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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 Compromise Reform of February 8, 1914

The final accord for Armenian reforms, though sanctioned by all six European nations, was signed only by the Ottoman Vizier and Foreign Minister, Said Halim, and by the Russian chargé d'affaires, K. N. Gulkevich, acting in the absence of Ambassador Giers. Among the numerous modifications of the original Russian plan was the creation of two Armenian provinces, one incorporating the Trabizond, Sivas, and Erzurum vilayets, and the other the Van, Bitlis, Kharpout, and Diyarbakir vilayets. A foreign inspector-general, the supreme civil authority, was to be selected for each province. The division of Western Armenia into two separate areas and the reduction of the Armenians' proportional strength by the inclusion of all peripheral areas as well as the Trabizond vilayet were obvious concessions to the Ottoman government. Moreover, no mentions were made of restitution for Armenian losses, the exclusion of mouhajir, the extension of the reform measure to Armenians living beyond the two inspectorates, or the obligation of the European powers to guarantee the execution of the program. While the terms "Armenians" and "Christians" were used repeatedly in the original Russian project, neither was employed in the compromise settlement. Instead, "ethnic elements" and "non-Moslems" were substituted as an additional concession to the Ittihadist rulers. The agreement did not formally pertain to "Western Armenia", but to "Eastern Anatolia". 65 The act of February, 1914, did not fulfil all Armenian expectations, but it did represent the most viable reform proposed since the internationalisation of the problem. Many Armenian leaders were content, but the Geneva organ of Dashnaktsoutiun, while not repudiating the measure, warned: "… before place trust in diplomatic reforms, the Nation must subject itself to basic renovations; it must extirpate the curse of cowardly passiveness; it must be inspired by the healthy and redeeming principle of self-assistance; it must arm and be prepared!" 66

The February reform act was not implemented immediately, for the choice of suitable inspector-general occasioned considerable disagreement and negotiations among the European ambassadors as well as between them and the Porte. Nevertheless, by April, 1914, Westenenk, chief provincial administrator in the Dutch East Indies, and Major Hoff of Norwegian Army were selected. They arrived in Constantinople a few weeks later to receive instructions before departing for the interior. 67 Their rights and duties included


  1. travelling freely to supervise administration in all districts of the inspectorate;
  2. preparing monthly reports for the government;
  3. enforcing all laws and directives;
  4. appointing special committees for matters of local concern;
  5. inaugurating measures to settle the nomads;
  6. promoting interracial harmony;
  7. conducting a census;
  8. guaranteeing just legal proceedings and prohibiting bribery;
  9. simplifying methods of tax collection;
  10. suggesting needed improvements to the central government;
  11. observing educational and law enforcement agencies in order to assure each religious community its own schools as well as representation in the gendarmerie;
  12. utilizing sufficient administrative staff, including interpreters, to perform properly and efficiently all of these delegated functions. 68

By the summer of 1914 Hoff was already in Van, his administrative centre, and Westenenk was about to depart for Erzurum. But at this moment of triumph, when the strivings of the nineteenth-century Armenian political mind seemed in large part gratified, when national-cultural autonomy was in sight, all was obliterated with a single stroke. And even when that blow fell, there was hardly a person who imagined that it was to exterminate the Turkish Armenian. For this people, the tragic effects of World War I cannot be exaggerated.