Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
March 14 2005
The Armenian Emigration Began with a Revolt
Hasan Pulur
(Source: Milliyet via BYEGM, 14 March 2005)
`There is an Armenian issue, nobody can deny it. But I’ll try to
explain what lies behind the issue. As Russian forces made up of
volunteer Russians and Ottoman Armenians entered Ottoman soil,
Armenians serving in the Ottoman Army deserted to the Russians or
formed guerilla bands using weapons hidden in Armenian churches and
schools. Since all the men in Turkish towns and villages went to war
on the western front, the Armenian guerillas started a massacre of
civilian Turks in the region. They interfered in the operations of
the Ottoman troops, cut their lines of reinforcement, and made the
Russian invasion easier by starting revolts in the cities.
In April 1915, following the Russian decision to launch an offensive
on the eastern city of Van, the Armenians started a revolt so the
city would be easy pickings for Russia. On April 21, 1915 Russian
Tsar Nicolas I sent a telegraph expressing his thanks to the Armenian
community for their assistance to Russian troops in Van. The Armenian
daily Gocnak, published in the US, proudly wrote in its issue of May
24, 1915 that there were only 1,500 Turks left in the city.
While these developments occurred in eastern Anatolia, the British
and French fleet arrived at the Dardanelles and British troops
attacked in Iraq. The Armenian emigration began after these
developments.
Bogos Nubar, an Armenian representative attending the Lausanne Peace
Conference, said that there were about 300,000 Armenians in Turkey
and that 700,000 had migrated to other countries. There could have
been deaths during their revolts or emigration, but the claim that 1
million Armenians were killed is sheer nonsense.’