Internment of Ottoman Turks in Canada

Mavi Boncuk | During the First World War, enemy aliens (nationals of Germany and of the Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires) were subject to internment, but only if there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they were engaged in espionage or otherwise acting illegally. Some municipalities "unloaded" indigents, many of them recent immigrants, on internment camps. In 1916–17, many Austrians were paroled to fill labour shortages. Of 8,579 men at 24 camps across Canada, 5,954 were of Austro-Hungarian origin, including 5,000 Ukrainians; 2,009 were Germans; 205 were Turks[1]and 99, Bulgarians. All endured hunger and forced labour, helping to build some of Canada's best-known landmarks, such as Banff National Park. Moreover, 81 women and 156 children, dependants of male internees, were voluntarily interned. Although responsibility shifted in 1915 from the Department of Militia and Defence to the Department of Justice, Major General Sir William Otter remained officer commanding (later director of) internment operations. 


On a cold night in late November 1914 police rounded up 100 Turkish immigrants living in Brantford, Ontario (56 miles west of Toronto). Most of the arrested were laborers in a local foundry.  A few days later the 100 men were shipped off to a concentration camp in Kapuskasing (then called MacPherson), 520 miles north of Toronto. The Turkish immigrants spent most of the First World War in the Canadian gulag (average winter temperature -25C). These Turks lived in Armenian-owned boarding houses and had come from their homeland with Armenians to work in area foundries.

What was their crime? They happened to be citizens of Ottoman Turkey, a country which was at war with the British Empire. The Dominion of Canada considered the Turks dangerous aliens. How did these men—mostly bachelors and thousands of miles from their home—live in Canada’s sub-Arctic internment camp? How were they treated? How many survived? Only a “Turkish Lot” exists in the public Cemetery in Brantford, a piece of land they themselves purchased privately, a self-dedication marked simply as Muslim Ottomans in 1909. Currently a Plaque in their memory stands frozen on the agenda of the Brantford City Council. 

SEE: Bill Darfler article 


"...In 1895, a Brantford businessman was in Constantinople, selling his company’s plows across Europe. He met members of a refugee community there, mostly Armenians, and invited them to come to Canada and work in the factories. By 1911, 3-400 Armenians worked at Pratt&Letchworth, Cockshutt Plow[*], Buck Stoves, and other factories in the city. Roughly a hundred “Turks” accompanied them. They were identified as Turkish by the 1911 Census and by the newspapers of the day, but it has been suggested that they may have been ethnic Kurds. At any rate, they were clearly seen as being very different from the Armenians[**]; Muslim, not Christian. These men [families didn’t come over until much later], lived in boarding houses, worked the dirtiest jobs at the plants, and sent their pay cheques home to Turkey. This use of “foreign workers” in an industrial setting may have been a Brantford idea. It certainly helped make Brantford a major industrial city in Canada at that time. Brantford was the #3 industrial city in Canada, after Toronto and Montreal with twenty times the population. In 1911, Brantford had a higher percentage of foreigners per capita than any other city in Canada..." 


[*] Originally founded as the Brantford Plow Works by James G. Cockshutt in 1877, the name was changed to the Cockshutt Plow Company when it was incorporated in 1882. 

 [**] Early Canadian oral history reveals that a member of the Cockshutt family, owners of the Cockshutt Plow Co. in Brantford, Ontario, went to Constantinople in the 1880's and recruited ten Armenian workers, originally from Keghi[+] in the province of Erzerum. Soon, other Armenians began arriving in the southern Ontario industrial towns of Hamilton, Brantford and St. Catharines in search of employment. Dr. Isabel Kaprielian calls this early period of Armenian immigration to Canada, the 'Sojourner' period which continued until the Genocide. Most of these pioneers arrived in the country hoping to return to their native villages with their hard-earned savings. Little distinguished the small and predominantly male communities from other Armenian settlements, except for the fact that 80% were from Keghi. By the 1920?s, the largest Armenian communities existed in Brantford and St. Catharines, each with an Armenian population of 500, while Toronto numbered 200. SOURCE


[+] Keghi/ Kiğı (Kurdish: Gêxî, Armenian: Քղի Kʿġi) is now a town and district of Bingöl Province

[1] "They were Alevis, Arabs, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Jews, Kurds and Armenians. Their names say it all: Kevork, Elias, George, Alex, John, Albert, Thomas, Kiro Vasileff, Maic Yanos, Nick Yarowy, Kamil Rosa, Arakilian, Salaman, Marcus, Kuriakos, Kibicz, Manchur... and those with Arab/Muslim names (Khalil, Rachim…are Arabs, Kurds, and Alevis). They were members of ethnic and religious minorities." 

Editors note: These names do not exist in SOURCE: Roll Call for names and the addendum to the roll call records.

"...As to the Turks who were interned. It is not just their names, but their dietary habits, their prayer rugs and their burial rituals that assure me they were not Armenian. Even though Armenians came from the Ottoman Empire and Canada was at war with the Ottoman Empire, it was known that Armenians were not sympathetic to the Ottoman Empire and none were interned. As well, Brantford Armenians started up a Home Guard to work with local Canadian soldiers and were not considered in any way a threat to security..." Marsha Skrypuch

Marsha Skrypuch is currently doing research for a novel about the Kapuskasing internees.



See also:  Prof. Dr. Kemal ÇİÇEK 
KANADALI TÜRKLER’İN 100 YILDIR UNUTULAN TEHCİRİ

See also: Canadian First World WarInternment Recognition Fund Fonds canadien de reconnaissance de l'internement durant la première guerre mondiale