal of Turkish Studies, 34, II, 2010, 129-147. (PDF)
Brian Johnson earned an MA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization (1988) and a PhD in Middle East History (1999) from the University of Washington. From 2001 to 2010, he served as historian/archivist at the American Board Library in Istanbul, Turkey, where he supervised a project to catalogue and digitize the archives of the Western Turkey Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Currently, he is the librarian of the Istanbul branch of the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT).
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Captain Emory H. Niles and Arthur E. Sutherland, investigators sent to eastern Anatolia by the U.S. military mission, 1919.
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The Niles and Sutherland Report was a report commissioned by the United States Congress in 1919 to investigate conditions in the Ottoman Empire's eastern provinces in the aftermath of World War I, and to assess what sort of aid was needed and whether that aid could be provided by the American Committee for Relief in the Near East (Near East Relief). It was prepared by Captain Emory H. Niles of the United States Army and Arthur E. Sutherland Jr., and was based on their investigations at the city of Van and its vicinity.
Niles and Sutherland's inspection of Eastern Turkey was loosely coordinated with that of General James Harbord's larger and more expansive American Military Mission to Armenia which had been instructed to "investigate and report on the political, military, geographic, administrative, economic, and such other considerations involved in possible American interests and responsibilities in the region".[3] Harbord's group did not travel to Bitlis and Van, and their resulting report relied on information provided in Niles and Sutherland's report.[4] From Aleppo, Niles and Sutherland traveled by rail to Mardin, arriving there on 3 July 1919, where they engaged Osman Ruhi, a Turkish medical student, as their interpreter. The journey to Bitlis and Van was done on horseback, accompanied by a guard of Turkish soldiers. Their itinerary included Van, the Lake Region, Erzurum, Erzincan, Karakilise[disambiguation needed], andŞebinkarahisar. Because of difficulties in transportation, war damage, lack of roads, automobiles, gasoline, and sickness, they had to make changes in the planned trip. In some areas where they saw no real war damage, such as between Erzincan and Şebinkarahisar, or where ACRNE was already active, such as Trabizond, they did not spend much time.
Justin McCarthy has reported that he found a draft copy of the report among the documents of the Harbord Commission held in the Library of Congress, and that he believed it to be the only surviving copy, and that all other copies, including the originals of their interviews with locals, have been either lost or more likely destroyed. Years after Justin McCarthy, another historian, Brian Johnson, found the field notes of Niles and Sutherland in the archives of the former American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Istanbul.
[1] Emory H. Niles (1892-1976) MSA SC 3520-13505
Chief Judge, Supreme Bench of Baltimore County
Born: October 15, 1892 in Baltimore, Maryland; Parents Judge Alfred S. Niles, and Mary Waters Niles Married: Anne Whitridge Williams, November 4, 1922; Children:(3) Emory H. Niles,Jr., Mrs. Harry C. Primrose, III and Mrs. Hugh Shepley. Died 1976
Education: Baltimore Public Schools, graduated from Polytechnic Institute, 1909; The Johns Hopkins University, 1913; won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University and graduted with degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and Bachelor of Civil Laws, 1913-1916; University of Maryland School of Law,
Career: Served in the United States Army during World War I, and rose to the rank of captain of artillery in the 80th Division in France; Worked in his father's law firm Niles , Wolff, Barton & Morrow, 1920-1938; Nominated by the Democratic State Central Committee and elected Associate Judge, Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, 1938-1954; Appointed by Governor Theodore R. McKeldin as Chief Judge, Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, 1955-1963. Co-founder and editor with Arnold Knauth of American Maritime Cases in 1928; Hired the first African-American law clerk, Christopher H. Foreman to work for a judge on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City in May 1956. Retired in 1962 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Served on the Board of Trustees of Goucher College,(1934-), the Peabody Institute (1944-1946) and the Walters Art Gallery.
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