Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal Volume 1 | 2006 Issue 2 | Article 8 “When the Cannons Talk, the Diplomats Must Be Silent”: A Danish Diplomat in Constantinople during the Armenian Genocide Matthias Bjørnlund Abstract. The ne voy Carl Ellis Wandel was the sole Danish diplomatic representative in Constantinople before, during, and after World War I, and between 1914 and 1925 he wrote hundreds of detailed reports on the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians, as well as on related subjects. This article analyzes and contextualizes some of his most important reports, showing how these hitherto unknown sources contribute to the understanding of vital aspects of the Armenian Genocide, not least concerning the ongoing scholarly debate between ‘‘intentionalist’’ and ‘‘structuralist’’ interpretations of the event and concerning the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians as a particularly radical part of a Young Turk project of Turkification. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp Recommended Citation Bjørnlund, Matthias (2006) "“When the Cannons Talk, the Diplomats Must Be Silent”: A Danish Diplomat in Constantinople during the Armenian Genocide," Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal: Vol. 1: Iss. 2: Article 8. Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol1/iss2/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ‘‘When the Cannons Talk, the Diplomats Must Be Silent’’: A Danish Diplomat in Constantinople during the Armenian Genocide Matthias Bjørnlund Copenhagen, Denmark The envoy Carl Ellis Wandel was the sole Danish diplomatic representative in Constantinople before, during, and after World War I, and between 1914 and 1925 he wrote hundreds of detailed reports on the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians, as well as on related subjects.