In December 1916, Lieutenant Said Ahmed Mukhtar al-Ba’aj, an Ottoman officer, and Arab Muslim soldier who defected to the Russian Army testified about his role in the deportation of Armenians from Trebizond and Erzerum.
Enver, Ottoman Minister of War, served as military attache to Berlin prior to the coup when he became one of the triumvirate to seize power in 1913. Afterward, German-Ottoman military cooperation became official policy. Several officials discuss the "liquidation" and deportation of the Armenians.