While in the Middle East , Gertrude Bell was a witness to the Armenian Genocide . Contrasting them with previous massacres , she wrote that the massacres of preceding years " were not comparable to the massacres carried out in 1915 and the succeeding years . " Bell also reported that in Damascus , " Turks sold Armenian women openly in the public market . " In an intelligence report , Bell wrote : After British troops took Baghdad on 10 March 1917 , Bell was summoned by Cox to Baghdad and given the title of " Oriental Secretary . " As the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire was finalised by the end of the war in late January 1919 , Bell was assigned to conduct an analysis of the situation in Mesopotamia . Due to her familiarity and relations with the tribes in the area she had strong ideas about the leadership needed in Iraq . She spent the next ten months writing what was later considered a masterly official report , " Self Determination in Mesopotamia " . The British Commissioner in Mesopotamia , Arnold Wilson , had different ideas of how Iraq should be run , preferring an Arab government to be under the influence of British officials who would retain real control , as he felt , from experience , that Mesopotamian populations were not yet ready to govern and administer the country efficiently and peacefully
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Gertrude Bell