Материал: Payaslian S., The History of Armenia From the Origins to the Present

forces were attacking the Russian front in December 1914. The British military leaders, who favored the removal of Turkey from the war, supported the plan, and the military defeats sustained by Turkey in the Caucasus, Cairo, and Mesopotamia strengthened British resolve.58 On April 25 the Allied troops successfully landed at Helles and Anzac, but the operation led to disastrous results and withdrawal eight months later.59 The Turkish military success assuaged the growing public opposition to the Turko-German alliance, fortified Enver’s pro-German faction in the CUP, and enhanced the regime’s political legitimacy. The Allied defeat strengthened the Turkish resolve to free themselves from the European powers. U.S. Ambassador Morgenthau commented: “New Turkey, freed from European tutelage, celebrated its national rebirth by murdering not far from a million of its own subjects.”60 Similarly, Lewis Einstein, then serving as a special agent at the U.S. embassy in Constantinople, noted that no sooner had the Turks regained their confidence at the Dardanelles than they seized the “opportunity to destroy the Armenians, who were the real victims of the naval failure.”61

In the meantime, the anti-Armenian propaganda campaign by the Special Organization escalated, as did the mass arrests and deportations.62 In May 1915 Mounted irregular chete bands, organized as instruments of government policy, assisted the state bureaucracies and the military in the implementation of the deportations and massacres. Despair and desperation enveloped the Armenian communities throughout the Ottoman empire. The Armenians had been referred to disdainfully as giavurs (infidels), but now they were accused of collaborating with the enemy.63 In early May Halil Bey, Enver’s uncle, led a Turkish force of 10,000 to oust the Russians from Urmia and Dilman in Persia, in the process destroying Armenian villages.64 The Turkish army overran the Russians and forced them to withdraw from Dilman. Within a few days a successful counteroffensive by General Nazarbekov forced the Turkish army to retreat to Van. After a few weeks of losses, Halil withdrew to Bitlis. Meanwhile, the Russian forces registered successes in the Urmia- Dilman-Tabriz region and, led by General Trukhin, moved to Beghrikale near the northeastern tip of Lake Van and toward the Murat Su (Lower Euphrates) valley north of Lake Van. The campaign was coordinated with Nazarbekov, who advanced from Dilman to Bashkale, arriving on May 7. By then the Turkish troops and Kurdish irregulars had abandoned the northern shores of Lake Van. General Trukhin and the Armenian volunteer units, led by General Andranik (Ozanian), advanced toward Van and after a month of heavy fighting entered the city on May 19.65 In June, the Russians captured Arjesh, Adiljevaz, and prepared to move to Malazkert. Trukhin and the Armenian units forced the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers from Shatakh and Mukus and

moved to Sairt, from where Halil Bey and his remaining Turkish and Kurdish troops, arriving from the Van region, had reorganized themselves yet again and moved to Bitlis.66 The Russian military campaigns across the region and occupation of Van enabled the Armenians to form a government, under the leadership of Aram Manukian, in that ancient city at the heart of historic Armenia. In the midst of the death and destruction unfolding in towns and villages across their ancient land, Armenians unfolded the Armenian flag above the Citadel of Van and expectations soared. The Russian military, as the downtrodden Armenians in the eastern provinces had always expected, had liberated them from Turkish rule.

Armenians hoped that the Russian military successes and support would strengthen their hand in European capitals. In May 1915 a secret document titled “The Petrograd Plan,” submitted to the Russian embassies in London and Paris by Dr. Hakob Zavriev, assistant commissioner of the Russian government in Van, summarized the conditions for the creation of an autonomous Armenia within the Ottoman Empire after the war. The plan proposed, for example, that the borders of postwar Armenia include the six provinces of Van, Erzerum, Kharpert, Sivas, Bitlis, and Diarbekir as well as Cilicia with access to the Mediterranean. Also, Russia, England, and France would agree to provide protection for Armenia. Zavriev delivered a copy to Boghos Nubar, appointed by the catholicos in 1912 to head the Armenian National Delegation to secure European support for the Armenians in the Ottoman empire.67 Boghos Nubar praised the plan since (unlike the Agreement of February 8, 1914) it proposed the unification of Cilicia with the six Armenian provinces.68 Representatives of the Allied governments, however, thought proposals for such a plan too premature at this juncture; the task at hand was to ensure victory.

During the month of May thousands of Armenians were deported from various parts of Cilicia, including Sis, Hasan Beyli, Enzerli, Furnuz, and Tundajak. Some of them were sent to Konia, others to Aleppo. Thousands of refugees were scattered from Aleppo to the desert towns of Deir el-Zor, Rakka, and Baghdad.69 In the meantime, massacres occurred in Baiburt, Khnus, Erzerum, and Mamakhatun (Derjan). In Baiburt, the Armenian prelate and several other community leaders were murdered, and the town was completely emptied of its Armenian population. By early June, an estimated 174,000 Armenians were made refugees, removed from their homes in various parts of their historic homeland. By then about 70,000 Armenians had been massacred.70

On May 24 the Allied Powers issued a joint declaration condemning the deportations and massacres committed by the Turkish government against the Armenians. The declaration warned that the Allied governments “will hold personally responsible [for] these crimes all members of the Ottoman

government and those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres.”71 Rather than be deterred by such declarations, the Young Turk regime strongly protested the Allied action as violating Turkish national sovereignty, and in turn adopted, on May 29, the “Temporary Law of Deportation,” which granted the military vast authority to implement the wholesale deportation of the Armenian people. In a memorandum to the grand vizier, Minister of Interior Talaat maintained that war conditions necessitated the deportations, as Armenians in general and their “rebellious elements” in particular posed a threat to the Ottoman army.72 The central government subsequently formed the Commission on Abandoned Property for the purpose of confiscating properties left behind by the deported Armenians.73

Although the Allied declaration represented a strong condemnation of the Turkish atrocities against the Armenians, its purpose extended beyond humanitarian considerations. The Russian military successes on the eastern front in the Caucasus could be utilized for propaganda purposes to bolster British efforts to control the Dardanelles as well as to marshal domestic support for the war effort. Some Armenian leaders, however, undoubtedly encouraged by the favorable turn of events in Van, failed to assess the broader significance of the declaration. Boghos Nubar Pasha commented with satisfaction that the Allies “seriously” considered the Armenian cause and appeared “ready to offer us their complete cooperation.”74 He perhaps voiced the sentiments of most Armenians, but a more accurate assessment of the geopolitical and military situation and the political will of the Allied Powers would suggest otherwise. In a letter dated May 28, 1915, Levon Meguerditchian wrote to Boghos Nubar: “Unfortunately, at the moment, we cannot rely upon the Allies for their help, since they have focused their attention on Gallipoli.”75 Given the predominance of geopolitical expediency over humanitarian considerations, as evinced in the history of the western engagement in Ottoman affairs in general and in Armenian affairs in particular since the early nineteenth century, it was unrealistic to assume that the European powers would become so heavily involved in rendering assistance to the Armenians as to divert resources from the main theaters of war. The first dragoman of the French Embassy in Constantinople intimated to Boghos Nubar that the declaration of May 24 was like pouring oil on fire. In fact, Krikor Zohrab and Vartkes, both deputies to the Ottoman parliament, were arrested in Constantinople the following day and later sent to Diarbekir to be tried by the court martial. They were murdered on the road to their trial.76

Despite the Allies’ joint declaration, on May 26 Armenians were arrested en masse in major cities and their properties were pillaged and plundered. For example, in Erzerum city, as the Armenian population prepared for deportation, Turkish and Kurdish mobs attacked Armenian shops and neighborhoods. In the meantime, Behaeddin Shakir visited

Erzerum to strengthen the ties between the local Special Organization and the central committee and ordered the full-scale formation of chete bands.77 Turkish soldiers in Erzerum killed Sedrak Pastermajian, a vice president of the local branch of the Ottoman Bank and brother of Garegin Pastermajian (Armen Karo), former member of the Ottoman parliament. The murder of Aristakes Ter Harutiunian, the local priest at the village of Odz (Ots), followed.78

Beginning in June 1915, the wholesale deportations and massacres escalated markedly throughout the Armenian provinces. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Armenians were deported from towns and villages across the northern and eastern regions of the province of Erzerum in the first week of June. The deportation from the major cities began between June 7 and 11 in Erzinjan, home to 3,000 Armenian families, followed by three additional caravans totaling between 20,000 and 25,000 persons from neighboring areas. Approximately 25,000 Armenians from the region of Erzinjan were killed on their way to Kharpert, where the first caravan of 3,000 had already left for Malatia en route to Ras ul-Ain.79 Some of the main roads for the deportations converged at Kharpert (Mamuret ul-Aziz), which was referred to as “the Slaughterhouse Province,”80 as refugees from Trebizond, Sivas, Erzerum, Baiburt, Erzinjan, Kghi, Agn, Arabkir and elsewhere marched by Mezre and Kharpert (Harput) city. As they passed through Kharpert, refugees were allowed to stay in “camps” at the Armenian cemeteries nearby. Those still fit to march continued their journey to Diarbekir and Mardin, to Severek and Veran Shehir, while the rest died of illness and starvation or were massacred.

In Trebizond province, the bombardment by Russian cruisers of the port city of Kerasund (Giresun) on April 20, 1915, had heightened hostilities toward the Armenians. The previous day, the government had conducted extensive search and seizure operations for weapons and deserters throughout the city of Trebizond and the neighboring villages. Unable to unearth a significant number of weapons and deserters, the authorities had arrested the leading community figures accused of hiding weapons. Subsequently, several Armenian houses were torched. On June 25, the authorities issued a proclamation ordering the Armenians of Trebizond city to deliver, within five days, their properties to the government and to prepare for their journey to the interior on July 1. The declaration promised that Armenians could reclaim their goods upon their return at the conclusion of the war. On the morning of July 1 the first caravan began to march out of Trebizond city; within a few days 6,000 Armenians had become refugees. A week later most of the Armenian population was removed from the city, a large number of them murdered soon after they passed the town of Gumushkhane.81

In the cities of Kerasund and Samsun, the deportations began on June 27. In Kerasund 200 families out of 400 converted to Islam to avoid deportation.82 No sooner had the first caravan, consisting of 1,200 people—nearly

half of the Armenian population in the town—began its march than the men and the elderly were separated from the group and murdered in the nearby hills. The surviving refugees, mostly women and children, continued to Tamzara and Shabin-Karahisar.

In the middle of June the leading Armenian figures in Sivas city, including a professor at the American college, were arrested. Within a few days nearly 1,000 were in prison after the authorities conducted full-scale weapons searches.83 On June 26, after an incident of resistance,84 deportations began in Marsovan, followed by the deportations in Amasia and Zile to the south and in Gemerek farther southwest of Sivas city.85 The mass arrests in Sivas city and its environs quickly filled the prisons.86 Some of those arrested were killed immediately upon imprisonment and were replaced by new prisoners. Inquiries by Bishop Gnel Galemkiarian regarding the cause and purpose of these arrests elicited a simple response from the governor of Sivas province, Ahmad Muammer: The Armenians in Shabin-Karahisar were in rebellion, and in order to prevent Turkish massacres against the local Armenians, it was preferable to imprison them for their own safety. Mass arrests continued in a number of towns, including Amasia, Marsovan, and Tokat.87

In Shabin-Karahisar and the nearby Armenian villages, the Armenians had been disarmed by the second week of April 1915; one of those villages, Burk (Purk), in southwest of Shabin-Karahisar, was completely destroyed and its Armenian inhabitants deported. On June 1, as the government began to arrest the Armenian community leaders in Shabin-Karahisar, the Armenians responded by organizing for self-defense and on June 16 sought refuge within the nearby fortress. As in Van, Zeitun, and Sasun, the Armenians of Shabin-Karahisar resorted to arms and defended themselves for nearly a month until July 12, when Turkish troops finally entered the fortress and crushed the resistance. Most of the Armenian men were killed there. The women and children were forced to walk to the nearby towns, where some of them were killed and the small number of survivors converted to Islam.88

The conditions in Kharpert province followed the similar pattern as elsewhere. Beginning on May 1, 1915, the situation in Kharpert, Mezre, Hiusenig, Malatia, Perchench, and the surrounding villages had turned chaotic, as many shops and houses were looted and destroyed. Mass arrests in the city of Kharpert began in the middle of May, and in early June most of the arrested and imprisoned Armenian men were killed. Of those arrested, 800 were taken to the nearby mountain of Heroghli on June 24 and executed, while 300 Armenian men were murdered in Pertag. In the city of Kharpert, rumors that the 2,000 Armenian soldiers laboring in the amele taburi (labor battalions) were to depart for Aleppo to work on road construction evoked panic. The soldiers marched out of the city on July 1, and the next day the first wave of refugees, between 2,000 and 3,000 Armenians,