ISTANBUL INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT MEDIA FORUM
Bianet
cs/3384-armenian-deportation
14 August 2009, Friday
Armenian Deportation
The official decision for DEPORTATION (Exile) was taken in May 27th
of 1915. The Ottoman government had decided to force a number of its
subjects, depriving them of their possessions and property, to exile
to hundreds of kilometers away to Deyr-uz Zor.
Tayfun MATER Istanbul – .17 Ocak 2002, Perþembe Armenians are a
group of people who have historically lived in the East, Southeast and
Central Anatolia and in the present Armenia. The Armenian Civilization,
which rose out of the remains of the Errata Kingdom in the 500s (BC),
reached the peek of its power in the 50s (BC). During the following
centuries, the Armenians were caught in between the rivalries among
the great empires.
Armenians, following their conveersion to Christianity in 300 BC,
fell under the Byzantium rule. Later, in 653 they fell under the
Arab rule. They were faced with the invasions of Turks in the 11th
century, and of Mongols in the 13th century; in the 16th and 17th
centuries Armenians were successively trapped between the Ottoman
and Iranian rule.
The Armenian rebellions in the Ottoman land started at the end of the
18th century in the Kucukdaglik village Zeytun of Maras (a southern
city of present Turkey). These rebellions, which interruptedly
continued until 1915, comprised a vital element in the Armenian
national movement. The Russian expansion into the Caucasus during
19th century, and the "Enlightenment" in Europe and the revival of
the Armenian culture, may be listed among the factors that invigorated
the Armenian National Movement.
The "ARMENIAN PROBLEM" was for the first time recognized in the
international arena with the Ayastefanos Agreement that was signed
after the 1877-78 Ottoman-Russian War. This agreement was handing
the control of the Ottoman Armenia over to Russia, though it proved
abortive.
Revolutionary organizations emerged in 1887 such as the Marxist-
centralist Hinchaq (Bell), and in 1908 nationalist- socialist
Tashnaq (Alliance) committees were founded. These committees,
which in the future would grow into political parties, schemes of
merger for broader political regrouping remained unsuccesful. Some
major actions organized by these committees organized between 1890
and 1905 were: 1. Erzurum (a town in present eastern Turkey) Event
(June 1890) 2. Kumkapi (a district in Istanbul) Demonstration (July
1890) 3. Merzifon, Kayseri, Yozgat (towns in present central Turkey)
Events (1892-93) 4. First Sasun Rebellion (August 1894) 5. Bab-ý
Ali (a section of Istanbul with publishing houses) Demonstration
(September 1895) 6. Zeytun Rebellion (November 1895) 7. Van (a town
in present eastern Turkey) Rebellion (June 1896) 8. Attack at the
Ottoman Bank (August 1896) 9. Second Sasun Rebellion (April 1904)
10.A bomb attack at Abdulhamit, at Yýldýz (a district of Istanbul)
(July 1905) The committees acted together with the Committee of
Union and Progress (Ittihad ve Terakki) for a while. Following the
declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy in Istanbul in 1908, they
gained legal recognition. Even though these committees declared that
they would only engage in political activities, the events in Adana
(a town in present southern Turkey) in March 1909 dampened the spirit
of peace and they parted ways with the Ittihad ve Terakki.
The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) freed itself from Abdulhamit
with the March 31st Rebellion. The Committee condoned the murder of the
Grand Vizier Mahmut Sevket Pasha, and used this murder as an excuse to
attack the opposition. Now, reporters were being killed on the Galata
Bridge (in Istanbul), oppositional intellectuals were being exiled to
Sinop (a town in present northern Turkey), and the Ottoman Empire was
starting to head towards its collapse under the dictatorship of one
party. With almost no written documents and along with the deception of
"shall head to TURAN", Teskilat-I Mahsusa (Special Organization) was
being founded. This criminal organization has survived up till today
as counter guerilla and as the Susurluk gang. The Susurluk incident
is named after a car accident that occurred in November 1996, close
to Susurluk (a town in western Turkey). In the car there was a famous
ultra nationalist, a parliamentarian and a police officer. The close
relations am!
ong the three brought to light the concept of "deep state", which
up till today has constituted a serious issue of worry, debate and
research in Turkey.
While the I. World War bells were ringing in Europe, Tasnak Party held
a congress in August 2-14, 1914, in Erzurum. The CUP sent a delegation
to the congress. The delegation made a proposition of alliance to the
Armenians against Russia, in case of a possible warfare. The delegation
further proposed an autonomous Armenian administration. Armenian
leaders preferred to have a policy of neutrality.
The Russian Armenians, who received a similar proposal from
Russia, accepted this offer and started to build their volunteer
groups. Even though they were only some 4-5 thousand people, these
groups would become the pretext of the Ottoman government’s deportation
policy. With the start of the war, Eastern Anatolia fell into a serious
chaos. Armenians ran away from the army and put up a resistance. The
Special Organization troupes along with the Hamidiye troupes composing
of Kurds, busted and burned down villages, under the pretext of chasing
the runaways. These were the first indicators of the deportation.
Following the rebellion of the Armenian people of Van (a town in
present eastern Turkey) in April 1915, the Armenian intellectuals
in Istanbul were arrested, on April 24th , and were sent off to
Ankara. Nothing further was heard from these some 700 people. The
MASSACRE had gone into effect. Interior Minister Talat Pasha was
its executioner.
The official decision for the DEPORTATION (Exile) was made on May
27th 1915. The government was prevalently sending a part of its
subjects, depriving them of their possessions and properties, to
exile to hundreds of kilometers away to the Iraqi deserts, to Devr-uz
Zor. These subjects were the civilians, children and old people,
who were supposedly under the responsibility and protection of the
government. The Special Organization troupes, which were composed
of convicts released from the jails, were attacking and plundering
the convoys and were killing people. As a result of dehydration and
hunger and diseases, death was awaiting those who reached the deserts.
It is yet to be found out how many people died due to the
deportation. The official historians of the Turkish Republic claim
that the number of deaths was 300,000. There are foreign resources
that increase this number to 1 million. Germany, who was the ally
of the Ottoman government at the time, was silently supporting
the deportation. On August 31st 1916, Talat Pasha, addressing the
representative of the German Embassy, said, "There is no Armenian
problem."
In 1919, the Istanbul Court of Martial Law, by default, tried those
people who were responsible of the deportation. The half of the
10-12 people accountable for the deportation was in various European
countries and in Russia. They ended up being killed by the Armenian
Committee members. The rest faced capital punishment in 1926, issued
by the Istiklal Court, following the attempt to assassinate Mustafa
Kemal (the founder of present Turkish Republic) in Izmir (a town in
present western Turkey).