The Organizers of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The Armenian Genocide in Turkey: A Brief Historical Review

Nikolai Troitsky, political observer for RIA Novosti.

Saturday, April 24 is the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. This year marks the 95th anniversary of the start of this bloody massacre and terrible crime - the mass extermination of people along ethnic lines. As a result, from one to one and a half million people were destroyed.

Unfortunately, this was not the first and far from the last case of genocide in recent history. In the twentieth century, humanity seemed to have decided to return to the darkest times. In enlightened, civilized countries, medieval savagery and fanaticism suddenly revived - torture, reprisals against the relatives of convicts, forcible deportation and the wholesale murder of entire peoples or social groups.

But even against this gloomy background, two of the most monstrous atrocities stand out - the methodical extermination of Jews by the Nazis, called the Holocaust, in 1943-45 and the Armenian genocide, staged in 1915.

In that year, the Ottoman Empire was effectively ruled by the Young Turks, a group of officers who overthrew the Sultan and introduced liberal reforms in the country. With the outbreak of the First World War, all power was concentrated in their hands by the triumvirate - Enver Pasha, Talaat Pasha and Jemal Pasha. It was they who staged the act of genocide. But they did not do this because of sadism or innate ferocity. There were reasons and prerequisites for the crime.

Armenians have lived in Ottoman territory for centuries. On the one hand, they were subjected to certain religious discrimination, as Christians. On the other hand, for the most part, they were distinguished by wealth, or at least prosperity, because they were engaged in trade and finance. That is, they played approximately the same role as the Jews in Western Europe, without whom the economy could not function, but who at the same time regularly fell under pogroms and deportations.

The fragile balance was disturbed in the 80s-90s of the 19th century, when underground political organizations of a nationalist and revolutionary nature were formed in the Armenian environment. The most radical was the Dashnaktsutyun party, a local analogue of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionaries, moreover, the Socialist-Revolutionaries of the very left wing.

They set as their goal the creation of an independent state on the territory of Ottoman Turkey, and the methods for achieving this goal were simple and effective: the seizure of banks, the murder of officials, explosions and similar terrorist attacks.

It is clear how the government reacted to such actions. But the situation was aggravated by the national factor, and the entire Armenian population had to answer for the actions of the Dashnak militants - they called themselves fedayins. In different parts of the Ottoman Empire, unrest broke out every now and then, which ended in pogroms and massacres of Armenians.

The situation escalated even more in 1914, when Turkey became an ally of Germany and declared war on Russia, which the local Armenians naturally sympathized with. The government of the Young Turks declared them a "fifth column", and therefore it was decided to deport them all to hard-to-reach mountainous areas.

One can imagine what the mass migration of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly women, the elderly and children, is like, since the men were drafted into the active army. Many died from deprivation, others were killed, there was an outright massacre, mass executions were carried out.

After the end of the First World War, a special commission from Great Britain and the United States was engaged in the investigation of the Armenian genocide. Here is just one brief episode from the testimony of eyewitnesses of the tragedy who miraculously survived:
“Approximately two thousand Armenians were gathered and surrounded by the Turks, they were doused with gasoline and set on fire. I, myself, was in another church that they tried to set on fire, and my father thought it was the end of his family.

He gathered us around... and said something I will never forget: don't be afraid, my children, because soon we will all be in heaven together. But fortunately, someone discovered the secret tunnels... through which we escaped."

The exact number of victims was never officially counted, but at least a million people died. More than 300 thousand Armenians took refuge in the territory of the Russian Empire, as Nicholas II ordered the borders to be opened.

Even if the killings were not officially sanctioned by the ruling triumvirate, they are still responsible for these crimes. In 1919, all three were sentenced to death in absentia, as they managed to escape, but then they were killed one by one by avenging militants from radical Armenian organizations.

Enver Pasha and his comrades were convicted of war crimes by the Allies from the Entente with the full consent of the government of the new Turkey, which was headed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He began to build a secular authoritarian state, the ideology of which was radically different from the ideas of the Young Turks, but many organizers and perpetrators of the massacre came to his service. And the territory of the Turkish Republic by that time was almost completely cleared of Armenians.

Therefore, Ataturk, although he personally had nothing to do with the "final solution of the Armenian question", categorically refused to acknowledge the accusations of genocide. In Turkey, the precepts of the Father of the Nation are sacredly honored - this is the translation of the surname that the first president took for himself - and they still firmly stand on the same positions. The Armenian Genocide is not only denied, but a Turkish citizen can get a prison term for its public recognition. What happened recently, for example, with the world-famous writer, Nobel Prize winner in literature Orhan Pamuk, who was released from the dungeons only under pressure from the international community.

At the same time, some European countries provide for criminal punishment for the denial of the Armenian genocide. However, only 18 countries, including Russia, officially recognized and condemned this crime of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkish diplomacy reacts to this in different ways. Since Ankara dreams of joining the EU, they pretend that they do not notice the "anti-genocide" resolutions of the states from the European Union. Turkey does not want to spoil relations with Russia because of this. However, any attempt to introduce the issue of recognition of the genocide by the US Congress is immediately rebuffed.

It is difficult to say why the government of modern Turkey stubbornly refuses to recognize the crimes of 95 years ago, committed by the leaders of the perishing Ottoman monarchy. Armenian political scientists believe that Ankara is afraid of subsequent demands for material, and even territorial compensation. In any case, if Turkey really wants to become a full part of Europe, these old crimes will have to be recognized.

In 1453, Constantinople fell, heralding the beginning of the history of the Ottoman Empire (formerly the Ottoman state), which was destined to become the author of one of the most terrible atrocities in the history of mankind.

1915 - a symbol of human cruelty

Throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire, Armenians lived in the east of the country, who considered this land their home and historical homeland. However, the Muslim state treated them differently.

Being both a national and a religious minority, the Armenians were perceived as “second-class citizens”. Their rights were not only not protected, but the authorities themselves contributed in every possible way to the oppression of the Armenian population. The situation escalated sharply after the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878.

The defeated empire did not accept the conditions dictated to it, turning all its anger on the Christians living on its territory. It is no coincidence that Muslims expelled from the Caucasus and the Balkan countries were settled next to them. The close proximity of people of different faiths and cultures often led to serious conflicts.

Raids on Christian villages have become commonplace. The government just watched. The beginning of the protests of the Armenians became another reason for mass arrests and killings. But that was only the beginning. Approached 1915 which has become a symbol of human cruelty and indifference, a year painted with a scarlet helmet of blood of millions of innocent victims.

Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire

April 24, 1915- this date has become a symbol of Great Sorrow, grief for lost lives and ruined destinies. On this day, a whole nation was beheaded, striving only for a peaceful life in the land of their ancestors.

It was on this day that the arrests of the most prominent political and public figures of the Armenian elite began in Constantinople (Istanbul). Politicians, writers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, musicians were arrested - everyone who could lead the people, become its leader on the path to resistance.

By the end of May, more than 800 of the most influential Armenians were completely isolated from society, and few of them returned alive. Then it was the turn of civilians. Raids on Armenian settlements became more frequent and more merciless. Women, old people, children - the sword in the hands of the "punishers" embittered and incited by the authorities did not spare anyone. And even there was no one to protect their home, because the men were called up to serve in the army of a country that only wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible. The surviving people were gathered into groups and, under the pretext of protection from enemy invasions, "relocated".

How many people were left on the road, and how many of them, driven by sword and whip through the endless and barren expanses of Der Zor, reached their destination where their slow death awaited? They don't have an account. The scale of the operation conceived by the authorities to destroy an entire people under the guise of war was truly enormous.

Armenian Genocide was prepared even before the war, and its beginning became a lever for launching a merciless "death machine".

Back in February 1914, a boycott of Armenian enterprises began, followed by the collection of property “for the army” and demobilization. In January 1915, the Turkish army was defeated in the battle of Sarikamish and retreated. Rumors began to circulate that the success of the Russian army was largely due to the voluntary assistance of Armenians.

The retreating army unleashed its wrath on the local Christians: Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks. Raids on settlements, massacres and deportations continued until the end of the First World War, but in fact, the genocide continued after the capitulation of Turkey and the overthrow of the Young Turks.

The new government condemned the actions of the previous one, the main organizers of the crimes fell under the tribunal. But even sentenced to death, many of them escaped punishment by fleeing a country where, in fact, they did not want to condemn them. All investigations of crimes committed under the guise of hostilities pursued only one goal: to reassure the world community, which, despite the attempts of the Turkish authorities to hide the true state of affairs in the country, already knew what really happened.

Largely thanks to the courage of the ambassadors and public figures of European countries, the world learned about the greatest atrocity of the early 20th century. The advanced public demanded punishment for criminals.

But the real punishment came from the victims themselves. In October 1919, at the initiative of Shaan Natali, an activist of the Dashnaktsutyun party, a decision was made to organize a punitive operation "Nemesis". As part of this operation, Taleat Pasha, Dzhemal Pasha, Said Halim and others who fled from justice criminals.

But the operation itself became a symbol of retribution. Soghomon Tehlirian, who lost his entire family during the genocide, on March 15, 1921, in the Charlottenburg region, shot dead a man who had taken away his house and relatives Taleat Pasha. And right in the courtroom, Tehlirian was acquitted. The world did not recognize the guilt of a man who avenged the crippled fate of an entire nation.

Genocide of 1915- everlasting memory !

But, despite numerous condemnations, the world is still not ready to completely free itself from the shackles and let into its home all the bitterness of one of the greatest atrocities in the history of mankind.

Countries such as France, Belgium, Argentina, Russia, Uruguay have recognized and condemned the Armenian genocide on the territory of the Ottoman Empire. But one of the most important players in the world political arena, the United States, continues to bypass such an important topic, speculating on it to influence modern Turkey (so far, only a few states have recognized the Armenian genocide).

And, most importantly, the fact of the genocide is denied by the Turkish state itself, the successor of the Ottoman Empire. But the facts cannot be changed, history cannot be rewritten, and the 1,500,000 voices of innocent victims will never be silenced. Sooner or later, the world will bow to history, because despite Hitler’s words that marked the beginning of the Holocaust (“And who now remembers the destruction of the Armenians”), in fact, “nothing is forgotten, no one is forgotten.”

Every year on April 24, Armenians will rise to the height of Tsitsernakaberd, bringing with them fresh flowers as a tribute to the victims of the “great atrocity” and the eternal fire of torches will burn in the hands of a new generation.

Nikolai Troitsky, political observer for RIA Novosti.

If the Law does not work, and the state does not fulfill its duties, then the duty of citizens is to take justice into their own hands.
Ch.Lynch

The trial of V. Kaloev, who killed an air traffic controller in Switzerland, due to whose negligence the Kaloev family died, once again raised the age-old legal question: does an ordinary citizen have the right to revenge against notorious criminals?

We will not touch on the purely legal side of this problem. Let us just recall how, without any international tribunals and trials, justice overtook the organizers of the first genocide in the 20th century.

1915 was not only the second year of the First World War. 90 years ago, there was a genocide of an entire nation. The so-called Young Turks who ruled the Ottoman Empire organized a brutal massacre of the Armenians living under Turkish rule, aiming at their complete destruction.

Recall that at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Armenians did not have their own statehood for several centuries and were a divided people. The eastern part of historical Armenia became part of Russia in 1828, which was the salvation of the Armenians as a nation. In the Russian Empire, the Armenians were able to freely develop their culture and achieved economic prosperity. Many Russian Armenians have made a brilliant career, giving Russia many military leaders, administrators, economic leaders, artists, and scientists. Both in the Russian Empire and in the USSR, the Armenians were very abundantly represented in the political, economic and cultural elite. (However, you can’t erase the words from the song. Many revolutionaries also came out of the ranks of the Armenians, and at the end of the Soviet era, it was the Armenian movement in Karabakh that became the bomb that blew up the USSR).

But Russian eastern Armenia was only 1/10 of the territory of historical Armenia. Most of the Armenian lands are still part of Turkey. 90 years ago, most of the Armenian people also lived there. But now there are no Armenians in these lands. For many years, the Turks very creatively "worked" to clear these lands from the indigenous people. Armenian pogroms took place many times over a number of centuries. Only in 1894-96. At least 200,000 Armenians were killed by the Turks. Fleeing from Turkish captivity, hundreds of thousands of Armenians fled to Russia. Interestingly, in 1828, only 107 thousand people lived on the lands of eastern Armenia annexed to Russia. But by 1914, there were already 2 million Armenians in the Russian Empire. It is clear that the main reason for such a rapid growth was the mass immigration of Armenians from the Ottoman Empire. However, despite the departure to Russia and other countries, the assimilation of part of the Armenians who converted to Islam and turned into "Turks", as well as the death of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in periodic pogroms, by the beginning of World War I, over 4.5 million lived in Turkish Western Armenia. Armenians.

The situation of the Turkish Armenians worsened especially when the Young Turks seized power in the Ottoman Empire. So they called themselves not because of their youth, but because among them there really were enough "new Turks" from among those who converted to Islam, people from various ethnic and religious groups. There were especially many crypto-Jews among the Young Turks. The Young Turks were led by three military men: Talaat Pasha, Enver Pasha and Jemal Pasha. The Young Turks' party was called "Ittihad ve Terraki" ("Unity and Progress"), and the official ideology of the party was Pan-Turkism, or the "Great Turan" theory, which proclaimed the need to unite all Turkic tribes in one empire from Bosnia to Altai.

The Armenians aroused particular hatred among the Young Turks by the fact that the western Armenia inhabited by them separated purely Turkish regions from Azerbaijan and the places of settlement of other Turkic tribes. In addition, enterprising Armenian merchants, even under Turkish oppression, managed to take over a significant part of the finances of the Ottoman Empire. And, what was most important for the Young Turks, Armenians have always been distinguished by pro-Russian sympathies, and the Young Turks rightly feared a general uprising in Western Armenia.

And so, in the conditions of the outbreak of war, on April 24, 1915, by order of the Young Turkish triumvirate, Turkish regular waxes, police, gangs of marauders and Muslim fanatics began a grandiose massacre of Armenians throughout the Ottoman Empire. Within a few months, up to 2.5 million Armenians died, a few managed to escape, the bulk of the survivors were thrown into concentration camps in the Arabian deserts, where most of them died of starvation and epidemics. Several hundred thousand Armenians were saved by the offensive of the Russian army on the Caucasian front, launched by the command specifically with the aim of saving Christians. However, after 1915 there were no Armenians left in the former Western Armenia.

Soon, Eastern Armenia also suffered severe trials. After the revolution, the Russian Empire collapsed. In Azerbaijan, the pan-Turkists from the Musavat party who seized power immediately began the massacre of Armenians. The Georgian Mensheviks did the same. Turkish troops continued to finish off the Armenians not only at home, but also launched an offensive into eastern Armenia, continuing to develop their plan of genocide. On a small patch of Eastern Armenia, famine and disease raged, which claimed the lives of a third of the population, but the Armenians managed to defeat the Turks, Azerbaijanis and Georgians. In November 1920, the Red Army occupied eastern Armenia almost without resistance, and the Armenian Soviet Republic was created.

In total for 1915-1920. half of all Armenians died, Western Armenia was left without an indigenous population, in Soviet Armenia a third of all men were war invalids, over a million Armenian refugees scattered around the world.

The Armenian refugees were split into many parties, but all Armenians were unanimous that the Young Turk leaders should be destroyed. But not a single government in the world was going to help the Armenians. USSR, where many Armenians were part of the party and state leadership of the country, in the 20s. had close friendly ties with Turkey. The Entente countries were occupied with the division of the Ottoman Empire, and they had no time for some Armenians there. The "world progressive public" then was as venal as it is today. The genocide of the Armenian people was not noticed by her. Subsequently, Hitler, preparing genocide against other peoples, cynically, but rightly remarked: "who knows about the Armenians these days"?

But even in such conditions, the Armenians decided to carry out justice. Shagen Natalie (it was a pseudonym in honor of the beloved woman) and Grigory Merchanov took up revenge. A list of organizers and main perpetrators of the genocide was compiled. The preparatory work began: the pursuit, the collection of information, the extraction of weapons. And then came the fast and right judgment:
- Talaat Pasha was shot in Berlin on March 16, 1921 by Soghomon Tehlirian (by the way, the jury completely acquitted him);
- Enver Pasha was killed in 1922 in Turkestan by the red commander Akop Melkumov;
- Jemal Pasha was killed in Tiflis on June 25, 1922, the avengers were Stepan Tsakhikyan and Petros Ter-Poghosyan;
- Beibut Khan Jevanshin (Minister of Internal Affairs of Musavatist Azerbaijan) was killed on June 18, 1921 in Constantinople by Misak Torlakyan;
- Said Halim Pasha (former Prime Minister of Turkey) was assassinated in Berlin on December 5, 1921 by Arshavir Shirokyan;
- Shekir Bey (former head of the special commission for organizing the massacre of Armenians) was killed on April 17, 1922 by Aram Yerkyan.

The "black list" of the perpetrators of the genocide also included several Armenian traitors. All of them were killed by their relatives (brothers, fathers, nephews). This was done on purpose so as not to cause blood feud among the Armenians themselves.

In just three years, all the organizers of the genocide were executed. Along the way, several thousand more participants in the massacre of a lower rank were liquidated. No one escaped retribution!

This is how the poor emigrants, who survived the massacre, lost their homeland, divided into dozens of parties, took on the role of judges and delivered justice. Here is a historical example that history gives us.
Sergei Viktorovich Lebedev, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor (St. Petersburg)

Translation from Armenian

1. The Persian Meshali Haji Ibrahim narrated the following:

“In May 1915, the governor of Tahsin Bey summoned Amvanli Eyyub-ogly Gadyr’s chetebashi to him and, showing him the order received from Constantinople, said: “I entrust the local Armenians to you, bring them unharmed to Kemakh, there they will be attacked by the Kurds and other. You will pretend that you want to protect them, you will even use weapons against the attackers once or twice, but, in the end, you will show that you cannot cope with them, you will leave and return. After a little thought, Gadir said: “You order me to take the sheep and lambs tied hand and foot to the slaughterhouse; this is cruelty not befitting me; I am a soldier, send me against the enemy, let him either hit me with a bullet, and I will fall bravely, or I will hit him and save my country, and I will never agree to stain my hands in the blood of innocents. The governor strongly insisted that he carry out the order, but the generous Gadyr flatly refused. Then the governor summoned Mirza-bek Veranshekherli and made him the above proposal. This one also claimed that there was no need to kill. Already in such conditions, he said, you put the Armenians that they themselves will die on the way, and Mesopotamia is such a hot country that they will not stand it, they will die. But the governor insisted on his own, and Mirza accepted the offer. Mirza fully fulfilled his cruel obligation. Four months later he returned to Erzurum with 360,000 lire; He gave 90 thousand to Tahsin, 90 thousand to the corps commander Mahmud Kamil, 90 thousand to the defterdar, and the rest to the meherdar, Seifulla and accomplices. However, when dividing this booty, a dispute arose between them, and the governor arrested Mirza. And Mirza threatened to make such revelations that the world would be surprised; Then he was released." Eyub-ogly Gadyr and Mirza Veranshekherli personally told this story to the Persian Mashadi Haji Ibrahim.

2. Persian camel driver Kerbalai Ali-Memed told the following: “I was transporting ammunition from Erzincan to Erzurum. One day in June 1915, when I drove up to the Khotursky bridge, a stunning sight appeared before my eyes. A myriad of human corpses filled the 12 spans of the large bridge, damming the river so that it changed course and ran past the bridge. It was terrible to watch; I stood with my caravan for a long time until these corpses floated by and I was able to cross the bridge. But from the bridge to Ginis, the whole road was littered with the corpses of old people, women and children, which were already decomposed, swollen and stinking. The stench was so terrible that it was impossible to pass along the road; my two cameleers fell ill and died from this stench, and I was forced to change my way. These were the victims and traces of an unheard-of and terrible atrocity. And all these were the corpses of Armenians, unfortunate Armenians.”

3. Alaftar Ibrahim-efendi told the following: “A very tough and urgent order was received on the eviction of Armenians from Constantinople with the following content: to cut without mercy all men from 14 to 65 years of age, do not touch children, the elderly and women, but leave and convert into Mohammedanism."

TsGIA Arm, SSR, f. 57, op. 1, e, 632, f. 17-18.

on "The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire", edited by M.G. Nersisyan, M.1982, pp.311-313

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1915 - a symbol of human cruelty

Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire

Genocide of 1915- everlasting memory !

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