The Thirty-Year Genocide

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The Thirty-Year Genocide Page 75

by Benny Morris


  2. On Krikor Odian, see Suny, They Can Live in the Desert, 61–62.

  3.

  Gladstone,

  Bulgarian Horrors, 10. The number of casualties caused by the rebellion and its suppression is unclear. Misinformation was apparently peddled by all sides (see Millman, “The Bulgarian Massacres Reconsidered”).

  Notes to Pages 18–26

  4.

  Akçam, Shameful Act, 37; and Lewy, Armenian Massacres, 7–8.

  5. For the text of the treaty see Holland, Eu ro pean Concert, 335–348.

  6. Berlin Treaty, 1878, article LXI. See also Akçam, Shameful Act, 39.

  7.

  Lewy,

  Armenian Massacres, 8.

  8. It should be noted here that not all Armenian researchers fully subscribe to the “Armenian” version, and certainly not all Turkish scholars accept the “Turkish” narrative.

  9.

  Augustinos,

  Greeks of Asia Minor, 77, 80–82, and 91–107.

  10. Levy- Daphny, “What Will You Leave?”

  11. “Dragoman” is a Latinized corruption of the Ottoman tercüman, meaning interpreter— often used to describe those representing the Ottoman government and Western ambassadors in negotiations.

  12.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 8–9.

  13.

  See

  Wharton,

  Architects of Ottoman Constantinople.

  14.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 21–24; Çaksu, “Janissary Coffee houses,” 120.

  15.

  Lewis,

  From Babel to Dragomans, 25; and Quataert, Ottoman Empire, 47–48.

  16. Originally the word is the plural of the Arabic sinf, meaning, type, grouping, etc. In Ottoman Turkish the word meant a guild or guilds; in modern Turkish it means artisans and day- workers.

  17.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 25. Wharton points out that there were two distinct groups of amiras— one, of bankers, merchants, and commercial agents; the other, of state employees, such as architects and technocrats. The latter group often served as mediators between amiras and esnafs (Wharton, Architects of Ottoman Constantinople, 145).

  18. Stamatopoulos, “From Millets to Minorities”; Braude, “Foundation Myths.” During the second half of the nineteenth century, “millet” came to be used interchangeably with “nation.”

  19. Haddad, “Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire,” 15.

  20.

  Dündar, Crime of Numbers, 177–183. The six so- called “Armenian vilayets” were Van, Erzurum, Sivas, Bitlis, Mamüret- ul- Aziz, and Diyarbekir.

  21. Davison, “Nationalism as an Ottoman Prob lem,” 28–30.

  22. Mutlu, “Late Ottoman Population,” 11. Augustinos says that the Greek Orthodox constituted 8.3% of Asia Minor’s population at the start of the twentieth century (Augustinos, Greeks of Asia Minor, 21).

  23.

  Gaunt,

  Massacres, 28.

  24.

  Hanioğlu, Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, 69–70, 88; Quataert, Ottoman Empire, 63, 107.

  25.

  Göçek, “Ethnic Segmentation,” 509–511.

  26. Kitromilides, “Greek Irredentism,” 5. See also Davison, “Nationalism as an Ottoman Prob lem”:

  “ there are many Armenian villages where only Turkish is spoken and many Greek villages where the inhabitants have forgotten the speech of their race” (32).

  27.

  Augustinos,

  Greeks of Asia Minor, 152–156. Kitromilides, “Greek Irredentism,” 7.

  28. It is not clear how “official” and programmatic was this “policy” between 1830 and World War I.

  Kitromilides, for example, writes that “the pro cess was the result not of a consciously planned and executed state policy, but of individual initiatives and voluntary organ ization” (Kitromilides, “ Imagined Communities,” 50).

  29.

  Dontas,

  “Greece.”

  30. Koliopoulos, “Brigandage and Irredentism,” 86.

  31.

  Smith,

  Ionian Vision, 2–3.

  32. Koliopoulos, “Brigandage and Irredentism,” 78.

  33. Kofos, “Patriarch Joachim III,” 110.

  34. See Gondicas and Issawi, Ottoman Greeks, 163.

  35.

  Toynbee,

  Western Question, 128.

  Notes to Pages 27–34

  36. Kitromilides, “Greek Irredentism,” 9, makes this point.

  37. Koliopoulos, “Brigandage and Irredentism,” 82.

  38. Kofos, “Patriarch Joachim III,” 111; and Kitromilides, “Greek Irredentism,” 11.

  39. As late as 1902, the Greek consul- general in Smyrna was struck by “the sparse knowledge of Greek, even among community leaders, priests and members, and by the po liti cal unawareness of members of school committees” and “dismayed by the [locals’] absence of feeling of attachment to Greece”

  (Kitromilides, “ Imagined Communities,” 48–49).

  40.

  Toynbee,

  Western Question, 131–132.

  41.

  Augustinos,

  Greeks of Asia Minor, 242n30.

  42.

  Augustinos,

  Greeks of Asia Minor, 198–199.

  43.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 23–24.

  44. Georgelin, “Armenian Inter- Community Relations,” 181–183.

  45.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 28–30.

  46. The name Apostolic refers to the purported establishment of Armenian Chris tian ity by two of Christ’s apostles, Bartholomew and Thaddeus, in the first century. Gregorian harks back to the beginning of the fourth century, when St. Gregory the Illuminator is said to have converted the king and court of Armenia to Chris tian ity and later to have been appointed the first head of the Armenian church.

  47. Whooley, “Armenian Catholic Church”; and Deringil, Well- Protected Domains, 119–123. After World War I, in which Anatolia’s Catholic Armenian population was decimated, the patriarchate was moved back to Lebanon. See also Gürün, Armenian File, 74–75; and Şahin, Katolik Ermeniler.

  48. Arpee, “ Century of Armenian Protestantism,” 150–167; Artinian, Armenian Constitutional System, 31–44; Makdisi, “Reclaiming the Land of the Bible,” 682, 683; and Deringil, “Invention of Tradition,” 3–29. Gürün, Armenian File, 41. For a description of this British and American missionary activity, see Deringil, Well- Protected Domains, 123–134. See also Ternon, Bir Soykırım Tarihi, 76–78.

  49. Arpee, “ Century of Armenian Protestantism,” 153–155; Gürün, Armenian File, 42–43; and Lewy, Armenian Massacres, 6–7.

  50.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System; Göçek, “Ethnic Segmentation,” 514. See also Payaslian, History of Armenia, 114.

  51.

  Quataert,

  Ottoman Empire, 80–81.

  52. Nationalized by the Turks in 1971, Robert College is now Bosphorus (Boğaziçi) University, but part of it still functions as a high school retaining the name “Robert College.”

  53.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 72–73.

  54.

  Hacikyan,

  Heritage of Armenian Lit er a ture, 3:226–228. See also Artinian, Armenian Constitutional System, 64.

  55.

  Hacikyan,

  Heritage of Armenian Lit er a ture, 3:227–228.

  56.

  Hacikyan,

  Heritage of Armenian Lit er a ture, 3:227–228. Also Gürün, Armenian File, 78.

  57.

  Artanian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 78–82.

  58.

  Artanian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 83; Gürün, Ar
menian File, 78; and Payaslian, History of Armenia, 114–115.

  59.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 93–103.

  60.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 104–105; and Kamouzis, “Elites and the Formation of National Identity,” 19–20.

  61.

  Gürün, Armenian File, 77.

  62. Astourian, “Silence of the Land,” 58. See also Cuthell, Muhacirin Komisyonu; McCarthy, Death and Exile; and Ternon, Bir Soykırım Tarihi, 105–106.

  63. See Verheij, “Frères de terre et d’eau,” 230. See also Suny, They Can Live in the Desert, 20–22; and Lewy, Armenian Massacres, 4.

  Notes to Pages 34–41

  64. Astourian, “Silence of the Land,” 60 and 63.

  65. Taylor to Clarendon, n.d., in British Documents on Ottoman Armenians, 55.

  66.

  Ternon,

  Bir Soykırım Tarihi, 83–85.

  67. Astourian, “Silence of the Land,” 58–59; and Lewy, Armenian Massacres, 6.

  68. Astourian, “Silence of the Land,” 59–61. See also Ternon, Bir Soykırım Tarihi, 82–83. On the prob lems of applying the new legal system in the provinces, see Rubin, Ottoman Nizamiye Courts, 27–31.

  69. Rassam to Layard, 15 October 1877, in British Documents on Ottoman Armenians, 97.

  70. For Ottoman intelligence on Russian- Armenian relations, see the documents published by the Turkish State Archives in Osmanlı Belgelerinde Ermeni- Rus Ilişkeleri [Armenian- Russian Relations in Ottoman Documents].The authorities believed the Armenians in the east were plotting with the Rus sians.

  71.

  Lewy,

  Armenian Massacres, 4–6; and Astourian, “Silence of the Land,” 60.

  72. Astourian, “Silence of the Land,” 62–63.

  73. See, for instance, Alkan, “Fighting for the Nuṣayrī Soul,” 23–50; Deringil, “ There Is No Compulsion in Religion,” 547–575; and Deringil, Well- Protected Domains, 63–66.

  74. Astourian, “Silence of the Land,” 60–65; and Deringil, Well- Protected Domains, 69–92.

  75.

  Akçam, Shameful Act, 39.

  76. H. M. Allen, “Facts and Figures from the Province of Van,” undated but from spring 1895, Bodl.

  MS Lord Bryce Papers 296. A detailed list of exactions by local Kurds from the Armenian village of Has-sana, near Diyarbekir, is provided in “Letter to Acting Vice- Consul Boyajian,” 17 November 1893, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 29–31.

  77.

  Ihrig,

  Justifying Genocide, 27.

  78.

  Verheij,

  “Frères de terre et d’eau,” 235–236. See also Ternon, Bir Soykırım Tarihi, 121–123; and Bulut ve Birol, “XIX Yüzyılın sonlarında Sivas vilayetinde Ermenilerin Faaliyetleri,” 4.

  79. Bulut ve Birol, “XIX Yüzyilin sonlarında Sivas vilayetinde Ermenilerin Faaliyetleri,” 4; Hepworth, Through Armenia on Horse back, 295–298; Verheij, “Frères de terre et d’eau,” 233: “L’émergence d’un militantisme politique et du nationalisme parmi les élèves des missionaires, surtout les protestants, n’était pas due au hasard.”

  80.

  Verheij,

  “Frères de terre et d’eau,” 235–237; Ternon, Bir Soykırım Tarihi, 123–132; Hovannisian, “Simon Varatzian,” 195–197; Bloxham, Great Game of Genocide, 49–51; and Lewy, Armenian Massacres, 11–15.

  81.

  Payaslian,

  History of Armenia, 119–120; and Lewy, Armenian Massacres, 11–12.

  82.

  Lewy,

  Armenian Massacres, 11–15; Gürün, Armenian File, 155–166; and Bloxham, Great Game of Genocide, 49–51. Bloxham claims that there is no evidence that this was their intention, but they were willing to accept such consequences of their be hav ior.

  83. See Yildiz Saray, Justice Ministry and Grand Vizier’s correspondence with the vilayets and Syriac patriarchate, October 1896, BOA, Y. PRK. UM, 32 / 96, 28.8.1895; BOA, Y. A. HUS, 344 / 4 from October 1896. These reports and letters claimed that Armenians in Muslim dress had attacked Christian churches. These impostors, it was charged, also attacked Kurds to create chaos in Mamuret- ül- Aziz vilayet.

  See also Testimony of Rev. Cyrus Hamlin in New York Times, 23 August 1895; MAE, Affaires Politiques Jusqu’en 1896, 514, 13/1/1894; and Bulut ve Birol, “XIX Yüzyilin sonlarında Sivas vilayetinde Ermenilerin Faaliyetleri,” 4–5. About the intended provocation of Ottoman authorities, see Hepworth, Through Armenia on Horse back, 296, 339–340; and Verheij, “Frères de terre et d’eau,” 234.

  84. Longworth to Currie, 8 February 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1936. Very few Armenians heeded the call of the revolutionaries.

  85.

  Verheij,

  “Frères de terre et d’eau,” 234; and Klein, Margins of Empire, 20–24.

  86. Yildiz Saray, Justice Ministry and Grand Vizier’s correspondence with the vilayets and Syriac patriarchate, October 1896, BOA, Y. PRK. UM, 32 / 96, 28.8.1895; BOA, Y. A. HUS, 344 / 4 from October 1896. See also Lewy, Armenian Massacres, 9.

  Notes to Pages 42–49

  87.

  Klein,

  Margins of Empire, 20–24.

  88. The name “Hamidiye” is derived from Abdülhamid.

  89.

  Klein,

  Margins of Empire, 11. See also Deringil, “Armenian Mass Conversions,” 349.

  90.

  Klein,

  Margins of Empire, 24.

  91.

  Onal,

  Sadettin Paşa’nın Anıları, 20–23. The French vice- consul in Diyarbekir in 1901 described the regiments as “a band of official highway robbers spreading terror,” killing and pillaging Christians with impunity (Travis, “Native Christians Massacred,” 330).

  92.

  Verheij,

  “Frères de terre et d’eau,” 238. Simşir, Kürtçülük 1787–1923, 207–217.

  93.

  Artinian,

  Armenian Constitutional System, 104–105; and Pamuk, “The Ottoman Empire in the Great Depression,” 107–118.

  2. The Massacres of 1894–1896

  1.

  Salt,

  Imperialism, Evangelism, 31.

  2. Graves to Nicolson, 26 December 1893, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 18.

  3. For example, see Hallward to Graves, 10 November 1894, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 166–169, concerning Bitlis Vali Hassan Tahsin Pasha.

  4. H. M. Allen, “Facts and Figures from the Province of Van,” undated but from spring 1895, Bodl.

  MS Lord Bryce Papers 196.

  5. Allen, “Facts and Figures from the Province of Van,” undated but prob ably from spring 1895, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 196.

  6. Hallward to Graves, 10 June 1895, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 348. See Verheij, “Les Frères de terre et d’eau,” 260–262.

  7. “Report of G. H. Fitzmaurice to Sir Philip Currie, Constantinople— Ourfa, March 16, 1896,”

  Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 12.

  8. C. S. Sanders, Aleppo, to H. D. Barnham, British consul, Aleppo, 11 January 1895, UKNA FO

  195 / 1883. See also MAE, summary of report sent from Maraş to the French embassy on 4 July 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1906.

  9. “Report of G.H. Fitzmaurice to Sir Philip Currie, Constantinople— Ourfa, March 16, 1896,”

  Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 12.

  10. Hallward to Graves, 2 February 1895, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 238.

  11. “Report of G. H. Fitzmaurice to Sir Philip Currie, Constantinople— Ourfa, March 16, 1896,”

  Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 12.

  12. The Committee of the Patriots of Islam, “Placard,” undated but enclosed in Francis Clare Ford to Earl of Rosebery, 13 April 1893, Turkey No. 3 (1896), 82.

  13. Unsigned but by British Embassy in Constantinople, “Precis of Events at Marsovan,” April 1893, Turkey No. 3 (1896), 80–82; Longworth to Ford, 28 March 1893, Turkey No. 3 (1896), 83–85; and Longworth to Ford, 20 April 1893, Turkey No. 3
(1896), 95.

  14. Graves to Ford, 6 May 1893, Turkey No. 3 (1896), 105–106.

  15. Graves, “Memorandum on Armenian Trou bles in Sivas and Angora Vilayets of January 1893,” 1

  July 1893, Turkey No. 3 (1896), 160–162.

  16. “Inclosure 3 in No. 12,” signed “The Armenian Revolutionists,” attached to Longworth to Arthur Nicolson, 31 December 1893, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 13–14.

  17. Nicolson to Earl of Rosebery, 16 December 1893, Turkey No. 3 (1896), 228. For a French description, see French Ambassador Laboulinière to Foreign Ministry, 19 December 1893, MAE, Affaires jusqu’a 1896, no. 513. For the Ottoman description, see BOA, A. MKT. MHM, 645 / 1; also quoted in Ermeni Isyanları, Vol. 1, 61–78. Initially the Ottomans spoke of sedition encouraged by the Armenian

  Notes to Pages 50–56

  Patriarchate. But later investigation put the onus on Armenian revolutionary committees and explained the commotion as a result of mutual misunderstandings.

  18. Cumberbatch to Nicolson, 2 February 1894, and “Inclosure 2 in No. 33,” “Petition concerning Events at Indjirli” (Yozgat), 12 December 1893, in Turkey No. 6 (1896), 33–35.

  19. Currie to Foreign Secretary Kimberley, draft letter conveying statement to one of his assistants,

  “Mr. Eliot,” by Protestant Armenian “preacher” at Yozgat, Karekine (or Karekin), 17 May 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1823.

  20. Cumberbatch to Nicolson, 29 December 1893, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 3–7.

  21. Currie to Kimberley (draft dispatch), 17 May 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1823.

  22. Currie to Kimberley (draft dispatch), 17 May 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1823.

 

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