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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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For Nelidof , the urgency of the situation came from the threat to Russia's prize, the Straits of the Bosporus, which could possibly fall into foreign hands.

Eventually, Nelidof persuaded his government to increase the armaments of its fleet in the Black Sea and to concentrate its forces on the Crimea Peninsula, ready to put them ashore in necessary locations in case of an intervention from the major powers, which appared almost imminent, and thus be in a position to protect its interests. 225

Sultan Abdul Hamid II, informed of these preparations, took fright and halted the massacres of the Armenians, but still refused the implementation of paragraph 61 of the Berlin Treaty.

Thus the first attempt to annihilate the Armenian people on a large scale ended with the massacres of 1894-1896.

In his speech on September 21, 1897, Gladstone described the massacres: "100 000 Armenians were murdered, no guaranties were given for the prevention of the repetition of this tragedy, the murders provided a huge capital profit and all this happened because of the cooperation of the European countries with the Ottoman Empire, in other words, their mistrust and hate of each other." 226

The Position of the Major Powers During the Massacres of 1894-1896

The major powers did indeed hold great responsibility for these events, which were the result of the refusal to implement paragraph 61 of the Berlin Treaty, despite the fact that the major powers had signed and guarantied the implementation of this paragraph. 227

Thus, though intervention in the domestic issues of the Ottoman Empire, to all appearances, was one of the rights of Europe, 228 there was a surprising and unexpected defence of the absolute power of a government over its domestic matters, including the rights to assault and propagate violence against oppressed people, and to annihilate its own subjects. There was an acceptance of non-intervention policy in the internal issues of other countries.

The only intervention that took place was the humanitarian and just action which the European major powers were forced to take under the pressure of public opinion in their own countries. The existence of the primitive Ottoman Empire, with such a tendency to violence, jarred among the civilised nations, and prompted certain actions at different occasions during the 19th century. This intervention, because of the internal situation in the country, resulted in the liberation of the Balkans from Turkish oppression, and also afforded better living conditions for countries such as Lebanon and Crete, which were still under Ottoman rule. 229

In the case of the events of 1894-1896, however, this humanitarian intervention was not provided, prevented mainly by the improper policy of the Russian Tsar and the Germany of Wilhelm II.