ARMENOCIDE: HISTORICAL PRECEDENT OF THE CLASH OF THE CIVILIZATIONS
Levon Shirinyan
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22 April 2010
"Armenia is a vanguard of Europe in Asia" formula, which was offered
long ago, correctly defines the place of the Armenian people in
our world.
The historical mission of the Armenian nation, prompted by the whole
course of its development, is to seek and find the synthesis of the
East and West".
Valeriy Brusov
In this article the Armenocide is presented against the background
of the clash of the civilizations. The reference to the assessments
of the Armenian Genocide as a grave crime against "the humanity
and civilization" (24 May, 1915), as Holocost (1918), are made. The
essence of the Turkish (Ottoman, Kemalist) strategy of carrying out
and denial of the Genocide is defined.
In our days it is popular to speak about the dialogue of the
civilizations but one should not forget about the incompatibility
of the cultures and civilizations which often causes conflicts with
tragic consequences.
One of such facts is the Armenocide among many causes of which the
cultural factor was also present. In fact it was a consequence of
the long-term ethnic conflict between Christian Armenians and Sunni
Turks from the Balkans to Anatolia and the Caucasus. Being unable to
absorb the alien culture, the nationalist Turkish top headed for its
annihilation and eradication.
So, on April 24, 1915 in Western Armenia, Armenian Cilicia and the
other regions of the Ottoman Empire, by the decision of the government
of the country and on the will of the Turkish people the events took
place which were aimed to the final solution of the Armenian Question,
i.e. the total extermination of the disarmed and defenceless people,
the events which were characterized in the May 24, 1915 Declaration
of the ally powers – Russia, Great Britain and France, as a crime
"before humanity and civilization".
The actions of the Turks were premeditated and planned in details,
their aim was clear: "to exterminate the entire nation" fully, once
and forever and to put an end to the very name of "Armenia", to wipe
its civilization from the face of the earth, to turn Western Armenia
in logical absurdity – "Eastern Anatolia", to appropriate its culture
[1], to cease through the pillage and violence huge material wealth
of the Armenians of the Empire1.
The perverted Turkish mind had nurtured that evil deed for decades
and began from the deliberate change of the place names of the
country and the distortion of the demography. In 1862 the fundamental
re-organization of the provinces was carried out. Consequently, the
province "Ermenistan eyalet" was divided into Erzurum, Bitlis and Van
provinces and to each of them, in order to change the demography; the
districts with Muslim population were added "by crooked, artificially
drawn boundaries". Then, in 1878, two years after the Berlin congress,
in order to reduce the specific weight of the native population,
in Western Armenia new administrative and territorial divisions were
made. And in 1880s the usage of word "Hayastan" (Armenia) was banned.
Until a certain time such actions were aimed to dissolve the Armenians
living on their native land in the alien environment, among the rabble
of different tribes called "the Muslims".
The cause for "adjustment" of the Turkish stance on that issue was
the evident economic and civilizational upturn of the Armenians
which had begun since the middle of the 19th century. English priest
B. Barail mentioned that the adoption of the National Constitution
of the Western Armenians (1860) "marked the revolution in the habits
and customs of the East". That is why, "soon Armenians turned into
a suspicious element both for Turkey and for Russia, and since that
day they have had no restful life".
Indeed the well-known Turkish envy and bile played an exceptional role
in the preparation of ethno-psychological ground for the Armenocide
[3]. The "main argument" was the irrepressible desire of the Turks to
"appropriate" the motherland of the Armenians – Armenia, to take it
away from its legal proprietors. The general extermination of the
Armenian population was clearly shown: in Turkey sultans and rulers,
their political affiliation, sex, religion or nationality may change
but their main aim was the annihilation of Armenia.
And during the collaboration of Lenin and Ataturk the prospects of the
real annihilation of Armenia were clearly outlined and the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Kemalist Turkey Ahmed Mukhtar "explained" to
the commander of the east front Kazim Karabekir (now they spoke about
Eastern Armenia): "Armenia is situated at the vast Muslim territories
(can you imagine that?) and, that’s why, it should be exterminated
both politically and physically. It should be taken into consideration
that the general political situation and our power favour to the
realization of that plan [4]".
It should be mentioned that the plan of extermination of Armenia was
formulated and began to be implemented by Abdul Hamid. His associates
and followers, up to Kemal, simply continued the things he started.
The process of stabilization and integration of the Empire, which
was bulging at the seams under the pressure of the European powers
(the policy of the great powers, the national-liberating movements),
was "directed" by Hamid to the east. His aim was to gain access to
Western Arabia, Muslim shrines and Armenia [5]. The Balkan wars made
his intentions firmer. "I will not regret about losing the Balkans
which suck our powers dry", said Abdul Hamid. "We want to stay in
Anatolia and live separately", stated the "the bloody sultan" [6].
Hamid’s idea was welcomed in Europe. In this aspect the address of
Baron Hans von Wangenheim, to the central committee of "Ittihata"
(at the eve of the 1914 war), the "proclaimer" of German
national-socialism, is rather conspicuous: "The alliance with
Bulgaria is advantageous for you. It is necessary to get access
to Berlin-Istanbul line, to arm the Straits, deprive Russia of the
help from abroad and to crush it with joint efforts. Giving to you
the Caucasus we want to open to you the access to Turan. You have to
destroy the element which is in the way of Turkey’s unity (Armenians –
L. Sh.), and then to seize Persia…" [7].
Thus, in 1914 the German ambassador spoke about the things which two
years before had been foreseen by the great Armenian poet Hovhannes
Tumanyan (…Armenian Question is one of Turkey’s headaches and
with the apse of time it will get even stronger till the Turks are
retreating to this lands"). And the European powers all together
squeezed out from the Old World civilizationaly alien element –
the Medieval Turkish janissary. They directed him to the East. And
on that way Armenia lay. And that was the reason why the help of the
Christian Europe to the biblical country, the "cradle of civilization"
(David Leng) – Armenia, was temperate.
Meanwhile, the Turk who was out for blood obtained appropriate tactics
and carried it out in three stages:
1. 1876-1915 – the local but tending to broadening and development
policy of the deportation of the Armenians, their forcible Islamization
and killings.
2. 1915-1918 – the comprehensive process of the final solution of
the Armenian Question. The Turks did not succeed partially due to
the resistance of the rest of the Armenians (solders and officers
of the voluntary regiments tried and tasted in many battles;
almost eight-month-long fights of the Armenian detachments from
Erznka (Erzindjan) to Sardarapat and Baku, the breakthrough of the
Syrian-Palestine front by the "Armenian Legion" on September 19,
1918), and partially due to the international situation.
3. 1919-1923 – on the one hand the Kemalist policy of annihilation
of the Greeks, continuation of the unfinished Armenocide in Eastern
Armenian and Transcaucasia and seizing of the new lands, and on the
other hand the denial of the fault and responsibility of the Turkish
state and nation.
Henceforth, according to the plan of the Genocidal Turkish state,
"the purpose was to try to achieve the acceptance of the factual
situation by the Armenians. They had to make Armenians refuse from
the territorial claims in exchange for the recognition of their
diminutive state (i.e. the 1918 Republic of Armenia- L. Sh.). Thus,
the almost full debellation and annexing could be presented as a
cession – the volunteer concession of the territory and the Genocide
of the Armenian population of those districts as regrettable events
of the past" (Yu. Barsegov) [8].
Nevertheless, the Genocide caused the issue of the responsibility of
Turkey and Turks:
a) the criminal penalty of the physical persons who elaborated and
carried out this shocking crime. They carried punishment only partly
(operation "Nemesis", Armenian Nurnberg, which was implemented under
the active resistance of the Soviet government);
b) the political responsibility of the Turkish state and the creation
of Armenia in accordance with the arbitral decision of Woodrow Wilson);
c) material responsibility in the form of restitution (the restoration
of the rights of the Armenians, the return of the forcibly taken
property and etc.) [9].
It is clear that the further struggle of the Armenians will be mostly
conditioned by the second and the third points. This will bring to
the liquidation of the effects of the first Genocide in the world –
Armenocide [10] and once and for all will avert the repetition of
such crimes.
The words of Woodrow Wilson, which sound like a precept are remarkable
"Armenia should get all it is historically eligible for. It has more
rights to live than Turkey… Sooner or later Turkey will face the
tribunal and give an account and then it will be demanded to return
all it had robbed to the real owner" [11].
1The general cost of the pillige by the Turks in the years of the
Genocide was about $5 billion in gold. A part of that wealth was
pocketed by the robbers and top, while the "lion’s share" was used
for the necessity of the Kemalist movement, particularlly, for the
war against Eastern Armenia.