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Re: When we get East Anatolia back...
By staying away from generalisations about Turks, and not speaking about them as if they are one people with one single opinion. Instead of saying "Turks are guilty of genocide", "Turks committed genocide", say "the Turkish government committed genocide". Also, not being racist and not being hostile towards their culture. Instead of mocking their traditions and customs, we should attack their political policies. We must stay civilized in the face of barbarism, or else we will be no different then the extremists in their society.
Its a complex issue, so I'll try to keep it subjective and to the point. Armenians and Turks were generally friendly towards each other for the better part of 5 centuries. After the 1878 Russo-Turkish war, the large class of western-educated Armenians became more and more influenced by events like the French Revolution. They formed political parties (mostly outside of the Ottoman Empire) which were urging the Ottomans for better treatment, since at this time Armenians were not allowed to join the army, they had to pay extra taxes because they were non-Muslims in a Muslim empire, and other issues as well. As this was happening, Kurdish tribes all over eastern Anatolia were levying taxes on the Armenian population, and these "taxes" prevented Kurdish militias from attacking the Armenians (who were not armed because they were not allowed to join the army). So basically they were intimidating and stealing from them. The Ottoman authorities did close to nothing to prevent the mistreatment of Armenians, so Armenians kept pushing for reforms. In 1895, Sultan Abdul-Hamid II wanted to solve the Armenian question once and for all, and he sent the army and Kurdish militias to crush the Armenian reform movement. The end result was the massacre of over 200,000 Armenian civlians. Abdul-Hamid, at the time, was known in the west as a butcher of Armenians.
In 1908, the Ottoman Empire was going through change. The Ottomans themselves wanted to replace Sultan Abdul-Hamid II and establish a constitution. The Armenians naturally supported this reform, and in 1908 the Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) launched a coup on the Sultan and deposed him, establishing a constitution. The Armenians felt safe, the bloody Sultan had been removed, a constitution had been established, and Armenians were now allowed to join the military.
While the Armenians still hoped to have further reforms (to ease the heavy taxation for being Christians, and the taxation from Kurdish tribes), they were content at the moment. However, things were not well for long. In 1909, just one year after the Armenians had supported their rise to power, the CUP responded to the call for reforms by massacring 30,000 Armenian civilians, mainly in the Adana province (Cilicia). In 1913, the more extreme elements of the CUP took over in a bloody coup, and the Ottoman Empire was now ruled by 3 main figures. Djemal Pasha (admiral of the navy), Enver Pasha (minister of war), and Talaat Pasha (minister of the interior). They were the very nationalist section of the CUP, and were supporters of Pan-Turkism.
When WW1 broke out, the Ottomans chose to side with the Germans, and launched a preemptive strike against the Russian Empire through the Caucasus (remember, Armenia was split between the Ottoman and Russian Empires). The Ottomans believed they were going to be victorious, but their strike was disastrous. Out of the nearly 100,000 soldiers they sent to Russian Armenia, nearly 90% of them were wiped out due to poor preparation and the winter. The CUP blamed the Armenians for their loss, and started deporting all Armenians within their territories to prevent a small number of Armenians from crossing over to the Russian side (indeed some Armenians left the Ottoman Empire to fight for Russia, but you have to remember, in an occupied country, there is ALWAYS going to be SOME people who will fight against their government... Armenians even engaged in anti-Russian activities prior to WW1, but Russians never massacred them). All Armenians in the Ottoman army (tens of thousands of men), were disarmed, and forced into labor camps, where they were either worked to death or outright massacred. With most of the able-bodied Armenian men wiped out, they deported millions of women and children and elderly from east Anatolia to march through the Syrian desert with no supplies. Those that could not keep up with the group were massacred by the Turkish patrols who were "gaurding" them, and the Ottomans even released Kurdish prisoners to prey on the defenseless women and children on the marches. Out of a pre-war population of over 2 million, around 3/4 of them died from 1915-1923 (most of the casualties occured between 1915 and 1917, when Armenians still believed that the Ottomans were moving them for their own safety, since that is what they were told). I should also mention that the Ottomans disarmed the general Armenian population in 1915, and since many Armenians didn't have guns, they had to buy guns from their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors to give to the Ottomans since they would be punished if they didn't hand in anything.
Originally posted by Elia
Originally posted by IranianAzeri
In 1908, the Ottoman Empire was going through change. The Ottomans themselves wanted to replace Sultan Abdul-Hamid II and establish a constitution. The Armenians naturally supported this reform, and in 1908 the Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) launched a coup on the Sultan and deposed him, establishing a constitution. The Armenians felt safe, the bloody Sultan had been removed, a constitution had been established, and Armenians were now allowed to join the military.
While the Armenians still hoped to have further reforms (to ease the heavy taxation for being Christians, and the taxation from Kurdish tribes), they were content at the moment. However, things were not well for long. In 1909, just one year after the Armenians had supported their rise to power, the CUP responded to the call for reforms by massacring 30,000 Armenian civilians, mainly in the Adana province (Cilicia). In 1913, the more extreme elements of the CUP took over in a bloody coup, and the Ottoman Empire was now ruled by 3 main figures. Djemal Pasha (admiral of the navy), Enver Pasha (minister of war), and Talaat Pasha (minister of the interior). They were the very nationalist section of the CUP, and were supporters of Pan-Turkism.
When WW1 broke out, the Ottomans chose to side with the Germans, and launched a preemptive strike against the Russian Empire through the Caucasus (remember, Armenia was split between the Ottoman and Russian Empires). The Ottomans believed they were going to be victorious, but their strike was disastrous. Out of the nearly 100,000 soldiers they sent to Russian Armenia, nearly 90% of them were wiped out due to poor preparation and the winter. The CUP blamed the Armenians for their loss, and started deporting all Armenians within their territories to prevent a small number of Armenians from crossing over to the Russian side (indeed some Armenians left the Ottoman Empire to fight for Russia, but you have to remember, in an occupied country, there is ALWAYS going to be SOME people who will fight against their government... Armenians even engaged in anti-Russian activities prior to WW1, but Russians never massacred them). All Armenians in the Ottoman army (tens of thousands of men), were disarmed, and forced into labor camps, where they were either worked to death or outright massacred. With most of the able-bodied Armenian men wiped out, they deported millions of women and children and elderly from east Anatolia to march through the Syrian desert with no supplies. Those that could not keep up with the group were massacred by the Turkish patrols who were "gaurding" them, and the Ottomans even released Kurdish prisoners to prey on the defenseless women and children on the marches. Out of a pre-war population of over 2 million, around 3/4 of them died from 1915-1923 (most of the casualties occured between 1915 and 1917, when Armenians still believed that the Ottomans were moving them for their own safety, since that is what they were told). I should also mention that the Ottomans disarmed the general Armenian population in 1915, and since many Armenians didn't have guns, they had to buy guns from their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors to give to the Ottomans since they would be punished if they didn't hand in anything.
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