Armenia Flashcards
The events of the Armenian genocide in three stages
Stage one:
- 24th April 1915: Armenian community leaders nation-wide are rounded up and sent to Ankara. Majority are murdered.
- 2nd May: Deportations from Erzerum, Bitlis, Van, Cilicia region, Mosul
Stage two:
- 27th May: ‘Provisional’ Law permits Ottomans to deport anyone they wish
- 19th June: Extension of deportations, from Erzerum, Trebizond, Van, Bitlis, Harput, Diarbekir, Sivas provinces
Stage three:
- August: deportations extend to Western and Central provinces
End:
- Spring 1916: deportations from interior/eastern halted
- Survivors placed in camps along Emphrates, further massacres in Summer 1916
Broadly, by what methods did the genocide take place?
- Men separated, killed,
- Women and children killed, or die en-route
- Those who survive are massacred, starved or exposed to disease in the camps
- Armenians not to exceed 10% of the population
- Property liquidated 10th June 1915, 23rd Nov 1916 property of non-deported Armenians also seized
The genocide in context: Christian-Muslim relations
KAISER
- ‘a major divide in Ottoman society’
- Christians a sizeable minority with inferior legal status and subject to discriminatory taxation
- 1878, defeat by Russia, Sublime Porte accepts reforms including improvements for Ottoman Armenians and an end to double taxation (by local elites and central gvt). They did not enforce this.
- Sublime Porte sanctioned and supported settlement by Muslims in non-muslim areas. Eg. The Armenian Highlands
Armenian Genocide in context: illegal occupation of land
KAISER
- Ottoman sublime Porte sanctioned and supported occupation of Armenian Highlands by Muslims.
- Kurds occupy Armenian land, often with violence
- Armenians appeal to Berlin Congress (formed after Russio Turkish War 1877-8) –> ‘Armenian Question’
- Political mobilisation in 1880s of the Armenians against mistreatment and double taxation
- -> Gvt counters with Kurdish ‘Hamidieh’ in 1890 (units against Armenian organisations)
- Massacres
- Balkan Wars, European powers give Armenian ‘reform plan’ to Ottoman gvt. CUP stall scheme and abandon it at start of WW1.
Armenian Genocide context: massacres
KAISER
- First massacres in 1894-96 perpetrated in Sassun by Kurds and Hamidiehs against Armeinans who opposed double taxation
- Plunder, theft, violence against women
- Survivors deported
- massacre of Armenians in Constantinople in 1896
- 1909, In Cilicia, 25,000 to 30,000 Armenians were slaughtered by reactionaries who took advantage of religious fervour, dire economic conditions, inflation, and the competition for land and jobs.
- Muslim provincial elites were integrated with the CUP and anti-Armenian measures increased
- –> Armenian Revolutionary Federation broke with the CUP in 1912
Armenia Context: Ethnic Cleansing of Greeks and Bulgarians
KAISER
- Balkan Wars 1912-1913, displaced people
- Ottoman Greeks and Bulgarians expelled, returning to Greece or deported to interior provinces.
Escalating violence and plunder in ww1
KAISER
- October 1914, France, Britain, Russia, declare war on Ottoman Empire.
- Dec 1914, Ottoman Third Army fails in offensive against Russians, and plunder Armenian villages in retreat.
VAN
- Ottoman Army plunders Armenians in Van - a ‘political centre of the eastern provinces -
again when they are defeated in Iranian Azerbaijan
- political hub with arrangements for self defence is an ‘internal enemy’
- Gvt forces attack 20th April 1915, massacred surrounding villages but defeated in Van.
- Expecting attack on Dardanelles and mindful of Van’s resistance, Talaat Pasha orders arrest of Armenian Community leaders empire wide on 24th April 1915
Talaat Pasha orders arrest of Armenian Community leaders empire wide
KAISER
… on 24th April 1915
In Constantinople, the police rounded up Armenian, among others, journalists, clerics, politicians, and teachers. The arrested were sent to the interior where the majority was killed. Armenian elites in the provinces suffered the same fate.
The Armenian genocide:
First wave of deportations
KAISER
On 2 May 1915, the Ministry of War suggested the deportation of all Armenians from the eastern border regions to the Russian lines or to interior provinces.
- Deportations extended on May 23rd
- Armenians to be deported towards Syrian desert/Mosul. When arrived, Armenians could never number more than 10% of population
PRIMARY SOURCE: Entente powers joint declaration 24th May 1915, and Ottoman response
KAISER
On 24 May 1915, the Entente powers declared that they would hold all Ottoman citizens and officials personally accountable for their role in the persecution of the Armenians.
The Ottoman government:
- 27 May 1915, ‘provisional law’ gave Ottoman military commanders the right to deport anyone they wished to.
- a manual for its Department for the Settlement of Tribes and Immigrants, specifying the deportations’ implementation.
- Armenian immovable property was to be seized and used for the settlement of Muslims. Evidently, the deportations were not a temporary emergency measure but should permanently change the demographic map.
Prelude to Armenian genocide: the liquidation of property
KAISER
- Ministry of the Interior liquidates all Armenian property
- all property registered, perishables auctioned off, Muslims take the settlements
On 6 January 1916, Talaat stated that the Ottoman economy had to become an exclusively Muslim one.
Armenian genocide: second wave of deportations
KAISER
- On 19 June 1915, the Third Army ordered the extension of deportations and the removal of all Armenians from the Erzerum, Trebizond, Van, Bitlis, Harput, Diarbekir, and Sivas provinces
- Men not drafted into the army separated with boys and killed
- At stops along deportation routes, groups merged, informed of impending massacre. Could avoid with ransom or bribes. Successive ‘notorious cites’ induced fear, allowing the military to rinse the Armenians of all valuables until they could no longer pay
Evidence that the deportations were not driven by military considerations
KAISER
The Armenian deportations were not the result of an Armenian rebellion. On the contrary, Armenians were deported when no danger of outside interference existed.
- Often slaughter with no effort at deportation
- liquidation of Armenian property
- moving Muslims into the settlements abandoned by Armenians
- extension of deportations far beyond the war zone
Armenian genocide: religious considerations in the second wave of deportations?
KAISER
On 22 June 1915, Armenians who had converted to Islam were allowed to stay behind for the time being and had to undergo special registration.
The order was personally addressed to the provincial governors, who were all trusted CUP members.
Evidence of systematic state involvement: record keeping
KAISER
Given the massive number of deportees, recordkeeping emerged as a major task. Repeatedly, the Ministry of Interior demanded information on Armenian villages, their location and agricultural potential, number of deportees and the route along which they had been deported, Armenian real estate, and suggestions for settlement of prospective settlers.
Throughout July 1915, the central authorities requested population data and information on the progress of the deportations and their impact on the ethnic make‐up of the areas in question.
Who was responsible for the killing squads?
KAISER
- under command of CUP members - either local administrators, military officers, Special Organization members*
- (TM) an organization that had been founded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) for intelligence, counter‐insurgency
- Varying composition: TM close to combat zone; in interior, local militiamen, gendarmes, Kurdish tribal groups, or cut‐throats hired from the local population for the occasion
The sites of massacres
List some, what was particular about them?
KAISER
Near transit camps
- Kemah gorge
- Lake Khazar
valleys south of Firindjilar
The sites were mountainous but still close to overland roads. Thus, the deportees could be easily transported to the massacre sites while having relatively few escape routes.
Rivers and deep gorges facilitated the hiding or disposal of corpses.
Sexual violence
KAISER
targeted at destroying the Armenian individuals’ and community’s self‐perception by inflicting lasting psychological harm.
Rape meant an irreparable transgenerational loss of self‐esteem, or ‘honor’, for Armenians
Suicide often the only way out
- children taken in, especially girls, could become sex slaves
Resisting the CUPs ‘Genocidal logic’
KAISER
Elder women gave up their food ration for the children and girls were given up before the boys. Once only boys were left, the mother tried to protect at least one male descendant at the cost of her own life. Thus, women focused not on individual survival but that of the family as they understood it
Genocide: Third Wave of deportations
KAISER
- By early August 1915, the government extended the deportations to the central and western provinces
- the government sanctioned the ongoing dispersion of young Armenian children among non‐Turkish Muslim villages
- Unlike in the eastern provinces, large numbers of Armenians were deported by railway or along the railway lines.
- Following protests from the US, German, and Austro‐Hungarian embassies, Catholic and Protestant Armenians, who had so far not been deported, were exempted,
–> 8th Sep 1915, exempted Armenians dispersed amongst Muslims. In Nov, decreed they must become Muslims
After the deportations: the final stages of the genocide
KAISER
- In spring 1916, the deportations from interior and eastern provinces cease. Remaining women/children were to be dispersed in exclusively Muslim villages or taken into orphanages. Women of childbearing age had to marry Muslim men.
- Survivors of death marches to Syrian desert in camps along the Euphrates to Der Zor.
- Deliberately exposed to deadly diseases and did not provide food or water
The end of the Armenian genocide
KAISER
END
- In June 1916, deportations to Mosul and Syria were stopped
- July 2016, dissolution of camps near Euphrates river. Talaat Pasha declares Armenians military threat, must be removed.
- Further massacres of children - 1000 burned alive - ordered by governor of Del Zor. Some camps, such as Rasulain, have entire population massacred
- ‘demographic map’ transformed: By ‘Turkifying’ entire regions as well as other non‐Turkish and non‐Muslim communities, the CUP sought to remove competing claims to Ottoman territory.
Death toll and other damage of the Armenian Genocide:
KAISER
This suggests that over 1.1 million Armenians had lost their lives due to government policies. Possibly more than 150,000 Armenians had been forcibly assimilated.
This suggests that over 1.1 million Armenians had lost their lives due to government policies. Possibly more than 150,000 Armenians had been forcibly assimilated.
the survivors’ age and gender composition, and the annihilation of the secular and religious elites —-> Remaining Armenians were a fragment, not merely numerically reduced
Justice after the Armenian Genocide?
KAISER
- Ottoman courts prosecuted CUP members
- Key figures such as Talaat had fled
Central responsibility for the Armenian genocide?
KAISER
The loss of life caused by death marching, famine, diseases, and systematic massacres along the routes appears to have been part of the government’s programme.
Surplus of Armenians that couldn’t be allocated to available land, imposiblle to finance camps for long –> The deaths caused by starvation were therefore not unforeseen but appear systematic
it seems that in 1915, the CUP had no coherent single plan for the extermination of the (p. 385) Armenians. It is more likely that Talaat and his associates accepted mass murder as a viable policy option to be employed in case problems arose.
The Armenian Genocide in context: the Nestorians
- Summer, 1914: Ottoman gvt. concerned about Russian advances towards Kurds and Nestorians. Planned to be dispersed amongst Muslims in Western provinces, but the plan was shelved.
- However, there were massacres in cross border raids into Iran following the collapse of the Ottoman front along Iranian border.. This was not central gvt policy.
—> Evidence of an ‘MO’ of deportation policies
