The Armenian genocide of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire. Death of a people. A Brief History of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire
To clarify the essence of the Armenian question and the concept of “Armenian genocide,” we will cite a number of excerpts from the book of the famous French historian Georges de Maleville “The Armenian Tragedy of 1915,” published in Russian by the Baku publishing house “Elm” in 1990, and try to comment on it.
In Chapter I, “Historical Frame of Events,” he writes: “ geographically great Armenia constitutes a territory with undefined borders, the approximate center of which was Mount Ararat (5,165 m) and which was limited by three large lakes of the Caucasus: Sevan (Geycha) - from the northeast, Lake Van - from the southwest and Lake Urmia in the Iranian Azerbaijan - from the southeast. It is impossible to more accurately determine the borders of Armenia in the past due to the lack of reliable data. As you know, today there is an Armenian core in the central Caucasus - the Armenian SSR, 90% of the population of which, according to Soviet statistics, are Armenians. But it was not always so. The "Six Armenian Provinces" of Ottoman Turkey (Erzurum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Elaziz and Sivas) were inhabited until 1914 a large number Armenians, who, however, did not constitute the majority by any means. Today, Armenians no longer live in Anatolia, and it is their disappearance that is blamed on the Turkish state". However, as Georges de Maleville writes on page 19, “ from 1632 the border was changed as a result of the Russian invasion of the Caucasus. It became clear that the Russian political plans consisted of annexing the Black Sea coast. In 1774, the Treaty of Kuchuk-Keynar confirmed the loss of dominance over the Crimea by the Ottomans. On the eastern shore of the Black Sea, according to the 1812 treaty concluded in Bucharest, Abkhazia and Georgia, annexed, however, since 1801, went to Russia. The war with Persia, which began in 1801, ended in 1828 with the transfer to Russia of all Persian territories north of the Araks, namely the Erivan Khanate. According to the Treaty of Turkmenchay, signed in March, Russia had a common border with Turkey, and, having pushed aside Persia, it gained dominance over part of the territory of Armenia(which has never existed there in history - author's note).
A month later, in April 1828, Loris-Melikov's army, which had come to end the Armenian campaign, occupied Turkish Anatolia as part of the operations of the fifth Russo-Turkish War and laid siege for the first time in front of the fortress at Kareya. It was during these events that for the first time the Armenian population of Turkey came out in support of the Russian army, which consisted of volunteers recruited in Erivan, driven to fanaticism by the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin and called upon to terrorize the Muslim population, raising the Armenian population of Turkey to revolt. The same scenario played out calmly for ninety years every time the Russian army made another breakthrough in the same territory, with the only nuance that over time Russian propaganda improved its methods, and, starting from the moment when the “Armenian question” became object of constant excitement, the Russian army was confident that it could count on Turkish territory and on the rear of the Turkish army, that is, on the assistance of bands of armed rebels who, in anticipation of a breakthrough by the Russian army, would wear down the Turkish army and try to destroy it from the rear. After this there were also Russian-Turkish wars in 1833 and 1877. 36 years passed before the next conflict, which began with the declaration of war on November 1, 1914. However, the long period of time was by no means peaceful for Turkish Anatolia. Beginning in 1880, for the first time in its history, Turkish Armenia experienced revolts, banditry and bloody riots, which the Ottoman power tried to stop without much success. The riots followed a chronology that was not random: riots arose systematically, and the suppression of them, necessary to establish order, aroused persistent hatred in response.
Throughout the entire territory between Erzincay and Erzurum in the north and Diyarbakir and Van in the south, sedition has been carried out for more than twenty years with all the consequences that can flow from it, in a region remote from the center and difficult to govern". According to Russian sources, weapons flowed here like a river from Russia.
“On November 1, 1914, Turkey was forced to enter the war,” continues Georges de Maleville. In the spring of 1915, the Turkish government decided to resettle the Armenian population of eastern Anatolia to Syria and the mountainous part of Mesopotamia, which was then Turkish territory. They prove to us that they were allegedly talking about a beating, a measure of disguised destruction. We will try to analyze whether this is true or not. But before these events are presented and studied, it is necessary to consider the disposition of forces along the front line during the war. At the beginning of 1915, the Russians, without the knowledge of the Turks, made a maneuver and, bypassing Ararat, descended to the south along the Persian border. It was then that the rebellion of the Armenians inhabiting Van broke out, which entailed the first significant deportation of the Armenian population during the war. This should be discussed in more detail.
A telegram from Governor Wang dated March 20, 1915 reports an armed uprising and clarifies: “ We believe there are more than 2000 rebels. We are trying to suppress this uprising". The efforts were, however, in vain, since on March 23 the same governor reports that the rebellion extended to nearby villages. A month later the situation became desperate. This is what the governor telegraphed on April 24: “ 4,000 rebels gathered in the region. The rebels cut off roads, attack nearby villages and subjugate them. Currently, many women and children are left without hearth and home. Shouldn't these women and children (Muslims) be transported to the western provinces?“Unfortunately, they couldn’t do this then, and here are the consequences.
« The Russian Caucasian Army begins an offensive in the direction of Van, - American historian Stanford J. Shaw tells us. (Shaw S.J. vol. 2, p. 316). — This army includes a large number of Armenian volunteers. Setting out from Yerevan on April 28, ... they reached Van on May 14, organized and carried out a massacre of the local Muslim population. Over the next two days, an Armenian state was established in Van under the protection of the Russians, and it seemed that it would be able to hold out after the disappearance of representatives of the Muslim population, killed or put to flight«.
« The Armenian population of the city of Van before these tragic events was only 33,789 people, i.e., only 42% of the total population". (Shaw S.J. p. 316). The number of Muslims was 46,661 people, of which, apparently, the Armenians killed about 36,000 people, which is an act of genocide (author's note). This gives an idea of the scale of the beatings carried out on the unarmed population (Muslim men were at the front) with the simple goal of making room. There was nothing random or unexpected in these actions. This is what another historian, Valiy, writes: “ In April 1915, Armenian revolutionaries captured the city of Van and established an Armenian headquarters there under the command of Aram and Varelu(two leaders of the revolutionary Dashnak party). the 6th of May(possibly according to the old calendar) they opened the city to the Russian army after clearing the area of all Muslims... Among the most famous Armenian leaders (in Van) was the former member of the Turkish parliament Pasdermadjian, known as Garro. He led the Armenian volunteers when clashes began between the Turks and Russians". (Felix Valyi “Revolutions in islam”, Londres, 1925, p. 253).
On May 18, 1915, the tsar, moreover, expressed “ gratitude to the Armenian population of Van for their dedication"(Gyuryun, p. 261), and Aram Manukyan was appointed Russian governor. The show goes on to describe the events that followed.
« Thousands of Armenian residents of Mush, as well as other important centers in the eastern regions of Turkey, began to flock to the new Armenian state, and among them were columns of escaped prisoners... In mid-June, at least 250,000 Armenians were concentrated in the area of the city of Van... However, in early July Ottoman units pushed back the Russian army. The retreating army was accompanied by thousands of Armenians: they were fleeing punishment for the murders that the stillborn state allowed"(Shaw S.J., p. 316).
The Armenian author Khovanesyan, who is furiously hostile towards the Turks, writes: “ The panic was indescribable. After a month of resistance to the governor, after the liberation of the city, after the establishment of the Armenian government, everything was lost. More than 200,000 refugees fled with the retreating Russian army to Transcaucasia, losing the best they had and falling into endless traps set by the Kurds”(Hovannisian, “Road to independence”, p. 53, cite par Shaue).
We dwelled in such detail on the events in Van because, unfortunately, they are a sad example. First, it clearly shows the extent to which armed uprisings in regions with significant Armenian minorities were common and dangerous for the Ottoman troops who fought against the Russians. Here we are quite obviously and clearly talking about betrayal in the face of the enemy. This behavior of the Armenians, by the way, today is systematically obscured by authors who are favorable to their claims - all this is simply denied: the truth interferes with them.
On the other hand, official telegrams from the Turks confirm the opinion of all objective authors that the Armenian leaders systematically suppressed the Muslim majority of the local population in order to be able to seize the territory (i.e., they simply slaughtered all the children, women, old people - author's note) . We have already spoken about this and repeat it again: nowhere in the Ottoman Empire did the Armenian population, which settled voluntarily, constitute even a slight majority that could allow the creation of an autonomous Armenian region. Under these conditions, the Armenian revolutionaries had no choice but to transform the minority into a majority by exterminating the Muslim population to succeed in their policy. They resorted to this procedure every time they had a free hand, moreover, with the support of the Russians themselves, finally, and this is the main element in our evidence, when trying to calculate the number of Armenians allegedly destroyed by the Turks, an honest observer in no way must equate the number of missing persons with the number of victims; Throughout the war, the insane hope of achieving the establishment of an Armenian autonomous state under the auspices of the Russians became an obsession for the Armenian population of Turkey. Khovanesyan, an Armenian author, tells us about this: “ The reckless armed rebellion in Van brought to him 200,000 Armenians from all over eastern Anatolia, who then fled from there, overcoming 3000-meter mountains, to then return to Erzurum and again escape from there with other Armenians, and so on.". It is inevitable that a population that has experienced such severe suffering at the height of war will lose significant numbers. However, justice does not allow the Turks to be blamed for these human losses, which occurred solely as a result of the circumstances of the war and the insane propaganda that for decades poisoned the Turkish Armenians and made them believe that they would be able to create an independent state through rebellion or murder, while they were everywhere minority". Let's return to the history of the battles.
The Turkish breakthrough proved short-lived, and in August the Turks were forced to cede Van to the Russians again. Until the end of 1915, the Eastern Front was established along the Van-Agri-Khorasan line. But in February 1916, the Russians launched a powerful offensive in two directions: one around Lake Van on the southern side and further to Bitlis and Mushu, the second from Kars to Erzurum, which was taken on February 16. Here, too, the Russians were accompanied by irregular columns of Armenians, determined to crush everything in their path.
Shaw writes: " What followed was the worst massacre of the entire war: more than a million Muslim peasants were forced to flee. Thousands of them were cut to pieces as they tried to escape with the Ottoman army retreating to Erzincan"(Shaw S. Pzh, p. 323).
One can only marvel at the magnitude of this figure: it gives an idea of the reputation for cruelty that the Armenian auxiliary groups acquired and which they maintained through constant terror (the Russian army, of course, was not involved here).
On April 18, the Russians took Trabzon, in July - Erzincan, even Sivas was under threat. However, the Russian offensive in the south around Lake Van was repulsed. In the autumn of 1916, the front was in the shape of a semicircle, which included Trabzon and Erzincan in Russian territory and reached Bitlis in the south. The front remained this way until the spring of 1918.
Of course, the Armenian revolutionary organizations believed that the Russian victory was assured, and imagined, “ that their dream would be realized, especially since the newly occupied territories included the port of Trabzon. A huge number of Armenians - refugees from Van, as well as emigrants from Russian Armenia - flocked to the Erzurum area. Throughout 1917, the Russian army was paralyzed by the St. Petersburg revolution. On December 18, 1917, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Ottoman government in Erzincan, and this was followed by the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, which declared the return to Turkey of the eastern territories taken from it in 1878. The Russians returned Kara and Ardahan, and “Armenia” was thus reduced to its natural densely populated territory - Russian Armenia, which Armenian gangs created in 1905-1907. as a result of the massacre of Azerbaijanis(however, it should be noted that here the Armenians did not constitute the majority at that time, until the end of the forties of the twentieth century - author's note).
But the Armenians did not agree that way. Starting on January 13, 1918, they began to acquire weapons from the Bolsheviks, who were recalling their units from the front.(TsGAAR, D-T, No. 13). Then, on February 10, 1918, together with the Georgians and Azerbaijanis, they formed a single socialist republic of Transcaucasia with Menshevik tendencies, which rejected in advance the terms of the treaty that were to be accepted in Brest-Litovsk. Finally, taking advantage of the decision of the Russian army, non-combatant Armenian units organized a systematic massacre of the Muslim population in Erzincan and Erzurum, accompanied by indescribable horrors, which were then told by indignant Russian officers" (Khleboc, journal de guerre du 2-e regiment d`artillerie, cite par Durun, p. 272).
The goal was still the same: to make room in order to ensure that Armenian immigrants had an exclusive right to territory in the eyes of international public opinion. Shaw states that the Turkish population of the five provinces of Trabzon, Erzincan, Erzurum, Van and Bitlis, which numbered 3,300,000 in 1914, became 600,000 refugees after the war (ibid., p. 325).
On June 4, 1918, the Caucasian republics signed a treaty with Turkey that confirmed the terms of the Brest-Litovsk Agreement and recognized the 1877 borders, thus allowing Turkish troops to bypass Armenia from the south and recapture Baku from the British, which they did on September 14, 1918. The Mudros Agreement of October 30, 1918 found Turkish troops in Baku. In the subsequent period of disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians tried to take advantage of the retreat of the Turkish troops: on April 19, 1919, they again occupied Kars (Georgians - Ardahan). This means that the front line was again pushed west almost along the 1878 border. From there, for eighteen months, the Armenians carried out countless raids on the outskirts of the territories they occupied, namely in the northwest direction towards the Black Sea and Trabzon (Gürün, 295 - 318), which refers to the memoirs of General Kazim Karzbekir and two witnesses - Rawlinson (English ) and Robert Dana (American).
And, naturally, they again tried to increase the Armenian population of Kars, and did this using well-known methods, that is, through total terror and murder. Fate decreed otherwise. Thanks to Mustafa Kemal, Turkey regained its strength, and on September 28, 1920, General Kazim Karabekir launched an offensive against the Armenians. On October 30 he took Kars, and on November 7 - Alexandropol (Gyumri). For the third time in 5 years of war, a huge mass of Armenians fled before the offensive of the Turkish army, thus expressing in their own way their refusal to submit to the Turkish government.
This is how the story of the migration of the Armenian population on the Eastern Front ends. However, this population could never actually be taken into account in the statistics of the notorious “beatings” committed by the Turks against the Armenians. All that is known about him is that the survivors, their number is very unclear, after terrible ordeals reached Soviet Armenia. But how many of these unfortunates were there whom human and criminally absurd propaganda sent at the height of the war to the line of fire in order to build there a chimerical state by exterminating the indigenous local population?
However, in order to more clearly imagine what happened in 1915, let us return to the events that unfolded around the Armenians in the pre-war period, that is, before the outbreak of the First World War of 1914-1918.
The one who worked to promote and use the Armenians for their own purposes is quite eloquently stated in the letter of the Tsar’s governor in the Caucasus, Vorontsov-Dashkov, which we present below.
On October 10, 1912, the governor of Nicholas II in the Caucasus, I.K. Vorontsov-Dashkov, wrote to the Emperor of the Russian Empire: “ Your Majesty knows that in the entire history of our relations with Turkey in the Caucasus, right up to the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which ended with the annexation of the present-day Batumi and Kars regions to our territory, Russian policy has incessantly since Peter the Great been based on a friendly attitude towards the Armenians, who paid us for this during the hostilities by actively helping the troops. With the annexation of the so-called Armenian region, in which Etchmiadzin, the cradle of Armenian-Gregorianism, was located, to our possessions. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich spent a lot of effort to create from the Patriarch of Etchmiadzin a trustee of the Turkish and Persian Armenians, rightly believing thereby to achieve useful influence for Russia among the Christian population of Asia Minor, through which the path of our primordial offensive movement to the southern seas ran. By patronizing the Armenians, we acquired loyal allies who always provided us with great services... It was carried out consistently and steadily for almost a century and a half"("Red Archive", No. 1 (26). M., pp. 118-120).
So, the policy of using Armenians in the fight against Turks and Azerbaijanis by Russia began from the time of Peter 1 and has been going on for about 250 years. By the hands of Armenians, who, in the apt expression of the prosecutor of the Etchmiadzin Synod. A.Frenkel, "civilization has only scratched the surface"Russia is implementing the behests of Peter I. " And quietly reduce these infidels so that they don’t know it". Yes, history, which no matter how much you hush up or distort, has preserved the true state of affairs in the Caucasus of the so-called Armenian region, in which Etchmiadzin (Uch muAdzin - Three Churches) and Iravan, i.e. Yerevan, are located. By the way, the flag of the Iravan Khanate is in Baku, in the museum.
In 1828, on February 10, according to the Treaty of Turkmenchay, the Nakhchivan and Iravan khanates became part of the Russian Empire. The Khanate of Iran offered heroic resistance to the Russian hordes for 23 years. Armenians also fought as part of the Russian troops. In 1825, the population of the Iravan Khanate consisted of Muslim Azerbaijanis (more than 95%) and Kurds. In 1828, Russia, having spent enormous material resources, resettled 120 thousand Armenians within the defeated Iravan Khanate.
And from 1829 to 1918, about 300 thousand more Armenians were settled there, and even after that, Armenians in the Erivan, Etchmiadzin provinces and other areas of the so-called Russian Armenia did not constitute the majority of the population anywhere. Their national composition nowhere exceeded 30-40% of the total local population in 1917. Thus, the population table of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, compiled according to the “Caucasian calendar for 1917”, shows that in the part of the Erivan province, which is part of Azerbaijan, there were 129,586 Muslims and 80,530 Armenians, which was 61% and 38%, respectively. And in the document presented to the Chairman of the Paris Peace Conference - a note of protest. The Azerbaijani peace delegation dated August 16/19, 1919 regarding the recognition of the independence of the Azerbaijan Republic (abbreviated - author’s note) states: “ Being deprived of the opportunity to obtain regular and private relations with its capital - the city of Baku, the Azerbaijani peace delegation only learned from recent official reports about the sad fate to which the Karsk region, Nakhchivan, Sharuro-Daralagez, Surmalinsky districts and part of the Erivan district of the Erivan province were subjected - annexation , with the exception of the Ardagan district, to the Kars region forcibly to the territory of the Armenian Republic. All these lands were occupied by Turkish troops, who remained in them until the armistice was concluded. After the departure of the latter: the regions of Kars and Batumi, together with the Akhalikh and Akhalkalaki districts of the Tiflis province, formed an independent republic of the South-Western Caucasus, headed by a provisional government in the city of Kars.
This provisional government was formed by the parliament convened at the same time. Despite such a clearly expressed will of the population of these regions, the neighboring republics, in violation of the principle of free self-determination of peoples, made a number of attempts and forcibly seized part of the Republic of the South-West Caucasus and eventually ensured that the Kars parliament and government were dissolved by decree of General Thomson, and the members government arrested and sent to Batumi. At the same time, the dissolution and arrests were motivated by the fact that the Kars parliament and government seemed to have a hostile orientation, which, by the way, the Allied Command was incorrectly informed by the parties interested in this region. After this, the Kars region, under the guise of settling refugees, was occupied by Armenian and Georgian troops, and the occupation of the region was accompanied by armed clashes. Deeply sympathizing with the cause of the resettlement of refugees in their places, the Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs, in his protest on April 30 of this year, wrote to Mr. Commander of the Allied Forces that this resettlement should take place with the assistance of British troops, and not the Armenian military forces, who are striving not so much for the resettlement refugees to the place, how many to forcibly seize and secure this area.
The Republic of Azerbaijan cannot and should not be indifferent to such a fate of the Kars region as a simple spectator. It should not be forgotten that it was in the Kars region, which relatively recently belonged to Turkey (until 1877), that the relations of Armenians towards Muslims always left much to be desired. During the last war, these relations greatly worsened due to the events of December 1914, when Turkish troops temporarily occupied the Ardagan district, the city of Ardagan and part of the Karsky district; After the retreat of the Turks, Russian troops began to destroy the Muslim population, putting everything to fire and sword. And in these bloody events that befell the innocent Muslim population, local Armenians expressed a clearly hostile attitude and in some places, as was the case, for example, even in the cities of Kars and Ardahan, they not only incited the Cossacks against the Muslims, but also slaughtered the latter mercilessly. All these circumstances cannot, of course, speak of a peaceful common life for the Muslims of the Kars region under the control of the Armenian authorities.
Realizing this, the Muslim population of the region itself, through deputations and with the help of written requests, has recently repeatedly addressed the Azerbaijani government with a statement that it cannot and will not be able to submit to the power of the Armenians, and therefore asks for the annexation of the region to the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic. Even less can the Republic of Azerbaijan reconcile itself with the transfer of control of the Nakhichevan, Sharuro-Daralagez, Surmalin districts and part of the Erivan district to the government of Armenia...
She finds that by transferring control of an integral part of the territory of Azerbaijan, there was a clear violation of the undoubted right of the Azerbaijan Republic to the districts: Nakhichevan, Sharuro-Daralagez, Surmalinsky and part of the Erivan district. This act creates a source of constant misunderstandings and even clashes between the local Muslim population and the Armenian Republic.
The named areas are inhabited by Muslim Azerbaijanis, who are one people, one nationality with the indigenous population of Azerbaijan, completely homogeneous not only in faith, but also in ethnic composition, language, customs and way of life.
It is enough to take the ratio of Muslims and Armenians to resolve the issue of ownership of these lands in favor of Azerbaijan. Thus, not only more than half are Muslim Azerbaijanis, but they are a significant majority in all districts, especially in the Sharur-Daralagez district - 72.3%.” In relation to the Erivan district, figures relating to the population of the entire district are taken. But that part of this district that is transferred to the administration of the Armenian government and which consists of the Vedi-Basar and Millistan districts contains about 90% of the Muslim population.
This is precisely the part of the Erivan district that suffered the most from the Armenian military units under different names - “Vants”, “Sasunts”, who, like Andronik’s gangs, slaughtered the Muslim population, not sparing the elderly and children, burned entire villages, subjected villages to shelling from cannons and an armored train, they dishonored Muslim women, they ripped open the bellies of the dead, gouged out their eyes, and sometimes burned the corpses; they robbed the population and generally committed unheard-of atrocities. By the way, in the Vedi-Basar region, an outrageous fact took place when the same Armenian detachments in the villages of Karakhach, Kadyshu, Karabaglar, Agasibekdy, Dekhnaz slaughtered all the men, and then took captive several hundred beautiful married women and girls, who were handed over to Armenian "warriors". The latter kept these unfortunate victims of Armenian atrocities with them for a long time, despite the fact that after the protest of the Azerbaijani government, even the Armenian parliament intervened in the matter” (TsGAOR Az. SSR, f, 894. from 10, d. 104, l. 1-3) .
The information available in the note of protest from the Republic of Azerbaijan, which they quoted, presented to the Chairman of the Paris Peace Conference, eloquently testifies that Armenians never had a homeland in Armenia (Russian), since they did not constitute the majority anywhere. This document testifies that in Batumi, Akhalsalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Kars, Nakhichevan, Etchmiadzin, Yerevan, etc., Muslim Azerbaijanis have always lived, and in the majority.
Contrary to common sense, the Armenian Republic was created in 1918 in the territories that had belonged to Azerbaijanis for centuries, by the will of England.
England thereby solved a double problem: “it created a buffer Christian state between Turkey and Russia and cut off Turkey from the entire Turkic world (and in 1922, by the will of the leadership of the USSR, Zangezur was taken from Azerbaijan and transferred to Armenia. Thus, Turkey finally lost direct land access to Turkic world, which stretches in a wide strip from the Balkans to the Korean Peninsula. What motivated England and the Entente in making the decision to create an Armenian state from scratch? Apparently, anti-Turkism and anti-Islamism! And besides this, the successful development of the brilliant Porte, which stretched from Asia Minor to the middle of Europe and organically combined the interests of both Muslim and Christian peoples subject to it. It was not without reason that for the first time in world practice in Ottoman Empire The institution of “Ombudsman” was created - a defender of the rights of humanity, regardless of the religious, national and property affiliation of the subjects of the empire, who effectively protected the entire population from the arbitrariness of the bureaucratic apparatus of power.
Excerpt from a book THE GREAT LIE ABOUT “GREAT ARMENIA” Tahir Mobile oglu. Baku "Araz" -2009 pp.58-69
Armenian genocide - causes, stages, number of victims, results. World recognition - find out which countries recognized the Armenian Genocide.
Every year, on April 24, millions of Armenians around the world honor the memory of their ancestors who died in the most terrible event called the Armenian Genocide. In memory of this bloody event, many videos were shot and broadcast on the main channels of Russia and other countries that recognized the genocide. Among the many stories filmed and shown, the most eye-catching was the video clip, called “Millions of Lives.” The plot of the video clip is based on the history of the Armenian people, without any distortion or distortion, all the pain that the ancestors of the dead carry with them every minute. Stars of world culture took part in the video, such as Montserrat Caballe, Mariam Merabova, and many others.
In addition to this video, in Russia on the TNT television channel it was shown, in which the stars of the channel took part. Around the world, in countries that recognized the genocide, many events were held to commemorate this date. For example, in one of the schools in the Californian city of Glendale, an event was held, the main invited guest of which was a local resident who survived the genocide, who told everyone present her story of survival during that difficult time. Events were held in Paris calling for remembering, honoring and mourning together with the Armenian people. Many exhibitions, conferences, charity evenings, sporting events, competitions and concerts around the world were designed to honor the memory of those killed in that terrible event.
Having studied the variety of forums, we can conclude that the majority only approximately know about this incident, without delving into historical sources, they draw blasphemous and incorrect conclusions. Many historians are still puzzled by the true cause of such brutal events, but they are united in one thing - the brutality with which this genocide was committed can only be compared with another large-scale genocide of humanity - the Holocaust.
Causes of genocide.
By looking through most historical sources and notes, you can independently try to understand the reasons for this event. It is no secret that the fundamental cause of most wars, bloodshed and genocides was enmity based on religious differences. Currently, this topic is relevant, although countries all over the world are trying to be civilized and tolerant towards representatives of different religions. A hundred years ago, the topic of faith and worship of another God could have become the impetus for a bloody war, which is considered massacre, arranged in 1915 by the Turks.
The Ottoman state, founded in 1299, expanded its possessions through the conquest of various lands, and after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 it became known as the Ottoman Empire. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire reached unprecedented heights and became the largest country in the world. Ottoman Empire was a state connecting Europe and the East for more than 6 centuries. After the signing of a peace treaty in 1924, the empire received the official name "Turkish Republic" or simply Türkiye. In the history of Turkey, the most revered and praised ruler was Suleiman the Magnificent. There are still mosques and topkapis in Turkey that belong to family members of the ruling Ottoman dynasty. Many TV series and films are being produced that describe the events of the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. Distinctive feature Suleiman's reign is the absence of fanatical contempt for religions other than Islam, since the empire was considered a multinational and multilingual state. But you should know that Muslims considered representatives of other faiths to be “second-class people” and did not give them any rights to a decent life. Only after the events that occurred during the reign of Selim (one of the sons of Suleiman the Magnificent), namely after the massacre of Shiites in 1514 in eastern Anatolia, in which more than forty thousand people died, did attitudes towards non-believers sharply worsen.
Also in the mid-15th century, there was a temporary truce between the Ottoman Empire and Persia. Both states “tugged” the Armenian land, and during the truce it was decided that the western part of the land was given to the Ottoman Empire, and the eastern part to Persia. What happened after this event with the Armenian people cannot be called anything other than persecution and resettlement.
The aggressive actions of the Turks towards the Armenian people began as a result of the Turkish defeat in the First Balkan War. The Turks were stunned by the defeat and the fact that the European possessions that had long belonged to them no longer had anything to do with Turkey. The Armenians' decision to side with Turkey's opponents marked the beginning of many years of hostility.
Many historians believe that the “root” and fundamental reason for the massacre aimed at the Armenian people was not military strategies, but the religion of the Armenian people. In 301, Armenians were the first in the whole world to accept Christianity as the state religion and still practice it. By the time the views of the Armenians and the Turkish government collided, not a trace remained of the idea of Suleiman the Magnificent about accepting all faiths. The Turks became fanatics of their faith and did not recognize any god other than Allah. The Turkish rulers adhered to a “fixed idea”: to reunite all Turks in their historical homeland, and the main obstacle to this reunification was the Armenian people. To achieve their own goals and dreams, the rule of the Ottoman Empire decided to carry out ethnic cleansing, which entailed irreversible consequences. The genocide did not become an event and a decision of one day; events over several decades led to this action. According to unofficial data, passive actions against the Armenian people date back to 1876 during the reign of the despotic Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Also, when studying the subtleties and details of this issue, you need to be aware of the fact that the rule of the Ottoman Empire ignored all the signed documents on peace and independence of the Armenian people. In other words, such a bloody, monstrous crime against the entire Armenian people is nothing more than a whim of the Turkish rulers and a way to prove to the whole world that they are still a great and powerful power, just like under Sultan Suleiman.
Thus, the two main reasons for the occurrence of the Armenian genocide are closely intertwined:
- Religion. Armenians they wanted to profess the faith they had chosen many centuries ago and not be converted to a religion against their will.
- Geographical location of the lands. The Armenian people and the Armenian Republic were at the vicissitudes of the war and were a hindrance to the Turks.
Stages of genocide.
When talking about any large-scale events in history, it is necessary to know the stages into which these events were divided. Genocide is no exception and includes several stages and events:
Stage 1 1876-1914
It is no secret to anyone that one of the compelling reasons for the start of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 was the inhumane and unfair attitude of the Ottomans towards the ethnic Armenian people. Many historians studying this issue state the fact that the beginning of the persecution of Armenians from their historical lands by the Ottomans was caused by nothing more than ordinary human hostility. Also, the Ottomans were not used to being losers and defeated in any military battles. The defeat in the Russian-Turkish war embittered the Turks even more and the Armenians became a “red rag” for them. In one of the French newspapers, after the events of the first stage, a note by an unknown author was published, which read: “...more than four centuries have passed since the capture of Constantinople, and the Turks, as nomads, living by their robberies and murders, have remained so. Only all this was aggravated by unsubstantiated hatred and malice, as well as the pathetic decline of a once great empire.”
You should know that during the time of Sultan Suleiman, all news and publications, conversations and gossip not only in the Ottoman bazaars, but also from all over Europe were reported to the viziers of the Ottoman Empire. This “tradition” was preserved, and the Ottoman rulers immediately learned about what was written in Paris, who were outraged by such blatant injustice and lack of support from Europe.
As a result of the first Russian-Turkish war, the Berlin Peace Treaty was signed, which stated that powers such as Russia, England, Germany, France and Italy would now act as “defenders” and regulators of all political and ethnic issues of the Armenian people. The Ottomans ignored this agreement, and in 1878, the then Ottoman Empire began the first stage of persecution and extermination of unwanted Armenians. The first mentions of punitive operations date back to 1894-1896. As a result of the pogroms and murders in Asia Minor, more than 350 thousand Armenians were considered dead, and it is incalculable how many thousands of people were saved, choosing for themselves and their families a quiet existence away from the Ottomans.
Stage 2 1909
Enjoying their accomplished and, to some extent, victorious actions against an entire people, the Ottomans believed that “victory” was close. For more than 10 years, the Armenian people lived, if it can be called that, of course, in peace. There were no such ethnic operations; Armenians were not slaughtered as entire families.
Stage 3 1915-1923
The most cruel, active and, according to the Ottomans, effective stage of the genocide is the 3rd period. The Ottoman rulers initially focused on the destruction of the Armenian nobility - priests, bankers, and artists. This was not done by chance; according to the pragmatic calculations of the Ottomans, by destroying the nobility, they deprived the Armenian people of the opportunity to be heard and saved. In parts of Eastern Anatolia, the entire Armenian people were gathered and “driven” into camps. These camps were later compared to the Jewish camp Auschwitz. After all, the conditions of existence and the essence of the creation were not at all different from each other. Within a few months, most of the Armenian people died there from hunger, bullying, lack of living conditions and treatment of diseases. Currently, no one lives in this territory, nothing grows there, and the Arabs consider this place cursed, since even after a hundred years, bones of victims who died at that time appear on the surface of the earth every now and then.
This wild, cruel method of exterminating people was not the only one used. In other parts, Armenians were forcibly placed on barges and ships, after which these ships were deliberately sunk by the Ottomans. As a result, thousands more people were drowned in the waters of the Black Sea.
Another method of extermination was the murder of every citizen of the Armenian people. Kurdish troops shot many people, and their corpses were thrown into the river.
Thanks to the choice of such cruel methods of extermination of the Armenian people and citizens Armenia According to official sources, the number of victims is more than 1.5 million people. In every historical source and the article devoted to this topic, the numbers change, since it is definitely and officially unknown how many people fell due to the whim and malice of the rulers of the Ottoman state.
It is noted that the Armenian people did not bow their heads until the very end and fought for their views, their freedom and their independence. This confrontation between the Armenians is evidenced by the battles that took place in Musa Dag, where the Armenians held the defense for more than fifty days; defense of the cities of Van and Mush. The Armenians held out in these cities until the Russian army appeared on the territory of the cities.
The Armenians could not come to terms with such brutal methods, and after the end of all hostilities, an operation was created to destroy the Ottoman rulers, who decided to exterminate the innocent people. So in 1921 and 1922, three pashas who decided on genocide were shot dead by Armenian soldiers and patriots.
Results and consequences.
Many historians from hundreds of countries around the world consider the cohesion of the Armenian people to be the main result of these bloody actions. In one of the Israeli newspapers, in the early 2000s, an article appeared in which the author compared the Armenian and Jewish peoples: “... there are no more united peoples in the world than Armenians and Jews. Both peoples experienced terrible things in their history and did not fall. They suffered and begged for their carefree life.”
It should be noted that the Turks and the Turkish government for many years denied the events that took place and called the facts distorted, and the Armenian people liars who wanted to discredit the Turks. The only fact preventing Turkey from joining the Council of Europe is its reluctance to recognize the genocide of the Armenian people.
Currently, it is believed that there is not a single Armenian family whose history does not have something in common with the Armenian genocide. Great-grandparents, distant relatives and just family members - at least someone suffered in that terrible event. Therefore, for the descendants of those same Armenians and simply for the Armenian people, it became a matter of honor to convey the truth to humanity. Since the end, Armenians have been fighting for recognition of genocide worldwide. What is important to them is not sympathy, what is important to them is the recognition that they were almost exterminated, and then for many years they denied this fact.
Countries that have recognized the Armenian genocide.
Currently, many countries have passed resolutions recognizing the Armenian genocide by the Ottomans. These countries include:
It is a known fact that during his reign, He invited all European countries to follow his example and the example of his state. Sarkazy also advised Turkey “...to begin to respect itself and accept the long-confirmed historical fact" According to Sarkozy, criminalization of genocide denial- another significant step towards recognizing the terrible tragedy committed in 1915 against the entire Armenian people. There was no response from the allied countries, but after some time, bills criminalizing the denial of genocide began to be adopted and signed in various countries. For example, after the signing of such a law in Cyprus, a penalty for denying genocide was introduced, such as imprisonment for a period of 5 years and a fine of about 10,000 euros.
According to many Armenians living around the world, it is important to them that this crime does not go unnoticed. The President of Armenia says: “With their disagreement and perseverance, the Armenian people may have prevented and are preventing the makings of genocides of other peoples.”
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Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire
Massacres in 1894-1896 consisted of three main episodes: the Sasun massacre, the killings of Armenians throughout the empire in the fall and winter of 1895, and the massacres in Istanbul and in the Van region, the reason for which was protests by local Armenians.
In the Sasun region, Kurdish leaders imposed tribute on the Armenian population. At the same time, the Ottoman government demanded payment of arrears of state taxes, which had previously been forgiven, given the facts of Kurdish robberies. At the beginning of 1894, there was an uprising of the Armenians of Sasun. During the suppression of the uprising by Turkish troops and Kurdish detachments, it was massacred, according to different estimates, from 3 to 10 or more thousand Armenians.
The peak of the Armenian pogroms occurred after September 18, 1895, when a protest demonstration took place in Bab Ali, an area of the Turkish capital Istanbul where the Sultan's residence was located. More than 2,000 Armenians died in the pogroms that followed the dispersal of the demonstration. The massacre of the Armenians of Constantinople begun by the Turks resulted in a total massacre of Armenians throughout Asia Minor.
The following summer, a group of Armenian militants, representatives of the radical Dashnaktsutyun party, attempted to draw Europe's attention to the intolerable plight of the Armenian population by seizing the Imperial Ottoman Bank - central bank Turkey. The first dragoman of the Russian embassy, V. Maksimov, took part in resolving the incident. He assured that the great powers would put the necessary pressure on the Sublime Porte to carry out reforms, and gave his word that the participants in the action would be given the opportunity to freely leave the country on one of the European ships. However, the authorities ordered attacks on the Armenians even before the group of Dashnaks left the bank. As a result of the three-day massacre, according to various estimates, from 5,000 to 8,700 people died.
During the period 1894–1896 In the Ottoman Empire, according to various sources, from 50 to 300 thousand Armenians were destroyed.
Establishment of the Young Turk regime and Armenian pogroms in Cilicia
In order to establish a constitutional regime in the country, a secret organization was created by a group of young Turkish officers and government officials, which later became the basis of the Ittihad ve Terakki (Unity and Progress) party, also called the “Young Turks”. At the end of June 1908, Young Turk officers launched a rebellion, which soon grew into a general uprising: Greek, Macedonian, Albanian, and Bulgarian rebels joined the Young Turks. A month later, the Sultan was forced to make significant concessions, restore the Constitution, grant amnesty to the leaders of the uprising and follow their instructions in many matters.
The restoration of the Constitution and new laws meant the end of the traditional superiority of Muslims over Christians, in particular Armenians. At the first stage, the Armenians supported the Young Turks; their slogans about universal equality and brotherhood of the peoples of the empire found the most positive response among the Armenian population. In the Armenian-populated regions, celebrations took place on the occasion of the establishment of a new order, sometimes quite stormy, which caused additional aggression among the Muslim population, which had lost their privileged position.
New laws allowed Christians to carry weapons, which led to the active arming of the Armenian part of the population. Both Armenians and Muslims accused each other of mass armament. In the spring of 1909, a new wave of anti-Armenian pogroms began in Cilicia. The first pogroms took place in Adana, then the pogroms spread to other cities in the Adana and Aleppo vilayets. The troops of the Young Turks from Rumelia sent to maintain order not only did not protect the Armenians, but together with the pogromists took part in robberies and murders. The result of the massacre in Cilicia is 20 thousand dead Armenians. Many researchers are of the opinion that the organizers of the massacre were the Young Turks, or at least the Young Turk authorities of the Adanai vilayet.
From 1909, the Young Turks began a campaign of forced Turkification of the population and banned organizations associated with non-Turkish ethnic causes. The Turkification policy was approved at the Ittihad Congresses of 1910 and 1911.
World War I and the Armenian genocide
According to some reports, the Armenian genocide was being prepared before the war. In February 1914 (four months before the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo), the Ittihadists called for a boycott of Armenian businesses, and one of the Young Turk leaders, Dr. Nazim, went on a trip to Turkey to personally oversee the implementation of the boycott.
On August 4, 1914, mobilization was announced, and already on August 18, reports began to arrive from Central Anatolia about the looting of Armenian property carried out under the slogan of “raising funds for the army.” At the same time, in different parts of the country, authorities disarmed Armenians, even taking away kitchen knives. In October, robbery and requisitions were in full swing, arrests of Armenian politicians, the first reports of murders began to arrive. Most of the Armenians drafted into the army were sent to special labor battalions.
At the beginning of December 1914, the Turks launched an offensive on the Caucasian front, but in January 1915, having suffered a crushing defeat in the battle of Sarykamysh, they were forced to retreat. The victory of the Russian army was greatly aided by the actions of Armenian volunteers from among the Armenians living in the Russian Empire, which led to the spread of the belief that the Armenians in general were treacherous. The retreating Turkish troops brought down all the anger of defeat on the Christian population of the front-line areas, slaughtering Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks along the way. At the same time, arrests of prominent Armenians and attacks on Armenian villages continued throughout the country.
At the beginning of 1915, a secret meeting of the Young Turk leaders took place. One of the leaders of the Young Turk party, Doctor Nazim Bey, made the following speech during the meeting: “The Armenian people must be destroyed radically, so that not a single Armenian remains on our land, and this very name is forgotten. Now there is a war, such an opportunity will not happen again. The intervention of the great powers and the noisy protests of the world press will go unnoticed, and if they find out, they will be presented with a fait accompli, and thus the question will be settled.". Nazim Bey was supported by other participants in the meeting. A plan was drawn up for the wholesale extermination of Armenians.
Henry Morgenthau (1856-1946), US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1913-1916), later wrote a book about the Armenian genocide: "The real purpose of the deportations was plunder and destruction; this is indeed a new method of massacre. When the Turkish authorities ordered these deportations, they were in effect pronouncing the death sentence on an entire nation.".
The position of the Turkish side is that there was an Armenian rebellion: during the First World War, Armenians sided with Russia, volunteered for the Russian army, formed Armenian volunteer squads that fought on the Caucasian front along with Russian troops.
In the spring of 1915, the disarmament of the Armenians was in full swing. In the Alashkert Valley, detachments of Turkish, Kurdish and Circassian irregular troops slaughtered Armenian villages, near Smyrna (Izmir) Greeks conscripted into the army were killed, and the deportation of the Armenian population of Zeytun began.
In early April, massacres began in the Armenian and Assyrian villages of the Van vilayet. In mid-April, refugees from surrounding villages began arriving in the city of Van, reporting what was happening there. The Armenian delegation invited to negotiate with the administration of the vilayet was destroyed by the Turks. Having learned about this, the Armenians of Van decided to defend themselves and refused to surrender their weapons. Turkish troops and Kurdish detachments besieged the city, but all attempts to break the resistance of the Armenians were unsuccessful. In May, advanced detachments of Russian troops and Armenian volunteers drove back the Turks and lifted the siege of Van.
On April 24, 1915, several hundred of the most prominent representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia: writers, artists, lawyers, and representatives of the clergy were arrested and then killed in Istanbul. At the same time, the liquidation of Armenian communities throughout Anatolia began. April 24 went down in the history of the Armenian people as a black day.
In June 1915, Enver Pasha, the Minister of War and de facto head of the government of the Ottoman Empire, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Talaat Pasha, instruct the civil authorities to begin the deportation of Armenians to Mesopotamia. This order meant almost certain death - the lands in Mesopotamia were poor, there was a serious shortage of fresh water, and it was impossible to immediately settle 1.5 million people there.
The deported Armenians of the Trebizond and Erzurum vilayets were driven along the Euphrates valley to the Kemakh gorge. On June 8, 9, 10, 1915, defenseless people in the gorge were attacked by Turkish soldiers and Kurds. After the robbery, almost all the Armenians were slaughtered, only a few managed to escape. On the fourth day, a “noble” detachment was sent out, officially to “punish” the Kurds. This detachment finished off those who remained alive.
In the autumn of 1915, columns of emaciated and ragged women and children moved along the country's roads. Columns of deportees flocked to Aleppo, from where the few survivors were sent to the deserts of Syria, where most of them died.
The official authorities of the Ottoman Empire made attempts to hide the scale and ultimate purpose of the action, but foreign consuls and missionaries sent reports of atrocities occurring in Turkey. This forced the Young Turks to act more cautiously. In August 1915, on the advice of the Germans, Turkish authorities prohibited the killing of Armenians in places where American consuls could see it. In November of the same year, Jemal Pasha tried to put on trial the director and professors of the German school in Aleppo, thanks to whom the world became aware of the deportations and massacres of Armenians in Cilicia. In January 1916, a circular was sent out prohibiting photographs of the bodies of the dead.
In the spring of 1916, due to the difficult situation on all fronts, the Young Turks decided to speed up the process of destruction. It included previously deported Armenians, located, as a rule, in desert areas. At the same time, the Turkish authorities are suppressing any attempts by neutral countries to provide humanitarian assistance to the Armenians dying in the deserts.
In June 1916, the authorities dismissed the governor of Der-Zor, Ali Suad, an Arab by nationality, for refusing to destroy the deported Armenians. Salih Zeki, known for his ruthlessness, was appointed in his place. With the arrival of Zeki, the process of extermination of the deportees accelerated even more.
By the fall of 1916, the world already knew about the massacre of Armenians. The scale of what happened was unknown, reports of Turkish atrocities were perceived with some distrust, but it was clear that something hitherto unseen had happened in the Ottoman Empire. At the request of the Turkish Minister of War Enver Pasha, he was recalled from Constantinople. German Ambassador Count Wolf-Metternich: the Young Turks felt that he was protesting too actively against the massacre of the Armenians.
US President Woodrow Wilson declared October 8 and 9 as Days of Relief for Armenia: on these days, the entire country collected donations to help Armenian refugees.
In 1917, the situation on the Caucasian front changed dramatically. The February Revolution, failures on the Eastern Front, and the active work of Bolshevik emissaries to disintegrate the army led to a sharp decrease in the combat effectiveness of the Russian army. After the October coup, the Russian military command was forced to sign a truce with the Turks. Taking advantage of the subsequent collapse of the front and the disorderly withdrawal of Russian troops, in February 1918, Turkish troops occupied Erzurum, Kars and reached Batum. The advancing Turks mercilessly exterminated the Armenians and Assyrians. The only obstacle that somehow restrained the advance of the Turks were the Armenian volunteer detachments covering the retreat of thousands of refugees.
On October 30, 1918, the Turkish government signed the Mudros Truce with the Entente countries, according to which, among other things, the Turkish side pledged to return deported Armenians and withdraw troops from Transcaucasia and Cilicia. The articles, which directly affected the interests of Armenia, stated that all prisoners of war and interned Armenians should be collected in Constantinople so that they could be handed over to the allies without any conditions. Article 24 had the following content: "In the event of unrest in one of the Armenian vilayets, the allies reserve the right to occupy part of it".
After the signing of the treaty, the new Turkish government, under pressure from the international community, began trials against the organizers of the genocide. In 1919–1920 Extraordinary military tribunals were formed in the country to investigate the crimes of the Young Turks. By that time, the entire Young Turk elite was on the run: Talaat, Enver, Dzhemal and others, taking the party cash, left Turkey. They were sentenced to death in absentia, but only a few lower-ranking criminals were punished.
Operation Nemesis
In October 1919, at the IX Congress of the Dashnaktsutyun party in Yerevan, on the initiative of Shaan Natali, a decision was made to carry out the punitive operation “Nemesis”. A list of 650 persons involved in the massacre of Armenians was compiled, from which 41 people were selected as the main culprits. To carry out the operation, a Responsible Authority (headed by the Envoy of the Republic of Armenia to the USA Armen Garo) and a Special Fund (headed by Shaan Satchaklyan) were formed.
As part of Operation Nemesis in 1920-1922, Talaat Pasha, Jemal Pasha, Said Halim and some other Young Turk leaders who fled from justice were hunted down and killed.
Enver was killed in Central Asia in a skirmish with a detachment of Red Army soldiers under the command of the Armenian Melkumov (a former member of the Hunchak Party). Dr. Nazim and Javid Bey (Minister of Finance of the Young Turk Government) were executed in Turkey on charges of participating in a conspiracy against Mustafa Kemal, the founder of the Turkish Republic.
The situation of Armenians after the First World War
After the Truce of Mudros, Armenians who survived the pogroms and deportations began to return to Cilicia, attracted by the promises of the allies, primarily France, to assist in the creation of Armenian autonomy. However, the emergence of the Armenian public education went against the plans of the Kemalists. The policy of France, which feared that England would become too strong in the region, changed towards greater support for Turkey as opposed to Greece, which was supported by England.
In January 1920, Kemalist troops began an operation to exterminate the Armenians of Cilicia. After heavy and bloody defensive battles that lasted in some areas for more than a year, the few surviving Armenians were forced to emigrate, mainly to French-mandated Syria.
In 1922–23 A conference on the Middle East issue was held in Lausanne (Switzerland), in which Great Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and a number of other countries participated. The conference ended with the signing of a series of treaties, among which was a peace treaty between the Republic of Turkey and the Allied Powers, defining the borders of modern Turkey. In the final version of the treaty, the Armenian issue was not mentioned at all.
Data on the number of victims
In August 1915, Enver Pasha reported 300,000 Armenian dead. At the same time, according to the German missionary Johannes Lepsius, about 1 million Armenians were killed. In 1919, Lepsius revised his estimate to 1,100,000. According to him, only during the Ottoman invasion of Transcaucasia in 1918, from 50 to 100 thousand Armenians were killed. On December 20, 1915, the German consul in Aleppo, Rössler, informed the Reich Chancellor that, based on the general estimate of the Armenian population of 2.5 million, the death toll could very likely reach 800,000, possibly higher. At the same time, he noted that if the estimate is based on the Armenian population of 1.5 million people, then the number of deaths should be proportionally reduced (that is, the estimate of the number of deaths will be 480,000). According to estimates by British historian and cultural critic Arnold Toynbee, published in 1916, about 600,000 Armenians died. The German Methodist missionary Ernst Sommer estimated the number of deportees at 1,400,000.
Modern estimates of the number of victims vary from 200,000 (some Turkish sources) to over 2,000,000 Armenians (some Armenian sources). American historian of Armenian origin Ronald Suny indicates as a range of estimates figures from several hundred thousand to 1.5 million. According to the Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, the most conservative estimates indicate the number of victims is about 500,000, and the highest is the estimate of Armenian scientists at 1. 5 million. The Encyclopedia of Genocide, published by Israeli sociologist and specialist in the history of genocides Israel Charney, reports the extermination of up to 1.5 million Armenians. According to American historian Richard Hovhannisyan, until recently the most common estimate was 1,500,000, but recently, as a result of political pressure from Turkey, this estimate has been revised downward.
Additionally, according to Johannes Lepsius, between 250,000 and 300,000 Armenians were forcibly converted to Islam, which led to protests from some Muslim leaders. Thus, the Mufti of Kutahya declared the forced conversion of Armenians to be contrary to Islam. Forced conversion to Islam had the political goals of destroying Armenian identity and reducing the number of Armenians in order to undermine the basis for demands for autonomy or independence on the part of Armenians.
Recognition of the Armenian genocide
UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights 18 June 1987 - European Parliament decided to recognize the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire of 1915-1917 and to appeal to the Council of Europe to put pressure on Turkey to recognize the genocide.
18 June 1987 - Council of Europe decided that the refusal of today's Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915, carried out by the government of the Young Turks, becomes an insurmountable obstacle to Turkey's accession to the Council of Europe.
Italy - 33 Italian cities recognized the genocide of the Armenian people in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. The city council of Bagnocapaglio was the first to do this on July 17, 1997. To date, these include Lugo, Fusignano, S. Azuta Sul, Santerno, Cotignola, Molarolo, Russi, Conselice, Camponozara, Padova and others. The issue of recognition of the Armenian genocide is on the agenda of the Italian parliament. It was discussed at a meeting on April 3, 2000.
France - On May 29, 1998, the French National Assembly adopted a bill recognizing the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
On November 7, 2000, the French Senate voted for the resolution on the Armenian genocide. The senators, however, slightly changed the text of the resolution, replacing the original “France officially recognizes the fact of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey” with “France officially recognizes that the Armenians were victims of the 1915 genocide.” On January 18, 2001, the French National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution according to which France recognizes the fact of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1923.
December 22, 2011 lower house of parliament of France approved the draft law on criminal penalties for denying the Armenian genocide . On January 6, incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent the bill to the Senate for approval . However, the Constitutional Commission of the Senate on January 18, 2012 rejected the bill on criminal liability for denying the Armenian genocide , considering the text unacceptable.
On October 14, 2016, the French Senate passed a bill to criminalize the denial of all crimes committed against humanity, listing among them the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
Belgium - in March 1998, the Belgian Senate adopted a resolution according to which the fact of the Armenian genocide in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey was recognized and appealed to the government of modern Turkey to also recognize it.
Switzerland - in the Swiss parliament the issue of recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915 was periodically raised by a parliamentary group headed by Angelina Fankewatzer.
On December 16, 2003, the Swiss parliament voted to officially recognize the killing of Armenians in eastern Turkey during and after World War I as genocide.
Russia - April 14, 1995 The State Duma adopted a statement condemning the organizers of the Armenian genocide of 1915-1922. and expressing gratitude to the Armenian people, as well as recognizing April 24 as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Canada - On April 23, 1996, on the eve of the 81st anniversary of the Armenian genocide, on the proposal of a group of Quebec parliamentarians, the Canadian Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. “The House of Commons, on the occasion of the 81st anniversary of the tragedy that claimed the lives of almost one and a half million Armenians, and in recognition of other crimes against humanity, decides to consider the week from April 20 to 27 as the Week of Remembrance for the Victims of Inhumane Treatment of Man to Man,” the resolution states.
Lebanon - On April 3, 1997, the National Assembly of Lebanon adopted a resolution recognizing April 24 as the Day of Remembrance of the Tragic Massacre of the Armenian People. The resolution calls on the Lebanese people to be united with the Armenian people on April 24. On May 12, 2000, the Lebanese Parliament recognized and condemned the genocide committed against the Armenian people by the Ottoman authorities in 1915.
Uruguay - On April 20, 1965, the Main Assembly of the Uruguayan Senate and the House of Representatives adopted the law “On the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide.”
Argentina - On April 16, 1998, the Buenos Aires legislature adopted a memorandum expressing solidarity with the Armenian community of Argentina commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. On April 22, 1998, the Argentine Senate adopted a statement condemning genocide of any kind as a crime against humanity. In the same statement, the Senate expresses its solidarity with all national minorities who were victims of genocide, especially emphasizing its concern about the impunity of the perpetrators of the genocide. At the basis of the statement, examples of the massacre of Armenians, Jews, Kurds, Palestinians, Roma and many peoples of Africa are given as manifestations of genocide.
Greece - On April 25, 1996, the Greek Parliament decided to recognize April 24 as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Armenian People carried out by Ottoman Turkey in 1915.
Australia - On April 17, 1997, the parliament of the South Australian state of New Wales adopted a resolution in which, meeting the local Armenian diaspora, condemned the events that occurred on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, qualifying them as the first genocide in the 20th century, recognized April 24 as the Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Victims and called on the Australian government to take steps towards official recognition of the Armenian genocide. On April 29, 1998, the Legislative Assembly of the same state decided to erect a memorial obelisk in the parliament building to perpetuate the memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915.
USA - October 4, 2000 by the Committee on international relations The US Congress adopted Resolution No. 596, recognizing the fact of the genocide of the Armenian people in Turkey in 1915-1923.
At various times, 43 states and the District of Columbia recognized the Armenian genocide. The list of states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington , Wisconsin, Indiana.
Sweden - On March 29, 2000, the Swedish Parliament approved the appeal of the Parliamentary Commission on external relations, insisting on condemnation and recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide.
Slovakia - On November 30, 2004, the National Assembly of Slovakia recognized the fact of the Armenian genocide .
Poland - On April 19, 2005, the Polish Sejm recognized the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. The parliament statement noted that “respecting the memory of the victims of this crime and condemning it is the responsibility of all humanity, all states and people of good will.”
Venezuela- On July 14, 2005, the Venezuelan Parliament announced its recognition of the Armenian genocide, noting: “It is 90 years since the first genocide in the 20th century was committed, which was pre-planned and carried out by the Pan-Turkist Young Turks against the Armenians, resulting in the death of 1, 5 million people."
Lithuania- On December 15, 2005, the Seimas of Lithuania adopted a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. “The Sejm, condemning the genocide of the Armenian people committed by the Turks in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, calls on the Turkish Republic to recognize this historical fact,” the document said.
Chile - On July 6, 2007, the Chilean Senate unanimously called on the country's government to condemn the genocide carried out against the Armenian people. “These terrible actions became the first ethnic cleansing of the twentieth century, and long before such actions received their legal formulation, the fact of a gross violation of the human rights of the Armenian people was registered,” the Senate statement noted.
Bolivia - On November 26, 2014, both houses of the Bolivian parliament recognized the Armenian genocide. “On the night of April 24, 1915, the authorities of the Ottoman Empire, the leaders of the Union and Progress party began the arrests and planned expulsion of representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia, politicians, scientists, writers, cultural figures, clergy, doctors, public figures and specialists, and then the massacre of the civilian Armenian population on the territory of historical Western Armenia and Anatolia,” the statement said.
Germany - On June 2, 2016, members of the German Bundestag approved a resolution that recognizes the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. On the same day, Türkiye recalled its ambassador from Berlin.
Roman Catholic Church- On April 12, 2015, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis, during mass , dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, called the 1915 massacres of Armenians the first genocide of the 20th century: “In the last century, humanity experienced three massive and unprecedented tragedies. The first tragedy, which many consider as the “first genocide of the 20th century,” hit the Armenian people.”
Spain- the Armenian genocide was recognized by 12 cities in the country: on July 28, 2016, the city council of Alicante adopted an institutional declaration and publicly condemned the genocide of the Armenian people in Ottoman Turkey; On November 25, 2015, the city of Alsira was recognized as genocide.
Denial of genocide
Most countries in the world are official level did not recognize the Armenian genocide. The authorities of the Republic of Turkey actively deny the fact of the Armenian genocide; they are supported by the authorities of Azerbaijan.
The Turkish authorities categorically refuse to acknowledge the fact of genocide. Turkish historians note that the events of 1915 were in no way ethnic cleansing, and as a result of the clashes, a large number of Turks themselves died at the hands of the Armenians.
According to the Turkish side, there was an Armenian rebellion, and all operations to resettle Armenians were dictated by military necessity. The Turkish side also disputes the numerical data on the number of Armenian deaths and emphasizes the significant number of casualties among Turkish troops and the population during the suppression of the rebellion.
In 2008, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed that the Armenian government create a joint commission of historians to study the events of 1915. The Turkish government has stated that it is ready to open all archives of that period to Armenian historians. To this proposal, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan responded that the development of bilateral relations is a matter for governments, not historians, and proposed the normalization of relations between the two countries without any preconditions. Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian noted in a response statement that “outside Turkey, scientists - Armenians, Turks and others - have studied these problems and made their own independent conclusions. The most famous among them is the letter to Prime Minister Erdogan from International Association scientists of the genocide in May 2006, in which they jointly and unanimously confirm the fact of genocide and appeal to the Turkish government to accept the responsibility of the previous government."
In early December 2008, Turkish professors, scientists and some experts began collecting signatures for an open letter apologizing to the Armenian people. “Conscience does not allow us not to recognize the great misfortune of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915,” the letter says.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan criticized the campaign. The head of the Turkish government said that he “does not accept such initiatives.” "We did not commit this crime, we have nothing to apologize for. Whoever is guilty can apologize. However, the Republic of Turkey, the Turkish nation, does not have such problems." Noting that such initiatives by the intelligentsia hinder the settlement of issues between the two states, the French Prime Minister made the following conclusion: “These campaigns are wrong. Approaching issues with good intentions is one thing, but apologizing is something else entirely. This is illogical.”
The Republic of Azerbaijan has shown solidarity with Turkey's position and also denies the fact of the Armenian genocide. Heydar Aliyev stated, speaking about genocide, that nothing like this happened, and all historians know this.
IN public opinion In France, trends also prevail in favor of initiating the organization of a commission to study the tragic events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire. French researcher and writer Yves Benard, on his personal resource Yvesbenard.fr, calls on impartial historians and politicians to study Ottoman and Armenian archives and answer the following questions:
- What was the number of Armenian casualties during the First World War?
- What is the number of Armenian victims who died during the resettlement, and how did they die?
- How many peaceful Turks were killed by Dashnaktsutyun during the same period?
- Was there genocide?
Yves Benard believes that there was a Turkish-Armenian tragedy, but not genocide. And calls for mutual forgiveness and reconciliation between two peoples and two states.
Notes:
- Genocide // Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Spingola D. Raphael Lemkin and the Etymology of "Genocide" // Spingola D. The Ruling Elite: Death, Destruction, and Domination. Victoria: Trafford Publishing, 2014. pp. 662-672.
- Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, December 9, 1948 // Collection of international treaties. T.1, part 2. Universal contracts. UN. N.Y., Geneve, 1994.
- Armenian genocide in Turkey: a brief historical overview // Genocide.ru, 06.08.2007.
- Berlin Treatise // Official website of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University.
- Cyprus Convention // "Academician".
- Bénard Y. Génocide arménien, et si on nous avait menti? Essai. Paris, 2009.
- Kinross L. The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire. M.: Kron-press, 1999.
- Armenian genocide, 1915 // Armtown, 04/22/2011.
- Jemal Pasha // Genocide.ru.
- Reds. Part twenty-nine. Between the Kemalists and the Bolsheviks // ArAcH.
- Switzerland recognized the killings of Armenians as genocide // BBC Russian Service, 12/17/2003.
- International Affirmation of the Armenian Genocide // Armenian National Institute. Washington; The US state of Indiana recognized the Armenian Genocide // Hayernaysor.am, 11/06/2017.
- Who recognized the Armenian genocide of 1915 // Armenika.
- Decision of the Parliament of the Slovak Republic // Genocide.org.ua .
- Poland Parliament Resolution // Armenian National Institute. Washington.
- National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Resolution A-56 07.14.05 // Genocide.org.ua
- Lithuania Assembly Resolution // Armenian National Institute. Washington.
- The Chilean Senate adopted a document condemning the Armenian genocide // RIA Novosti, 06.06.2007.
- Bolivia recognizes and condemns the Armenian genocide // Website of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, 12/01/2014.
- Türkei zieht Botschafter aus Berlin ab // Bild.de, 02.06.2016.
- The Prime Minister of Turkey is not going to apologize for the Armenian genocide // Izvestia, 12/18/2008.
- Erdogan called the position of the Armenian diaspora “cheap political lobbying” // Armtown, 11/14/2008.
- L. Sycheva: Türkiye yesterday and today. Are claims to the role of leader of the Turkic world justified // Central Asia, 06.24.2010.
- Armenian genocide: not recognized by Turkey and Azerbaijan // Radio Liberty, 02.17.2001.
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The Armenian genocide was the physical destruction of the Christian ethnic Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire that occurred between the spring of 1915 and the fall of 1916. About 1.5 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. At least 664 thousand people died during the genocide. There are suggestions that the death toll could reach 1.2 million people. Armenians call these events "Metz Egern"("Great Crime") or "Aghet"("Catastrophe").
The mass extermination of Armenians gave impetus to the origin of the term "genocide" and its codification in international law. Lawyer Raphael Lemkin, the coiner of the term “genocide” and the thought leader of the United Nations (UN) program to combat genocide, has repeatedly stated that his youthful impressions of newspaper articles about the crimes of the Ottoman Empire against Armenians formed the basis of his beliefs in the need for legal protection national groups. Thanks in part to Lemkin's tireless efforts, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948.
Most of the killings of 1915-1916 were carried out by Ottoman authorities with the support of auxiliary troops and civilians. The government, controlled by the Union and Progress political party (also called the Young Turks), aimed to strengthen Muslim Turkish rule in Eastern Anatolia by eliminating the large Armenian population in the region.
Beginning in 1915–16, Ottoman authorities carried out large-scale mass executions; Armenians also died during mass deportations due to hunger, dehydration, lack of shelter and disease. In addition, tens of thousands of Armenian children were forcibly taken from their families and converted to Islam.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Armenian Christians were one of the many significant ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire. In the late 1880s, some Armenians created political organizations that sought greater autonomy, which increased the Ottoman authorities' doubts about the loyalty of large sections of the Armenian population living in the country.
On October 17, 1895, Armenian revolutionaries seized the National Bank in Constantinople, threatening to blow it up along with more than 100 hostages in the bank building if the authorities refused to grant regional autonomy to the Armenian community. Although the incident ended peacefully thanks to French intervention, the Ottoman authorities carried out a series of pogroms.
In total, at least 80 thousand Armenians were killed in 1894-1896.
THE YOUNG TURKISH REVOLUTION
In July 1908, a faction that called itself the Young Turks seized power in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. The Young Turks were predominantly officers and officials of Balkan origin who came to power in 1906 in a secret society known as Unity and Progress and transformed it into a political movement.
The Young Turks sought to introduce a liberal constitutional regime, not related to religion, which would put all nationalities on equal terms. The Young Turks believed that non-Muslims would integrate into the Turkish nation if they were confident that such policies would lead to modernization and prosperity.
At first it seemed that the new government would be able to eliminate some of the causes of social discontent in the Armenian community. But in the spring of 1909, Armenian demonstrations demanding autonomy turned violent. In the city of Adana and its environs, 20 thousand Armenians were killed by Ottoman army soldiers, irregular troops and civilians; Up to 2 thousand Muslims died at the hands of the Armenians.
Between 1909 and 1913, activists in the Union and Progress movement became increasingly inclined toward a strongly nationalistic vision of the future of the Ottoman Empire. They rejected the idea of a multi-ethnic “Ottoman” state and sought to create a culturally and ethnically homogeneous Turkish society. The large Armenian population of Eastern Anatolia was a demographic obstacle to achieving this goal. After several years of political upheaval, on November 23, 1913, as a result of a coup d'etat, the leaders of the Union and Progress Party received dictatorial power.
WORLD WAR I
Mass atrocities and genocide often occur during times of war. The extermination of the Armenians was closely interconnected with the events of the First World War in the Middle East and the Russian territory of the Caucasus. The Ottoman Empire officially entered the war in November 1914 on the side of the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary), which fought against the Entente countries (Great Britain, France, Russia and Serbia).
On April 24, 1915, fearing the landing of Allied troops on the strategically important Gallipoli Peninsula, the Ottoman authorities arrested 240 Armenian leaders in Constantinople and deported them to the east. Today, Armenians consider this operation the beginning of genocide. The Ottoman authorities claimed that the Armenian revolutionaries had established contact with the enemy and were going to facilitate the landing of French and British troops. When the Entente countries, as well as the United States, which at that time still remained neutral, demanded an explanation from the Ottoman Empire in connection with the deportation of the Armenians, it called its actions precautionary measures.
Beginning in May 1915, the government expanded the scale of deportations, sending the Armenian civilian population, regardless of the distance of their residence from the war zones, to camps located in the desert southern provinces of the empire [in the north and east of modern Syria, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq] . Many escorted groups were sent south from the six provinces of Eastern Anatolia with a high proportion of Armenian population - from Trabzon, Erzurum, Bitlis, Van, Diyarbakir, Mamuret-ul-Aziz, as well as from the province of Marash. Subsequently, Armenians were expelled from almost all regions of the empire.
Since the Ottoman Empire was an ally of Germany during the war, many German officers, diplomats and aid workers witnessed atrocities committed against the Armenian population. Their reaction varied: from horror and filing official protests to isolated cases of tacit support for the actions of the Ottoman authorities. The generation of Germans who survived the First world war, had memories of these terrible events in the 1930s and 1940s, which influenced his perception of the Nazi persecution of Jews.
MASS MURDER AND DEPORTATIONS
Obeying orders from the central government in Constantinople, regional authorities, with the complicity of the local civilian population, carried out mass executions and deportations. Military and security officials, as well as their supporters, killed the majority of Armenian men of working age, as well as thousands of women and children.
During escorted crossings through the desert, surviving elderly people, women and children were subjected to unauthorized attacks by local authorities, bands of nomads, criminal gangs and civilians. These attacks included robberies (for example, stripping victims naked, stripping them of their clothing, and subjecting them to body cavity searches for valuables), rape, abductions of young women and girls, extortion, torture, and murder.
Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died without reaching the designated camp. Many of them were killed or kidnapped, others committed suicide, and a huge number of Armenians died from hunger, dehydration, lack of shelter or disease along the way. While some residents of the country sought to help the expelled Armenians, many more ordinary citizens killed or tortured those being escorted.
CENTRALIZED ORDERS
Although the term "genocide" appeared only in 1944, most scholars agree that the mass murder of Armenians meets the definition of genocide. The government, controlled by the Union and Progress Party, took advantage of the national martial law to implement a long-term demographic policy aimed at increasing the share of the Turkish Muslim population in Anatolia by reducing the size of the Christian population (mainly Armenians, but also Christian Assyrians). Ottoman, Armenian, American, British, French, German and Austrian documents from the time indicate that the leadership of the Union and Progress Party deliberately exterminated the Armenian population of Anatolia.
The Union and Progress Party issued orders from Constantinople and ensured their execution with the help of its agents in the Special Organization and local administrative bodies. In addition, the central government required careful monitoring and collection of data on the number of Armenians deported, the type and number of housing units they left behind, and the number of deported citizens admitted to the camps.
The initiative for certain actions came from the senior members of the leadership of the Unity and Progress party, and they also coordinated the actions. The central figures of this operation were Talaat Pasha (Minister of the Interior), Ismail Enver Pasha (Minister of War), Behaeddin Shakir (Head of the Special Organization) and Mehmet Nazim (Head of the Population Planning Service).
According to government regulations, in certain regions the share of the Armenian population should not exceed 10% (in some regions - no more than 2%), Armenians could live in settlements that included no more than 50 families, as far away as from the Baghdad railway, and from each other. To fulfill these demands, local authorities carried out deportations of the population over and over again. The Armenians crossed the desert back and forth without the necessary clothing, food and water, suffering from the scorching sun during the day and freezing from the cold at night. The deported Armenians were regularly attacked by nomads and their own guards. As a result, under the influence of natural factors and targeted extermination, the number of deported Armenians decreased significantly and began to meet the established standards.
MOTIVES
The Ottoman regime pursued the goals of strengthening the country's military position and financing the "Turkification" of Anatolia by confiscating the property of killed or deported Armenians. The possibility of property redistribution also encouraged large numbers of ordinary people to engage in attacks on their neighbors. Many residents of the Ottoman Empire considered Armenians to be wealthy people, but in fact, a significant part of the Armenian population lived poorly.
In some cases, the Ottoman authorities agreed to grant Armenians the right to reside in their former territories, subject to their acceptance of Islam. While thousands of Armenian children died due to the fault of the authorities of the Ottoman Empire, they often tried to convert children to Islam and assimilate them into Muslim, primarily Turkish, society. Generally, the Ottoman authorities avoided carrying out mass deportations from Istanbul and Izmir in order to hide their crimes from the eyes of foreigners and to benefit economically from the activities of the Armenians living in these cities in order to modernize the empire.