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102-594: Armenian resistance during Hamidian massacres Armenians in World War I Armenian resistance during the Armenian genocide Caucasus campaign First Republic of Armenia Caucasus campaign Armenian–Azerbaijani war Armeno-Georgian War Turkish–Armenian War Soviet-Armenian conflict The Turkish–Armenian War ( Armenian : Հայ-թուրքական պատերազմ ), known in Turkey as

204-650: A Soviet republic . A majority of the Armenian leadership agreed that it was impossible to resist both the Russians and the Turks and that the Armenian army and population were exhausted. Drastamat Kanayan and Hambardzum Terterian were authorized to enter negotiations with Boris Legran to accept Soviet rule in Armenia. On 2 December 1920, the Armenian government signed an agreement with Legran declaring its resignation and

306-666: A brief period before the great summer offensive of the Greek army in 1920, at which time that city fell to the Greeks. The first landing took place on 17 November 1918 at Mersin with roughly 15,000 men, mainly volunteers from the French Armenian Legion , accompanied by 150 French officers. The first goals of that expeditionary force were to occupy ports and dismantle the Ottoman administration. On 19 November, Tarsus

408-604: A cease-fire agreement. During the invasion the Turkish Army carried out mass atrocities against Armenian civilians in Kars and Alexandropol . These included rapes and massacres where tens of thousands of civilians were executed. As the terms of defeat were being negotiated between Karabekir and Armenian Foreign Minister Alexander Khatisyan , Joseph Stalin , on the command of Vladimir Lenin , ordered Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze to enter Armenia from Azerbaijan in order to establish

510-535: A few Turkish towns… I'd keel-haul every blithering mother's son of a Turk that wears hair." Americans on the mainland, such as Julia Ward Howe , David Josiah Brewer , and John D. Rockefeller , donated and raised large amounts of money and organized relief aid that was channeled to the Armenians via the newly established American Red Cross . Other humanitarian groups and the Red Cross helped by sending aid to

612-517: A million pillaged and plundered. A similar figure is cited by the French diplomatic historian Pierre Renouvin who claimed that 250,000 Armenians died based on authenticated documents while serving his duty. Besides Armenians, some 25,000 Assyrians also lost their lives during the Diyarbekir massacres . In addition to the death toll many Armenians converted to Islam in an attempt to escape

714-618: A new pro- Bolshevik government in the country. On the night of 28–29 November, the Soviet Eleventh Army under the command of Anatoli Gekker invaded Armenia at Karavansarai (present-day Ijevan ), meeting little to no resistance. That same day, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee (a committee of Armenian Bolsheviks formed in Baku a week earlier to facilitate Armenia's sovietization) declared Armenia

816-647: A one-word telegram: 'No'. Despite the great public sympathy that was felt for the Armenians in Europe, none of the European powers took concrete action to alleviate their plight. Frustrated with their indifference and failure to take action, Armenians from the ARF seized the European-managed Ottoman Bank on August 26, 1896 to bring the massacres to their full attention. The action resulted in

918-511: A pain which they do not feel; they are an effeminate and cowardly people who hide behind the clothes of the great powers and raise an outcry for the smallest of causes." The provisions for reform in the Armenian provinces embodied in Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin (1878) were ultimately not enforced and were followed instead by further repression. On January 2, 1881, collective notes sent by

1020-579: A result of the 1920 Turkish occupation of those territories and subsequent massacre and expulsion of their inhabitants, only 59,843 Armenians and Yazidis arrived in modern-day Armenia—less than half of the 130,753 Armenians and Yazidis in those areas in 1919. A commission's findings of atrocities carried out by the Turkish invaders in Shirak revealed that a total of 11,886 corpses were buried, 90 percent of whom were women and children and 10 percent were men: In

1122-481: A second time... and yet it is from an official document which the future historian will read when he wishes to compile the facts concerning those massacres. Official Ottoman sources downplayed or misrepresented the death toll numbers. The attempt of deliberately misrepresenting the numbers were noted by British Ambassador Phillip Currie in a letter to Prime Minister Lord Salisbury : The Sultan lately sent to me, in common with my colleagues, an urgent message inviting

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1224-512: A soldier, my interpreter, and a photographer (Armenian) to the Gregorian [i.e., Armenian Apostolic ] Cemetery ....Along the wall on the north, in a row 20 ft (6 m) wide and 150 ft (46 m) long, lay 321 dead bodies of the massacred Armenians. Many were fearfully mangled and mutilated. I saw one with his face completely smashed in with a blow of some heavy weapon after he was killed. I saw some with their own necks almost severed by

1326-461: A sword cut. One I saw whose whole chest had been skinned, his fore-arms were cut off, while the upper arm was skinned of flesh. I asked if the dogs had done this. "No, the Turks did it with their knives." A dozen bodies were half burned. All the corpses had been rifled of all their clothes except a cotton undergarment or two....To be killed in battle by brave men is one thing; to be butchered by cowardly armed soldiers in cold blood and utterly defenseless

1428-469: Is another thing. The French vice consul of Diyarbakır , Gustave Meyrier, recounted to Ambassador Paul Cambon stories of Armenian women and children being assaulted and killed and described the attackers "as cowardly as they were cruel. They refused to attack where people defended themselves and instead concentrated on defenseless districts." The worst atrocity took place in Urfa , where Ottoman troops burned

1530-419: Is impossible to ascertain how many Armenians were killed, although the figures cited by historians have ranged from 80,000 to 300,000. The German pastor Johannes Lepsius meticulously collected data on the destruction and in his calculations, counted the deaths of 88,243 Armenians, the destitution of 546,000, the destruction of 2,493 villages, the residents of 646 of which were forcibly converted to Islam, and

1632-707: The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic . The Treaty of Moscow (March 1921) between Soviet Russia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the related Treaty of Kars (October 1921) confirmed most of the territorial gains made by Karabekir and established the modern Turkish – Armenian border. The dissolution of the Russian Empire in the wake of the February Revolution saw the Armenians of

1734-930: The Cilicia Campaign ( French : La campagne de Cilicie ) in France and as the Southern Front ( Turkish : Güney Cephesi ) of the Turkish War of Independence in Turkey , was a series of conflicts fought between France (the French Colonial Forces and the French Armenian Legion ) and the Turkish National Forces (led by the Turkish provisional government after 4 September 1920) from December 1918 to October 1921 in

1836-691: The Conference of Lausanne on the abolition of the Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire . French objections during the discussions on abolition were perceived as contravening full Turkish independence and sovereignty. Furthermore, the fact that the sanjak of Alexandretta remained under French control also contributed to the tension between the two countries, as the Turks claimed the land in the Misak-ı Millî . The positive attitude developed with

1938-646: The Dardanelles , but the British seemed prepared to hold their ground. The British government issued a request for military support from its colonies . This was refused , and the French leaving the British on the straits signaled that the Allies were unwilling to intervene in aid of Greece. Greek troops and the French withdrew beyond the Meriç River . France had better relations with the Turkish nationals during

2040-729: The Eastern Front ( Turkish : Doğu Cephesi ) of the Turkish War of Independence , was a conflict between the First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish National Movement following the collapse of the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. After the provisional government of Ahmet Tevfik Pasha failed to win support for ratification of the treaty, remnants of the Ottoman Army's XV Corps under the command of Kâzım Karabekir attacked Armenian forces controlling

2142-583: The Ottoman Empire . Approximately 1.5 million Armenians had perished during the Armenian genocide . Although the armies of the Ottoman Empire eventually occupied the South Caucasus in the summer of 1918 and stood poised to crush the republic, Armenia resisted until the end of October, when the Ottoman Empire capitulated to the Allied powers . Though the Ottoman Empire was partially occupied by

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2244-805: The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchak; founded in Switzerland in 1887) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (the ARF or Dashnaktsutiun, founded in 1890 in Tiflis ). Clashes ensued and unrest occurred in 1892 at Merzifon and in 1893 at Tokat . In 1894 the sultan began to target the Armenian people in a precursor to the Hamidian massacres. This persecution strengthened nationalistic sentiment among Armenians. The first notable battle in

2346-505: The Straits . Despite the concessions made by the Turks, the financial and military supplies were slow in coming. Only after the decisive Battle of Sakarya (August–September 1921), the aid started to flow in faster. After much delays, the Armenians received from the Allies in July 1920 about 40,000 uniforms and 25,000 rifles with a great amount of ammunition. It was not until August 1920 that

2448-405: The Turkish War of Independence , chiefly on account of breaking Triple Entente solidarity and signing a separate agreement with the Turkish National Movement . The Treaty of Ankara did not resolve the problems in connection with the sanjak of Alexandretta . However, positive Franco-Turkish relations were maintained. French policy supporting the Turkish independence movement were set back during

2550-616: The aftermath of World War I . French interest in the region stemmed from the Sykes-Picot Agreement and was further fueled by the refugee crisis following the Armenian genocide . After the Armistice of Mudros , the French Army had moved into Çukurova in accordance with the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. On the one hand, that agreement gave France control of Ottoman Syria and southern Anatolia , including

2652-640: The eastern provinces of the empire to the nascent Armenian republic. But the Allies were more concerned with concluding the peace treaties with Germany and the other European members of the Central Powers. In matters related to the Near East, the principal powers, Great Britain , France , Italy and the United States , had conflicting interests over the spheres of influence they were to assume. While there were crippling internal disputes between

2754-514: The 112 in the Stamboul [old city of Constantinople] prison were represented as being Muslims, and it was only discovered by accident that 109 were Christians. Some scholars, such as the Soviet historians Mkrtich G. Nersisyan, Ruben Sahakyan , John Kirakosyan , and Yehuda Bauer , and most recently Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi in their book The Thirty-Year Genocide , subscribe to the view that

2856-546: The 38,000 wounded, 20,000 were men, 10,000 women, 5,000 young girls, and 3,000 children. Of the 18,000 men taken prisoner, 2,000 survived (the rest were executed or died of exposure or starvation). In 1919, there were 31,236 Armenians and 10,092 Yazidis in the Surmalu uezd (present-day Iğdır Province ), and 62,007 Armenians and 27,418 Yazidis in the Kars Oblast (present-day Kars and Ardahan provinces) within Armenia. As

2958-568: The Allies drafted the peace settlement of the Near East in the form of the Treaty of Sèvres . Under the terms of the treaty, portions of four northeastern vilayets of the Ottoman Empire were allotted to the First Republic of Armenia and subsequently came to be known as Wilsonian Armenia , after the US President Woodrow Wilson . The Treaty of Sèvres served to confirm Kemal's suspicions about Allied plans to partition

3060-614: The Allies, and the United States was reluctant to accept a mandate over Armenia, disaffected elements in the Ottoman Empire in 1920 began to disavow the decisions made by the Ottoman government in Constantinople, coalesced and formed the Turkish National Movement , under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha . The Turkish Nationalists considered any partition of formerly Ottoman lands (and subsequent distribution to non-Turkish authorities) to be unacceptable. Their avowed goal

3162-517: The Allies, and while being invaded by Franco-Armenian forces during the Cilicia Campaign , the Turks did not withdraw their forces to the pre-war Russo-Turkish boundary until February 1919 and maintained many troops mobilized along this frontier. During the First World War and in the ensuing peace negotiations in Paris , the Allies had vowed to punish the Turks and reward some, if not all, of

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3264-444: The Armenian cathedral, in which 3,000 Armenians had taken refuge, and shot at anyone who tried to escape. Abdul Hamid's private first secretary wrote in his memoirs about Abdul Hamid that he "decided to pursue a policy of severity and terror against the Armenians, and in order to succeed in this respect he elected the method of dealing them an economic blow... he ordered that they absolutely avoid negotiating or discussing anything with

3366-498: The Armenian resistance took place in Sasun . Hunchak activists, such as Mihran Damadian , Hampartsoum Boyadjian , and Hrayr Dzhoghk , encouraged resistance against double taxation and Ottoman persecution. The ARF armed the people of the region. The Armenians confronted the Ottoman army and Kurdish irregulars at Sasun, finally succumbing to superior numbers and to Turkish assurances of amnesty, which never materialized. In response to

3468-654: The Armenian towns in the Ottoman Empire. The Great Powers (Britain, France, Russia) forced Hamid to sign a new reform package designed to curtail the powers of the Hamidiye in October 1895 which, like the Berlin treaty, was never implemented. On October 1, 1895, two thousand Armenians assembled in Constantinople (now Istanbul ) to petition for the implementation of the reforms, but Ottoman police units converged on

3570-483: The Armenians and that they inflict upon them a decisive strike to settle scores." The killings continued until 1897. In that last year, Sultan Hamid declared the Armenian Question closed. Many Armenian revolutionaries had either been killed or escaped to Russia. The Ottoman government closed Armenian societies and restricted Armenian political movements. Some non-Armenian groups were also attacked during

3672-648: The Armenians and to remove, "if not by political action then by resort to the knife... the fever spot of the Turkish Empire." King Leopold II of Belgium told British Prime Minister Salisbury that he was prepared to send his Congolese Force Publique to "invade and occupy" Armenia. The massacres were an important item on the agenda of the United States President Grover Cleveland , and in his presidential platform for 1896, Republican candidate William McKinley listed

3774-465: The Armenians had suffered at least 200 casualties and been forced to retreat east towards Sarıkamış . As neither the Allied powers nor Soviet Russia reacted to Turkish operations, on September 20 Kemal authorized Karabekir to push onwards and take Kars and Kağızman . By this time, Karabekir's XV Corps had grown to the size of four divisions. At 3:00 in the morning of 28 September, the four divisions of

3876-592: The Christians' expense and to satisfy their men's whims." One headline in a September 1895 article by The New York Times ran "Armenian Holocaust," while the Catholic World declared, "Not all the perfume of Arabia can wash the hand of Turkey clean enough to be suffered any longer to hold the reins of power over one inch of Christian territory." The rest of the American press called for action to help

3978-460: The European powers reminding the sultan of the promises of reform failed to prod him into action. The eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire were historically insecure; the Kurdish rebels attacked the inhabitants of towns and villages with impunity. In 1890–91, at a time when the empire was either too weak and disorganized or reluctant to halt them, Sultan Abdul Hamid gave semi-official status to

4080-490: The French and the Turks on 20 October 1921, and finalized with Armistice of Mudanya . The French forces withdrew from the occupation zone in the first days of 1922, about ten months before the Armistice of Mudanya. Beginning on 3 January, French troops evacuated Mersin and Dörtyol . On 5 January they left Adana , Ceyhan and Tarsus . The evacuation was completed on 7 January with the last troops leaving Osmaniye . In

4182-492: The French arrived in the southern Anatolian regions allocated to them in the agreement. The French Armenian Legion under the command of General Edmund Allenby consisted of Armenian volunteers. After the armistice of Mudros, the first thing the French military did was to control the strategically important Ottoman coal mines in which French capital held significant stakes. The goal was both to take control of this energy source and to meet French military needs. It also prevented

Turkish–Armenian War - Misplaced Pages Continue

4284-638: The French would not hold its territories in Turkey, especially as they mainly wanted to settle in Syria. The strategic goal of opening a southern front by moving Armenians against the Turkish National forces was a failure after the defeat of the Greek forces to the west. On 11 February 1920, after 22 days of the Battle of Marash , the French occupation troops, followed by members of the local Armenian community, found themselves forced to evacuate Marash by

4386-767: The GNAT, ceded Adjara to Soviet Georgia in exchange for the Kars territory (today the Turkish provinces of Kars , Iğdır , and Ardahan ). Under the treaties, an autonomous Nakhichevan oblast was established under Azerbaijan 's protectorate. The Treaty of Kars effectively confirmed Armenia's territorial losses to Turkey as stipulated by the invalid Treaty of Alexandropol and established the Armenia–Turkey border that exists to this day. According to Soviet historiography, 60,000 Armenian civilians had been killed, including 30,000 men, 15,000 women, 5,000 children, and 10,000 young girls; Of

4488-503: The Kurdish bandits. Made up mainly of Kurdish tribes, but also of Turks, Yörüks , Arabs, Turkmens and Circassians, and armed by the state, they came to be called the Hamidiye Alaylari (" Hamidian Regiments"). The Hamidiye and Kurdish brigands were given free rein to attack Armenians, confiscating stores of grain, foodstuffs, and driving off livestock, confident of escaping punishment as they were subjects of military courts only. Armenians established revolutionary organizations, namely

4590-406: The Lenin government supplied the Kemalists with 6,000 rifles, more than five million rifle cartridges, and 17,600 projectiles, as well as 200.6 kg of gold bullion; in the following two years the amount of aid increased. In the negotiations of the Treaty of Moscow (1921) , the Bolsheviks demanded that the Turks cede Batum and Nakhichevan ; they also asked for more rights in the future status of

4692-608: The Near East were concentrated on crushing the Kurdish tribal uprisings in Iraq with the help of the Assyrians , while France and Italy were also fighting the Turkish revolutionaries near Syria and Italian controlled Antalya . Neighboring Georgia declared neutrality during the conflict. On 11 October, Soviet plenipotentiary Boris Legran arrived in Yerevan with a text to negotiate a new Soviet-Armenian agreement. The agreement signed on 24 October secured Soviet support. The most important part of this agreement dealt with Kars, which Armenia agreed to secure. The Turkish national movement

4794-421: The Ottoman Empire and bolstering British ties to Russia. The French ambassador described Turkey as "literally in flames," with "massacres everywhere" and all Christians being murdered "without distinction." A French vice consul declared that the Ottoman Empire was "gradually annihilating the Christian element" by "giving the Kurdish chieftains carte blanche to do whatever they please, to enrich themselves at

4896-460: The Ottoman Empire suffered greatly from the Panic of 1873 ), territorial (mentioned above), and the hope among some Armenians that one day all of the Armenian territory might be ruled by Russia, led to a new restiveness among Armenians who were living inside the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians sent a delegation which was led by Mkrtich Khrimian to the 1878 Congress of Berlin to lobby the European powers to include proper safeguards for their kinsmen in

4998-444: The Red Army. The Red Army entered Yerevan on 4 December 1920, joined by the Armenian Revolutionary Committee the next day. State authority in Armenia formally passed over to the committee. Finally, on 6 December, the Cheka , Soviet Russia's secret police, entered Yerevan. Though nominally an independent Soviet republic, Armenia had effectively ceased to exist as an independent state. Reneging on their agreement not to subject members of

5100-400: The South Caucasus declaring their independence and formally establishing the First Republic of Armenia . In its two years of existence, the republic, with its capital in Yerevan , was beset with a number of debilitating problems, including fierce territorial disputes with its neighbors and a severe refugee crisis. Armenia's most crippling problem was its dispute with its neighbor to the west,

5202-481: The Sultan and Armenian party activists in France, Britain, Austria and elsewhere. "Under no circumstances," he wrote to Max Nordau , "are the Armenians to learn that we want to use them in order to erect a Jewish state." Herzl's courting the Sultan's favor was protested by other Zionists. Bernard Lazare published an open letter critical of Herzl and resigned from the Zionist Action Committee in 1899. The one fellow leader Herzl sought to enlist, Max Nordau, replied with

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5304-479: The Sultan has any means of knowing about it. It is a most remarkable story, and the discrepancies are as thick as leaves in Valambrosa. On the face of it, it cannot be true, and before a jury it would hardly have any weight as evidence. It is extremely important, however, because it is probably a fair representation of the occurrences of the last few years. That it is a misrepresentation, so much so that it can fairly be called fabrication, becomes clear when you look at it

5406-410: The Turkish National Pact." According to Turkish and Soviet sources, Turkish plans to take back formerly Ottoman-controlled lands in the east were already in place as early as June 1920. Using Turkish sources, historian Bilâl Şamşir has identified mid-June as to when exactly the Ankara government began to prepare for a campaign in the east. Hostilities were first begun by Kemalist forces. Kâzım Karabekir

5508-401: The Turkish army during the war at 100,000—this is evident in the marked decline (−25.1%) of the population of modern-day Armenia from 961,677 in 1919 to 720,000 in 1920. According to historian Raymond Kévorkian, only the Soviet occupation of Armenia prevented another Armenian genocide . The Turkish military victory was followed by the Bolshevik occupation of Armenia and the establishment of

5610-438: The Turkish mind, the Armenians had tried to overstep these limits by appealing to foreign powers, especially England. They, therefore, considered it their religious duty and a righteous thing to destroy and seize the lives and property of the Armenians." The combination of Russian military success in the recent Russo-Turkish War , the clear weakening of the Ottoman Empire in various spheres including financial spheres (from 1873,

5712-421: The Turkish, especially because they had associated themselves with Armenian objectives. The French soldiers were foreign to the region and were using Armenian militia to acquire their intelligence. Turkish nationals had been in cooperation with Arab tribes in this area. Compared to the Greek threat , the French seemed less dangerous to Mustafa Kemal Pasha , who suggested that, if the Greek threat could be overcome,

5814-404: The XV Army Corps advanced towards Sarıkamış, creating such panic that Armenian residents had abandoned the town by the time the Turks entered the next day. The armed forces started toward Kars but were delayed by Armenian resistance. In early October, the Armenian government pleaded that the Allies intervene and put a halt to the Turkish advance, but to no avail. Most of Britain's available forces in

5916-468: The act was lauded by the European and American press, which vilified Hamid and painted him as the "great assassin" and "bloody Sultan." The Great Powers vowed to take action and enforce new reforms, although these never came to fruition due to conflicting political and economic interests. After George Hepworth , a preeminent journalist of the late 19th century, traveled through Ottoman Armenia in 1897, he wrote Through Armenia on Horseback , which discusses

6018-431: The area surrounding Kars , eventually recapturing most of the territory in the South Caucasus that had been part of the Ottoman Empire prior to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and was subsequently ceded by Soviet Russia as part of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . Karabekir had orders from the Ankara Government to "eliminate Armenia physically and politically". One estimate places the number of Armenians massacred by

6120-415: The causes and effects of the recent massacres. In one chapter Hepworth describes the disparity between the reality of the Massacre in Bitlis and the official reports that were sent to the Porte . After retelling the Ottoman version of events, which places the blame solely on the Armenians of Bitlis, Hepworth writes: …That is the account of the affair which was sent to Yildiz, and that story contains all that

6222-401: The central government. When a nascent form of nationalism spread among the Armenians of Anatolia, including demands for equal rights and a push for autonomy, the Ottoman leadership believed that the empire's Islamic character and even its very existence were threatened. The chief dragoman (Turkish interpreter) of the British embassy wrote that the reason the Ottomans committed these atrocities

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6324-480: The city, which by 30 October came under full Turkish occupation. Turkish forces continued to advance, and, a week after the capture of Kars, took control of Alexandropol (present-day Gyumri , Armenia ). On 12 November, the Turks also captured the strategic village of Aghin , northeast of the ruins of the former Armenian capital of Ani , and planned to move toward Yerevan . On 13 November, Georgia broke its neutrality. It had concluded an agreement with Armenia to invade

6426-405: The cold winter of 1895–96. William Sachtleben , an American journalist who happened to be in Erzurum after the massacre there in 1895, recounted the grisly scene he came across in a lengthy letter to The Times : What I myself saw this Friday afternoon [November 1] is forever engraven on my mind as the most horrible sight a man can see. I went with one of the cavasses of the English Legation,

6528-518: The deaths of ten of the Armenian militants, Ottoman soldiers and the massacre of 6,000 Armenian civilians living in Constantinople by Ottomans. According to the foreign diplomats in Constantinople, Ottoman central authorities instructed the mob "to start killing Armenians, irrespective of age and gender, for the duration of 48 hours." The killings stopped only when the mob was ordered to desist from such activity by Sultan Hamid. Though their demands were rejected and new massacres broke out in Constantinople,

6630-497: The defense of Armenia and aware that the leaders of the Republic of Armenia had failed to gain recognition of its independence by Soviet Russia, Kemal gave the order to commanding general Kâzım Karabekir to advance into Armenian-held territory. At 2:30 in the morning of 13 September, five battalions from the Turkish XV Army Corps attacked Armenian positions, surprising the thinly spread and unprepared Armenian forces at Oltu and Penek . By dawn, Karabekir's forces had occupied Penek and

6732-520: The desecration of 645 churches and monasteries, of which 328 were converted into mosques. He also estimated the additional deaths of 100,000 Armenians due to famine and disease totalling a number of approximately 200,000. In contrast the ambassador of Britain estimated 100,000 were killed up until early December 1895. However, the period of massacres spread well into 1896. German foreign ministry operative and Turkologist Ernst Jäckh claimed that 200,000 Armenians were killed and 50,000 were expelled and

6834-537: The disputed region of Lori , which was established as a Neutral Zone (the Shulavera Condominium) between the two nations in early 1919. The Turks, headquartered in Alexandropol, presented the Armenians with an ultimatum which they were forced to accept. They followed it with a more radical demand which threatened the existence of Armenia as a viable entity. The Armenians at first rejected this demand, but when Karabekir's forces continued to advance, they had little choice but to capitulate. On November 18, 1920, they concluded

6936-478: The distribution of coal in Anatolia, which could be used in activities to support insurgency. On 18 March 1919, two French gunboats brought troops to the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli to command the Ottoman coal mining region. Because of the resistance they faced during their one-year stay in the region, French troops began to withdraw from Karadeniz Ereğli on 8 June 1920. They continued to pursue their occupation in Zonguldak, where they occupied

7038-633: The dogs... Mother, I am safe and sound. Father, 20 days ago we made war on the Armenian unbelievers. Through God's grace no harm befell us... .There is a rumour afoot that our Batallion will be ordered to your part of the world—if so, we will kill all the Armenians there. Besides, 511 Armenians were wounded, one or two perish every day. If you ask after the soldiers and bashi bozouks [wild irregulars], not one of their noses has bled... May God bless you.... Another letter from December 23, 1895 says: I killed [the Armenians] like dogs... .If you ask news in this manner, we slew 2,500 Armenians and looted their goods It

7140-434: The early stages of the Greco-Turkish War , French and Greek troops jointly crossed the Meriç River and occupied the town of Uzunköprü in eastern Thrace and the railway route from there to the station of Hadımköy near Çatalca on the outskirts of Constantinople. In September 1922, at the end of that war, during the Greek pull-out after the advance of Turkish revolutionaries , French forces withdrew from their positions near

7242-471: The empire, who were always considered second-class citizens, had begun to ask for civil reforms and better treatment by the government in the mid-1860s and early 1870s. They pressed for an end to the usurpation of their land, "the looting and murder in Armenian towns by Kurds and Circassians , improprieties during tax collection, criminal behavior by government officials and the refusal to accept Christians as witnesses in trial." These requests went unheeded by

7344-518: The empire. According to historian Richard G. Hovannisian , Kemal's decision to order attacks on Armenian troops in Oltu District in the erstwhile Kars Oblast that eventually expanded into an invasion of Armenia proper was intended to show the Allies that "the treaty would not be accepted and that there would be no peace until the West was ready to offer new terms in keeping with the principles of

7446-619: The eventual peace agreement. But the sultan was not prepared to relinquish any of his power. Abdul Hamid believed that the woes of the Ottoman Empire stemmed from "the endless persecutions and hostilities of the Christian world." He perceived that the Ottoman Armenians were an extension of foreign hostility, a means by which Europe could "get at our most vital places and tear out our very guts." Turkish historian and Abdul Hamid biographer Osman Nuri observed, "The mere mention of

7548-479: The former ruling party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation , to repressions, the new Soviet Armenian authorities arrested numerous members of the ARF and conducted expropriations in the countryside, triggering an anti-Bolshevik uprising in February 1921 , during which Soviet power was briefly overthrown in Armenia. The Red Army intervened to restore Soviet authority, although anti-Bolshevik resistance continued in

7650-538: The hostility towards the Armenians lay in the increasingly precarious position in which the Ottoman Empire found itself in the last quarter of the 19th century. The end of Ottoman domination of the Balkans was ushered in by an era of European nationalism and an insistence on self-determination by the inhabitants of many territories which had been ruled by the Ottomans for an extremely long period of time. The Armenians of

7752-466: The key strategic locations of the fertile plain of Çukurova , the ports of Mersin and İskenderun (Alexandretta), and the copper mines in Ergani . On the other hand, the fertile lands of Mesopotamia and the vilayet of Mosul (where oil fields were suspected to exist) were priorities for the British. According to the agreement, the British would look after the cities of Antep , Marash and Urfa , until

7854-478: The long persecuted Armenian community as its calls for civil reform and better treatment were ignored by the government. The Ottomans made no allowances for the victims on account of their age or gender, and as a result, they massacred all of the victims with brutal force. The telegraph spread news of the massacres around the world, leading to a significant amount of coverage of them in the media of Western Europe, Russian Empire and North America. The origins of

7956-458: The mass killings of 1894–1896 marked the first phase of the Armenian genocide . Most scholars, however, limit this definition strictly to the years 1915–1923. Franco-Turkish War Turkish victory [REDACTED]   France [REDACTED] Ankara Government [REDACTED] : Mar. 1920 : 25,000–30,000 May 1920 : ~40,000 men Feb. 1921 : 70,000 men [REDACTED] : 10,150 men The Franco–Turkish War , known as

8058-522: The massacres. The French diplomatic correspondence shows that the Hamidiye carried out massacres not only of Armenians but also of Assyrians living in Diyarbakir, Hasankeyf , Sivas and other parts of Anatolia. A letter sent by an Ottoman soldier to his brother and parents in November 23, 1895 says: My brother, if you want news from here we have killed 1,200 Armenians, all of them as food for

8160-472: The press alike. British print and illustrated newspapers regularly covered the massacres, with the popular weekly Punch publishing dozens of cartoons depicting the carnage. Further, historian Leslie Rogne Schumacher notes that the massacres "reflected and impacted the changing world of European international relations" in the years before the First World War , weakening Britain's relationship with

8262-538: The rally and violently broke it up. Upon receiving the reform package, the sultan is said to have remarked, "This business will end in blood." Soon massacres of Armenians broke out in Constantinople and then engulfed the rest of the Armenian-populated vilayets of Bitlis , Diyarbekir , Erzurum , Mamuret-ul-Aziz , Sivas , Trebizond and Van . Thousands were killed at the hands of their Muslim neighbours and government soldiers, and many more died during

8364-497: The remaining survivors who were dying of disease and hunger. At the height of the massacres, in 1896, Abdul Hamid tried to limit the flow of information coming out of Turkey ( Harper's Weekly was banned by Ottoman censors for its extensive coverage of the massacres) and counteract the negative press by enlisting the help of sympathetic Western activists and journalists. Theodor Herzl responded enthusiastically to Abdul Hamid's personal request to harness "Jewish power" to undermine

8466-474: The resistance and assaults of the Turkish revolutionaries. The loss of the city was accompanied by large-scale massacres of the Armenian population, with thousands of victims. French Armenian Legion member Sarkis Torossian suspects in his diary that the French forces gave weapons and ammunition to the Kemalists to allow the French army safe passage out of Cilicia. Marash militia forces contributed further to

8568-436: The resistance at Sasun, the governor of Mush responded by inciting the local Muslims against the Armenians. Historian Lord Kinross wrote that massacres of this kind were often achieved by gathering Muslims in a local mosque and claiming the Armenians had the aim of "striking at Islam". Sultan Abdul Hamid sent the Ottoman army into the area and also armed groups of Kurdish irregulars. The violence spread and affected most of

8670-663: The saving of the Armenians as one of his top priorities in foreign policy. Americans in the Ottoman Empire, such as George Washburn, then-president of the Constantinople-based Robert College , pressured their government to take concrete action. In December 1900, the battleship USS Kentucky called at the port of Smyrna , where its captain, "Red Bill" Kirkland, delivered the following warning, somewhat softened by his translator, to its governor: "If these massacres continue I'll be swuzzled if I won't someday forget my order… and find some pretext to hammer

8772-453: The six Representatives to visit the military and municipal hospitals to see for themselves the number of Turkish soldiers and civilians who had been wounded during the recent disturbances. I accordingly requested Surgeon Tomlinson, of Her Majesty's ship "Imogene" , to make the round of the hospitals in company with Mr. Blech, of Her Majesty's Embassy... The hospital authorities made attempts to pass off wounded Christians as Mussulmans. Thus,

8874-604: The southern region of Zangezur until July 1921. The warfare in Transcaucasia was settled in a friendship treaty between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT) (which proclaimed the Turkish Republic in 1923), and Soviet Russia ( RSFSR ). The "Treaty on Friendship and Brotherhood", called the Treaty of Moscow , was signed on 16 March 1921. The succeeding Treaty of Kars , signed by the representatives of Azerbaijan SSR , Armenian SSR , Georgian SSR , and

8976-509: The transfer of power in Armenia to a Soviet government. Drastamat Kanayan would temporarily lead the country pending the arrival of the Armenian Revolutionary Committee in Yerevan. On behalf of Soviet Russia, Legran guaranteed the restoration of Armenia's pre-war borders. The Armenian delegation led by Khatisyan signed the Treaty of Alexandropol with Kemalist Turkey on 3 December 1920, though the government it represented no longer existed, making

9078-524: The treaty illegal. The treaty required Armenia to disarm most of its military forces, renounce the Treaty of Sèvres , and cede the entire territory of the former Kars Oblast and the district of Surmalu to Turkey, as well as make territorial concessions to Azerbaijan in Nakhichevan. The decision to sign the illegal treaty was justified by Khatisyan as necessary to prevent Karabekir's army from advancing further and reaching Echmiadzin and Yerevan ahead of

9180-496: The village of Agbulag , 1,186 were killed, Ghaltakhchi – 2,100, Karaboya – 1,100, in three villages where refugees from Kars had gathered – 7,500. Hamidian massacres The massacres began in the Ottoman interior in 1894, before they became more widespread in the following years. The majority of the murders took place between 1894 and 1896. The massacres began to taper off in 1897, following international condemnation of Abdul Hamid. The harshest measures were directed against

9282-460: The violence ended – some Armenian women who were tracked down following the violence indicated that they preferred to remain with their Muslim husbands, many of whom had captured them during the raids and violence, rather than return and face shame within their communities. News of the Armenian massacres in the empire were widely reported in Europe and the United States and drew strong responses from foreign governments, humanitarian organizations, and

9384-545: The violence. While Ottoman officials claimed that these conversions were voluntary modern scholars, including Selim Deringil, have argued that the conversions were either directly forced or acts of desperation. Deringil notes that many Armenian men shifted swiftly from Christianity to Islam, seeking out circumcision and becoming prominent attendees of their local mosques, attending prayer multiple times each day. Women converted as well, and many chose to remain within Islam even after

9486-545: The war effort by taking part in the recapture of other centers in the region, forcing the French forces to retreat gradually, town by town. The Cilicia Peace Treaty between France and the Turkish National Movement was signed on 9 March 1921. It was intended to end the Franco-Turkish war, but failed to do so and was replaced in October 1921 with the Treaty of Ankara signed by representatives of

9588-614: The whole city on 18 June 1920. The main operations in Thrace aimed to support the strategic goals of the allies. A French brigade entered Constantinople on 12 November 1918. On 8 February 1919, French general Franchet d'Espèrey —commander-in-chief of allied occupation forces in the Ottoman Empire—arrived in Constantinople to coordinate the occupation government. The city of Bursa —a former Ottoman capital of central importance in northwest Anatolia—was also held by French forces for

9690-479: The widespread sympathy felt for Armenians in Europe. Herzl viewed the arrangement with the Abdul Hamid as temporary, and his services were in exchange for bringing about a more favorable Ottoman attitude toward Zionism . Through his contacts, he supported the publication of favorable impressions of the Ottoman Empire in European newspapers and magazines, while himself attempting (unsuccessfully) to mediate between

9792-430: The word 'reform' irritated him [Abdul Hamid], inciting his criminal instincts." Upon hearing of the Armenian delegation's visit to Berlin in 1878, he bitterly remarked, "Such great impudence ... Such great treachery toward religion and state ... May they be cursed upon by God." While he admitted that some of their complaints were well-founded, he likened the Armenians to "hired female mourners [ pleureuses ] who simulate

9894-409: Was also occupied for one day (on 21 November 1919) until the evening, when the French thought it better to abandon the occupation attempt. France designated Édouard Brémond governor of the French occupation zone in the south from January 1, 1919 – September 4, 1920, and Julien Dufieux from September 1920–23 December 1921. In the regions they occupied, the French encountered immediate resistance from

9996-475: Was assigned command of the newly formed Eastern Front on 9 June 1920 and was given authority over a field army and all civil and military officials in the Eastern Front on 13 or 14 June. Skirmishes between Turkish and Armenian forces in the area surrounding Kars were frequent during that summer, although full-scale hostilities did not break out until September. Convinced that the Allies would not come to

10098-474: Was because they were "guided in their general action by the prescriptions of Sheri [Sharia] Law. That law prescribes that if the 'rayah' [subject] Christian attempts, by having recourse to foreign powers, to overstep the limits of privileges allowed to them by their Mussulman masters, and free themselves from their bondage, their lives and property are to be forfeited, and are at the mercy of the Mussulmans. To

10200-690: Was not happy with possible agreement between the Soviets and Armenia. Karabekir was informed by the Government of the Grand National Assembly regarding the Boris Legran agreement and ordered to resolve the Kars issue. The same day the agreement between Armenia and Soviet Russia was signed, Karabekir moved his forces toward Kars. On 24 October, Karabekir's forces launched a new, massive campaign against Kars. The Armenians abandoned

10302-466: Was occupied in order to secure the surroundings and prepare for the establishment of headquarters in Adana . After the occupation of Cilicia proper at the end of 1918, French troops occupied the Ottoman provinces of Antep , Marash and Urfa in southern Anatolia at the end of 1919, taking them over from British troops as agreed. At the eastern tip of the occupation zone in the south, the city of Mardin

10404-692: Was to "guarantee the safety and unity of the country". The Bolsheviks sympathized with the Turkish Movement due to their mutual opposition to "Western Imperialism", as the Bolsheviks referred to it. In his message to Vladimir Lenin , the leader of the Bolsheviks , dated 26 April 1920, Kemal promised to coordinate his military operations with the Bolsheviks' "fight against imperialist governments" and requested five million lira in gold as well as armaments "as first aid" to his forces. In 1920,

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