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By
Demir Delen
All
Armenian publications and documents claiming "genocide'' focus on
1915 and invariably suggest that on April 24th, Turks suddenly started
killing innocent Armenians. In their zealous propaganda to show
that this was the first so-called genocide of the 20th century , they
never mention the events leading to April 24, 1915 and in fact, what
decisions were taken by the Ottoman Government on that day.
One cannot view the Turkish - Armenian relations of 1915 to 1922 in
isolation, without placing it into the proper historical context. Also,
the events in Eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus between Turks and
Armenians cannot be analyzed without considering the interaction of
numerous other players, namely, the Russians, the British, the French,
the Americans, Kurds, Circassians and Crimean Tatars.
What Happened on April 24, 1915:
On April 24, 1915, after having shown patience to the collaboration
of the Armenian Revolutionary Committees with the Russian enemy for nine
months, during the First World War, the Ottoman Ministry of the Interior
sent a circular to the governors of the provinces where the treasonous
Armenian activities were taking place and ordered them to close down the
headquarters and branches of all Armenian Revolutionary Committees and
arrest their leaders. This was a decision taken by the Ottoman
Government at a critical time during the war with Russia on the eastern
front while also fighting with the British and the allied forces at
Gallipoli on the western front and at Mesopotamia on the southern front.
With all their men and resources spread so thinly, being engaged in wars
on three fronts, the Ottoman Government had to also deal with the
uprising, atrocities and collaboration with the Russians of its own
Armenian subjects.
In order to understand how the relations between Turks and Armenians
changed and why the Armenians were engaged in treasonous activities, one
has to go back in history and analyze the Armenians' position within the
Ottoman Empire and the Russian and Great Powers' expansionist
ambitions against the Ottoman Lands.
Armenians; Pawns for Russian, British and French Imperialist
Aspirations:
Armenians played a respected part in the life of the Ottoman Empire
until the mid 19th century. In fact they had special privileges
compared to other muslim or non-muslim subjects of the empire and they
were referred as 'the loyal millet'.
The Russian ambitions on Ottoman lands resulted in three wars during the
19th century; between 1827 - 1829, 1855 - 1856 and 1877 - 1878. In
1853, Russian Tsar Nicholas, referring to the Ottoman Empire as the
"sick man of Europe", proposed a plan to England in which he
anticipated the breakup of the Empire and wanted to benefit from the
spoils. With or without England, Russia went ahead to implement
its plans.
Russia dreamed of freeing their Orthodox brothers in the Balkans,
Eastern Anatolia and in Syria from the Ottoman control and establishing
a Russian-Orthodox Empire in the Mediterranean basin. The health
of the Tsarist Russia's economic life depended upon its commercial fleet
being able to sail to warm open seas passing through the Straits, which
were under the Ottoman control.
The Russian-Turkish war of 1877 -78 was a watershed in Eastern Anatolia.
Its effects on both Muslims and Christians was great. Armenian
aspirations of living under Christian sovereignty and possibly even
Armenian autonomy were heightened. Part of what the Armenians
considered to be their homeland, the Kars-Ardahan region, had been taken
from the Ottomans and there was good reason to expect that other Ottoman
lands would soon be in Russian hands. There also was a
deterioration of the Ottoman government's control of its eastern
provinces. This was a direct result of the war, which broke the
balance of power in the east. The Ottoman government, impoverished
and now without many revenue-producing European provinces, found it
impossible to pay for the security needs of the east. Many of the
soldiers and gendarmes who normally would have provided for public
security had died in the war.
In order to weaken the Ottoman Empire internally Russia started to
incite the nationalistic feelings of the Ottoman "millets" and
supported revolutionary committees. Establishing small states on
the principle of nationalism and taking them under their protection was
relatively easy in Ottoman Europe (Balkans) for Russia and the Great
Powers. However, the situation was different in Ottoman Asia.
The non-muslim millets such as Armenians were scattered all around among
the muslims, not forming a majority of population in any province.
They were not clustered together as in the Balkans. However, by
organizing and supporting Armenian Revolutionary Committees, the
Russians thought they would effect the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
from the inside. The Hunchak Revolutionary Party was established on
Marxist principles in 1887 and the Dashnaktsutiun Revolutionary Party
was founded in 1890 in Tiflis.
The Russians were successfully using the imperialist policy of
"divide and rule" against the Ottoman Empire by using the
Armenians in the Caucasus and the Slavic nations in the Balkans.
According to Louise Nalbandian, a leading Armenian researcher, the
Hunchak program stated the following:
"Agitation and terror were needed to elevate the spirit of the
people. The party aimed at terrorizing the Ottoman Government, thus
contributing toward lowering the prestige of that regime and working
toward its complete disintegration. The Hunchaks wanted to
annihilate the most dangerous of the Armenian and Turkish individuals
who were then working for the government as well as to destroy all spies
and informers. To assist them in carrying out all of these
terrorist acts, the party was to organize an exclusive branch
specifically devoted to performing acts of terrorism. The most
opportune time to institute the general rebellion for carrying out the
immediate objectives was when Turkey was engaged in war".
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