§ 1. The beginning of the First World War. The course of hostilities on the Caucasian front
On August 1, 1914, the First World War began. The war was fought between coalitions: the Entente (England, France, Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey) for the redistribution of spheres of influence in the world. Most of the states of the world took part in the war voluntarily or involuntarily, which is why the war got its name.
During the war, Ottoman Turkey sought to implement the program of "Pankturkism" - to annex the territories inhabited by the Turkic peoples, including the Transcaucasus, the southern regions of Russia and Central Asia to Altai. In turn, Russia sought to annex the territory of Western Armenia, seize the Bosphorus and Dardanelles and go to the Mediterranean Sea. Fighting between the two coalitions unfolded on many fronts in Europe, Asia and Africa.
On the Caucasian front, the Turks concentrated an army of 300,000 headed by Minister of War Enver. In October 1914, Turkish troops launched an offensive and managed to capture some border territories, and also invaded the western regions of Iran. During the winter months, during the battles near Sarykamysh, Russian troops defeated the superior Turkish forces and drove them out of Iran. During 1915 hostilities continued with varying success. At the beginning of 1916, Russian troops launched a large-scale offensive and, having defeated the enemy, captured Bayazet, Mush, Alashkert, the large city of Erzerum and the important port on the Black Sea coast of Trabizon. During 1917 active hostilities did not take place on the Caucasian front. The demoralized Turkish troops did not try to launch a new offensive, and the February and October revolutions of 1917 in Russia and the change of government did not give the Russian command the opportunity to develop the offensive. On December 5, 1917, a truce was concluded between the Russian and Turkish command.
§ 2. Armenian volunteer movement. Armenian battalions
The Armenian people took an active part in the First World War on the side of the Entente countries. In Russia, about 200,000 Armenians were drafted into the army. More than 50,000 Armenians fought in the armies of other countries. Since the aggressive plans of tsarism coincided with the desire of the Armenian people to liberate the territories of Western Armenia from the Turkish yoke, the Armenian political parties carried out active propaganda to organize volunteer detachments with a total number of about 10 thousand people.
The first detachment was commanded by the outstanding leader of the liberation movement, the national hero Andranik Ozanyan, who later received the rank of general of the Russian army. The commanders of other detachments were Dro, Amazasp, Keri, Vardan, Arshak Dzhanpoladyan, Hovsep Argutyan and others. Subsequently, the commander of the VI detachment was Hayk Bzhshkyan - Guy, later known as the commander of the Red Army. Armenians were enrolled in the detachments - volunteers from various regions of Russia and even from other countries. Armenian detachments showed courage and participated in all major battles for the liberation of Western Armenia.
The tsarist government at first encouraged the volunteer movement of the Armenians in every possible way, until the defeat of the Turkish armies became obvious. Fearing that the Armenian detachments could serve as the basis for the national army, the command of the Caucasian Front in the summer of 1916 reorganized the volunteer detachments into the 5th rifle battalion of the Russian army.
§ 3. The Armenian Genocide of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire
In 1915-1918. The Young Turk government of Turkey planned and carried out the genocide of the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the forced eviction of Armenians from their historical homeland and massacres, 1.5 million people died.
Back in 1911 in Thessaloniki, at a secret meeting of the Young Turk party, it was decided to turkish all subjects of the Muslim faith, and to destroy all Christians. With the outbreak of the First World War, the Young Turk government decided to take advantage of the favorable international situation and implement its long-planned plans.
The genocide was carried out according to a certain plan. Firstly, they drafted men liable for military service to deprive the Armenian population of the possibility of resistance. They were used as work units and gradually destroyed. Secondly, the Armenian intelligentsia, which could organize and lead the resistance of the Armenian population, was destroyed. In March-April 1915, more than 600 people were arrested: MPs Onik Vramyan and Grigor Zohrap, writers Varuzhan, Siamanto, Ruben Sevak, composer and musicologist Komitas. On the way to the place of exile, they were subjected to insults and humiliation. Many of them died on the way, the survivors were subsequently brutally murdered. On April 24, 1915, the Young Turk authorities executed 20 Armenian political prisoners. The famous composer Komitas, who witnessed these atrocities, lost his mind.
After that, the Young Turk authorities began to evict and destroy the already defenseless children, the elderly and women. All Armenian property was looted. On the way to the place of exile, the Armenians were subjected to new atrocities: the weakened were killed, women were raped or kidnapped for harems, children died of hunger and thirst. Of the total number of exiled Armenians, barely a tenth made it to the place of exile - the desert of Der-el-Zor in Mesopotamia. Of the 2.5 million Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, 1.5 million were destroyed, and the rest dispersed throughout the world.
Part of the Armenian population was able to escape thanks to the help of Russian troops and, leaving everything, fled from their homes to the Russian Empire. Part of the Armenian refugees found salvation in the Arab countries, in Iran and in other countries. Many of them, after the defeat of the Turkish troops, returned to their homeland, but were subjected to new atrocities and destruction. About 200 thousand Armenians were forcibly Turkified. Many thousands of Armenian orphans have been rescued by American charitable and missionary organizations active in the Middle East.
After the defeat in the war and the flight of the Young Turk leaders, the new government of Ottoman Turkey in 1920 conducted an investigation into the crimes of the former government. For planning and carrying out the Armenian Genocide, the military tribunal in Constantinople found guilty and sentenced in absentia to death Thaleat (Prime Minister), Enver (Minister of War), Jemal (Minister of the Interior) and Behaeddin Shakir (Secretary of the Central Committee of the Young Turks). Their sentence was carried out by the Armenian avengers.
After the defeat in the war, the Young Turk leaders fled Turkey and found shelter in Germany and other countries. But they did not succeed in escaping revenge.
On March 15, 1921, Soghomon Tehlirian shot Taleat in Berlin. The German court, having considered the case, acquitted Tehlirian.
Petros Ter-Petrosyan and Artashes Gevorkyan killed Dzhemal in Tiflis on July 25, 1922.
Arshavir Shikaryan and Aram Yerkanyan shot Bekhaeddin Shakir on April 17, 1922 in Berlin.
Enver was killed in August 1922 in Central Asia.
§ 4. Heroic self-defense of the Armenian population
During the genocide of 1915, the Armenian population of some regions, through heroic self-defense, was able to escape or died with honor - with weapons in their hands.
For more than a month, the inhabitants of the city of Van and nearby villages heroically defended themselves against regular Turkish troops. Self-defense was led by Armenak Yekaryan, Aram Manukyan, Panos Terlemazyan and others. All Armenian political parties acted in concert. They were saved from final death by the offensive of the Russian army on Van in May 1915. Due to the forced retreat of the Russian troops, 200 thousand residents of the Van vilayet were also forced to leave their homeland together with the Russian troops in order to escape from a new massacre.
For almost a year, the highlanders of Sasun defended themselves against regular Turkish troops. The ring of siege was gradually shrinking, and most of the population was slaughtered. The entry of the Russian army into Mush in February 1916 saved the inhabitants of Sasun from final destruction. About a tenth of the 50,000 population of Sasun escaped, and they were forced to leave their homeland and move within the Russian Empire.
The Armenian population of the town of Shapin - Garaisar, having received an order to resettle, took up arms and fortified itself in the nearby dilapidated fortress. For 27 days the Armenians fought off the attacks of regular Turkish forces. When food and ammunition were already running out, it was decided to try to break out of the encirclement. About a thousand people were saved. The rest were brutally killed.
An example of heroic self-defense was shown by the defenders of Musa-Ler. Having received an order to evict, the 5,000-strong Armenian population of seven villages in the Suetia region (on the Mediterranean coast, near Antioch) decided to defend themselves and fortified themselves on Mount Musa. Self-defense was led by Tigran Andreasyan and others. For a month and a half there were unequal battles with Turkish troops armed with artillery. From the French cruiser "Guichen" they noticed the call of Armenians for help, and on September 10, 1915, the surviving 4,058 Armenians were transported to Egypt on French and British ships. The history of this heroic self-defense is described in the novel by the Austrian writer Franz Werfel "40 Days of Musa Dagh".
The last focus of heroism was the self-defense of the population of the Armenian quarter of the city of Edessia, which lasted from September 29 to November 15, 1915. All the men died with weapons in their hands, and the Young Turkish authorities exiled the surviving 15 thousand women and children to the deserts of Mesopotamia.
Foreigners who witnessed the genocide of 1915-1916 condemned this crime and left descriptions of the atrocities committed against the Armenian population by the Young Turk authorities. They also refuted the false accusations of the Turkish authorities about the alleged uprising of the Armenians. Johann Lepsius, Anatole France, Henry Morgenthau, Maxim Gorky, Valery Bryusov and many others raised their voices against the first genocide in the history of the 20th century and the ongoing atrocities. Today, the parliaments of many countries have already recognized and condemned the genocide of the Armenian people committed by the Young Turks.
§ 5. Consequences of genocide
During the Genocide of 1915, the Armenian population in their historical homeland was barbarously exterminated. Responsibility for the Armenian Genocide lies with the leaders of the Young Turk party. Turkish Prime Minister Taleat subsequently declared with cynicism that there was no longer an “Armenian Question”, since there were no more Armenians, and that he had done more in three months to resolve the “Armenian Question” than Sultan Abdul-Hamid had done in 30 years of his reign. .
The Kurdish tribes also actively participated in the extermination of the Armenian population, trying to seize the Armenian territories and plunder the property of the Armenians. The German government and command are also responsible for the Armenian genocide. Many German officers commanded Turkish units that took part in the genocide. The Entente powers are also to blame for what happened. They did nothing to stop the mass extermination of the Armenian population by the Young Turkish authorities.
During the genocide, more than 2 thousand Armenian villages, the same number of churches and monasteries, Armenian quarters of more than 60 cities were destroyed. The Young Turk government appropriated the valuables and deposits plundered from the Armenian population.
After the Genocide of 1915, there was practically no Armenian population left in Western Armenia.
§ 6. Culture of Armenia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries
Prior to the 1915 Genocide, Armenian culture experienced a significant upsurge. This was due to the rise of the liberation movement, the awakening of national self-consciousness, the development of capitalist relations both in Armenia itself and in those countries where a significant number of the Armenian population lived compactly. The division of Armenia into two parts - Western and Eastern - was reflected in the development of two independent trends in Armenian culture: Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian. The major centers of Armenian culture were Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tiflis, Baku, Constantinople, Izmir, Venice, Paris and other cities, where a significant part of the Armenian intelligentsia was concentrated.
A huge contribution to the development of Armenian culture was made by Armenian educational institutions. In Eastern Armenia, in the urban centers of Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus, and in some cities of Russia (Rostov-on-Don, Astrakhan), at the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 300 Armenian schools, male and female gymnasiums. In some rural areas there were elementary schools where they taught to read, write and count, as well as the Russian language.
About 400 Armenian schools of various levels operated in the cities of Western Armenia and large cities of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian schools did not receive any state subsidies either in the Russian Empire, or even more so in Ottoman Turkey. These schools existed thanks to the financial support of the Armenian Apostolic Church, various public organizations and individual patrons. The most famous among the Armenian educational institutions were the Nersisyan school in Tiflis, the Gevorkyan theological seminary in Etchmiadzin, the Murad-Rafaelyan school in Venice and the Lazarev Institute in Moscow.
The development of education largely contributed to the further development of Armenian periodicals. At the beginning of the 20th century, about 300 Armenian newspapers and magazines of various political trends were published. Some of them were published by the Armenian national parties, such as: "Droshak", "Hnchak", "Proletariat", etc. In addition, newspapers and magazines of socio-political and cultural direction were published.
Constantinople and Tiflis became the main centers of Armenian periodicals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The most popular were the Mshak newspaper published in Tiflis (edited by Gr. Artsruni), the Murch magazine (edited by Av. Araskhanyants), in Constantinople - the Megu newspaper (edited by Harutyun Svachyan), the Masis newspaper . Karapet Utujyan). Stepanos Nazaryants published the Hyusisapail (Northern Lights) magazine in Moscow.
Armenian literature at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century experienced a rapid flourishing. A galaxy of talented poets and novelists appeared both in Eastern and Western Armenia. The main motives of their work were patriotism and the dream to see the homeland united and free. It is no coincidence that many of the Armenian writers in their work turned to the heroic pages of the rich Armenian history, as an example for inspiration in the struggle for the unification and independence of the country. Thanks to their creativity, two independent literary languages took shape: Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian. Poets Rafael Patkanyan, Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, Vahan Teryan, prose poets Avetik Isahakyan, Gazaros Aghayan, Perch Proshyan, playwright Gabriel Sundukyan, novelists Nardos, Muratsan and others wrote in Eastern Armenian. Poets Petros Duryan, Misak Metsarents, Siamanto, Daniel Varudan, poet, prose writer and playwright Levon Shant, novelist Grigor Zohrap, great satirist Hakob Paronyan and others wrote their works in Western Armenian.
Prose writer Hovhannes Tumanyan and novelist Raffi left an indelible mark on the Armenian literature of that period.
In his work, O. Tumanyan reworked many folk legends and traditions, sang the national traditions, life and customs of the people. His most famous works are the poems "Anush", "Maro", the legends "Akhtmar", "The Fall of Tmkaberd" and others.
Raffi is known as the author of the historical novels "Samvel", "Jalaladdin", "Khant" and others. Among his contemporaries, his novel "Kaytser" (Sparks) enjoyed great success, where the call to the Armenian people to stand up for the liberation of their homeland was clearly heard, not really hoping for help from the powers.
Significant progress has been made in the social sciences. Professor of the Lazarev Institute Mkrtich Emin published ancient Armenian sources in Russian translation. The same sources in French translation were published in Paris at the expense of the well-known Armenian philanthropist, Egyptian Prime Minister Nubar Pasha. A member of the Mkhitarist cogregation, Father Ghevond Alishan wrote fundamental works on the history of Armenia, gave a detailed list and description of the surviving historical monuments, many of which were subsequently destroyed. Grigor Khalatyan published for the first time a complete history of Armenia in Russian. Garegin Srvandztyan, traveling through the regions of Western and Eastern Armenia, collected huge treasures of Armenian folklore. He has the honor of discovering the record and the first edition of the text of the Armenian medieval epic "Sasuntsi David". The famous scientist Manuk Abeghyan was engaged in research in the field of folklore and ancient Armenian literature. The well-known philologist, linguist Hrachya Acharyan studied the vocabulary of the Armenian language and made comparisons and comparisons of the Armenian language with other Indo-European languages.
The famous historian Nikolai Adonts in 1909 wrote and published in Russian a study on the history of medieval Armenia, Armenian-Byzantine relations. His major work "Armenia in the era of Justinian", published in 1909, has not lost its significance to this day. The well-known historian and philologist Leo (Arakel Babakhanyan) wrote works on various issues of Armenian history and literature, and also collected and published documents related to the “Armenian Question”.
Armenian musical art developed. The creativity of folk gusans was raised to new heights by gusan Jivani, gusan Sheram and others. Armenian composers who received a classical education appeared on the stage. Tigran Chukhajyan wrote the first Armenian opera Arshak II. Composer Armen Tigranyan wrote the opera "Anush" based on the poem of the same name by Hovhannes Tumanyan. The famous composer, musicologist Komitas laid the foundation for the scientific study of folk musical folklore, recorded the music and words of 3 thousand folk songs. Komitas gave concerts and lectures in many European countries, introducing Europeans to the original Armenian folk musical art.
The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were also marked by the further development of Armenian painting. A famous painter was the famous marine painter Hovhannes Aivazovsky (1817-1900). He lived and worked in Feodosia (in the Crimea), and most of his works are devoted to the marine theme. The most famous of his paintings are "The Ninth Wave", "Noah descends from Mount Ararat", "Lake Sevan", "Massacre of Armenians in Trabizon in 1895" and etc.
Outstanding painters were Gevorg Bashinjaghyan, Panos Terlemezyan, Vardges Surenyants.
Vardges Surenyants, in addition to easel painting, was also engaged in mural painting, painted many Armenian churches in different cities of Russia. The most famous are his paintings "Shamiram and Ara the Beautiful", "Salome". A copy of his painting "Armenian Madonna" today adorns the new cathedral in Yerevan. Forward
In order to clarify the essence of the Armenian issue and the concept of "Armenian genocide", we will cite a number of excerpts from the book of the famous French historian Georges de Maleville "Armenian tragedy of 1915", published in Russian by the Baku publishing house "Elm" in 1990, and will try to comment on it.
In chapter I, Historical Frame of Events, he writes: geographically great Armenia constitutes a territory with indefinite borders, the approximate center of which was Mount Ararat (5.165 m) and which was bounded by three large lakes of the Caucasus: Sevan (Goycha) - from the northeast, Lake Van - from the southwest and Lake Urmia in Iranian Azerbaijan - from the southeast. It is impossible to determine the borders of Armenia in the past more accurately due to the lack of reliable data. As you know, today in the Central Caucasus there is an Armenian core - 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, Diyarbekir, Elaziz and Sivas) were inhabited until 1914 by a large number of Armenians, who, however, were by no means the majority. 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 p. 19, “ since 1632 the border has been changed as a result of the Russian invasion of the Caucasus. It became clear that the political plans of the Russians consisted in the annexation of the Black Sea coast. In 1774, an agreement in Kuchuk-Keynar confirmed the loss of dominance over the Crimea by the Ottomans. On the eastern coast of the Black Sea, according to the 1812 treaty concluded in Bucharest, Abkhazia and Georgia ceded to Russia, annexed, however, since 1801. The war with Persia, which began in 1801, ended in 1828 with the transfer to Russia of all the territories of Persia north of the Araks, namely the Erivan Khanate. Under the Treaty of Turkmenchay, signed in March, Russia had a common border with Turkey, and, pushing back Persia, she gained dominance over part of the territory of Armenia(which has never existed there in history - ed.).
A month later, in April 1828, the army of Loris-Melikov, 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 in Karey. 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 imperturbably 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 sure 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 that there were more Russian-Turkish wars in 1833, 1877. 36 years passed before the next conflict, which began with the declaration of war on November 1, 1914. However, a long period of time was not in any way peaceful for Turkish Anatolia. Beginning in 1880, for the first time in its history, Turkish Armenia experienced riots, banditry and bloody riots that the Ottoman state tried to stop without much success. The riots followed a chronology that was not accidental: there were systematic riots, and the suppression of them, necessary to establish order, evoked enduring hatred in response.
Throughout the territory enclosed between Erzincayim and Erzerum in the north and Diyarbekir and Van in the south, sedition has been carried out for more than twenty years, with all the consequences that may flow from it, in a region remote from the center and difficult to govern.". Here, as Russian sources testify, weapons from Russia flowed like a river.
“On the first of November 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 were then Turkish territory. They prove to us that it was allegedly about a beating, about a measure of disguised destruction. We will try to analyze whether this is so or not. But before setting out and studying these events, 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, take a maneuver and, bypassing Ararat, descend south along the Persian border. It was then that the rebellion of the Armenians inhabiting Van broke out, which led to the first significant deportation of the Armenian population during the war. This should be considered in more detail.
A telegram from the governor of Van, dated March 20, 1915, reports an armed uprising and specifies: " We believe that there are more than 2000 rebels. We are trying to suppress this uprising.". Efforts were, however, in vain, since on March 23 the same governor reports that the mutiny was spreading to nearby villages. A month later, the situation became desperate. Here is what the Governor telegraphed on April 24: 4,000 rebels gathered in the region. The rebels cut off roads, attack nearby villages and subdue them. Currently, many women and children are left without a hearth and a home. Shouldn't these women and children (Muslims) be transported to the western provinces?» Unfortunately, they couldn’t do it then, and here are the consequences.
« The Caucasian army of Russia begins an offensive in the direction of Van, - tells us the American historian Stanford J. Shaw. (S. J. Shaw, vol. 2, p. 316). — This army includes a large number of Armenian volunteers. Departing 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 could hold on after the disappearance 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". (S. J. Shaw 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) for the simple purpose of making room. There was nothing accidental or unexpected in these actions. Here 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 party "Dashnak"). the 6th of May(perhaps according to the old calendar) they opened the city to the Russian army after the cleansing of the area from all Muslims... Among the most famous Armenian leaders (in Van) was the former member of the Turkish parliament Pasdermajian, known as Garro. He led the Armenian volunteers when clashes broke out between 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 devotion”(Gyuryun, p. 261), and Aram Manukyan was appointed Russian governor. The show continues the description of the events that followed.
« Thousands of Armenian residents of Mush, as well as other important centers of the eastern regions of Turkey, began to flock to the new Armenian state, and among them were columns of fugitive 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(S. J. Shaw, p. 316).
The Armenian author Khovanesyan, who is violently 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 in Transcaucasia, losing the brightest thing 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 is clear to what extent armed uprisings in regions with a significant Armenian minority were widespread and dangerous for the Ottoman troops who fought against the Russians. Here, quite obviously and clearly, we are talking about betrayal in the face of the enemy. By the way, such behavior of the Armenians today is systematically obscured by authors who are favorable to their claims - all this is simply denied: the truth bothers them.
On the other hand, the official telegrams of 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 massacred all the children, women, old people - ed.) . We have already spoken about this and we repeat it again: nowhere in the Ottoman Empire did the Armenian population, which settled voluntarily, even constitute an insignificant majority, which could allow the creation of an autonomous Armenian region. Under these conditions, for the success of their policy, the Armenian revolutionaries had no choice but to turn the minority into a majority by destroying the Muslim population. They resorted to this procedure every time they had a free hand, besides 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 would by no means must equate the number of missing persons with the number of victims; throughout the war, the insane hope of achieving the establishment of an autonomous Armenian state under the auspices of the Russians became an obsession for the Armenian population of Turkey. Khovanesyan, an Armenian author, also tells us about this: “ A reckless armed rebellion in Van brought 200,000 Armenians from all points of eastern Anatolia to him, who then fled from there, overcoming 3,000-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 in the midst of a war will be greatly reduced in 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 insane propaganda that poisoned the Turkish Armenians for decades and made them believe that they would succeed in creating an independent state through rebellion or murder, while they were everywhere minority". Let's return to the history of battles.
The Turkish breakthrough turned out to be short-lived, and in August the Turks were forced to cede Van again to the Russians. The Eastern Front until the end of 1915 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 from the south side and further to Bitlis and Mush, the second - from Kars to Erzrum, 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: This was followed by the worst beating of the entire war: more than a million Muslim peasants were forced to flee. Thousands of them were cut to pieces while trying to escape with the Ottoman army retreating to Erzincan."(Show S. Pzh, p. 323).
One can only wonder at the magnitude of this figure: it gives an idea of the reputation for brutality that the Armenian auxiliaries have acquired and maintained through constant terror (the Russian army, of course, has nothing to do with this).
On April 18, Trabzon was taken by the Russians, 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 form of a semicircle that included Trabzon and Erzincan in Russian territory and reached Bitlis in the south. This front remains until the spring of 1918.
Of course, the Armenian revolutionary organizations believed that the victory of the Russians was assured, and imagined, " that their dream would come true, especially since the port of Trabzon was part of the newly occupied territories. A huge number of Armenians flocked to the Erzurum region - refugees from Van, as well as emigrants from Russian Armenia. Throughout 1917, the Russian army was paralyzed by the St. Petersburg revolution. On December 18, 1917, the Bolsheviks signed a truce in Erzincan with the Ottoman government, and this was followed by the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, which announced the return of the eastern territories taken from it in 1878 to Turkey. The Russians returned Kara and Ardagan, 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, too, the Armenians did not make up the majority at that time, until the end of the forties of the twentieth century - ed.).
But the Armenians did not agree on this. Starting on January 13, 1918, they began to acquire weapons from the Bolsheviks, who recalled their units from the front.(TsGAAR, D-T, No. 13). Then, on February 10, 1918, together with Georgians and Azerbaijanis, they formed a single socialist republic of Transcaucasia with Menshevik tendencies, which rejected in advance the terms of the agreement 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 beating of the Muslim population in Erzinjan and Erzrum, accompanied by indescribable horrors, which were then told by indignant Russian officers". (Khleboc, journal de guerre du 2nd regiment d'artillerie, cite par Durun, p. 272).
The goal was still the same: to make room in order to ensure the exclusive right of Armenian immigrants to the territory in the eyes of international public opinion. Shaw states that the Turkish population of the five provinces of Trabzon, Erzincan, Erzrum, Van and Bitlis, which was 3,300,000 in 1914, became 600,000 refugees after the war (ibid., p. 325).
On June 4, 1918, the Caucasian republics signed an agreement with Turkey, which confirmed the terms of the Brest-Litovsk agreement and recognized the borders of 1877, 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 the expansion 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 - Ardagan). This means that the front line was again pushed to the west almost along the 1878 border. From there, for eighteen months, the Armenians made countless raids on the outskirts of the territories occupied by them, namely in the north-western direction towards the Black Sea and Trabzon (Gyuryun, 295-318), who refers to the memoirs of General Kazim Karzbekir and two witnesses - Rawlinson (Englishman ) and Robert Dan (American).
And, naturally, they again tried to increase the Armenian population of Kars, and they did it by well-known methods, that is, through total terror and murders. Fate decreed otherwise. Thanks to Mustafa Kemal, Turkey restored its forces, 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 onset of the Turkish army, thus expressing in their own way their refusal to submit to the Turkish government.
Thus ends the story of the migration of the Armenian population on the Eastern Front. 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 trials, reached Soviet Armenia. But how many of these unfortunate people were sent by human and criminally absurd propaganda at the height of the war to the line of fire in order to build a chimerical state there by exterminating the indigenous local population?
However, in order to more clearly imagine what happened in 1915, let us return to the events unfolding around the Armenians in the pre-war period, that is, before the start of the First World War of 1914-1918.
About who worked for the promotion and use of the Armenians for their own purposes, it 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 up to the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which ended with the annexation of the present Batum and Kars regions to our territory, Russian policy has been constantly based on a benevolent attitude towards the Armenians since Peter the Great, who paid for this to us during the hostilities by actively helping the troops. With the accession to our possessions of the so-called Armenian region, in which Etchmiadzin, the cradle of Armenian Gregorianism, was located. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich used a lot of effort to create a trustee of the Turkish and Persian Armenians from the Patriarch of Etchmiadzin, rightly believing that he would thereby achieve beneficial influence for Russia among the Christian population of Asia Minor, through which the path of our primordial offensive movement to the southern seas ran. Patronizing the Armenians, we acquired loyal allies who always rendered great services to us ... 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 the 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 the Armenians, who, as the prosecutor of the Etchmiadzin Synod aptly put it. A.Frenkel, "only superficially touched civilization«, Russia is implementing the precepts of Peter I. « And the infidels of these zealously quietly reduce so that they do not know this". Yes, history, no matter how hushed up or distorted, has preserved the true state of affairs in the Caucasus, the so-called Armenian region, in which Echmiadzin (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 Turkmenchay Treaty, the Nakhchivan and Iravan khanates became part of the Russian Empire. The Iravan Khanate 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 was made up of Muslim Azerbaijanis (more than 95%) and Kurds. In 1828, Russia, having spent huge material resources, resettled 120 thousand Armenians within the borders of the defeated Iravan Khanate.
And from 1829 to 1918, about 300 thousand more Armenians were settled there, and even after that, the Armenians in the Erivan, Etchmiadzin provinces and in other regions of the so-called Russian Armenia nowhere constituted the majority of the population. Their national composition nowhere exceeded 30-40% of the total local population in 1917. Thus, the table of the population of the 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, 129,586 Muslims lived, and 80,530 Armenians, which accounted for 61% and 38% respectively. %. And in the document submitted to the Chairman of the Paris Peace Conference - a note of protest. The Azerbaijani Peace Delegation dated August 16/19, 1919 on the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan (given with abbreviations - author's note) says: “ Being deprived of the opportunity to receive regular and private relations with their capital, the city of Baku, the Azerbaijani peace delegation learned only from the latest half-hearted official reports about the sad fate that the Karskaya region, the Nakhchivan, Sharuro-Daralagezsk, Surmalinsky districts and part of the Erivan district of the Erivan province were subjected to , 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 signed. After the departure of the latter, the Kars and Batumi regions, together with the Akhaliih 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 composed by the then-convened parliament. Despite such a clearly expressed will of the population of the aforementioned 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-Western Caucasus and in the end achieved that the Kars parliament and government were dissolved by a decree of General Thomson, and 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 be holding a hostile orientation, which, by the way, the Allied Command was incorrectly informed by the parties interested in this region. After that, 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 Foreign Minister, in his protest dated April 30 of this year, wrote to the commander of the Allied Forces that this placement should take place with the assistance of the British troops, and not the Armenian military forces, striving not so much to settle refugees to places, how much to the forcible capture and consolidation of this area.
As a simple spectator, the Republic of Azerbaijan cannot and should not be indifferent to such a fate of the Kars region. At the same time, one should not forget that it was in the Kars region, which relatively recently belonged to Turkey (until 1877), that the attitude of Armenians towards Muslims always left much to be desired. During the last war, however, these relations became very aggravated in connection with the events of December 1914, when Turkish troops temporarily occupied the Ardagan district, the city of Ardagan and part of the Kars district; after the retreat of the Turks, Russian troops began to destroy the Muslim population, betraying everything to fire and sword. And in these bloody events that fell on the heads of the innocent Muslim population, the local Armenians expressed a clearly hostile attitude and in places, as was the case, for example, even in the cities of Kars and Ardagan, they not only incited the Cossacks against the Muslims, but they themselves slaughtered the latter mercilessly. All these circumstances cannot, of course, speak of a calm joint life of 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 to the transfer of control over the districts of Nakhichevan, Sharuro-Daralagez, Surmalin and part of the Erivan district to the government of Armenia ...
She finds that the transfer of control of an integral part of the territory of Azerbaijan allowed a clear violation of the undoubted right of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the counties: Nakhichevan, Sharuro-Daralagez, Surmalinsky and part of the Erivan county. This act creates a source of constant misunderstandings and even clashes between the local Muslim population and the Armenian Republic.
These regions 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 the ownership of these lands in favor of Azerbaijan. Thus, there are not only more than half of the Muslim Azerbaijanis, but their significant majority in all districts, especially in the Sharuro-Daralagez district - 72.3%. For the Erivan uyezd, figures are taken that refer to the population of the entire uyezd. But that part of this county, which was transferred to the administration of the Armenian government and which consists of the regions of Vedi-Basar and Millistan, contains about 90% of the Muslim population.
This is precisely the part of the Erivan district that suffered most from the Armenian military units under various names - “Vans”, “Sasunts”, which, like the bands of Andronicus, slaughtered the Muslim population, not sparing the elderly and children, burned entire villages, subjected the villages to shelling from cannons and an armored train, dishonored Muslim women, the bellies of the dead were torn open, their eyes gouged out, and sometimes the corpses were burned, they also robbed the population and generally committed unheard-of atrocities. By the way, an outrageous fact took place in the Vedi-Basar region, when the same Armenian detachments in the villages of Karakhach, Kadyshu, Karabaglar, Agasibekdy, Dehnaz slaughtered all the men, and then took into captivity several hundred beautiful married women and girls, whom they handed over to Armenian "warriors". The latter kept these unfortunate victims of the 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, fol. 1-3) .
The information contained in the note of protest of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which they quote, presented to the Chairman of the Paris Peace Conference, eloquently testifies that Armenians have never had a homeland in Armenia (Russian), since they did not form a majority anywhere. This document testifies that in Batumi, Akhalsalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Kars, Nakhichevan, Echmiadzin, Yerevan, etc., Muslim Azerbaijanis have always lived, moreover, in the majority.
Contrary to common sense, the Armenian Republic was established in 1918 by the will of England in the territories that belonged to Azerbaijanis from time immemorial.
England solved a double task by this: “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 USSR leadership, Zangezur was taken from Azerbaijan and transferred to Armenia. Thus, Turkey finally lost direct land access to to the Turkic world, which stretches in a wide strip from the Balkans to the Korean Peninsula. What motivated England and the Entente in deciding 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 is not for nothing that for the first time in world practice the Ottoman Empire created the institution of the "Ombudsman" - the defender of the rights of mankind, regardless of the religious, national and property affiliation of the subjects of the empire, which effectively protected the entire population from the will of the bureaucratic apparatus of power.
Excerpt from the book GREAT LIE ABOUT "GREAT ARMENIA" Takhira Mobil oglu. Baku "Araz" -2009 pp.58-69
I want to live in a big country
There is no such thing, you need to create it
There is a desire, the main thing is to manage
And I will surely get tired of exterminating the people.
Timur Valois "Mad King"
These events took place in 1915, when the Armenian people were subjected to genocide, about 1.5 million people were killed. The defenseless people were torn to pieces by the Turks and the bloodthirsty Kurds.
The bloody drama was preceded by a whole chain of events, and until very recently the poor Armenian people still hoped for salvation.
"Unity and Progress"?
The Armenian people lived in the valleys, were engaged in agriculture, were successful businessmen, had good teachers and doctors. Often they were attacked by the Kurds, who played a terrible role in all Armenian pogroms, including in 1915. Armenia is a strategically important country. Throughout the history of wars, many conquerors tried to capture the North Caucasus as an important geographical feature. The same Timur, when he moved his army to the North Caucasus, dealt with the peoples living in those territories where the foot of the great conqueror stepped, many peoples fled (for example, Ossetians) from their original places. Any forced migration of ethnic groups in the past, in the future will serve as armed ethnic conflicts.
Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire, which, like a colossus with feet of clay, was living out its last days. Many contemporaries of that time said that they did not meet a single Armenian who did not know the Turkish language. This only shows how closely the Armenian people were tied to the Ottoman Empire.
But what was the fault of the Armenian people, for which they were subjected to such terrible trials? Why is the dominant nation always trying to infringe on the rights of national minorities? To be realistic, the wealthy and wealthy class always acted as interested people, for example, the Turkish Effendi were the richest caste of that time, and the Turkish people themselves were illiterate, typical Asian people of that time. It is not difficult to create an image of the enemy and incite hatred. But after all, every nation has the right to its existence and survival, the preservation of its culture and traditions.
The saddest thing is that history has taught nothing, the same Germans condemned the massacre of Armenians, but in the end, there is no need to describe what happened on Kristallnacht and in the Auschwitz and Dachau camps. Looking back, we find that already in the 1st century AD, about a million Jews were subjected to genocide when the Roman troops took Jerusalem, according to the laws of that time, all the inhabitants of the city should be killed. According to Tacitus, about 600 thousand Jews lived in Jerusalem, according to another historian Josephus Flavius, about 1 million.
The Armenians were not the last in the "list of the elect", the same fate was prepared for the Greeks and Bulgarians. They wanted to exterminate the latter as a nation, through assimilation.
At that time, there were no people in all of Asia Minor that could resist Armenian education, they were engaged in crafts, trade, built bridges to European progress, were excellent doctors and teachers. The empire was falling apart, the sultans were not able to govern the state, their rule turned into agony. They could not forgive the Armenians that their well-being is growing, that the Armenian people are getting richer, that the Armenian people are raising the level of education in European institutions.
Turkey was really very weak at that time, it was necessary to abandon the old methods, but the national dignity was hurt most of all, that the Turks were not able to show independence for creation. And then there is the people who are constantly declaring to the whole world that they are being exterminated.
In 1878, at the Berlin Congress, under pressure from the West, Turkey was supposed to ensure a normal life for the Christian population within the empire, but Turkey did nothing.
The Armenians were daily waiting for extermination, the reign of Sultan Abdul-Hamid was bloody. When internal political crises occur in the country, in fact, uprisings were expected in some parts of the country, in order for them not to happen, the peoples did not raise their heads too high, the empire was constantly shaking from repressions. You can, if you want to draw an analogy with Russia, in order to distract the people from economic and political problems, Jewish pogroms were organized. To incite confessional hatred, Armenians were credited with sabotage, the Muslim people went berserk when many "brothers in faith" died as a result of sabotage. Again, I would like to give an example from Russian history, when there was the so-called "Beilis Case", when the Jew Beilis was accused of the ritual murder of a 12-year-old boy.
In 1906, a revolution broke out in Thessaloniki, uprisings broke out in Albania, Thrace, the peoples of these regions sought to free themselves from the Ottoman yoke. The Turkish government is at an impasse. And in Macedonia, young Turkish officers revolted, generals and many spiritual leaders joined them. The army was moved into the mountains, and an ultimatum was issued that if the government did not resign, the troops would enter Constantinople. What is most remarkable, Abdul-Hamid failed and became the head of the revolutionary committee. This military mutiny is rightly called one of the most amazing. The rebellious officers and the entire movement itself are usually called the Young Turks.
At that time of day, the Greeks, Turks and Armenians were like brothers, together they rejoiced at new events and waited for changes in their lives.
Thanks to his financial capabilities, Abdul-Hamid raised the country against the Young Turks in order to discredit their rule, the first mass genocide in the history of the Armenian people was committed, which claimed the lives of more than 200 thousand people. Meat was torn from the men and thrown to the dogs, thousands of people were burned alive. The Young Turks were forced to flee, but then the army under the command of Mehmet Shovket Pasha, which saved the country, marched on Constantinople and captured the palace. Abdul-Hamid was exiled to Thessaloniki, his brother Mehmed Reshad took his place. An important point is that the terrible extermination served as the formation of the Armenian party "Dushnaktsutyun", which was guided by democratic principles. This party had much in common with the Young Turks' Unity and Progress party, wealthy Armenian leaders helped those who, in fact, as history will show, were simply eager for power. It is also important that the Armenian people helped the Young Turks, when the people of Abdul-Hamid sought out the revolutionaries, the Armenians hid them at home. Helping them, the Armenians believed and hoped for a better life, later the Young Turks will thank them ... in the Kemakh gorge.
In 1911, the Young Turks deceived the Armenians and did not give them the 10 seats promised in the parliament, but the Armenians put up with this, even when Turkey entered the First World War in 1914, the Armenians considered themselves the defenders of the Turkish fatherland.
The parliament was formed only from the Turks, there were no Arabs, no Greeks, and even more so Armenians. What was going on in the Committee, no one could know. Dictatorship came to Turkey, nationalist mentality in Turkish society grew. The presence of incompetent people in the government could not give the country development.
Extermination according to plan
- The gray hair of your hair inspires confidence,
You know a lot, you reject ignorance.
I have a problem, can you tell me the answer?
- Get rid of the problem, there will be no headache!
Timur Valois "Wisdom of gray hair"
What else can be called, the craving for the birth of an empire, the conquest of the world? Using the lexical richness of the Russian language, you can pick up a lot of words, but let's focus on the generally accepted ones - imperial ambitions or great-power chauvinism. Unfortunately, if a person has a desire to create an empire, even if he does not create one, then many lives will be laid in the foundation of an initially fragile building.
Germany already had her own thoughts about Turkey, but the incessant slaughter forced her to send her representatives in order to reason with the government of the Turks. Anvar Pasha, the leader of the Young Turks, amazed everyone by showing what an amateur he was in political affairs, and apart from conquering the world, he saw nothing more. Turkish Alexander the Great already saw the borders of the future Turkey next to China.
Mass agitation began, calls for ethnic revival. Something from a series of the Aryan nation, only in the title role with the Turks. The struggle for national revival began with enthusiasm, poems about the power and strength of the Turkish people were ordered from poets, signs of companies in European languages, even in German, were removed in Constantinople. The Greek and Armenian press were punished with fines, then they were closed altogether. They wanted to make the city a kind of sacred place for all Turks.
The first massacre awaited the Armenians, as the most defenseless people, then the turn was to reach the Jews and Greeks. Then, if Germany loses the war, expel all Germans. They didn’t forget about the Arabs, but after thinking they decided to forget it, because although there were amateurs in politics, but after analyzing that the Arab world would not allow impudent treatment of itself and could put an end to the nascent ghostly empire of the Turks, they decided not to touch the Arabs. Of course, the religious issue also played a role, the Koran forbids Muslims from war with each other, the war of brother against brother, whoever hits his brother will burn in hell forever. It is impossible to cancel the laws of religion, if you give up religion and neglect, then all plans will fail, and especially in the Muslim world, where for many there are only laws written in the Koran. Thus, leaving the Arabs alone, deciding once and for all to put an end to the presence of the Christian religion in their country, the authorities decided to deport the Armenians. By arresting 600 Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople and expelling them all from Anatolia, the Turkish government deprived the Armenian people of leaders.
On April 21, 1915, a plan for the extermination of Armenians was already drawn up, both military and civilians received it.
Every year on April 24, the world celebrates the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide in memory of the victims of the first ethnic extermination in the 20th century, which was carried out in the Ottoman Empire.
On April 24, 1915, representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia were arrested in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, from which the mass extermination of Armenians began.
At the beginning of the 4th century AD, Armenia became the first country in the world in which Christianity was established as the official religion. However, the centuries-old struggle of the Armenian people against the conquerors ended with the loss of their own statehood. For many centuries, the lands where the Armenians historically lived were not just in the hands of the conquerors, but in the hands of conquerors who professed a different faith.
In the Ottoman Empire, Armenians, not being Muslims, were quite officially treated as second-class people - “dhimmi”. They were forbidden to carry weapons, they were subject to higher taxes and were deprived of the right to testify in court.Complex inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relations in the Ottoman Empire escalated significantly by the end of the 19th century. A series of Russian-Turkish wars, mostly unsuccessful for the Ottoman Empire, led to the appearance on its territory of a huge number of Muslim refugees from the lost territories - the so-called "Muhajirs".
The Muhajirs were extremely hostile towards Armenian Christians. In turn, by the end of the 19th century, the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, tired of their lack of rights, demanded more and more loudly equalization of rights with the rest of the inhabitants of the empire.
These contradictions were superimposed by the general decline of the Ottoman Empire, which manifested itself in all spheres of life.
Armenians are to blame
The first wave of massacres of Armenians on the territory of the Ottoman Empire took place in 1894-1896. The open resistance of the Armenians to the attempts of the Kurdish leaders to impose tribute on them turned into massacres not only of those who participated in the protests, but also of those who remained on the sidelines. It is generally accepted that the murders of 1894-1896 were not directly sanctioned by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, their victims, according to various estimates, were from 50 to 300 thousand Armenians.
Massacre at Erzurum, 1895 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Public Domain
Periodic local outbreaks of reprisals against Armenians also occurred after the overthrow of the Sultan of Turkey Abdul-Hamid II in 1907 and the Young Turks came to power.
With the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the First World War, slogans began to sound louder and louder in the country about the need for “unity” of all representatives of the Turkish race to confront the “infidels”. In November 1914, jihad was declared, which fueled anti-Christian chauvinism among the Muslim population.
To all this was added the fact that one of the opponents of the Ottoman Empire in the war was Russia, on whose territory a large number of Armenians lived. The authorities of the Ottoman Empire began to consider their own citizens of Armenian nationality as potential traitors who could help the enemy. Such sentiments were strengthened as more and more failures on the eastern front took place.
After the defeat committed by the Russian troops of the Turkish army in January 1915 near Sarykamysh, one of the leaders of the Young Turks, Ismail Enver, aka Enver Pasha, declared in Istanbul that the defeat was the result of Armenian treason and that it was time to deport the Armenians from the eastern regions, who were threatened with Russian occupation.
As early as February 1915, extraordinary measures were taken against the Ottoman Armenians. 100,000 soldiers of Armenian nationality were disarmed, the right of civilian Armenians to bear arms, introduced in 1908, was abolished.
Destruction technology
The government of the Young Turks planned to carry out the mass deportation of the Armenian population to the desert, where people were doomed to certain death.
Deportation of Armenians along the Baghdad railway. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
On April 24, 1915, the implementation of the plan began from Istanbul, where about 800 representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia were arrested and killed within a few days.
On May 30, 1915, the Majlis of the Ottoman Empire approved the "Law on Deportation", which became the basis for the massacre of Armenians.
The deportation tactic consisted in the initial separation from the total number of Armenians in a particular settlement of adult men, who were taken out of the city to deserted places and destroyed in order to avoid resistance. Young Armenian girls were handed over as concubines to Muslims or simply subjected to massive sexual violence. Old men, women and children were driven in columns under the escort of gendarmes. Columns of Armenians, often deprived of food and drink, were driven into the desert regions of the country. Those who fell without strength were killed on the spot.
Despite the fact that the disloyalty of the Armenians on the eastern front was declared the reason for the deportation, repressions against them began to be carried out throughout the country. Almost immediately, the deportations turned into massacres of Armenians in their places of residence.
A huge role in the massacres of Armenians was played by the paramilitary formations of the “chettes” - criminals specially released by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire to participate in massacres.
In the city of Hynys alone, the majority of whose population was Armenian, about 19,000 people were killed in May 1915. 15,000 Armenians became victims of the massacre in the city of Bitlis in July 1915. The most cruel methods of reprisals were practiced - people were cut into pieces, nailed to crosses, driven onto barges and drowned, burned alive.
Those who reached alive the camps around the desert of Der Zor, the massacre overtook there. Within a few months of 1915, about 150,000 Armenians were massacred there.
Disappeared forever
A telegram from US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to the State Department (July 16, 1915) describes the extermination of the Armenians as a "campaign of racial extermination." Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Henry Morgenthau Sr
Foreign diplomats received evidence of the large-scale destruction of Armenians almost from the very beginning of the genocide. In the joint Declaration of May 24, 1915, the Entente countries (Great Britain, France and Russia) recognized the massacres of Armenians for the first time in history as a crime against humanity.
However, the powers involved in a major war were unable to stop the mass destruction of people.
Although the peak of the genocide occurred in 1915, in fact, the massacres of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire continued until the end of the First World War.
The total number of victims of the Armenian genocide has not been finally established to this day. The most frequently heard data is that from 1 to 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated in the Ottoman Empire in the period from 1915 to 1918. Those who could survive the massacre left their native lands en masse.
According to various estimates, from 2 to 4 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire by 1915. Between 40,000 and 70,000 Armenians live in modern Turkey.
Most of the Armenian churches and historical monuments associated with the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire were destroyed or turned into mosques, as well as utility rooms. Only at the end of the 20th century, under pressure from the world community, the restoration of some historical monuments began in Turkey, in particular the Church of the Holy Cross on Lake Van.
Map of the main areas of destruction of the Armenian population. concentration camps
Dönme - a crypto-Jewish sect brought Atatürk to power
One of the most destructive factors that largely determines the political situation in the Middle East and Transcaucasia for 100 years is the genocide of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, during which, according to various sources, from 664 thousand to 1.5 million people were killed. And given that the genocide of the Pontic Greeks, which began in Izmir, was almost simultaneously taking place, during which from 350 thousand to 1.2 million people were destroyed, and the Assyrians, in which the Kurds took part, which claimed from 275 to 750 thousand people, this factor is already For more than 100 years, it has kept the whole region in suspense, constantly fueling enmity between the peoples inhabiting it. Moreover, as soon as even a slight rapprochement between neighbors is planned, giving hope for their reconciliation and further peaceful coexistence, an external factor, a third party, immediately intervenes in the situation, and a bloody event occurs that further warms up mutual hatred.
For an ordinary person who has received a standard education, today it is absolutely obvious that the Armenian genocide took place and that it was Turkey that was to blame for the genocide. Russia, among more than 30 countries, has recognized the fact of the Armenian genocide, which, however, has little effect on its relations with Turkey. Turkey, on the other hand, in the opinion of an ordinary person, absolutely irrationally and stubbornly continues to deny its responsibility not only for the Armenian genocide, but also for the genocide of other Christian peoples - Greeks and Assyrians. According to Turkish media, in May 2018, Turkey opened all its archives to research the events of 1915. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that after the opening of the Turkish archives, if someone dares to declare the "so-called Armenian genocide", then let him try to prove it based on facts:
“In the history of Turkey there was no “genocide” against Armenians” Erdogan said.
No one will dare to suspect the inadequacy of the Turkish president. Erdogan, the leader of a great Islamic country, heir to one of the greatest empires, by definition cannot be like, say, the president of Ukraine. And the president of any country will not dare to go for a frank and open lie. So really, Erdogan knows something that is unknown to most people in other countries, or is carefully hidden from the world community. And such a factor really exists. It does not concern the genocide event itself, it concerns the one who produced this inhuman cruelty and is really responsible for it.
***
In February 2018, on the portal of the Turkish "electronic government" (www.turkiye.gov.tr ) an online service was launched where any citizen of Turkey could trace their genealogy, learn about their ancestors in a few clicks. The records available were limited to the early 19th century, during the Ottoman Empire. The service almost instantly became so popular that it soon collapsed due to millions of requests. The results obtained shocked a huge number of Turks. It turns out that many people who considered themselves Turks, in reality, have ancestors of Armenian, Jewish, Greek, Bulgarian, and even Macedonian and Romanian origin. This fact, by default, only confirmed what everyone in Turkey knows, but no one likes to mention, especially in front of foreigners. Speaking aloud about this in Turkey is considered bad form, but it is this factor that now determines the entire domestic and foreign policy, Erdogan's entire struggle for power within the country.
The Ottoman Empire, by the standards of its time, pursued a relatively tolerant policy towards national and religious minorities, preferring, again, by the standards of that time, non-violent methods of assimilation. To some extent, she repeated the methods of the Byzantine Empire she defeated. The Armenians traditionally led the financial area of the empire. Most of the bankers in Constantinople were Armenians. Very many finance ministers were Armenians, just remember the brilliant Hakob Kazazyan Pasha, who was considered the best finance minister in the history of the Ottoman Empire. Of course, throughout history there have been inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts that have even led to the shedding of blood. But nothing like the genocides of the Christian population in the 20th century happened in the Empire. And suddenly a tragedy happens. Any sane person will understand that out of the blue this does not happen. So why and who carried out these bloody genocides? The answer to this question lies in the history of the Ottoman Empire itself.
***
In Istanbul, in the Asian part of the city across the Bosphorus, there is an old and secluded Uskudar cemetery. Visitors to the cemetery among traditional Muslims will begin to meet and marvel at graves that are unlike others and do not fit into Islamic traditions. Many of the tombs are covered with concrete and stone surfaces rather than earth, and have photographs of the dead, which is not in keeping with tradition. When asked whose graves these are, you will be told almost in a whisper that representatives of the Donmeh (new converts or apostates - Tour.), a large and mysterious part of Turkish society, are buried here. The grave of a judge of the Supreme Court is located next to the grave of the ex-leader of the Communist Party, and next to them are the graves of a general and a famous educator. The Dönme are Muslims, but not really. Most of today's Dönme are secular people who vote for Atatürk's secular republic, but in every Dönme community, secret religious rites still take place, more Jewish than Islamic. No dönme will ever publicly acknowledge their identity. The dönme themselves only find out about themselves when they reach the age of 18, when their parents reveal the secret to them. This tradition of zealously maintaining dual identities in Muslim society has been passed down for generations.
As I wrote in the article"Island of the Antichrist: a springboard for Armageddon" , Dönme, or Sabbatians are followers and students of the Jewish rabbi Shabbtai Zvi, who in 1665 was proclaimed the Jewish messiah and brought the biggest split in Judaism in almost 2 millennia of its official existence. Avoiding execution by the Sultan, together with his numerous followers, Shabbtai Zvi converted to Islam in 1666. Despite this, many Sabbatians are still members of three religions - Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The Turkish dönme were originally founded in Greek Thessaloniki by Jacob Kerido and his son Berahio (Baruch) Russo (Osman Baba). Subsequently, the dönme spread throughout Turkey, where they were called, depending on the direction in Sabbatianism, izmirlars, karakashlars (black-browed) and kapanjilars (owners of scales). The main place of concentration of the dönme in the Asian part of the Empire was the city of Izmir. The Young Turk movement was largely made up of Dönmeh. Kemal Atatürk, the first President of Turkey, was a Dönmeh and a member of the Veritas Masonic Lodge, a division of the Grand Orient de France lodge.
Throughout their history, the Dönme have repeatedly turned to rabbis, representatives of traditional Judaism, with requests to recognize them as Jews, like the Karaites who deny the Talmud (oral Torah). However, they always received a refusal, which in most cases was of a political nature, not a religious one. Kemalist Turkey has always been an ally of Israel, which was not politically advantageous to admit that this state is actually run by Jews. For the same reasons, Israel categorically refused and still refuses to recognize the Armenian genocide. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emanuel Nahshon recently said Israel's official position has not changed.
“We are very sensitive and responsive to the terrible tragedy of the Armenian people during the First World War. The historical debate about how to regard this tragedy is one thing, but the recognition that something terrible happened to the Armenian people is quite another, and this is much more important.”
Initially, in the Greek Thessaloniki, which was part of the Ottoman Empire at that time, the Dönme community consisted of 200 families. In secret, they practiced their own form of Judaism, based on the "18 Commandments" supposedly left by Shabbtai Zevi, along with a ban on intermarriages with true Muslims. The Dönme never integrated into Muslim society and continued to believe that Shabbtai Zvi would one day return and lead them to redemption.
According to very low estimates of the dönme themselves, now in Turkey their number is 15-20 thousand people. Alternative sources speak of millions of dönme in Turkey. The entire officer and general staff of the Turkish army, bankers, financiers, judges, journalists, policemen, lawyers, lawyers, preachers throughout the 20th century were dönme. But this phenomenon began in 1891 with the creation of the political organization of the Donme - the Committee "Unity and Progress", later called the "Young Turks", responsible for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the genocide of the Christian peoples of Turkey.
***
In the 19th century, the international Jewish elite planned to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, but the problem was that Palestine was under Ottoman rule. The founder of the Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, wanted to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire about Palestine, but failed. Therefore, the next logical step was to take control of the Ottoman Empire itself and destroy it in order to liberate Palestine and create Israel. That is why the Unity and Progress Committee was created under the guise of a secular Turkish nationalist movement. The committee held at least two congresses (in 1902 and 1907) in Paris, at which the revolution was planned and prepared. In 1908, the Young Turks launched their revolution and forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II into submission.
The notorious "evil genius of the Russian revolution" Alexander Parvus was the financial adviser to the Young Turks, and the first Bolshevik government of Russia allocated Ataturk 10 million rubles in gold, 45 thousand rifles and 300 machine guns with ammunition. One of the main, sacred, causes of the Armenian genocide was the fact that the Jews considered Armenians to be Amalekites, descendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau. Esau himself was the elder twin brother of the founder of Israel, Jacob, who, taking advantage of the blindness of their father, Isaac, stole the birthright from his older brother. Throughout history, the Amalekites were the main enemies of Israel, with whom David fought during the reign of Saul, who was killed by the Amalekite.
The head of the Young Turks was Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), who was a donme and a direct descendant of the Jewish messiah Shabbtai Zvi. The Jewish writer and rabbi Joachim Prinz confirms this fact in his book The secret Jews on page 122:
“The Young Turk uprising in 1908 against the authoritarian regime of Sultan Abdul Hamid began among the intelligentsia of Thessaloniki. It was there that the need for a constitutional regime arose. Among the leaders of the revolution that led to a more modern government in Turkey were Javid Bey and Mustafa Kemal. Both were ardent dönmeh. Javid Bey became finance minister, Mustafa Kemal became the leader of the new regime and took the name Atatürk. His opponents tried to use his dönme affiliation to discredit him, but without success. Too many of the Young Turks in the newly formed revolutionary cabinet prayed to Allah, but their true prophet was Shabbtai Zvi, the Messiah of Smyrna (Izmir - author's note)."
October 14, 1922TheThe Literary Digest published an article titled "The Sort of Mustafa Kemal is" which stated:
A Spanish Jew by birth, an orthodox Muslim by birth, trained at a German military college, a patriot who has studied the campaigns of the world's great generals, including Napoleon, Grant, and Lee—these are said to be just a few of the outstanding personality traits of the new Man on Horseback, who appeared in the Middle East. He is a real dictator, correspondents testify, a man of the type who immediately becomes the hope and fear of peoples torn to pieces by unsuccessful wars. Unity and power returned to Turkey largely due to the will of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Apparently no one has yet called him the "Napoleon of the Middle East", but probably some enterprising journalist will sooner or later; for Kemal's path to power, his methods are autocratic and elaborate, even his military tactics are said to be reminiscent of Napoleon."
In an article entitled "When Kemal Ataturk Recited Shema Yisrael", Jewish author Hillel Halkin quoted Mustafa Kemal Atatürk:
“I am a descendant of Shabbtai Zvi - no longer a Jew, but an ardent admirer of this prophet. I think every Jew in this country would do well to join his camp."
Gershom Scholem wrote in his book "Kabbalah" on pp. 330-331:
“Their liturgies were written in a very small format so that they could be easily hidden. All sects so successfully concealed their internal affairs from Jews and Turks that for a long time knowledge about them was based only on rumors and reports from outsiders. The Dönme manuscripts revealing the details of their Sabbatian ideas were only presented and examined after several Dönme families decided to fully assimilate into Turkish society and handed over their documents to Jewish friends in Thessaloniki and Izmir. As long as the Dönme were concentrated in Thessaloniki, the institutional framework of the sects remained intact, although a few members of the Dönme were active in the Young Turk movement that arose in that city. The first administration that came to power after the Young Turk revolution in 1909 included three Dönme ministers, including Finance Minister Javid Bek, who was a descendant of the Baruch Russo family and was one of the leaders of his sect. One claim commonly made by many of the Jews of Thessaloniki (denied, however, by the Turkish government) was that Kemal Atatürk was of Dönmeh origin. This view was eagerly supported by many of Atatürk's religious opponents in Anatolia.
Inspector General of the Turkish Army in Armenia and military governor of the Egyptian Sinai during World War I, Rafael de Nogales, wrote in his Four Years Beneath the Crescent on pages 26-27 that the chief architect of the Armenian Genocide, Osman Talaat (Talaat), was dönme:
“He was a renegade Hebrew (Dönme) from Thessaloniki, Talaat, the main organizer of massacres and deportations, who, fishing in troubled waters, succeeded in a career from a postal clerk humble rank to Grand Vizier of the Empire."
In one of Marcel Tinaire's articles in L "Illustration in December 1923, which was translated into English and published as "Saloniki", it is written:
“Today's Free Masonry-affiliated dönmeh, educated in Western universities, often professing total atheism, have become the leaders of the Young Turk revolution. Talaat Bek, Javid Bek and many other members of the Unity and Progress Committee were donme from Thessaloniki.
The London Times on July 11, 1911, in the article "The Jews and the situation in Albania" wrote:
“It is generally known that under Masonic patronage, the Thessaloniki Committee was formed with the help of the Jews and Dönmeh or Crypto-Jews of Turkey, whose headquarters are in Thessaloniki, and whose organization, even under Sultan Abdul Hamid, took on a Masonic form. Jews such as Emmanuel Carasso, Salem, Sassoun, Farji, Meslach and Dönme, or crypto-Jews such as Javid Bek and the Balji family, took an influential part both in the organization of the Committee and in the work of its central body in Thessaloniki. These facts, which are known to every government in Europe, are also known throughout Turkey and the Balkans, where there is an increasing trend to hold the Jews and the Dönme responsible for the bloody blunders committed by the Committee».
On August 9, 1911, the same newspaper published a letter to its editors in Constantinople, in which there were comments on the situation from the chief rabbis. In particular, it was written:
“I will simply note that, according to the information that I have received from genuine Freemasons, most of the lodges founded under the auspices of the Grand Orient of Turkey since the Revolution were from the very beginning the face of the Unity and Progress Committee, and they were not then recognized by British Freemasons. . The first "Supreme Council" of Turkey, appointed in 1909, contained three Jews - Caronry, Cohen and Fari, and three Dönme - Djavidaso, Kibarasso and Osman Talaat (the main leader and organizer of the Armenian genocide - author's note)."
To be continued…
Alexander Nikishin for
