Der Einsatz von Johannes Lepsius zum Abwenden des Genozids an den Armeniern in den Weltkriegsjahren (Johannes Lepsius's Efforts to Avert the Armenian Genocide during the World War Years)
Hayruni reconstructs Johannes Lepsius's resistance to the Armenian Genocide. In summer 1915 Lepsius travelled to Constantinople, gathered materials on the events, and met Ottoman War Minister Enver: failing to dissuade him. Returning to Berlin and finding the German government unwilling to obstruct its ally despite exact knowledge of the extermination policy, he tried to mobilize the two large German churches to pressure the government, also without success; in October 1915 Berlin imposed public and press silence on the Armenian situation, and the churches complied. Lepsius alone refused, breaking with the German Orient Mission he had founded, and privately printed and distributed his confidential report on the situation of the Armenian people to Protestant congregations and Reichstag deputies. He then went into exile in the Netherlands and continued relief work.