David Gaunt explains how he set out to locate documents that disprove the Turk claims that there are no documents that verify Turkish plans for genocide. Gaunt with the help of students located documents in several different languages that reveal the effort of the Turks to round up and deport both Armenians and Assyrians in areas that the two 1groups were living intermingled. Much of this process had begun in late 1914 when the Ottomans suspected both groups of allying with the Russians and this led to a series of massacres of both peoples. Gaunt also located an Ottoman document that ordered the removal of Armenians and Assyrians despite efforts of both groups to resist. Many of the sources Gaunt locates come from diplomats and military personnel and refute the Turkish claims that there are no sources showing intent to remove and exterminate Armenians and Assyrians. What is critically important about Gaunt’s research is the many languages consulted including Turkish sources in a language not often familiar to Turkish historians.
David Gaunt stresses the importance of looking at sources in many different languages and has drawn from multiple languages in responding to Turkish claims that such sources do not exist.