Despite the bitterness which the Kurds had caused the Turks (for instance, through the Kurdish cooperation with the Russians during the Russian-Ottoman war of 1853-1856), the Ottoman leaders held firm in their decision to use the Kurds in the annihilation and assimilation of the Armenians.
Baxton writes: "The Turks felt that, even if the Kurds were no good for paying taxes or for conscripting as soldiers, they could at least be used to conquer land populated with foreigners, in other words, Armenia. Though the level of civilisation of the Kurds was lower than that of the Turks, it was at least possible to use them in the annihilation of the Armenians, whose superiority in development compared with the Turks could not be tolerated by the establishment." 98
To implement its plan and strengthen the Kurds, who were nothing more than puppets in this strategical game, the Ottoman government grouped and organized the Kurdish tribes into small guerrilla outfits, called the "Ottoman lackeys". 99
This rapid armament of the Kurds transformed their crimes into approved actions and accelerated the confiscation of Armenian properties and the reduction of the Armenian population. 100 Turmanian observes "From the moment when the Kurds received immunity as government soldiers by their clothing in military uniforms, the robber was transformed into a governmental official, so that an attack on him or defending yourself against him was regarded as resistance against the government and therefore rebellion." 101
Though the efforts of the Sublime Port were aimed at the entire Armenian nation, its primary target was the Armenian mountain-dwellers who according to the researcher Tournebize, "through their strength, persistence and heroic power" had managed to sustain their old privileges and led an independent existence.
The most famous of these regions were Zeytoun 102 and Hajin in northern Cilicia, Sasoun in south western Moush 103 and Shatakh in southern Van 104. In these areas lived mountain-dwellers who were shepherds and soldiers, and over whom, up to that point, no power had held dominium.
The Turks used all manner of schemes to crush the liberty of these populations, who like the Armenians of Karabakh, had preserved the glorious customs and traditions of the Armenian nation.
The Ottoman policy in Armenia mirrored the narrow-mindedness which its enemy, Russia, displayed towards the Armenians during the same period. With the policy of russification alienating the Armenians from the Tsarist rule, it would in fact have been the perfect opportunity for the Ottoman establishment to reconcile itself to the Armenians. 105
Not only would the implementation of the predetermined reforms, and the coinciding betterment of living conditions in Western Armenia, have resulted in the development and the progress of a growing Armenian nation and the end of the danger of demands for self-governance in this area, but the existence of an independent Armenia between Asia Minor and Russia in itself would have been entirely to the advantage of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans had only to look at the other border of their empire, where the independent countries in the Balkans had become a hindrance to the advancement of Russia towards the Dardanelles.
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