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

The Revolution of the Young Turks

The regime of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, as described by Anatol Franz as "this chained madman", was not only unbearable for the Armenians and the other non-Turkish people in the Ottoman Empire, but the trappings of the police state also agitated the Turkish intellectual class: oppression, persecution and suppression of opposition.

During the years of the regime, widespread political emigration occurred.

In Paris, one group of emigrants began to take form as the Young Turks party, lead by Ahmed Reza Bey, and Prince Sebahalldin, leader of the liberal party, both of whom came from prestigious backgrounds, and also had won the trust of the Armenian nation. The first step taken by the Young Turks swas the creation of the committee "Union and Progress" (Ittihad ve Teraqi), based in Salovnik. The committee quickly gathered support among officers, government officials and Turkish intellectuals. Unlike their counterparts in the Balkans, the Armenian revolutionaries joined forces with the Young Turks in the struggle against the oppressive regime of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Thus illegal political activity began in the spirit of cooperation and affiliation.

In June 1908, the Young Turks overthrew the regime of Abdul Hamid, with the assistance of the Turkish army in Macedonia. The significance of the Armenian revolutionaries' participation in the coup was officially acknowledged by the Young Turks. Following the 1908 revolution, the sultan was obliged to enforce the strictures of a liberal monarchy and parliamentary rule, which had been nominally proclaimed in 1876 at the beginning of the Russian-Ottoman war. Thus the Ottoman Empire became a parliamentary monarchy, guaranteeing the rights and freedom of individuals.

In April 1909 Sultan Abdul Hamid, with the assistance of loyal persons, attempted to stage a coup against the revolutionaries, but the Young Turks, yet again by the support from the Turkish army in Macedonia, managed to retake the capital and force the person who Gladstone called the "great murderer", i.e. Sultan Abdul Hamid II, to abdicate. Even in this occasion the Armenians proved to be among the most loyal supporters of the new regime and it was thanks to their assistance and sacrifices that a number of Young Turk leaders escaped a certain death during the first days of the coup which seemed to end in the victory of the coup makers.

However, simultaneous to the events in Constantinople, a fresh massacre of Armenians had begun in the Armenian provinces, especially in Cilicia. The question of whose hand was behind these massacres, which cost the lives of 15 000 Armenians, is still under debate. Was it the last act of vengeance of the fallen regime or the first measure of the new administration? According to leading expert Viktor Berard, cooperation between certain people in the progress of events can be proved with certainty. 1