Part 21
Lastly, the idea, once contemplated and perhaps not definitely given up, to send back to Asia the Sultans and viziers who, after their centuries-old intercourse with the West, had become “Europeanised” and to whom the ways and manners of our diplomacy had grown familiar, could only modify their foreign policy to our disadvantage, and give it an Asiatic turn; whereas now, having long associated Ottoman affairs with European affairs, they have thus been brought to consider their own interests from a European point of view. The influence of this intercourse with Europe on the Constantinople Government naturally induced it to exercise a soothing influence over the Mussulmans, which was to the advantage of both Europe and Turkey. It is obvious that, on the contrary, the eviction of the Sultan, at a time when the Arabian world and the Turkish world were being roused, would have left the Allied Powers face to face with anarchist elements which, being spurred on by similar religious and nationalist passions, would have grouped together; and one day the Powers would have found themselves confronted with the organised resistance of established governments. Even as things are now, who can foresee what will be all the consequences in the East of the clauses enforced on Turkey by the Sèvres Treaty?
1. THE TURCO-ARMENIAN QUESTION.
The Armenian question, which has convulsed Turkey so deeply and made the Eastern question so intricate, originated in the grasping spirit of Russia in Asia Minor and the meddling of Russia in Turkish affairs under pretence of protecting the Armenians. This question, as proved by the difficulties to which it has given rise since the beginning, is one of the aspects of the antagonism between Slavs and Turks, and a phase of the everlasting struggle of the Turks to hinder the Slavs from reaching the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, to which the Russians have always striven to get access either through Asia Minor or through Thrace, or through both countries at once.
Yet Mohammed II, after taking Constantinople, had in 1461 instituted a patriarchate in favour of the Armenians. Later on various rights were granted to them at different times by Imperial firmans.
Some Armenian monks of Calcutta, availing themselves of the liberty they enjoyed in India, founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century the _Aztarar_ (the Newsmonger), the first newspaper published in the Armenian language; and at the end of the same century the Mekhitharists published in Venice _Yeghanak Puzantian_ (the Byzantine Season). About the middle of the nineteenth century, the same monks edited a review of literature and information, _Pazmareb_, which still exists. The Protestant Armenians too edited a review of propaganda, _Chtemaran bidani Kidehatz_, at Constantinople. Finally, in 1840, the first daily paper printed in the Armenian language, _Archalouis Araradian_ (the Dawn of Ararat), was published at Smyrna.
In 1857, in the monastery of Varag, near Van, Miguirditch Krimian, who later on became Patriarch and Catholicos, established printing-works. Under the title of _Ardziv Vaspourakani_ (the Eagle of Vaspourakan) he edited a monthly review to defend the cause of Armenian independence, and at the same time a similar review, _Ardziv Tarono_ (the Eaglet of Taron), was published at Mush. About the same time the Armenians in Russia too began to publish various periodicals, such as _Hussissapail_ (the Aurora Borealis), a review printed at Moscow in 1850, and several newspapers at Tiflis and Baku. In 1860 the Armenians were allowed to hold an Armenian National Assembly to discuss and settle their religious and national affairs.
From the fourteenth century till about 1860, the Armenian element lived on good terms with the Moslem element, and some Armenians persecuted in Russia even sought refuge in Turkey. The Turks, on their coming, had found Armenians, but no Armenia, for the latter country, in the course of a most confused history, had enjoyed but short periods of independence with ever-changing frontiers; and the Armenians who had successively been under Roman, Seljuk, Persian, and Arabian dominion lived quietly with the Turks for six centuries.
But in 1870 a group of young men revived and modified a movement which had been started and kept up by Armenian monks, and wrote books in Constantinople in favour of the Armenians.
In 1875, Portokalian established the first revolutionary Armenian Committee, and edited a newspaper, _Asia_. Soon afterwards the _Araratian_ committee was formed, aiming at establishing a close connection between Turkish and Russian Armenians, followed by other committees such as _Tebrotssassiranz_, _Arevelian_, and _Kilikia_.
Other committees with charitable or economic purposes, such as “The Association of Kindness” and “The Association of Benevolence,” which were started in 1860 with a large capital to develop the natural resources of Cilicia, also played a part in the Armenian movement.
The Armenian question began really to arise and soon grew more and more acute in 1878, after the Turco-Russian war, at a time when Turkey had to face serious domestic and foreign difficulties. This question was dealt with in Article 16 of the San Stefano treaty of July 10, 1878, and Article 61 of the Berlin treaty. Article 16 of the San Stefano treaty, drawn up at the Armenians’ request, and supported by the Russian plenipotentiaries, stated that “the Sublime Porte pledges itself to realise without any more delay the administrative autonomy rendered necessary by local needs in the provinces inhabited by Armenians.” The Turks raised an objection to the words “administrative autonomy” and wanted them to be replaced by “reforms and improvements,” but the Russians then demanded the occupation of Armenia by the Tsar’s troops as a guarantee. The Berlin Congress did away with this clause of guarantee, and instead of the words proposed by Russia adopted those asked for by Turkey.
In order to acquire a moral influence over the Armenians living in Turkey and play a prominent part among them, the Orthodox Christians who were devoted to the Tsar endeavoured to get themselves recognised as a superior power by the patriarchate of Constantinople, and with the help of Russian political agents they succeeded in their endeavours. It was soon observed that the new connection between the Catholicos and the Constantinople Patriarchate aimed at, and succeeded in, starting an anti-Turkish movement within the Armenian populations of Russia and Asia Minor.
When the Russians arrived close to Constantinople, at the end of the Turco-Russian war, Nerses Varzabedian, who had succeeded Krimian, was received by the Grand Duke Nicholas, and handed him a memorandum, in which, after stating all the Armenian grievances against the Ottoman Government, he asked “that the Eastern provinces of Asia Minor inhabited by Armenians should be proclaimed independent or at least should pass under the control of Russia.” Four prelates were sent separately to Rome, Venice, Paris, and London to make sure of the Powers’ support, and met together at the Berlin Congress. Though they strongly advocated the maintenance of Article 16 of the San Stefano treaty, they only succeeded in getting Article 61 of the Berlin treaty.
It was not until about 1885 that what was afterwards called the Armenian movement began to be spoken of, and then some Armenian revolutionaries who had sought shelter in England, France, Austria, and America began to edit periodicals, form committees, inveigh against the would-be Turkish exactions, and denounce the violation of the Berlin treaty.
These ideas of independence soon made more and more headway and the prelates who, after Nerses’ death, were known for their pro-Turkish feelings, as Haroutian Vehabedian, Bishop of Erzerum, made Patriarch in 1885, were forsaken by the Armenian clergy and soon found themselves in opposition to the committees.
In 1888 Khorene Achikian, who succeeded Vehabedian, was also accused of being on friendly terms with the Turks, and the committees strove to have him replaced by Narbey, who had been a member of the delegation sent to Europe for the Berlin Congress.
This Armenian movement naturally caused some incidents between the various elements of the population, which were magnified, brought by the bishops and consuls to the knowledge of the European Powers, and cited as the outcome of Turkish cruelty.
After the Turco-Russian war, the revolutionary agitation which stirred up Russia and the Caucasus had its repercussion among the Armenians, and the harsh measures of the Tsar’s Government only strengthened the agitation by increasing Armenian discontent.
Miguirditch Portokalian, a teacher living at Van, came to Marseilles, where in 1885 he edited a newspaper, _Armenia_. At the same time Minas Tscheraz started another newspaper in Paris under the same title. These publicists, both in their journals and in meetings, demanded that Article 61 of the Berlin treaty should be carried out.
In 1880 some revolutionary committees were formed in Turkey. In 1882 “The Association of the Armed Men” was founded at Erzerum; some of its members were arrested, and the association itself was dissolved in 1883.
A rising took place at Van in 1885 on the occasion of the election of a bishop, and some insurrectionist movements occurred at Constantinople, Mush, and Alashehr under various pretexts.
Next year, in 1886, one Nazarbey, a Caucasian by birth, and his wife Maro, formed in Switzerland the _Huntchag_ (the Bell), a social-democrat committee that aimed at getting an autonomous administration for the Armenians, and published in London a monthly periodical bearing the same name. This committee meant to achieve its object not through the intervention or mediation of the European Powers—to which it thought it useless to make another appeal, as their individual interests were so much at variance—but solely by the action of its organisations throughout the country, which were to raise funds, equipment, foment troubles, weaken the Government, and take advantage of any opportunity that might occur.
The _Huntchag_ committee found representatives in every great town—Smyrna, Aleppo, Constantinople, etc.—and its organisation was completed in 1889.
In 1890, at the instigation of the Huntchagists, a rebellion broke out at Erzerum, and incidents occurred in various places. At Constantinople a demonstration of armed men, headed by the Patriarch Achikian, repaired to the Sublime Porte to set forth their grievances, but were scattered; and the Patriarch, who was reproached with being too moderate, and whose life was even attempted, had to resign.
In fact the _Huntchag_ committee, which enlisted the effective and moral support of the representatives of the Powers, especially those of Russia and England, carried on its intrigues without intermission, and increased its activity.
On Sunday, March 25, 1894, at Samsun, in the ground adjoining the church, one Agap, living at Diarbekir, who had been chosen by the _Huntchag_ committee to kill the Patriarch Achikian because he was accused of being on friendly terms with the Ottoman Government, fired at the prelate with a revolver, but missed his mark. After this criminal attempt, Achikian resigned his office, and Mathew Ismirlian, supported by the committees, was elected Patriarch, owing to the pressure brought to bear on the National Assembly. The new Patriarch immediately became chairman of the _Huntchag_ committee, which he developed, and soon after appointed President of the Ecclesiastical Council of the Patriarchate and later on Catholicos of Cilicia a certain priest, Kirkor Alajan, who had been dismissed and sent to Constantinople for insulting the Governor of Mush.
A few Armenians, dissatisfied with the programme of the Huntchagists, founded a new association in 1890 under the name of _Troshak_, which later on was called _Tashnaktsutioun_, and edited the _Troshak_ newspaper. The members of this committee often resorted to threats and terror to get the funds they needed, and did not shrink from assassinating whoever refused to comply with the injunctions of the committee.
In 1896 the committees attempted to seize the Ottoman Bank. Some armed komitadjis, who had come from Europe with Russian passports, rushed into the Ottoman Bank, but were driven back by Government troops. But the promoters of the raid were not arrested, owing to their being protected by the Russian and French authorities. Attended by Maximof, an Armenian by birth, first dragoman of the Russian embassy, and Rouet, first dragoman of the French embassy, they were brought by the dispatch-boat of the latter embassy on board the _Gironde_, a packet-ship of the Messageries Maritimes. The adherents of the _Troshak_, entrenched in the churches of Galata, Samatra, and the Patriarchate, begged for mercy, while Armene Aktoni, one of the leaders of the committee, committed suicide after waiting for the coming of the English fleet on the heights of Soulou-Monastir, at Samatra.
The bishops continued to solicit, and to some extent obtained, the support of the Russian, English, and French consuls; yet Mgr. Ismirlian, who had sent an ultimatum to the Imperial Palace and never ceased to intrigue, was finally dismissed in 1896 and sent to Jerusalem.
At that time many Armenians set off to Europe and America, and the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin sent some delegates to the Hague Conference to lay before it the Armenian plight in Turkey. These committees, which displayed so much activity in Turkey, did not attempt anything on behalf of their fellow-countrymen in Russia.
The committees which had been founded during or before Nerses’ patriarchate under the names of _Ararat_, _The Orient_, _The Friends of Education_, _Cilicia_, were all grouped, in 1890, into one called _Miatzal Anikeroutioun Hayotz_, which association continued to organise committees even in the smallest villages, taking advantage of the tolerance of the Ottoman Government and its benevolence to the Armenians to carry on an active anti-Turkish propaganda.
This propaganda was supported by the Armenian bishops in the eastern provinces, where they endeavoured to bring about European intervention. On the other hand the Russians, as eager as ever to domineer over both the Orthodox Church and Armenia, incited the Armenians against the Turks by all possible means and urged them to fulfil their national aspirations, as they knew full well they would thus bring them more easily under Russian sovereignty.
The influence of these committees, as will be seen later on, had a very important bearing on the events that took place in Asia Minor at that time.
Risings, which may be traced back to 1545 and lasted till the proclamation of the 1908 constitution, were continually taking place in the mountainous area of Zeitun. They were partly brought about by the feudal system of administration still prevailing in that region. Each of the four districts of Zeitun was governed by a chief who had assumed the title of “ishehan” or prince, a kind of nobleman to whom Turkish villages had to pay some taxes collected by special agents. The action of the committees, of course, benefited by that state of things, to which the Ottoman Government put an end only in 1895.
The Armenians had already refused to pay the taxes and had rebelled repeatedly between 1782 and 1851, at which time the Turks, incensed at the looting and exactions of the Armenian mountaineers, left their farms and emigrated. Till that time the rebellions of Zeitun could be partly accounted for by the administration of the “ishehan.” But the leaders of the Armenian movement soon took advantage of these continual disturbances and quickly gave them another character. The movement was spurred on and eagerly supported by Armenians living abroad, and in 1865, after the so-called Turkish exactions, the Nationalist committees openly rebelled against the Government and demanded the independence of Zeitun. Henceforth rebellion followed rebellion, and one of them, fomented by the Huntchagists, lasted three months.
In 1890 the _Huntchag_ and _Tashnaktsutioun_ committees stirred up riots at Erzerum, and in 1894 at Samsun, where the Patriarch Ashikian was fired at, as has just been seen. In 1905 the Tashnakists started a new insurrection. The rebellion extended to Amasia, Sivas, Tokat, Mush, and Van, and the committees endeavoured to spread and intensify it. In 1905-06 the manœuvres of the Armenian committees succeeded in rousing hostile feelings between Kurds and Armenians, which no reform whatever seemed able to soothe. And in 1909-10, when new troubles broke out, the revolutionary leaders openly attacked the Government troops.
Two years after the confiscation and handing over to the Ottoman Government of the Armenian churches on June 21, 1903, massacres took place at Batum on February 6, 1905, and later on at Erivan, Nakhitchevan, Shusha, and Koshak. In 1908 the Tsar’s sway in the whole of Caucasus became most oppressive, and a ukase prescribed the election of a new catholicos to succeed Mgr. Krimian, who had died in October, 1907. Mgr. Ismirlian was appointed in his stead in 1908. By that time the Russian sway had become so oppressive that the Tashnakists took refuge in Constantinople, where the Young Turks openly declared in favour of the Russian Armenians.
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It might have been expected that after the proclamation of the Constitution the committees, who had striven to hurry on the downfall of the Empire through an agitation that might have brought about foreign intervention, would put an end to their revolutionary schemes and turn their activity towards social and economic questions. Sabah-Gulian, a Caucasian by birth, president of the _Huntchag_, at a meeting of this committee held in 1908 in Sourp-Yerourtoutioun church at Pera, speaking of the Huntchagists’ programme and the constitutional régime, declared: “We, Huntchagists, putting an end to our revolutionary activity, must devote all our energy to the welfare of the country.” On the other hand Agnoni, a Russian by birth, one of the presidents of the _Tashnaktsutioun_, stated that “the first duty of the Tashnakists would be to co-operate with the Union and Progress Committee in order to maintain the Ottoman Constitution and ensure harmony and concord between the various elements.”
The union of the committees did not last long, as they held widely different views about the new condition of the Turkish Empire; but soon after the _Tashnaktsutioun_, the _Huntchag_, and the _Veragaznial-Huntchag_ committees were reorganised and new committees formed throughout Turkey. The _Ramgavar_ (the Rights of the People) committee was instituted in Egypt by M. Boghos Nubar after the proclamation of the Constitution, and displayed the greatest activity. This committee, in March, 1914, agreed to work on the same lines with the _Huntchag_, the _Tashnaktsutioun_, and the _Veragaznial-Huntchag_. Another committee, the _Sahmanatragan_, was also constituted. They made sure of the support of the Patriarchate and the bishops to reassert their influence and spread a network of ramifications all over the country in order to triumph at the elections. They carried on an active propaganda to conciliate public opinion, by means of all kinds of publications, school books, almanacs, postcards, songs, and so on, all edited at Geneva or in Russia.
As early as 1905 the Armenian committees had decided at a congress held in Paris to resort to all means in order to make Cilicia an independent country. Russia, on the other hand, strove hard to spread orthodoxy in the districts round Adana, Marash, and Alexandretta, in order to enlarge her zone of influence on this side and thus get an outlet to the Mediterranean. At the same time, the Bishop of Adana, Mosheg, did his best to foment the rebellion which was to break out soon after.
In this way the Armenian Christians contributed to the extension of the Russian Empire. In 1904-05, the Nestorians asked for Russian priests and expressed their intention to embrace the Orthodox Faith. The Armenians of Bitlis, Diarbekir, and Kharput in 1907 handed the Russian consul a petition bearing over 200,000 signatures, in which they asked to become Russian subjects.
The Huntchagist leader, Sabah-Gulian, even owned in the _Augah Hayassdan_ (Independent Armenia) newspaper that the members of the committee had taken advantage of the Turks’ carelessness to open shops, where rifles were being sold at half-price or even given away.
The Armenian committees took advantage of the new parliamentary elections to stir up a new agitation. They increased their activity, and, contrary to their engagements, corresponded with the members of the opposition who had fled abroad.
During the Balkan war in 1913 the Tashnakist committees issued manifestoes against the Ottoman Government and the Union party. The Russian consuls at Erzerum and Bitlis did not conceal their sympathy, and at Van the Russian consul threatened to the vali to ask Russian troops to come through Azerbaïjan under the pretext of averting the fictitious dangers the Armenians were supposed to run, and of restoring order.
Now, whereas Russia at home unmercifully stifled all the attempts of the Armenian committees, she encouraged and energetically supported the agitators in Turkey. Moreover, in the report addressed by the Russian consul at Bitlis to the Russian ambassador in Constantinople, dated December 24, 1912, and bearing number 63, the Russian Government was informed that the aim of the Tashnakists was, as they expressly said, “to bring the Russians here,” and that, in order “to reach this end, the Tashnakists are resorting to various means, and doing their best to bring about collisions between Armenians and Moslems, especially with Ottoman troops.” In support of this statement he mentioned a few facts that leave no doubt about its veracity.
This report contained the following lines, which throw considerable light on the Allies’ policy:
“Your Excellency will understand that the future collisions between Armenians and Moslems will partly depend on the line of conduct and activity of the _Tashnaktsutioun_ committee, on the turn taken by the peace negotiations between Turkey and the Slavonic States of the Balkans, and on the eventuality of an occupation of Constantinople by the Allies. If the deliberations of the London Conference did not bring about peace, the coming downfall of the Ottoman capital would certainly influence the relations between Moslems and Armenians at Bitlis.
“Both in towns and in the country the Armenians, together with their religions leaders, have always displayed much inclination and affection for Russia, and have repeatedly declared the Turkish Government is unable to maintain order, justice, and prosperity in their country. Many Armenians have already promised to offer the Russian soldiers their churches to be converted into orthodox places of worship.
“The present condition of the Balkans, the victory of the Slav and Hellenic Governments over Turkey, have delighted the Armenians and filled their hearts with the cheerful hope of being freed from Turkey.”
Of course, the coming to Bitlis of a mixed Commission of Armenians and Turks under the presidency of an Englishman, in order to carry out reforms in the Turkish provinces near the Caucasus, did not please the Armenians and Russians who had sacrificed many soldiers to get possession of these regions.