[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
to you now. And to all those who believe in freedom.
Afterword
irst a note that, although I called the country Turkey throughout
this book, this name did not officially come into use until na-
F tionalist leader Kemal Ataturk abolished the three hundred-
year-old Muslim caliphate in 1923 and founded the Republic of Tur-
key. Before then, the country and the extensive territory it controlled in
Europe and the Middle East was known formally and legally as the Ot-
toman Empire. Ordinarily, however, it was simply referred to as
Turkey. As a result of its war with Italy and its two Balkan Wars, of
siding with Germany during the First World War, and the resulting de-
feat and collapse of the Young Turk regime, Turkey lost most of its
territory and was reduced in size to nearly its geographic boundaries of
today.
For simplicity here, I used the then-common Turkey in place of
the Ottoman Empire.
Now, as to the Armenians, throughout the nineteenth century they
were commonly massacred by Moslem Turks, often with the connivance
of the Ottoman government. The largest of these massacres was under
Sultan Abdul Humid during the years 1894 to 1896, when the Turks
massacred anywhere from 100,000 to over 300,000 Armenians. This
shocked the Christian powers, especially England, and they intervened to
safeguard the Armenians. They forced the sultan to agree to reforms giv-
ing Armenians greater self-government in areas they dominated, and
more equality with Moslems elsewhere. Turkey s rulers never forgot this
and subsequent foreign interventions on behalf of this Christian minority.
Hamid s massacres, as terrible as they were in deaths and misery,
were probably mostly spontaneous, riotous instances of community
violence by Moslems against Armenians. The infamy of executing this
century s first full-scale ethnic cleansing genocide belongs to Tur-
key s Young Turk government during World War I. In their highest
councils, Turkish leaders decided to exterminate every Armenian in the
country, whether a front-line soldier or a pregnant woman, a famous
professor or a high bishop, an important businessman or an ardent
Turkish patriot. All two million of them.
Thus, the Young Turk massacre of Armenians described here actu-
ally happened. It was launched in 1915 and continued until this bloody
Genocide Never Again 189
regime ended in humiliating military defeat. By October of 1918, Tur-
key s situation on the war front had become militarily hopeless. Her
army was disintegrating, military desertions were widespread, morale at
home was abysmal, and the Allies had virtually defeated Germany in the
west. One last defeat, this time by the Bulgarian army at Nablus, did it.
The Young Turks could hold no more illusions; their regime collapsed.
But this did not end the Turkish killing of Armenians and Greeks.
After the war, France, Great Britain, and Greece occupied portions
of Turkey. This outraged the Turkish people, and the pro-Allies poli-
cies of the postwar Turkish government further fueled the anger.
Sharing this feeling, the army inspector for the eastern provinces,
Mustapha Kemal Pasha (otherwise known as Kemal Ataturk), left Con-
stantinople in May of 1919, ostensibly for an inspection trip. Upon
reaching the eastern provinces, however, he resigned his position and
established a rebel nationalist government.
Under Ataturk s presidency, a national congress met in Erzerum to
organize resistance to foreign occupation in effect, resistance to the
sultan s government. It proved successful. The sultan forcibly tried to
suppress the rebellion, but to no avail. In October of 1919 he gave in,
appointed a new cabinet, and held new parliamentary elections. The
nationalists then won a big victory and prepared to exercise power in
Constantinople. During their seizure of power and its certification by
elections, the Nationalists also began their own genocide of Armenians,
particularly in their invasion of newly independent Armenia, at the
same time adding the Greeks to their genocide.
In Turkey s Adana alone during 1919, the nationalists killed fifty [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
to you now. And to all those who believe in freedom.
Afterword
irst a note that, although I called the country Turkey throughout
this book, this name did not officially come into use until na-
F tionalist leader Kemal Ataturk abolished the three hundred-
year-old Muslim caliphate in 1923 and founded the Republic of Tur-
key. Before then, the country and the extensive territory it controlled in
Europe and the Middle East was known formally and legally as the Ot-
toman Empire. Ordinarily, however, it was simply referred to as
Turkey. As a result of its war with Italy and its two Balkan Wars, of
siding with Germany during the First World War, and the resulting de-
feat and collapse of the Young Turk regime, Turkey lost most of its
territory and was reduced in size to nearly its geographic boundaries of
today.
For simplicity here, I used the then-common Turkey in place of
the Ottoman Empire.
Now, as to the Armenians, throughout the nineteenth century they
were commonly massacred by Moslem Turks, often with the connivance
of the Ottoman government. The largest of these massacres was under
Sultan Abdul Humid during the years 1894 to 1896, when the Turks
massacred anywhere from 100,000 to over 300,000 Armenians. This
shocked the Christian powers, especially England, and they intervened to
safeguard the Armenians. They forced the sultan to agree to reforms giv-
ing Armenians greater self-government in areas they dominated, and
more equality with Moslems elsewhere. Turkey s rulers never forgot this
and subsequent foreign interventions on behalf of this Christian minority.
Hamid s massacres, as terrible as they were in deaths and misery,
were probably mostly spontaneous, riotous instances of community
violence by Moslems against Armenians. The infamy of executing this
century s first full-scale ethnic cleansing genocide belongs to Tur-
key s Young Turk government during World War I. In their highest
councils, Turkish leaders decided to exterminate every Armenian in the
country, whether a front-line soldier or a pregnant woman, a famous
professor or a high bishop, an important businessman or an ardent
Turkish patriot. All two million of them.
Thus, the Young Turk massacre of Armenians described here actu-
ally happened. It was launched in 1915 and continued until this bloody
Genocide Never Again 189
regime ended in humiliating military defeat. By October of 1918, Tur-
key s situation on the war front had become militarily hopeless. Her
army was disintegrating, military desertions were widespread, morale at
home was abysmal, and the Allies had virtually defeated Germany in the
west. One last defeat, this time by the Bulgarian army at Nablus, did it.
The Young Turks could hold no more illusions; their regime collapsed.
But this did not end the Turkish killing of Armenians and Greeks.
After the war, France, Great Britain, and Greece occupied portions
of Turkey. This outraged the Turkish people, and the pro-Allies poli-
cies of the postwar Turkish government further fueled the anger.
Sharing this feeling, the army inspector for the eastern provinces,
Mustapha Kemal Pasha (otherwise known as Kemal Ataturk), left Con-
stantinople in May of 1919, ostensibly for an inspection trip. Upon
reaching the eastern provinces, however, he resigned his position and
established a rebel nationalist government.
Under Ataturk s presidency, a national congress met in Erzerum to
organize resistance to foreign occupation in effect, resistance to the
sultan s government. It proved successful. The sultan forcibly tried to
suppress the rebellion, but to no avail. In October of 1919 he gave in,
appointed a new cabinet, and held new parliamentary elections. The
nationalists then won a big victory and prepared to exercise power in
Constantinople. During their seizure of power and its certification by
elections, the Nationalists also began their own genocide of Armenians,
particularly in their invasion of newly independent Armenia, at the
same time adding the Greeks to their genocide.
In Turkey s Adana alone during 1919, the nationalists killed fifty [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]