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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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Aanotaux summarises: "For three centuries Europe, with bowed head, came to blows with the Turks without succeeding in driving them back. But when, on the unknown plains of Eastern Europe, there appeared a new opponent in the form of the Russians, the situation changed. This opponent, with its geographical vantage, threatened all the defence lines of the Turks, while Europe had always engaged them only from the front. When the Tsar arrived at the coast of the Black Sea, the land of the Turks was faced with an enduring terror." 9

By the end of the 17th century, the Ottoman government having lost Azar, new avenue for Russia towards the Black Sea, handed over Hungary to Austria and renounced its claims on Transcaucasia. The peace in Carlowitz, in year 1699 marked the steady retreat of the Ottoman Empire from the European continent.

During the 18th century, after a number of difficult wars against the Ottoman Empire, Austria retook Banat in 1718 and Bukovine in 1775 from the Turks. On the other Ottoman front, Russia conquered the Crimea Peninsula in 1783 and occupied Odessa in 1792.

Among the various treaties signed after the wars between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Treaty of Kainardji is particularly significant, the content of which was dictated by Tsarina Catherine II, whereby the Ottoman Empire ceased to be a major power.

The Eastern Question until 1877

The Eastern Question, which initially materialised in the 18th century and drew the attention of most of Europe during the 19th century, began with the decline of the Ottoman power and the decay of its empire, simultaneous to the expansion of the Russian and Austrian powers, the two countries that had decisively ended decades of Turanian oppression and rule.

As Albert Sorel points out, the emergence of Russia, a new factor of power in the Eastern Question, made a great impression on the public opinion in Europe and altered the situation significantly.

This new power established itself during the 18th century under its two great leaders, Peter the Great and Catherine II. Under Peter the Great, Russia gained control of the Baltic Sea coast, and under Catherine II, the Black Sea coast, thus creating an empire stretching from the Black Sea as far as the Baltic Sea.

The entrance of Russia as a major power in Europe was, as we have stated, the main reason for the steady shrinking of the Ottoman Empire during the 18th century.

At the end of the 18th century, as the flames of the French Revolution were being lit, Russia and Austria were preparing to bring to an end the chapter of the Ottoman Empire, and Catherine II was drafting a scheme for conquering Constantinople and thereby creating a new Greek Empire with the Balkans, the Dardanelles and the Straits of Bosporus all under Russian rule. 16