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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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The Armenian Question

"We live in an era when humanity can not live with the dead body of a nation in its mortuary." Jean Jaurès

The Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin (1878)

In the beginning of the Russian-Ottoman war of 1877-1878, the situation of the Armenians in Western Armenia was comparably difficult, even worse, than that of the Serbs in Bosnia and the Bulgarians in Rumeli and Macedonia.

Travellers passing through the Asian part of the Ottoman Empire during the decades leading to the war relate many stories about the state of affairs in that area. 1

In year 1862, unusual massacres took place in the Toros region. 2



Finally, in 1869, the Western Armenians, chose Khrimian Hayrik as their Catholicos, a stalwartly champion for their rights who, instead of trying to obtain the sympathy of the Christians in Constantinople, devoted himself firmly to his real obligations and tasks. As soon as this great religious personality took office of the Catholicos, he declared that "I do not only consider myself as the religious father of the Constantinople Armenians, but also the religious father of all Armenians in the Ottoman Empire."

He sent continuous reports about the situation of the Armenians in Western Armenian provinces to the Sublime Port 3, but his efforts were unanswered. The Turks, with the help of certain individuals in the Asian population of Constantinople, coerced this great Armenian defender into submission.

Robbery, murder and assaults proceeded to the same extent in Western Armenia, with the Armenian population subject to attacks from Kurdish nomads and the corrupt and power-hungry system of the Turkish establishment. 4 In year 1876, during an inexplicable fanatic riot in the city of Van, the Turkish inhabitants ransacked the Armenian quarters and set them on fire. 5

An international conference was held in Constantinople some months prior to the Russian-Ottoman war of 1877-1878, with the failed aim of solving the question of Bulgaria in a peaceful way. The Armenians also put forward their demands during the conference, but to no avail. 6

During the Russian-Ottoman war of 1877-1878, Armenia was once more became the scene of a number of inhuman evil deeds which the irregular groups within the Turkish Army carried out against the Armenian population. This included the murder of the majority of the Armenians in Bayazid, Vehiadin and Alashkert. 7 (in the city of Bayazid alone, 24,000 Armenians 8 were murdered, while the Armenian populations in Kars, Basen and Van suffered heavy casualties).

It is understandable, therefore, that the Western Armenian delegates should wish the Grand Duke Nicholas, commander of the Russian army in the Balkans, to guarantee the safety of the Armenians during the peace negotiations which the Ottoman government had been forced into. 9