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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 Massacres of 1905

The Russian tsarist government, weakened by the war against Japan and internal revolutionary tensions, which emerged throughout the entire empire after the defeat in Manchuria, began to massacre the Armenians. The planned killings aimed at crushing the Armenian resistance were to be carried out by middlemen: "St Petersburg awakened the old habits of the Tatars, inciting them against the Armenians and giving them the signal to begin the massacres." 50

The Tartar bands, which had been armed by the officials of the Russian government, attacked the Armenians in Transcaucasia in February 1905. Widespread murdering and plundering took place in mid February in Baku. Certain Tatar intellectuals, among others the famous Aghayev who later would play an important role in the "Pan Turanian" movement, had become apathetic puppets in the hands of the Russian government and were assigned to start the massacres. When the Tatars initiated their criminal acts, the Russian officials, who were the real instigators of the murders, refrained from intervening and kept the military and police forces inside the garrisons of the city to keep the way clear for the Tatars' acts of madness.

The goal the Tsar's men was to crush Armenian resistance to the policy of russification and remind them that they were among Muslim fanatical groups and that only Russia could guarantee their lives and properties, on the condition that they henceforth act as obedient subjects of the government.

The situation of the Armenians, however, had changed since the massacres of 1894-1896 in the Ottoman Empire. Over the previous 10 years, the Dashnak party, among others, had been constantly working to extend, educate and organise its membership. The party had attracted the majority of the Armenian masses and re-established the contact between Armenian intellectuals and the public. The many groups who had been dispatched during the massacres of 1894-1896 to defend or revenge the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, had increased their numbers of guerrilla fighters in the resistance movement of the Dashnak party.

To the astonishment of the Russian officials and the surprise of the Tatars, having recovered from their initial bewilderment, the Armenians regrouped around the party and against this common threat and began the battle for the preservation of their national existence. Under the guidance of Armenian leaders such as Armen Garo Pasdermadjian in Tbilisi, Nikol Duman in Baku, Dro and Khetcho in Yerevan and Vartan in -Shushi, the Armenians started an armed resistance against the attacks of murdering and plundering, and even transformed their defensive position to offensive. In Baku, Yerevan, Shushi, Nakhichevan, Tbilisi and Elisavetpol (Gyumri, the Armenians arose against the attacks.