Leslie Davis

American Consul during Armenian Genocide. Submitted reports on the situation.

Davis was posted in Harput, in Turkish interior, from 1914 to 1917. He saved numerous Armenians by sheltering them in the consulate, by helping them to escape to Russia, and by providing financial help and communications with American relatives. He risked his own life because Turkish law forbade anyone to hide or assist refugee Armenians. He made several horseback trips, and wrote a long report to the State Department on the thousands of bodies he saw, particularly near Lake Goeljuk (modern Hazar Golu). For further details see "The Slaughterhouse Province" by Leslie A. Davis, edited by Susan Blair, copyright 1989.