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At the beginning of the 19th century, the world witnessed an unprecedented escalation of the Eastern question, as a consequence of strong national-liberation movements, initiated by the Non-Turkish peoples inhabiting the Ottoman Empire. Well-organized anti-Turkish rebellions soon reached the Balkan region, which had terribly suffered under the Turkish brute domination for several centuries. The national-liberation movements had been strongly supported by the raising Russian Empire, which at one point was actively promoting the national liberation movements of the Christian peoples. Owing to the victorious for Russians the Russian-Turkish wars, the Turkish domination in the Balkans came to its logical end, and several nationalities were finally awarded a long-awaited independence. This was a strong blow for the stability of the Ottoman Empire, creating a deep social-economic crisis, which especially intensified from 1875 to 1876. The crisis was strong enough to fundamentally shake the Ottoman Empire. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78, created a false hope for the minorities living in the Empire. The subjugated ethnic groups and nationalities, including Armenians, were anticipating speedy collapse of the "sick man of Europe." The treaty of San-Stefano, (1878) and especially the verdicts of the Berlin conference were very promising: the Ottoman Empire was compelled to give up almost all of its European possessions, and to create favorable circumstances for the population of Eastern Armenia. However, inclusion of the Armenian question as a vital part of the Eastern question, did not contribute to the security of the Armenian population of Eastern Armenia. Regrettably, it only worsened the conditions of the Armenians. The powerful nations played the Armenian question only to exert pressure on Turkey to get their own benefits, while nearly ignoring the interests of the entire Armenian population. The international ignorance created a condition, which empowered Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the head of the Ottoman Empire, to put into practice a state-designed policy of extermination of the entire Armenian population from their historical lands—the Armenian Plateau.
There were several grounds for the anti-Armenian military operations: to incorporate into the Empire the historically Armenian lands, to terminate the existence of a rich and dynamic culture, to become the masters of a thriving historic-cultural heritage, and finally, to create an Empire, with exclusively Muslim population, which later on was going to be reorganized into a Turkish state. The Armenian population has always possessed a real threat to the Pan-Turkish ideas, which had as its main goal the political union of all the Turkish-speaking peoples. The Armenian presence limited the Turkish presence exclusively on the geographic areas of Asia Minor. By the 1890's, the ideas of "Pan Turkism" had already been deeply incorporated into the guidelines of the Ottoman Empire. The extreme nationalism was based on a desire to ,,turkify" (if not possible to exterminate) the empire's non-Turkish population, fist of all Christians, and creating favorable circumstances for the creation of the "Great Turan." Armed with chauvinist ideas of "Pan-Turkism," and in advance having successfully created an anti-Armenian hysteria, Abdul Hamid, and his subordinates, between the years of 1894-1896, decided to "solve" the Armenian question by well-organized and state sponsored mass murder of more than three hundred thousand Armenians living in Western Armenia, Cilicia, and other heavily Armenian-populated regions.
It is important to mention, that there were several heroic resistances in predominantly Armenian populated Sasun-Zeitun, Van-Urfa, Mush, and many other historic Armenian regions, which somehow limited the expansion of the massacres. Moreover, the Armenian resistance became an impetus for the world's progressive forces to compel their governments to exert pressure upon Sultan Hamid, in order to stop his government's genocidal policies towards Armenians, who lived on their historical lands. Enthusiasm and kindness of the great humanists, such as Mark Tven, Anatol France, Johannes Lepsius, Jan Jores and others, who raised their voices against the mass killings of innocent civilians, will never be forgotten.
Bloodthirsty Sultan Abdul Hamid's policy of extermination of the Armenian population, in 1908, with only a slight variation, was passed to the government of the Young Turks. The leaders of the Young Turks did not only master the murderous methods of Abdul Hamid, but raised them to an unprecedented level. Deceiving public into believing that they would bring peace, equality and freedom to all nations inhabiting the Empire, the government of the Young Turks successfully sowed the seeds of dissention, and throughout the Empire raised a strong anti-Armenian mood. Barbarity of the Young Turks in most cases exceeded those of Abdul Hamid. In 1909, the Armenians living in Adana, Marash, and other heavily populated Armenian regions of Cilicia were among the first who experienced the horrible consequences of the anti-Armenian policies. During the fall "campaign," more than thirty thousand Armenians became victims of the state-sponsored program, aimed to wipe out the entire Armenian population of Cilicia, and eventually to seize their belongings. The Young Turks' desire to begin their genocidal policy with the annihilation of the Cilician Armenians was not a casual circumstance: the Armenian population of Cilicia controlled almost all major sectors of the regional economy. Unfortunately, the well- implemented extermination of the Cilician Armenians was going to be followed by the second stage of the same genocidal policy, which was in nature even more atrocious.
The Young Turks rejected the depreciated ideas of Pan-Islamism, and from 1910-1913, decided to implement new and "fresh" ideas of Pan-Turkism: creation of the "Great Turan." As early as 1911, a conference organized by the Young Turks in Salonika, then part of Turkey, and now part of Greece, established a secret society: Committee of Union and Progress, (CUP) with an implication to "turkify" the Islamic, and to exterminate the Christian populations of the Ottoman Empire. The process of destruction was perceived as an "essential" step towards the idea of creating the ,,Great Turkish Empire," which was going to stretch from Bosporus to the Ural Mountains, including Altai region with its huge Turkish speaking population. To carry out this plot, first of all it was important to eliminate the main obstruction: the Christian Armenians that were like a wedge between the Turkish speaking Central Asia, and Turkey.
The World War I, played into the Young Turks' hands by creating an international chaos, which was essential for the realization of anti-Armenian policies. "The Armenians must be uprooted in order to evaporate the Armenian spirit from our lands: the Armenian language must be forgotten. The war is going on, and this chance might be the only chance," publicly stated Dr. Nazeem Bey, once addressing to his party's affiliates. "This time our actions must directly deal with the eradication of Armenians, we must kill everyone, until the last person," continued Nazeem Bey.1 By fall of 1914, the Young Turks had already put to death almost all of Armenia's efficient population of the Empire- the Armenians that were deceitfully mobilized into the Ottoman Army and placed into labor battalions. Subsequently, on April 24, 1915, the Young Turk's government gave an official order to torture and kill thousands of Western Armenian intellectuals, defenseless children, old people and women. In order to delude the international community, the Turkish butchers carried out their inhumane policies by forcefully relocating entire segments of the Armenian population from one place to another, and forcing them to walk unbearable distances. The "Temporary Law of Deportation," adapted by the Young Turks government on May 27, 1915, became the culmination point of the Turkish hypocrisy. The initiative empowered the Ottoman Empire to resettle the entire Armenian population to "safer" places, upon a simple suspicion of treason, for a military motivation or for no reason at all.
The Interior minister of Turkey, Talaat, in his multiple telegram-decrees explicitly stated that "Armenians in Turkey have absolutely no rights of existence,2 and relocation implies nothing more than extermination."3 A witness of the tragic events, the US ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, affirmed that "the true causes of mass relocations are looting and termination, indeed this is a new method of slaughter."4 On May 24, 1915, the countries of Entente, England, France and Russia, which considered Armenians as their "little ally," publicly stated that Turkey's genocidal policy towards its Armenian minority is "a crime against humanity and civilization," and that the Turkish government would be held ,,personally responsible."5 However, this declaration did not produce any results; the government of the Young Turks completely ignored the international statement and even intensified its murderous policies.
The mass murder of Armenians continued during the subsequent years. In the fall of 1918, Turks penetrated into Transcaucasia with the purpose of exterminating the Eastern Armenians. During military operations, only in one region alone, in predominantly Armenian populated Axalkalak, 40 thousand Armenians died on account of famine and epidemics. The same year, the Turkish army entered into the capital and the largest city of Azerbaijan, Baku, and unified with the Azeri Musafatists, tortured to death thousands of unarmed Armenians. During the years 1918-20, the Armenian massacres continued in other Armenian populated regions of Azerbaijan, particularly in Elizavetpol. The true historical picture of the Armenian Genocide would not be complete without mentioning the heroic resistance that Armenians organized throughout the Armenian vilayets of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in Van, Mush, Sasun, and Musaler. The same courageous resistance was organized in many provinces of Eastern Armenia (Russian Armenia). The remarkable victories in Bash-Aparan, Sardarapat and Karakilisa ruined the Young Turks' strong desire to wipe out the Armenian race.
In 1909, and from 1915-1918 as a result of forced relocations, which produced famine, epidemic, and diseases the government of the Young Turks systematically exterminated more than 1.5 million Armenians. Almost 500 thousand Armenians by miracle having escaped the massacres, spread throughout the world and gave birth to the Armenian Diaspora, which is a direct consequence of the Genocide. Western Armenia did not only lose its original owners, but also the priceless treasures of its rich, national-spiritual wealth. Thousands of unique Christian churches were ruthlessly destroyed in a systematic attempt to eradicate everything that might have carried some association with the Armenian culture.
When the WWI ended, with the defeat of Germany and its allies, it appeared as if the Ottomans were going to lose their influence over the territories and people they conquered, enabling the Armenians to gradually recover from their Genocidal past. Nevertheless, while the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide were publicly put to death by the highest Turkish military leaders, a new radical-national movement, led by a Turkish General, Mustafa Kemal, continued fierce persecution of the remaining Armenian population. "Great Crime," a book written in 1919, by an Armenian writer, Aram Antonyan, prudently asserts that "the national movement," led by Mustafa Kemal was nothing more but an anti-Armenian movement, which had a sole purpose of uniting the radical Islamists throughout the Caucasus, against the remaining Armenian population.6 Unfortunately, Aram Antonyan's calculations became a bitter reality. The implications of the Kemalists obtained legal status in a convention, which took place in September-October of 1919, in Erzrum. Beligerent speeches, systematically voiced by the Kemalists during the conference, confirmed the fear that the Kemalists had a strong intention of continuing the Genocidal policy of the Ottoman Empire. Unfortunately, Mustafa Kemal learned no lessons from the verdicts of the Turkish military tribunal, and continued to shamelessly claim that during the WW I, the Armenians had "insulted turkishness," and therefore, need to be severely punished. The Kemalists claimed that Turks should pay any price to keep the Western Armenia under their control. In additions, they declared that they will not only rule out any territorial concessions to Armenians, but will also actively hinder any attempts to build an Armenian state in any other territory. G. Perrin, a covert agent working for the government of the Great Britain, in a report, sent to his government on July 29, 1919, explicitly states that "the sole purpose of Kemal is to form a gang, and with the help of the Turkish military commanders, in order to prevent the separation of "Turkish Armenia." Also, an admiral of the English Fleet, Sir John de Robeck, came to the same conclusion as Perrin did: in a letter from December 26, 1919, de Robeck reported to Lord Curzon that in Kemal's organized convention of December 5th, in which besides the Turkish delegation participated also the Kurds and Azeris, one of the main questions discussed in details was "the mechanisms of preventing the establishment of an Armenian independent state."7 The Grand National Assembly of Turkey, founded in Ankara on 23 April 1920, adapted the "Turkish National Oath," which openly stated that preventing the establishment of an Armenian community must be a "holy debt" of every Turk.
On April 23, 1920, Kemal was elected as the head of the Turkish National Assembly, and with the slogan, "Live or die with the Turkish National Oath," began to implement policies, designed to assimilate or exterminate all the non-Turkish peoples of Turkey. Many reliable historical documents, in world's largest archives, provide undeniable evidence that the Genocidal policy of the Ottoman Empire was continued in the same manner by the government of Mustafa Kemal, between 1919 and 1922. The Kemalists did not only exterminate the remaining Armenian population of Cilicia, and other Armenia populated enclaves, but also instigated to carry out an insatiable wish: to annex the Eastern Armenia. It was not an incident that the first foreign policy paper, signed by Mustafa Kemal, was addressed to Vladimir Lenin, a founder of the Russian Communist Party. In this chauvinistic document, Kemal pledged his full support in dealing with "containment of the nationalistic tendencies in Armenia."8 Furthermore, Kemal had a dream of becoming the leader of the "Great Turan," an idea of expanding the Ottoman Empire to Central Asia and farther to the Pacific Ocean. However, there was a huge problem: the historical homeland of Armenians, which is located right in the path of their plans to expand eastward. In the fall 1920, the bandit groups of Azeri Musafats, aligned with the so-called Kemalists, exterminated more than 30 thousand Armenians in the Shushi, a town of the present-day Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Making use of the ambiguous policies of the French government towards the Cilician Armenians, the resurgent Kemalists, in 1920, put to death or deported tens of thousands Armenians from Urfa, Marash, Sasun, Zeitun, Antap, and other heavily Armenian populated regions. One of the most important aspects of the so-called Kemalist regime was an attempt to eradicate everything that had an Armenian spirit. In the fall of 1920, the Kemalists entered into the Eastern Armenia with the sole purpose to destroy the Armenian army, and wipe out its entire population.9 In the Kars region alone, the Kemalist butchers killed nearly 30 thousand Armenians; no mercy was shown even to six thousand orphaned Armenian children, who remained under the custody of an American humanitarian organization. The Kemalists intensified their brutality especially in the city of Alexandropol: (present-day Gyumri, Armenia) between 1920 and 1921; more than 100 thousand Armenians were either murdered, or put into government organized ,,death march," from their homes into an uninhabitable desert.10 In March 1921, the Kemalist bandit groups enter into Akhalkalak, another historically Armenian region, and in the same manner organized mass murder of the Armenian population. From 1918 to 1921, the Armenian population of Javakhk was reduced by about 50 %. In 1922, the so-called Kemalist regime exterminated another 30 thousand Armenians, and tens of thousands Greeks in Izmir, a city located by the Aegean Sea. A French scholar and diplomat, Jean-Pierre Garnier, in his article, "Downfall of the Ottoman Empire: from the Red Sultan to Mustafa Kemal," published in 1973 in Paris, noted that the Kemalists unashamedly declared, "look closely at this seen, the same is going to happen to anyone who dares to question our authority. Our motherland has finally been cleaned from infidels, and traitors; Turkey belongs to the Turks." The international community expressed serious concerns about all the anarchy and killings that took place in Cilicia and elsewhere. All major European leading newspapers condemned the Turkish government for the atrocities committed against innocent civilians.
The sole purpose of the Kemalist's so-called "National Movement" was to preserve the collapse of the Turkish Empire. After the Battle of Dumlupynar, where the Greek army was defeated, with half of its soldiers captured or slaughtered, Turks decided that now it is time to get rid of all the non-Turkish peoples, including the Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, and to expropriate their historical lands. Hence, many historians, including Turks, accurately claim that there was no national-liberation movement in Turkey, but a clear attempt to repress the national and ethnic minorities, where the sole the sole purpose was to appropriate their historical lands. The "liberation movement" was simply a civil war against the Greeks and Armenians.11 Moreover, according to many historians, if the Kemalists initial movement in Western Anatolia was meant to spread an anti-Greek mood, especially after the Greek invasion of Izmir and Western Anatolia, in May 1919, the killings of the Armenian population in Eastern Anatolia had no other purpose, but to pave a way for the chauvinistic ideas of the "Great Turan." The personal secretary of Jemal Pasha, Falih Rifki Atay, in his book, "Zankaya," honestly acknowledged that "sorrowfully, without the Armenian killings, Ataturk's "National Union" movement could not have been successful because it would have been required to deal with a strong Armenian community." Moreover, a decent Turkish contemporary historian, Taner Akcam, wholeheartedly recognizes that "The Armenian Genocide was committed not just for abstract purposes, but because of substantial gains: the Armenian Genocide played into the hands of the Turkish government, who sought to create a national Turkish state." In addition, Taner Akcam suggests that the Armenian Genocide from the Turk's point of view was a rational decision because it enabled the Turkish authorities to finally "Turkify" Anatolia.12 Finally, Taner Akcam arrives to the logical conclusion that "the foundation of the Turkish Republic was built on a deliberate annihilation of an entire race."13 The Armenian Genocide was not only an attempt to eradicate the Armenian ethnic identity, in concerted efforts to eliminate the Armenians from their historical lands, but also to confiscate their lands, thus expanding their territorial possessions. A numerous trustworthy historical documents provide undisputable evidence that the government of the Ottoman Empire, the so-called Kemalists regime, and the policies of the Turkish Republic, in terms of their genocidal policies towards the minorities living in their historical lands, were identical. Consequently, it is an undeniable reality that the Turkish authorities from 1894 to 1922, deliberately, step by step, implemented systematic genocidal policies towards the Armenians. By 1922, virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had vanished. The Armenians lost the giant part of their historical lands because of the Genocide that is still not recognized by the Turkish Republic. At present, the Armenian state possesses only one tenth of its historical lands, and is vulnerably surrounded by the hostile or indifferent neighbors. In opposite, the Turkish Republic did not only survive, but by appropriating the strategically important lands that historically do not belong to them, become one of the strongest nations in the world.
Today, the Turkish government on the highest national level, denies the Armenian Genocide, and continues to actively destroy Armenian monuments. By doing so, the Turkish government, along with their ancestors, the Ottomans, Yong Turks, and the Kemalists, bears full responsibility for the crimes committed against the Armenians living on their historical homeland - the Armenian Plateau.
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