§ 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 an outstanding leader of the liberation movement, 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 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 penalty Thaleat (Prime Minister), Enver (Minister of War), Dzhemal (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 the "Armenian Question" no longer exists, since there are no more Armenians, and that he did more in three months to resolve the "Armenian Question" than Sultan Abdul-Hamid did 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. These same sources in French translation were published in Paris at the expense of the famous 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 scientific research 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 century and the beginning of the 20th century were also marked by further development 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 painted 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
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 informed 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 elder 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:
"Spanish Jew by birth, orthodox Muslim by birth, trained at a German military college, patriot who 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 language and published as Thessaloniki, it says:
“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
In 1915, 2 million Armenians lived in the weakened Ottoman Empire. But under the cover of World War I, the Turkish government systematically massacred 1.5 million people in an attempt to unite the entire Turkish people, creating a new empire with one language and one religion.
The ethnic cleansing of Armenians and other minorities, including Assyrians, Pontic and Anatolian Greeks, is today known as the Armenian Genocide.
Despite pressure from Armenians and activists around the world, Turkey still refuses to recognize the genocide, saying there was no intentional killing of Armenians.
History of the region
Armenians have lived in the southern Caucasus since the 7th century BC and fought for control over other groups such as the Mongolian, Russian, Turkish and Persian Empire. In the 4th century, the reigning king of Armenia became a Christian. He argued that the official religion of the empire was Christianity, although in the 7th century AD, all the countries surrounding Armenia were Muslim. Armenians continued to practice Christians despite being conquered many times and forced to live under harsh rule.
The roots of the genocide lie in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. At the turn of the 20th century, the once-widespread Ottoman Empire was crumbling around the edges. The Ottoman Empire lost all of its territory in Europe during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, creating instability among the nationalist ethnic groups.
First massacre
At the turn of the century, tensions grew between the Armenians and the Turkish authorities. Sultan Abdel Hamid II, known as the "Bloody Sultan", told a reporter in 1890, "I will give them a box on their ear that will make them give up their revolutionary ambitions."
In 1894, the "box on the ear" massacre was the first of the Armenian massacres. Military and civilians of the Ottoman troops attacked Armenian villages in Eastern Anatolia, resulting in the death of 8 thousand Armenians, including children. A year later, 2,500 Armenian women were burned in the Urfa Cathedral. Around the same time, a group of 5,000 people were killed after demonstrations asking for international intervention to prevent massacres in Constantinople. Historians estimate that more than 80,000 Armenians died by 1896.
Rise of young Turks
In 1909, the Ottoman sultan was overthrown by a new political group, the Young Turks, a group seeking a modern, Westernized style of government. At first, the Armenians hoped that they would have a place in the new state, but they soon realized that the new government was xenophobic and excluded the multi-ethnic Turkish society. To consolidate Turkish rule in the remaining territories of the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turks developed a secret program to exterminate the Armenian population.
World War I
In 1914, the Turks entered World War I on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The outbreak of war will provide an excellent opportunity to resolve the “Armenian issue” once and for all.
How the Armenian Genocide began in 1915
Military leaders accused the Armenians of supporting the Allies, on the assumption that the people naturally sympathized with Christian Russia. Consequently, the Turks disarmed the entire Armenian population. Turkish suspicion of the Armenian people prompted the government to push for the "removal" of Armenians from the war zones along the Eastern Front.
The mandate to exterminate the Armenians, transmitted in coded telegrams, came directly from the Young Turks. On the evening of April 24, 1915, armed shelling began as 300 Armenian intellectuals—political leaders, educators, writers, and religious leaders in Constantinople—were forcibly removed from their homes, tortured, then hanged or shot.
The death march killed about 1.5 million Armenians, covering hundreds of miles and lasting several months. Indirect routes through the desert areas were specially chosen to extend the marches and keep the caravans in the Turkish villages.
After the disappearance of the Armenian population, the Muslim Turks quickly took over whatever was left. The Turks destroyed the remains of the Armenian cultural heritage, including masterpieces of ancient architecture, old libraries and archives. The Turks leveled entire cities, including the once prosperous Kharpert, Van, and the ancient capital at Ani, to remove all traces of a three-thousand-year-old civilization.
No allied power came to the aid of the Armenian Republic, and it collapsed. The only tiny part of historical Armenia that survived was the easternmost region because it became part of the Soviet Union. The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota compiled provincial and district data showing that in 1914 there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the empire, but by 1922 only about 387,800.
Failed Call to Arms in the West
At the time, international whistleblowers and national diplomats recognized the atrocities committed as an atrocity against humanity.
Leslie Davis, US Consul in Harput, noted: "These women and children were driven out of the desert in the middle of the summer, robbed and plundered with what they had ... after which all who did not die were meanwhile killed near the city."
The Swedish ambassador to Peru, Gustaf August Kosswa Ankarsvärd, wrote in a letter in 1915: “The persecution of the Armenians has reached dragging proportions, and everything indicates that the young Turks want to take advantage of this opportunity ... [put an end to the Armenian question. The means for this are quite simple and consist in the annihilation of the Armenian people.”
Even Henry Morgenthau, the US ambassador to Armenia, noted: “When the Turkish authorities ordered these deportations, they were simply giving the death sentence to an entire race.”
The New York Times also covered the issue extensively—145 articles in 1915—with the headlines "Appeal to Turkey to Stop the Massacre." The newspaper described the actions against the Armenians as "systematic, 'sanctioned' and 'organized by the government'."
The Allied Powers (Great Britain, France and Russia) responded to news of the massacres by issuing a warning to Turkey: "The Allied Governments declare publicly that they will hold all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as their agents like themselves, personally responsible for such matters." The warning had no effect.
Because Ottoman law forbade photographing the Armenian deportees, photographic documentation that captures the severity of the ethnic cleansing is rare. In an act of defiance, the officers of the German military mission recorded the atrocities taking place in the concentration camps. Although many of the photographs were intercepted by Ottoman intelligence, lost in Germany during World War II or forgotten in dusty boxes, the Museum of the Armenian Genocide of America captured some of these photographs in an online export.
Recognition of the Armenian Genocide
Today, Armenians commemorate those who died during the genocide on April 24, the day in 1915 when several hundred Armenian intellectuals and professionals were arrested and executed as the beginning of the genocide.
In 1985, the United States named this day "National Day of Remembrance for Human Inhumanity to Man" in honor of all victims of the genocide, especially the one and a half million people of Armenian descent who were victims of the genocide committed in Turkey."
Today, the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a hot topic as Turkey criticizes scholars for punishing mortality and blaming the Turks for the deaths, which the government says was due to starvation and the brutality of the war. In fact, speaking of the Armenian genocide in Turkey, it is punishable by law. As of 2014, 21 countries in total have publicly or legally recognized this ethnic cleansing in Armenia as genocide.
In 2014, on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the genocide, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed condolences to the Armenian people and said: “The cases of the First World War are our common pain.”
However, many believe that the proposals are useless until Turkey recognizes the loss of 1.5 million people as genocide. In response to Erdogan's proposal, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said: “The refusal to commit a crime is a direct continuation of this very crime. Only recognition and condemnation can prevent the repetition of such crimes in the future.”
Ultimately, the recognition of this genocide is not only important for the elimination of the affected ethnic groups, but also for the development of Turkey as a democratic state. If the past is denied, genocide is still happening. In 2010, a Resolution of the Swedish Parliament stated that "genocide denial is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, cementing the impunity of the perpetrators of genocide and clearly paving the way for future genocides."
Countries that do not recognize the Armenian Genocide
Countries that recognize the Armenian Genocide are those that officially accept the systematic massacres and forced deportations of Armenians carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923.
Although historical and academic institutions for the study of the Holocaust and the genocide accept the Armenian Genocide, many countries refuse to do so in order to preserve their political relations with the Republic of Turkey. Azerbaijan and Turkey are the only countries that refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide and threaten economic and diplomatic repercussions for those who do.
The Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex was built in 1967 on Tsitsernakaberd Hill in Yerevan. The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, opened in 1995, presents facts about the horror of the massacres.
Turkey has been urged to recognize the Armenian Genocide several times, but the sad fact is that the government denies the word "genocide" as an accurate term for the massacres.
Facts about countries recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the memorial and the criminalization of denial
On May 25, 1915, the Entente authorities issued a statement stating that the employees of the Ottoman government involved in the Armenian Genocide would be personally responsible for crimes against humanity. The parliaments of several countries began to recognize this event as genocide from the second half of the 20th century.
The left-bank and green Turkish political party, the Green Left Party, is the only one that recognizes the Armenian Genocide in the country.
Uruguay became the first country to recognize in 1965 and again in 2004.
Cyprus was the country that recognized the Armenian Genocide: first in 1975, 1982 and 1990. Moreover, she was the first to raise this issue at the UN General Assembly. Denial of the Armenian Genocide is also criminalized in Cyprus.
France also criminalized the denial of the Armenian Genocide in 2016, recognizing it in 1998 and 2001. After passing the bill, which was criminalized on 14 October 2016, it was passed by the French National Assembly in July 2017. It provides for a sentence of a year in prison or a fine of 45,000 euros.
Greece recognized the event as a genocide in 1996 and, under a 2014 act, failure to punish is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine not to exceed €30,000.
Countries that recognize the Armenian Genocide: Switzerland and memorial laws
Switzerland recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2003, when denial is a crime. Dogu Perincek, a Turkish politician, lawyer and chairman of the left-wing nationalist patriotic party, became the first person to be criminally charged with denial of the Armenian Genocide. The decision was taken by a Swiss court in 2007.
The Perince case was the result of him describing the Armenian Genocide as an international lie in Lausanne in 2005. His case was appealed to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. His decision was in his favor on grounds of freedom of speech. According to the court: "Mr. Perincek delivered a speech of a historical, legal and political nature in a controversial debate."
Although he was sentenced to life imprisonment in August 2013, he was eventually released in 2014. After his release, he joined the Justice and Development Party and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Facts about countries recognizing the Armenian Genocide and the memorial
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg announced the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 2015 after the Chamber of Deputies unanimously passed a resolution.
Brazil's decision to recognize the massacres was approved by the Federal Senate.
As for Bolivia, the resolution recognizing the genocide was unanimously approved by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Bulgaria became another country to recognize the Armenian Genocide in 2015, but criticism followed. On April 24, 2015, the phrase "mass extermination of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire" was used in Bulgaria. They were criticized for not using the term "genocide". Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov stated that the phrase or idiom is the Bulgarian word for "genocide".
Germany announced its recognition twice: in 2005 and 2016. The first resolution was adopted in 2016. In the same year, in July, the German Bundestag gave her only one vote against the named event "genocide".
10 facts about the Armenian genocide in 1915
Today, the Turkish government still denies that the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians represented it as a "genocide." This is despite the fact that a host of scholarly articles and proclamations from respected historians testified that the events leading up to the massacres, as well as how the Armenians were killed, irrevocably make this moment in history one of the first Holocausts.
1. According to history, the Turkish people deny the genocide, saying: "Armenians were an enemy force... and their slaughter was a necessary military measure."
The "war" referred to is World War I, and the events leading up to the Armenian Genocide - which were at the forefront of the history of the Holocaust - preceded World War I by more than 20 years.
One prominent Turkish politician, Dogu Perincek, came under fire for his denial of the Armenian Genocide while visiting Switzerland in 2008. According to The Telegraph, Perjček was fined by a Swiss court after he called the genocide an "international lie". He appealed the allegation in 2013 and the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Swiss court's allegations "violated the right to freedom of expression".
Currently, Amal Clooney (yes, the new Ms. George Clooney) has joined the legal team that will represent Armenia in challenging this appeal. According to The Telegraph, Clooney will be joined by her head of chambers, Geoffrey Robertson, CC, who also authored an October 2014 book, An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Remembers Armenians Now?.
Publishers from Random House stated that the book "...is beyond doubt that the horrific events of 1915 became a crime against humanity now known as genocide."
The irony in Perynek's outrage at the charges leveled against him is obvious; Perynek is a supporter of Turkey's current laws, which condemn citizens for talking about the Armenian Genocide.
Discussion of the Armenian Genocide is illegal in Turkey
In Turkey, discussing the Armenian genocide is considered a crime punishable by imprisonment. In 2010, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan effectively threatened to deport 100,000 Armenians in response to an Armenian Genocide Commemoration Bill presented to the House of Commons.
Foreign affairs correspondent Damien McElroy details the events in the article. Erdogan made this statement, later called "blackmail" by Armenian MP Hrayr Karapetyan, after the release of the bill:
“Currently, 170,000 Armenians live in our country. Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we tolerate the remaining 100,000… If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to return to their country because they are not my citizens. I don't need to keep them in my country.
“This statement once again proves that there is a threat of the Armenian genocide in Turkey today, so the world community should put pressure on Ankara to recognize the genocide,” Karapetyan replied to Erdogan’s subtle threats.
America was interested in marking the events as genocide
Although the American government and the media called the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians "atrocities" or "massacres," the word "genocide" rarely made its way into the American people when describing the events that took place from 1915 to 1923. That the words "Armenian Genocide" appeared in the New York Times. Petr Balakian, a professor of humanities at Colgate University, and Samantha Power, a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, wrote a letter to the editor of the Times that was subsequently published.
In the letter, Balakian and Sila punish The Times and other media outlets for not labeling the atrocities that took place in 1915 as genocide.
“The extermination of Armenians is recognized as genocide thanks to the consensus of genocide and Holocaust scholars around the world. Failure to acknowledge this trivializes a human rights crime of enormous magnitude,” reads one passage of the letter. “It is ironic because in 1915 the New York Times published 145 articles on the Armenian Genocide and regularly used the words 'systematic', 'state planning' and 'extermination'.
Currently, the US recognition of the events of 1915 as the genocide of America is being considered by the US House of Representatives. The proposed resolution is summarized as "Armenian Genocide Resolution", but its official title is "H. Res 106 or Reaffirmation of the US Document on the Resolution on the Armenian Genocide."
The role of religion in the Armenian genocide
The religious origins of the Armenian Genocide date back to the 15th century when the government of Armenia was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire. The leaders of the Ottoman Empire were mostly Muslims. Christian Armenians were considered minorities by the Ottoman Empire, and although they were "allowed to maintain some autonomy", they were mostly treated as second-class citizens; i.e. Armenians were denied the right to vote, paid higher taxes than Muslims, and were denied a host of other legal and economic rights. Insults and prejudice prevailed in the leaders of the Ottoman Empire, since the unfair treatment of Armenians caught up in violence against Christian minorities.
In the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and taken over by the Young Turks. Young Turks were initially formed as leaders who would guide the country and its citizens to a more democratic and constitutionally sound place. Initially, the Armenians were enthusiastic about this prospect, but later learned that the modernization of the Young Turks would include extermination as a means to "Turkify" the new state.
The rule of the Young Turks would be the catalyst for what is now known as one of the first genocides in the world.
The role of religion in this genocide was seen as Christianity was constantly seen as a justification for the Holocaust perpetrated by the militant followers of the Young Turks. Similarly, the extermination of Jewish citizens was seen as justification for Nazi Germany during World War II.
A slap from the Sultan
According to history, Turkish dictator Sultan Abdul Hamid II made this ominous threat to a reporter in 1890:
“I will soon settle these Armenians,” he said. "I will give them a slap in the face that will make them ... give up their revolutionary ambitions."
Prior to the Armenian Genocide in 1915, these threats were realized during the massacres of thousands of Armenians between 1894 and 1896. According to the United Council for Human Rights, Christian Armenians' calls for reform resulted in "...over 100,000 Armenian villagers killed in widespread pogroms carried out by the Sultan's special regiments."
The ruler of the Ottoman Empire was overthrown by a group called the Young Turks. The Armenians hoped that this new regime would lead to a fair and just society for their people. Unfortunately, the group became forwarders of the Armenian genocide during the First World War.
Young Turks
In 1908, a group of "reformers" who called themselves the "Young Turks" overthrew Sultan Hamid and gained leadership of Turkey. Initially, the goal of the Young Turks seemed to be one that would lead the country to equality and justice, and the Armenians hoped for peace among their people in light of the changes.
However, it quickly became apparent that the aim of the Young Turks was to "lure" the country and liquidate the Armenians. Young Turks were the catalysts for the Armenian Genocide that took place during World War I and were responsible for the murder of almost two million Armenians.
Many wonder why the crimes of the Young Turks are not treated as the crimes of the Nazi Party during the Holocaust.
Scholars and historians point out that the reason for this may be the lack of accountability for the crimes of the Turks. After the Ottoman Empire surrendered in 1918, the leaders of the Young Turks fled to Germany, where they were promised freedom from any persecution for their atrocities.
Since then, the Turkish government, along with several of Turkey's allies, has denied that the genocide ever took place. In 1922, the Armenian Genocide came to an end, leaving only 388,000 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Causes and consequences of the Armenian genocide in 1915?
The term "genocide" refers to the systematic mass murder of a specific group of people. The name "genocide" was not coined until 1944, when the Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin used the term during legal proceedings to describe crimes committed by top Nazi leaders. Lemon created the word by combining the Greek word for "group" or "tribe" (geno-) and the Latin word for "kill" (cide).
In a 1949 CBS interview, Lemkin stated that his inspiration for the term came from the fact that the systematic killing of specific groups of people "had happened so many times in the past", just like the Armenians.
Similarities Between Genocide and Holocaust
There are several pieces of evidence suggesting that the Armenian Genocide was an inspiration for Adolf Hitler before he led the Nazi party in an attempt to exterminate an entire nation. This point has been the subject of much heated debate, especially with regard to Hitler's alleged quote regarding Armenians.
Many genocidal scholars have stated that a week before the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Hitler asked, "Who is talking about the extermination of Armenians today?"
According to an article published in the Midwestern Quarterly in mid-April 2013 by Hannibal Travis, it is indeed possible that, as many have argued, the Hitler quote was not actually or somehow embellished by historians. Relentlessly, Travis notes that several parallels between the Genocide and the Holocaust are transparent.
Both used the concept of ethnic "cleansing" or "cleansing". According to Travis, "While the Young Turks implemented a 'pure sweep of internal enemies - indigenous Christians'," according to the then to the German ambassador in Constantinople... Hitler himself used "cleansing" or "cleansing" as a euphemism for extermination."
Travis also notes that even if Hitler's infamous quote about Armenians never happened, the inspirations he and the Nazi Party received from various aspects of the Armenian Genocide are undeniable.
What happened during the Armenian Genocide?
The Armenian Genocide officially began on April 24, 1915. During this time, the Young Turks recruited a deadly organization of individuals who were sent to persecute the Armenians. The composition of this group included killers and former prisoners. According to the story, one of the officers instructed to name the atrocities that were to take place "... the liquidation of the Christian elements."
The genocide played out like this:
Armenians were forcibly removed from their homes and sent on "death marches" that involved trekking through the desert of Mesopotamia without food or water. The marchers were often torn naked and forced to walk until they died. Those who stopped for reprieve or respite were shot
The only Armenians who were rescued were subject to conversion and/or mistreatment. Some children of genocide victims were abducted and forced to convert to Islam; these children were to be brought up in the home of a Turkish family. Some Armenian women were raped and forced to serve as slaves in Turkish "harems".
Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide
On the 100th anniversary of the brutal holocaust that took place in 1915, international efforts were made to commemorate the victims and their families. The first official 100th anniversary event was held at Florida Atlantic University in south Florida. ARMENPRESS states that the company's mission is to "preserve Armenian culture and promote its dissemination."
On the West Coast, Los Angeles councilor Paul Kerkorian will be accepting entries for an art competition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. according to a West Side Today statement, Kerkorian stated that the contest "...is a way to honor the history of the genocide and highlight the promise of our future." He continued, “I hope that artists and students who care about human rights will get involved and help honor the memory of the Armenian people.”
Abroad, the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Australia has officially launched its OnThisDay campaign, which will focus on honoring those affected by the Armenian Genocide. According to Asbares, ANC Australia has produced an extensive catalog of these newspaper clippings from Australian archives, including those from the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Argus and other notable publications of the day, and will be releasing them daily on Facebook. .
Executive Director ANC Australia Vache Gahramanyan noted that the information released will include many articles detailing the "horrors" of the Armenian Genocide, as well as reports on Australia's humanitarian efforts during this time.
Situation today
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "... has extended invitations to the leaders of the 102 states whose soldiers fought in the First World War, inviting them to take part in the anniversary event to be held on April 23-24", at the same time Armenians will gather to commemorate the 100- anniversary of the genocide experienced in the Ottoman Empire. The invitation was met with resentment from the citizens of Armenia, who considered it "unscrupulous", a "joke" and a "political maneuver" on the part of Erdogan.
Genocide(from the Greek genos - clan, tribe and lat. caedo - I kill), an international crime expressed in actions committed with the aim of destroying, in whole or in part, any national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Actions qualified by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as acts of Genocide have been committed repeatedly in the history of mankind since ancient times, especially during wars of extermination and devastating invasions and campaigns of conquerors, internal ethnic and religious clashes, during the period of partition peace and the formation of colonial empires of European powers, in the process of a fierce struggle for the redivision of the divided world, which led to two world wars and in colonial wars after the Second World War of 1939-1945.
However, the term "genocide" was first introduced into use in the early 30s. XX century by a Polish lawyer, a Jew by origin Rafael Lemkin, and after the Second World War received international legal status as a concept that defines the gravest crime against humanity. R. Lemkin under the Genocide meant the massacre of Armenians in Turkey during the First World War (1914 - 1918), and then the extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany in the period preceding the Second World War, and in the countries of Europe occupied by the Nazis during the war years.
The destruction of more than 1.5 million Armenians during 1915-1923 is considered the first genocide of the 20th century. in Western Armenia and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, organized and systematically carried out by the Young Turk rulers.
The Armenian Genocide should also include the massacres of the Armenian population in Eastern Armenia and in Transcaucasia as a whole, committed by the Turks, who invaded Transcaucasia in 1918, and by the Kemalists during the aggression against the Armenian Republic in September-December 1920, as well as the pogroms of Armenians organized by the Musavatists. in Baku and Shushi in 1918 and 1920 respectively. Taking into account those who perished as a result of the periodic pogroms of Armenians perpetrated by the Turkish authorities, since the end of the 19th century, the number of victims of the Armenian Genocide exceeds 2 million.
Armenian Genocide 1915 - 1916 - mass extermination and deportation of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces of the Ottoman Empire, carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey during the First World War (1914 - 1918). The policy of genocide against Armenians was conditioned by a number of factors.
Leading among them was the ideology of Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, which since the middle of the XIX century. professed by the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire. The militant ideology of pan-Islamism was distinguished by intolerance towards non-Muslims, preached outright chauvinism, and called for the Turkification of all non-Turkish peoples. Entering the war, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire made far-reaching plans for the creation of the "Big Turan". These plans implied the accession to the empire of the Transcaucasus, the North Caucasus, the Crimea, the Volga region, and Central Asia.
On the way to this goal, the aggressors had to put an end, first of all, to the Armenian people, who opposed the aggressive plans of the Pan-Turkists. The Young Turks began to develop plans for the extermination of the Armenian population even before the start of the World War. The decisions of the congress of the "Unity and Progress" party, held in October 1911 in Thessaloniki, contained a demand for the Turkification of the non-Turkish peoples of the empire.
At the beginning of 1914, a special order was sent to the local authorities regarding the measures to be taken against the Armenians. The fact that the order was sent before the start of the war irrefutably testifies that the extermination of the Armenians was a planned action, not at all due to a specific military situation. The leadership of the "Unity and Progress" party has repeatedly discussed the issue of mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population.
In October 1914, at a meeting chaired by Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, a special body was formed - the Executive Committee of the Three, which was entrusted with organizing the extermination of the Armenian population; it included the leaders of the Young Turks Nazim, Behaetdin Shakir and Shukri. Plotting a monstrous crime, the leaders of the Young Turks took into account that the war provided an opportunity for its implementation. Nazim bluntly stated that such an opportunity may no longer be, "the intervention of the great powers and the protest of the newspapers will have no consequences, because they will face a fait accompli, and thus the issue will be resolved ... Our actions must be directed to annihilate the Armenians so that not a single one of them remains alive."
Undertaking the destruction of the Armenian population, the Turkish ruling circles intended to achieve several goals:
- liquidation of the Armenian Question, which would put an end to the intervention of the European powers;
- the Turks were getting rid of economic competition, all the property of the Armenian people would have passed into their hands;
- the elimination of the Armenian people will help pave the way to the capture of the Caucasus, to the achievement of the great ideal of Turanism.
The executive committee of the three received wide powers, weapons, money. The authorities organized “Teshkilati and Makhsuse” special detachments, which consisted mainly of criminals released from prisons and other criminal elements, who were supposed to take part in the mass destruction of Armenians.
From the very first days of the war, a frenzied anti-Armenian propaganda unfolded in Turkey. The Turkish people were inspired that the Armenians did not want to serve in the Turkish army, that they were ready to cooperate with the enemy. There were rumors about the mass desertion of Armenians from the Turkish army, about Armenian uprisings that threatened the rear of the Turkish troops, etc. Anti-Armenian propaganda especially intensified after the first serious defeats of the Turkish troops on the Caucasian front. In February 1915, Minister of War Enver ordered the extermination of Armenians serving in the Turkish army (at the beginning of the war, about 60 thousand Armenians aged 18-45 were drafted into the Turkish army, i.e. the most combat-ready part of the male population). This order was carried out with unparalleled cruelty.
On the night of April 24, 1915, representatives of the police department of Constantinople broke into the homes of the most prominent Armenians in the capital and arrested them. Over the next few days, eight hundred people - writers, poets, journalists, politicians, doctors, lawyers, lawyers, scientists, teachers, priests, teachers, artists - were sent to the central prison.
Two months later, on June 15, 1915, on one of the squares of the capital, 20 intellectuals - Armenians - members of the Hnchak party, were executed, who were trumped-up charges of organizing terror against the authorities and striving to create an autonomous Armenia.
The same thing happened in all vilayets (regions): within a few days, thousands of people were arrested, including all famous cultural figures, politicians, people of mental labor. The deportation to the desert regions of the Empire was planned in advance. And this was a deliberate deception: as soon as people moved away from their native places, they were ruthlessly killed by those who were supposed to accompany them and ensure their safety. The Armenians who worked in government bodies were fired one by one; all military doctors were thrown into prisons.
The great powers were completely involved in the global confrontation, and they put their geopolitical interests above the fate of two million Armenians...
From May - June 1915, mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population of Western Armenia (vilayets of Van, Erzrum, Bitlis, Kharberd, Sebastia, Diyarbekir), Cilicia, Western Anatolia and other areas began. The ongoing deportation of the Armenian population in fact pursued the goal of its destruction. US Ambassador to Turkey G. Morgenthau noted: "The true purpose of the deportation was robbery and destruction; this is indeed a new method of massacre. When the Turkish authorities ordered these deportations, they actually pronounced the death sentence of an entire nation."
The real purpose of the deportation was also known to Germany, an ally of Turkey. In June 1915, the German ambassador to Turkey, Wangenheim, informed his government that if at first the expulsion of the Armenian population was limited to the provinces close to the Caucasian front, now the Turkish authorities extended these actions to those parts of the country that were not under the threat of enemy invasion. These actions, the ambassador concluded, the way in which the deportation is carried out, indicate that the Turkish government has as its goal the destruction of the Armenian nation in the Turkish state. The same assessment of the deportation was contained in the reports of the German consuls from the vilayets of Turkey. In July 1915, the German vice-consul in Samsun reported that the deportation carried out in the vilayets of Anatolia was aimed at either destroying or converting the entire Armenian people to Islam. The German consul in Trebizond at the same time reported on the deportation of Armenians in this vilayet and noted that the Young Turks intended to put an end to the Armenian question in this way.
The Armenians who left their places of permanent residence were reduced to caravans that went deep into the empire, to Mesopotamia and Syria, where special camps were created for them. Armenians were exterminated both in their places of residence and on their way to exile; their caravans were attacked by Turkish rabble, Kurdish robber bands, hungry for prey. As a result, a small part of the deported Armenians reached their destinations. But even those who reached the deserts of Mesopotamia were not safe; there are cases when deported Armenians were taken out of the camps and massacred by the thousands in the desert. Lack of basic sanitary conditions, famine, epidemics caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people.
The actions of the Turkish rioters were distinguished by unprecedented cruelty. This was demanded by the leaders of the Young Turks. Thus, Minister of the Interior Talaat, in a secret telegram sent to the Governor of Aleppo, demanded to put an end to the existence of the Armenians, not to pay any attention to age, gender, or remorse. This requirement was strictly observed. Eyewitnesses of the events, Armenians who survived the horrors of deportation and genocide, left numerous descriptions of the incredible suffering that befell the Armenian population. A correspondent for the English newspaper The Times reported in September 1915: “From Sasun and Trebizond, from Ordu and Eintab, from Marash and Erzrum, the same reports of atrocities are received: about men mercilessly shot, crucified, mutilated or taken to labor battalions, about children abducted and forcibly converted to the Mohammedan faith, about women raped and sold into slavery in the rear, shot on the spot or sent with their children to the desert west of Mosul, where there is neither food nor water ... Many of these unfortunate victims did not reach their destination... and their corpses clearly indicated the path they followed."
In October 1916, the newspaper "Caucasian Word" published a report about the massacre of Armenians in the village of Baskan (Vardo Valley); the author cited an eyewitness account: “We saw how everything valuable was first torn off the unfortunate; then they undressed, and others were killed right there on the spot, and others were taken away from the road, into dead corners, and then finished off. We saw a group of three women who embraced in mortal fear. And it was impossible to separate them, to separate them. All three were killed ... The scream and scream were unimaginable, our hair stood on end, the blood ran cold in the veins ... "The majority of the Armenian population was also subjected to barbaric extermination Cilicia.
The massacre of Armenians continued in subsequent years. Thousands of Armenians were exterminated, driven to the southern regions of the Ottoman Empire and kept in the camps of Rasul-Aina, Deir-Zora and others. The Young Turks also sought to carry out the Armenian genocide in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to the local population, large masses of refugees from Western Armenia accumulated. Having committed aggression against Transcaucasia in 1918, Turkish troops carried out pogroms and massacres of Armenians in many areas of Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Having occupied Baku in September 1918, the Turkish invaders, together with the Azerbaijani nationalists, organized a terrible massacre of the local Armenian population, killing 30,000 people.
As a result of the Armenian genocide carried out by the Young Turks in 1915-1916, more than 1.5 million people died, about 600 thousand Armenians became refugees; they scattered over many countries of the world, replenishing the existing ones and forming new Armenian communities. An Armenian diaspora was formed (“diaspora” - Armenian).
As a result of the genocide, Western Armenia lost its original population. The leaders of the Young Turks did not hide their satisfaction with the successful implementation of the planned atrocity: German diplomats in Turkey informed their government that already in August 1915, Minister of the Interior Talaat cynically stated that "the actions against the Armenians were basically carried out and the Armenian question no longer exists."
The relative ease with which the Turkish pogromists managed to carry out the genocide of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire is partly due to the unpreparedness of the Armenian population, as well as the Armenian political parties, for the impending threat of extermination. In many respects, the actions of the pogromists were facilitated by the mobilization of the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population - men, into the Turkish army, as well as the liquidation of the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople. A certain role was also played by the fact that in some public and clerical circles of Western Armenians they believed that disobedience to the Turkish authorities, who ordered the deportation, could only lead to an increase in the number of victims.
The Armenian genocide carried out in Turkey caused enormous damage to the spiritual and material culture of the Armenian people. In 1915-1916 and subsequent years, thousands of Armenian manuscripts kept in Armenian monasteries were destroyed, hundreds of historical and architectural monuments were destroyed, and the shrines of the people were desecrated. The destruction of historical and architectural monuments on the territory of Turkey, the appropriation of many cultural values of the Armenian people continues to the present. The tragedy experienced by the Armenian people was reflected in all aspects of the life and social behavior of the Armenian people, firmly settled in their historical memory.
The progressive public opinion of the world condemned the villainous crime of the Turkish rioters who tried to destroy the Armenian people. Public and political figures, scientists, cultural figures of many countries branded the genocide, qualifying it as the gravest crime against humanity, took part in the implementation of humanitarian assistance to the Armenian people, in particular to refugees who found refuge in many countries of the world.
After Turkey's defeat in the First World War, the leaders of the Young Turks were accused of dragging Turkey into a disastrous war for her and put on trial. Among the charges brought against the war criminals was the charge of organizing and carrying out the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. However, the verdict against a number of leaders of the Young Turks was passed in absentia, because. after the defeat of Turkey, they managed to flee the country. The death sentence against some of them (Talaat, Behaetdin Shakir, Jemal Pasha, Said Halim, etc.) was subsequently carried out by the Armenian people's avengers.
After the Second World War, genocide was qualified as the gravest crime against humanity. The legal documents on the genocide were based on the basic principles developed by the international military tribunal in Nuremberg, which tried the main war criminals of Nazi Germany. Subsequently, the UN adopted a number of decisions regarding genocide, the main of which are the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and the Convention on the non-applicability of the statute of limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity, adopted in 1968.
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, through 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 from 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. Disbanded after the revolution Russian empire. 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)
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