The Turks are not limited to denying the fact of genocide - they would like to erase the very memory of the Armenians in modern Turkey.
Behind the Turks’ desire to deny everything and everyone there are, first of all, fears that world public opinion may demand that Turkey compensate for material damage or return territories to Armenia. Indeed, according to the UN Convention “On the Inapplicability of the Statute of Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity” (November 26, 1968), genocide is a crime for which the period of liability does not expire, no matter how much time has passed since the events occurred.
GENOCIDE. RACHEL CRIPS FOR HER CHILDREN AND DOES NOT WANT TO BE CONSOLIDATED, FOR THEY ARE NOT... (Matt. 2:18) However, the Turkish government passed a law in 1927 prohibiting the entry into Turkey of Armenian survivors of deportation, and since then has always officially denied genocide survivors and their descendants the right to return to their lands and retake possession of their property or receive appropriate compensation.
GENOCIDE. ARMENIAN CHILDREN. AHEAD OF THEM IS DEATH BY HUNGER OR BY THE TURKISH SABER The Armenian genocide was the first in a series of similar crimes; it was undoubtedly the longest. But its main difference from the Holocaust is that Mets Yeghern took place in the historical homeland of the persecuted people, in Western Armenia, where Armenians lived for more than three thousand years. (Before the invasion of Poland, on August 22, 1939, Hitler told the leaders of the Third Reich: “Our strength lies in speed and cruelty. Genghis Khan deliberately and with a light heart sent thousands of women and children to their deaths. And history sees in him only the great founder of the state. (...) I gave the order to the special SS units to send to death, without regret or compassion, men, women and children of Polish origin and speaking the Polish language.Only in this way can we get the vital space we need.Who today still remembers the extermination of the Armenians? ") One of the results of the genocide, in addition to the extermination of the population, was the loss of approximately nine-tenths of Armenia's lands, as well as the forced dispersion of the few survivors throughout the world.
ANI IS THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF ARMENIA. Cathedral of Our Lady Western Armenia is the cradle of the ancient Armenian civilization and has always been its homeland; Here rises Mount Ararat, under the shadow of which it arose, here the ancient capitals of Tushpa, Van, Tigranakert, Ani flourished. This means that the Armenian people were not only almost completely destroyed, but also forced to leave the land on which they had always lived for centuries.
The genocide uprooted and trampled on the three-thousand-year-old culture of Armenia. The disappearance of Armenians from their historical homeland also meant the disappearance of their cities, churches, schools, libraries, monasteries, and universities. The genocide caused enormous damage to Armenian and world literature: during the robberies and fires that followed the deportation, the most ancient and unique manuscripts were destroyed.
ANI - ANCIENT CAPITAL OF ARMENIA Thanks to the reverent attitude of the Armenians to their writing, only a small part of the ancient books was saved: sometimes the deportees secretly buried them deep in the sand, moving along their terrible path in the desert.
Since 1920, Turkey has converted hundreds of Armenian churches and monasteries into mosques and destroyed or allowed centuries-old monuments of Armenian culture to be turned into ruins. By the time the Ottoman Empire entered the war in 1914, the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople had 210 monasteries, 700 cathedrals and 1,639 parish churches. According to statistics from 1974, out of 913 Armenian churches still known in Turkey, 464 were completely destroyed, 252 were turned into ruins and only 197 were left in relatively good condition. In the following decades, many other monuments of Armenian art that remained on Turkish territory were destroyed.
Türkiye is afraid of the silent testimony of the masterpieces of Armenian architecture. So she created areas closed to tourists. Since the 20s of the last century, the study of Armenian architectural monuments on Turkish territory has been practically prohibited or greatly hampered. The Turkish authorities are still consistently destroying traces of the presence of Armenians on the territory of Western Armenia. Churches are turned into mosques or completely destroyed, khachkars are reduced to rubble. Local historians and art critics resort to shameless lies, attributing to the Turkish people the authorship of even the world-famous masterpieces of Armenian architecture.
So, the Armenian genocide at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries not only barbarously took the lives of two million people, forced them to endure unimaginable suffering, scattered survivors throughout the world, deprived the people of nine-tenths of the territory of their historical homeland, but also caused enormous damage to Armenian and world culture. And therefore, it should also be regarded as a crime against all humanity.
Finally, in addition to the death of a huge part of the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople in April 1915, these terrible events also had more distant consequences. Thus, in 1935, the Armenian composer Komitas, who had lost his mind from the horrors he saw during the genocide, died in Paris. After many years, he became another victim of the crime; and who knows how many people unknown to historians suffered a similar fate...
MONUMENT TO KOMITAS IN ST. PETERSBURG
The Armenian Church is considering the issue of canonization of the composer Komitas. “The people have long canonized him, but church canonization procedures, especially for individuals, are much longer and more complex,” Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan, chairman of the commission for organizing the canonization ceremony, said in an interview.
The soul doesn't want anything
And without opening my eyes,
Looks at the sky and mutters,
How crazy, Komitas.
The luminaries are moving slowly
In a spiral above,
As if she spoke to them
The power sleeping within me.
My shirt is all covered in blood,
Because me too
The wind of fear blows
An ancient massacre.
And again Hagia Sophia
The stone walks in front of me
And the ground is bare feet
Burns me with ash.
Lazarus came out of the tomb,
And he doesn't care
What flies into his eye sockets
White apple blossom.
Until the morning there is air in the larynx
It flakes off like mica
And stands in the crimson stars
Falsehood of the Last Judgment.
(Arseny Tarkovsky; 1959)
In connection with the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, in the summer of 2015 a monument to the great Armenian composer Komitas will be erected in the cultural capital of Russia. The monument will be erected on the initiative of Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan, who personally visited Levon Bebutyan’s workshop in St. Petersburg and got acquainted with the process of creating the monument.
The three-meter monument will be installed in the central square of the Vasileostrovsky administrative district, which will be renamed Yerevan Square. By the way, Armenian khachkars have already been installed in the park, and the monument to Komitas will complement the Armenian corner of the Northern capital.
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY OF THE EVENTS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN TURKEY
ARMIN WEGNER IS A JUNIOR LIEUTENANT IN THE GERMAN ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE. 1915 The photographs published in the collection were taken by a young Prussian officer of the German Red Cross - a witness to the Armenian genocide, Armin Wegner (1886-1978) in 1915-1916. Photographs from his archive, letters and diaries will forever remain in history as a convincing document revealing the events of that terrible time.
“Armin Wegner understood the responsibility that lay with him as a witness from the very beginning of his stay in the Middle East, while still in Mesopotamia. This is how he writes about it: “The spectacle of massacres against the backdrop of the pale horizon of a scorched desert involuntarily gave birth to a desire in me to at least partially tell about what was tormenting me, to tell not only my close friends, but also a wider, invisible circle of people...”
ARMIN WEGNER (1886 - 1978) - DOCTOR OF LAW, WRITER, POET The moral duty of any eyewitness to violence requires testimony, but when the testimony concerns the fate of an entire people who became victims of genocide, we are already talking about a duty to the entire human history. The purpose of testimony is not only to ensure that such atrocities do not happen again. By testifying, the witness of violence gives victims the opportunity to speak through his or her mouth; without forgetting what he once saw, he allows them to live in his memory.
During his long life, he will empathize with his whole being with those unfortunate people with whom he communicated and could not help, against whom monstrous atrocities were committed, and he was powerless to stop them” (Giovanni Guita).
In his poem "The Old Man" Armin Wegner wrote:
My conscience calls me to witness
I am the voice of the exiled, crying out in the wilderness...
In 1968, Catholicos of All Armenians Vazgen I awarded Wegner the Order of St. Gregory, Enlightener of Armenia, in the Armenian capital Yerevan, where one of the city streets bears Wegner's name.
Armin Wegner died in Rome at the age of 92 on May 17, 1978. In 1996, part of his ashes were transferred to Armenia and buried near Yerevan in Tsitsernakaberd, in the wall of the Memorial dedicated to the victims of the genocide.
The Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide and the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the NAS RA recommended, and the Gitutyun publishing house published the study of Doctor of Philology Verzhine Svazlyan “The Armenian Genocide: Eyewitness Testimonies” (scientific editor - Corresponding Member of the NAS RA Sargis Harutyunyan) in Armenian and English languages. The voluminous volumes (each over 800 pages) contain enormous historical and factual material drawn from the testimony of 700 sources. The book will be published in Turkish in the very near future in Istanbul by the Belge publishing house of prominent human rights activist Ragip Zarakolu.
THESE VOLUME ARE THE RESULT OF THE AUTHOR'S 55 YEARS OF TIRELESS WORK. Amazingly, back in 1955, when any mention of the Genocide was banned, Verzhin Svazlyan, while still a student, realizing the importance of eyewitness testimony as reliable factual material, on her own initiative began collecting testimonies from survivors of the Genocide. Since 1960, she continued the same work in Greece, France, Italy, Germany, USA, Canada, Syria. Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, already as an employee of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, and then of the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia.
In 2000, the first edition of the book under the same title was published. It included the testimony of 600 eyewitnesses. Not satisfied with what had been done, V. Svazlyan continued searching and collecting materials. Participation in international conferences, visits to nursing homes, places of compact residence of Armenians, communication with descendants of Genocide victims around the world allowed her to increase the number of reliable sources to 700. Let us note not only the wealth of material covered, but also its genre diversity: for example, recordings of historical songs on Armenian and Turkish languages are generally unique in the literature about the Genocide.
The introduction to the book has independent scientific value. Its first section - “Historical and philological research”, in turn, is divided into two lengthy subsections: “Genre and typological features of historical evidence reported by surviving eyewitnesses” and “The process of the Armenian Genocide according to eyewitness accounts”, in which the author reveals in detail the identified topic headings.
In the second section - "Historical Primary Sources" - 700 testimonies about the Genocide are distributed into the following extensive subsections: "Memories", "Historical Songs". The last subsection also contains notated songs.
V. SVAZLYAN HERSELF SPEAKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EVIDENCE HER COLLECTED ABOUT THE GENOCIDE: “Just as when solving any crime, eyewitness testimony is of decisive importance, so in this case, each testimony has, from a legal point of view, evidentiary value for a fair solution to the Armenian question and recognition of the Armenian Genocide.” “That is why,” the author concludes, “it is so important to publish and introduce into scientific use the factual documentary folk testimonies of eyewitnesses collected in this work about the entire historical process of the Armenian Genocide, about the innocent victims and the captured Country, since genocide is a mass political crime and it should not go unpunished, it must be revealed, including on the basis of the testimonies of survivors. And the most important witness is the people who, painfully reliving what happened again and again, told and continues to tell, testifying to their tragic past. The past, which is and the past of the entire Armenian people, their history, their common historical memory, which must be presented to the fair judgment of the world and humanity."
The work is accompanied by a summary in 6 languages (including Russian), a dictionary of difficult to explain and foreign words, and detailed comments on historical events and persons. A special table provides information about eyewitnesses (name, surname, year and place of birth) and their materials, the nature of the material (manuscript, audio or video recording), number of the archival fund, original language, place and time of recording of the material. In the section of indexes - thematic, personal names, toponyms and ethnonyms - for the first time in genocide studies, a thematic analysis of the originals was carried out, which allows researchers to delve deeper into the diverse topics covered in the originals (description of the region, life, resettlement, deportation, pogrom, massacre, abduction, circumcision , Islamization, methods of torture, intrigues of the great powers, etc.). Of exceptional value are the photographs (288 photographs) of witnesses who survived the Genocide, located in the last section of the book, as well as a map of those carried out in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923. deportation and the Armenian Genocide.
ALSO INCLUDED IN ARMENIAN AND ENGLISH EDITIONS documentary video film "Credo of the Svazlyan clan", dedicated to the patriotic activities of three generations of the Svazlyan clan in the 20th century. The film uses the most valuable archival materials and living testimonies of eyewitnesses of the Genocide.
There is no doubt that eyewitness accounts, historical and political documents, saved from oblivion and presented to the world in three languages (the author hopes that with the support of sponsors, publication in Russian will also be carried out) will certainly become an irrefutable and significant contribution to the fair resolution of the Armenian question.
Translation from Armenian
1. Persian Meshali Haji Ibrahim said the following:
“In May 1915, Governor Takhsin Bey summoned the Chebashi Amvanli Eyub-ogly Gadyr and, showing him the order received from Constantinople, said: “I entrust the local Armenians to you, bring them unharmed to Kemakh, there the Kurds will attack them and other. For the sake of appearances, you will show that you want to protect them, you will even use weapons once or twice against the attackers, but in the end you will show that you cannot cope with them, you will leave and return.” After thinking a little, Gadyr said: “You order me to take the sheep and lambs tied hand and foot to the slaughter; this is cruelty unbecoming of me; I am a soldier, send me against the enemy, let him either kill me with a bullet and I will fall bravely, or I will defeat him and save my country, and I will never agree to stain my hands in the blood of the innocent.” The governor was very insistent that he carry out the order, but the magnanimous Gadyr flatly refused. Then the governor called Mirza-bey Veransheherli and made him the above proposal. This one also argued that there is no need to kill. Already, he said, you are putting the Armenians in such conditions that they themselves will die along the way, and Mesopotamia is such a hot country that they will not be able to stand it, they will die. But the governor insisted, and Mirza accepted the offer. Mirza fully fulfilled his cruel obligation. Four months later he returned to Erzurum with 360 thousand lire; He gave 90 thousand to Tahsin, 90 thousand to the corps commander Mahmud Kamil, 90 thousand to the defterdar, and the rest to the meherdar, Seifulla and accomplices. However, during the division of this booty, a dispute arose between them, and the governor arrested Mirza. And Mirza threatened to make such revelations that the world would be surprised; then he was released.” Eyub-ogly Gadyr and Mirza Veransheherli personally told this story to the Persian Mashadi Haji Ibrahim.
2. Persian camel driver Kerbalay Ali-Memed said the following: “I was transporting ammunition from Erzincan to Erzurum. One day in June 1915, when I approached the Khotursky Bridge, a stunning sight appeared before my eyes. A countless number of human corpses filled the 12 spans of the large bridge, damming the river so that it changed its course and ran past the bridge. It was terrible to watch; I stood with my caravan for a long time until these corpses floated by and I was able to cross the bridge. But from the bridge to Dzhinis, the entire road was littered with the corpses of old men, women and children, who had already decomposed, swollen and stinking. The stench was so terrible that it was impossible to walk along the road; my two camel drivers got sick and died from this stench, and I was forced to change my path. These were victims and traces of an unheard of and terrible crime. And all these were the corpses of Armenians, unfortunate Armenians.”
3. Alaftar Ibrahim Efendi said the following: “On the eviction of Armenians from Constantinople, a very strict and urgent order was received with the following content: to slaughter without mercy all men from 14 to 65 years of age, do not touch children, old people and women, but leave and convert into Mohammedanism."
TsGIA Arm, SSR, f. 57, op. 1, d, 632, l. 17-18.
based on “The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire”, edited by M.G. Nersisyan, M. 1982, pp. 311-313
For the history of the Armenian Genocide, foreign sources are of great importance, among which a special place is occupied by the testimony of Greek authors - eyewitnesses of the extermination of Christians in the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century. Metropolitan Chrysanthos (Philippidis), who headed the See of Trebizond in 1913-1938. (in 1938-1941 - Archbishop of Athens and All Greece), is one of these eyewitnesses who experienced the whole tragedy of that black period in the life of the Armenian and Greek peoples. Chrysanthus published his testimony about the genocide of the Pontic Armenians in the monumental work “The Church of Trebizond” (Athens, 1933).
ACCORDING TO CHRISANF, AT THE BEGINNING OF JUNE 1915, THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE of the Young Turk Commissariat, the doctor Behaetdin Shakir Bey, ARRIVED IN TRAPZUND, “having descended from Feodosiupol (Erzurum), where he organized and carried out the massacre of numerous Armenians living in that region.” Together with the governor (vali) of Trebizond and other officials, Shakir convened a meeting at which he “gave secret orders for the general massacre of the Armenians living in the vilayet of Trebizond.”
On June 13, an announcement was published announcing that after 5 days, Armenians violating peace in the state must leave their homes and, accompanied by guards, go to the interior of the country, where they will remain until the end of the war. Chrysanthus notes that “this announcement and the assurances contained in it about providing all sorts of conveniences and security on the way of the deported Armenians were made to deceive the unfortunate Armenians. In fact, secret orders for the wholesale massacre of the deportees remained in force.”
And indeed, although the announcement gave the Armenians a period of 5 days, violence against them began already on June 14: “On the day of publication of the aforementioned official announcement about the deportation of Armenians, about 300 active young Armenians were arrested and loaded onto a barge, which, after sunset, set sail to the open sea opposite the town of Platana, and there it was cut out by Turkish couples who sailed to the barge in a boat, and the corpses were thrown into the sea."
Even before June 13, Metropolitan Chrysanthos, having learned about the massacre plan, began negotiations with the governor of Trebizond in order to prevent the extermination of the Armenians. Chrysanthus characterizes his efforts with only one word: “superhuman.” On the one hand, he assured the governor “of the law-abiding and peaceful nature of our Armenian brothers,” and on the other hand, he reminded him of the threats of the allied powers. However, the Vali expressed confidence that the only thing that the allies would not take into account during the negotiations would be the massacre of the Armenians. The governor also said that “the decision of the Young Turk government of Constantinople to exterminate the Armenians is not subject to revocation or any change.”
THE ANNOUNCEMENT PLUGED THE PONTIAN ARMENIANS INTO DESPAIR AND INDESCRIBLY SADED ALL THE GREEKS. Every day, the leaders of the Armenian community of Trebizond came to the Greek Orthodox Metropolis for advice and consolation of Chrysanthus, who himself was “sad even to death.” During these tragic days, the Metropolitan did not stop begging the governor, while simultaneously denouncing the consuls of Germany and Austria that “before the eyes of two great Christian powers and with their approval, an entire Christian people was exterminated.”
On June 17, on the eve of the deportation, half-dead Armenian women brought their daughters to the Greek Metropolis. “Thus, numerous daughters of Armenians filled the bishop’s house, finding shelter and consolation in it for days. The next day, early in the morning, the group deportation of Armenians began, and after leaving Trebizond, their gradual massacre along the way. Beyond Trebizond, in the east of it, the current the river Piksitis or Daphnopotamos (Degirmen-dere) was filled with corpses. Having loaded Armenian children onto boats and barges, they sailed from the shore and drowned them in the sea. In the Hamshikei region, near the slopes of Mount Zabulon (Vazelon), all Armenians, from the very beginning of conscription into the army sent to the construction battalions, were shot in a hole that they dug themselves under duress and which reached the back in depth. The plains of Pariadra were covered with the corpses of Armenians - men and women."
Despite the fact that the Turkish authorities, under threat of death, forbade the Pontic Greeks from hiding Armenians, the Greeks, naturally, could not help but help their “Armenian brothers.” In many villages of Gemura and in the village of Sana, they constantly delivered food to the Armenians hiding in the forests. The Armenians saved in this way were able to return to their villages in the spring of 1916, when Pontus was occupied by Russian troops. The task of caring for the Armenians was taken over by the head of Sanaa, Yorikas Mikropoulos, who was later cut into pieces by the Turks. Another noble Greek, Dr. Andreas Metaxas, at his own expense, treated and fed St. at the Vaselon Monastery. John the Baptist about 30 Armenians from the construction battalions. They were wounded during the execution in Hamshikoy and, having reached the monastery through the forests, they found the protection and spiritual consolation of the fathers of the monastery.
After strong pressure from Chrysanthos, the governor agreed to open an orphanage for Armenian orphans in Trebizond. The maintenance of the orphanage was undertaken by the Orthodox Metropolis and the Greek community of Trebizond. However, a few days later, a new decree from Constantinople dissolved the orphanage, and the Armenian children were distributed to Turkish families. Later, during the truce of 1918, Metropolitan Chrysanthos demanded the return of the children, as well as the communal property of the Armenians.
THE METROPOLITAN PLACED THE ORPHANS IN A SPECIAL CHILDREN'S HOME, the expenses for the maintenance of which were covered by the Diocesan Commission of Refugees, and the supervision was undertaken by the sisterhood "Merimna" ("Care"). American missionaries offered their help. The Metropolitan did not refuse it, but forbade the Americans from any interference in the life of the orphanage. Chrysanthus turned to the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Zaven Yeghiayan (1913-1915, 1919-1922) with a request to send an Armenian clergyman to Trebizond so that he would lead the already small community of the city, and also manage the property of the Armenians.
Patriarch Zaven sent Vardapet Garegin Khachaturian (Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople in 1951-61) to Trebizond with a message of gratitude to Chrysanthus. The newly appointed diocesan leader, however, turned out to be insufficiently capable and diligent. Thus, to the grief and dissatisfaction of both Patriarch Zaven and Metropolitan Chrysanthus, he entrusted the direct management of the Armenian orphanage to missionaries, who converted all the orphans to Protestantism in just a month...
Kirakosyan Arman Dzhonovich
Safrastyan Ruben
The Armenian genocide, carried out by the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, is an indisputable fact of historical reality. As a result of this grave crime, Western Armenia completely lost its autochthonous population, the surviving part of the Western Armenian people scattered throughout the world, forming numerous colonies in the countries of Europe, America, the Middle East, and Australia - the Armenian diaspora.
The genocide left a deep mark in the memory of the Armenian people and became part of the spiritual life of every Armenian. Today, the entire Armenian people, the public in many countries of the world demand condemnation and recognition by the world community of the fact of the Armenian genocide and the restoration of historical justice. Committed in 1988-90. in Azerbaijan, crimes against the Armenian population, which were a response to the just demands of the Armenians of Artsakh for reunification with Armenia, resurrected terrible pictures of the past in the people's memory and made even more urgent the need to condemn the policy of genocide against ethnic groups and entire peoples, regardless of the time and place of its implementation. The law of the Armenian SSR of November 22, 1988 “On condemnation of the Armenian genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey” was an expression of the just demands and feelings of the Armenian people.
The Armenian genocide fully falls within the definition of the convention “On the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. It states that genocide is “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such.” If the massacre and deportation of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire is judged based on the two main points of Article 6 of the Charter of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, then the identity of the crimes committed by the Young Turks and the Nazis becomes obvious: murder, torture, enslavement of the civilian population, mass robbery and vandalism . The Armenian Genocide was condemned by the World Peace Congress held in Helsinki in July 1965.
The issue of the Armenian genocide remains the subject of discussion in the UN body - the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of National Minorities of the Commission on Human Rights. It occupied a special place in the 30th paragraph of the preliminary special study on the prevention and punishment of genocide, presented to the subcommittee by the representative of Rwanda, Nicodemus Ruhashiankiko, in 1973. It qualified the mass extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as “the first genocide of the 20th century.” . When discussing the report at the 26th session of the commission, then at the 30th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the representative of Turkey demanded that the reference to the Armenian genocide be omitted. From the final version of the report, presented in 1878 to the 31st session of the subcommittee, the entire historical part was excluded, along with mention of the Armenian genocide. The study was submitted to the 35th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (February - March 1979). During the discussion, the overwhelming number of delegations spoke in favor of restoring mention of the Armenian genocide in the study. The Subcommittee instructed the British representative, Benjamin Whitaker, to prepare a new study on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. At a meeting of the subcommittee in Geneva in 1985, B. Whitaker's report on this issue was heard, but as a result of discussions for a number of reasons, the subcommittee rejected the draft resolution and limited itself to only taking note of the report. At the same time, the historical part of the report specifically devoted space to the massacre of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War - the first genocide of the twentieth century. It was noted that there is extensive documentation on this issue.
Since 1983, the issue of the Armenian genocide has been discussed in the European Parliament. On June 18, 1987, the European Parliament adopted a resolution “On a political solution to the Armenian question” by a majority vote. For the first time, a representative international body voted for a resolution in which the crime of the Young Turk government was clearly qualified as genocide against the Armenian people. The preamble to the resolution noted “that the Turkish government, by refusing to recognize the genocide of 1915, continues to deprive the Armenian people of the right to their own history.” Thus, the European Parliament condemned not only the anti-Armenian policy of the ruling circles of modern Turkey, but also the falsified version of the Armenian genocide, widely propagated by Turkish historians recently.
It is noteworthy that the resolution is not limited to unfounded condemnation of the policies of the Turkish authorities; it specifically notes that Turkey’s admission to the European Economic Community is directly dependent on the position of its government on the issue of recognizing the fact of the Armenian genocide. This is a rather serious means of putting pressure on Turkey, since for many years it has been seeking entry into this community, of which it has been an associated member since 1963.
One of the new trends in recent years is the increased interest of the world community in the problem of the Armenian genocide, which is expressed in its discussion at various international scientific and public forums, conferences, and symposiums. Let us note, for example, the session of the Permanent Tribunal of Peoples in Paris (April 1984) specially dedicated to this problem, and the international conference “The Armenian Question and Turkish Expansionism” (Athens, May 1987). In May 1989, a congress of the World Council of Churches was held in the American city of San Antonio. The congress unanimously (350 representatives) adopted a resolution containing an appeal to all churches - members of the council, “to appeal to the governments of their countries to put pressure on Turkey to recognize the fact of the Armenian genocide.” The resolution demanded that Turkey “liberate captured Armenia and ensure the right of Diaspora Armenians to return to their homeland,” and “begin the restoration and reconstruction of over two thousand temples and churches destroyed in the country over the past 75 years.”
The issue of recognition and condemnation by the world community of the fact of the Armenian genocide is supported by some states, such as France, Greece, Argentina, etc. Over the past few years, resolutions on the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire have been regularly put on the agenda of the Senate and House of Representatives of the US Congress. The resolutions on the Armenian issue put forward for consideration by the Congress in previous years did not receive the required number of votes and were rejected at various stages of the hearings. Typically, the decisive role was played by the position of the State Department, the Department of Defense and the US President, who consistently opposed the adoption of the resolution.
The leaders of the Turkish state constantly warn the US government about the possibility of serious complications in Turkish-American relations, including withdrawal from the NATO military bloc if the resolution is adopted. At the same time, they emphasize the strategic importance of Turkey in the Western policy system as a “bastion of NATO’s southern flank,” protecting one third of the 3,600-mile border with the Warsaw Pact countries, indicating that Turkey has the largest army among the European members of the bloc and controls the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.
On December 7, 1987, the US House of Representatives once again rejected the resolution submitted by members of the US Democratic Party to hold the “International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Inhumanity to Man and the Armenian Massacre” on April 24 of each year. In September 1989, a similar resolution was submitted to the US Senate by a representative of the Republican Party, Senator Robert Dole. Despite the fact that in October the legislative commission of the US Senate approved the resolution, US President George W. Bush, under intense pressure from the Turkish authorities (the introduction of sanctions against the American presence in Turkey on October 25, 1989), was forced to warn Congress about the possible consequences of the resolution. On February 27, 1990, the US Senate refused to discuss and vote on the Armenian genocide resolution.
A massive propaganda campaign to discredit and falsify the problem of the Armenian genocide is being carried out today in Turkey. Its foundations were laid immediately after the implementation of the program of extermination of Armenians. It has noticeably intensified since the mid-70s, when it was elevated to the rank of Turkish state policy. Many Turkish scientific organizations (for example, the Turkish Historical Society, the Institute for the Study of Turkic Culture, the Faculty of History and Literature of Istanbul University, etc.), press organs (newspapers stand out in particular) are pursuing a clearly biased policy that runs counter to historical reality. Tercuman, Hurriyet, Milliyet), television and radio of this country. Among Turkish historians, a whole group of “scientists” took shape, which, forgetting about their previous passions, switched to the problem of the Armenian genocide. The names of Turkkay Atayev, Salahi Soniel, Kamuran Gyurun, Mümtaz Soysal and others should be noted. It was through their efforts that the falsified concept of genocide was formulated. Here are its main provisions: 1) there was no Armenian genocide, there was only the expulsion of part of the Armenian population from the front line; 2) along the way, a small part of them died due to hunger, disease and other wartime hardships; 3) during the First World War, the Turkish people gave significantly more victims than the Armenians; at the same time, most of the Turkish civilians died at the hands of Armenian murderers; 4) numerous facts, documents, eyewitness accounts were fabricated by the Armenians themselves.
Let us dwell in more detail on the last provision of the Turkish concept, which is directly related to the main topic of this article - the opening of Ottoman archives in Turkey.
Over the course of more than seven decades since the First World War, a large number of archival documents relating to the Armenian genocide have been published. The first 52 documents, representing Talaat’s secret decrees regarding the eviction and extermination of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, were first published in 1920 in London by the Armenian writer and publicist Aram Antonyan. The documents were handed over to him by the chief secretary of the Aleppo eviction committee, Naim Bey. Modern Turkish historians Turkkaya Atayev, Shinasi Orel, Surreya Yuj and others do not recognize the authenticity of these documents, considering them “a fake fabricated by the Armenians.” However, recently historian Vahagn Dadryan (USA) convincingly proved their authenticity.
Both Soviet and foreign archives contain a large number of documents (diplomatic correspondence, eyewitness accounts, etc.) related to this problem. Unfortunately, only a part of them has been published. Thus, from the collections published in Moscow containing documents related to the Armenian Question, one can note “International Relations in the Age of Imperialism. Documents from the archives of the tsarist and provisional governments. 1878-1917” (M., 1931-40), “Division of Asian Turkey. According to secret documents of the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs” (Moscow, 1924), etc. The collections “Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire” (edited by M. Nersisyan, Yerevan, 1966), “Armenia in documents of international diplomacy and Soviet foreign affairs” were published in Armenia. politics” (edited by J. Kirakosyan, Yerevan, 1972), “The Armenian Genocide based on the materials of the trial of the Young Turks” (compiled by A. Papazyan, Yerevan, 1989), dozens of monographs and numerous articles were published on the basis of archival documents.
Recently, in France, Germany, the USA, Great Britain, Argentina, Uruguay and other countries, much work has been carried out to identify and publish documents related to the problem of the Armenian genocide. Among the collections of documents published abroad, it should be noted “The Armenian Genocide” (based on materials from the American press during the First World War, compiled by T. Kloyan, New York, 1980), “Great Powers, the Ottoman Empire and the Armenians in the Archives of France. 1914-1918” (compiled by A. Beyleryan, Paris, 1983), two volumes “The Armenian Genocide” by the Institute of the Armenian Question (Munich, 1987, 1988), and the second of them contains only Austro-Hungarian documents from the period of the First World War, etc. A brief listing of the main collections of documents published on this issue leads to a natural question: does the Turkish side really think today that it can convince the world community that the Armenians were able to fabricate so many archival materials stored in the archives of various countries around the world?
The existence of extensive documentation on the problem of the Armenian genocide, the demands of the Armenian people and the public in many countries of the world to recognize and condemn the fact of the genocide that took place, especially the adoption by the European Parliament of the resolution “On the political solution of the Armenian question”, forced the Turkish authorities to think about the need to open the Ottoman archives. However, at the same time, as we will see, the task has been set in advance to show the whole world that there are no documents testifying to the systematic policy of genocide against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire in the Turkish archives and there cannot be. This behavior of the Turkish side can be seen as an attempt to disorient world public opinion, as an example of international demagoguery.
Speaking in early January 1989 on the Turkish television program “32nd Day,” former Turkish Foreign Minister Mesut Yilmaz said that preparations were being made to open access for researchers to Ottoman archival documents relating to the Armenian Question, in particular, the period of the First World War. He emphasized that the purpose of opening the archives is so that “the scientific truth about the Armenian Question will finally be recognized” ( Milliet, 1989, January 4). A similar statement was also made by the representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Inal Batu: “The Turkish government is opening archives in order to achieve clarity in the scientific side of the problem of genocide” ( Milliet, 1989, January 7).
So what are the Ottoman archives? First of all, it is necessary to clarify that the expression “Ottoman archives” should be understood as the central state archives of the Ottoman Empire, containing documentation related to the activities of higher government institutions (the office of the Sultan, Sadrazam, various ministries and departments, their correspondence with provincial governments, personal archives sultans and individual high dignitaries, etc.). All these documents are stored in seven buildings located in Istanbul. Their total number is 100-150 million storage units. To this number it is necessary to add another 120 thousand documents located in the museum of the Sultan’s Topkapi Palace. Some of the documents of the military department were transported to Ankara during the republican period. A large number of documents are in the museums of various cities that were at one time the centers of the vilayets of the former Ottoman Empire. However, these collections are not included in the concept of “Ottoman archives”.
Ottoman archives are considered one of the richest in the world. They are of great value not only from the point of view of the history of Turkey itself, but also of many peoples who were part of the Ottoman Empire at different times.
Could the Ottoman archives contain documents on the issue of the Armenian genocide? To answer this question, it is necessary to take into account the following circumstances:
- The decision on the mass extermination and deportation of Armenians was made by a narrow group of people belonging mainly to the leadership core of the Union and Progress party during a series of secret meetings. These meetings were of an informal nature, so their minutes in the Ottoman state archives must, in all likelihood, be absent.
- Deportation and massacre were carried out mainly by the so-called. “special organization” (“teshkilyat-i maksuse”) and the army. A “special organization” was created by the Young Turks to conduct secret subversive work abroad. Immediately before the start of the deportation, a top-secret unit was created within the structure of the “special organization” to carry it out. It reported directly to the Central Committee of the “Unity and Progress” party, and some members of the Central Committee did not even know about its existence. So the bulk of the documentation on the deportation and extermination of Armenians passed through party communication channels and most likely ended up in the archives of the Central Committee of the Young Turk Party. And the archives of the War Ministry, as already noted, are stored in Ankara and are considered secret. Access to them is closed.
- In 1931, the Turkish government sold part of the Ottoman archives to Bulgaria as plain paper. There they were transferred to the library. Cyril and Methodius, forming the basis of the collections of oriental manuscripts of this library. At present, they have already been largely classified and are being intensively studied by Bulgarian Ottomanists. Among the documents there are those that are of considerable interest for studying the history of the Armenian people in the Middle Ages, but there are no documents on the problem of genocide among them. Some of the Ottoman documents sold to Bulgaria ended up in the Vatican, but even there it is unlikely that direct evidence of the 1915 genocide will be discovered.
Although the above considerations make it unlikely that the Ottoman archives may contain relevant documents, this possibility should not be completely excluded. In our opinion, traces of this crime of the Young Turks can be found in the correspondence of the central authorities with the governors of the vilayets and in other funds. Already in 1986, the Turkish government had precise information about the presence in the Ottoman archives of documents that shed light on the circumstances of the Armenian genocide. It was in that year that all these documents were identified, collected in the building of the General Directorate of State Archives in Istanbul and placed in special steel safes, which, as the Turkish newspaper reported, “ Güneş” (1986, August 10) are under continuous surveillance of special electronic tracking devices for 24 hours. It can be assumed that at present some of these documents – the most “dangerous” from the government’s point of view – have already been destroyed.
However, the government realized quite early on that the Ottoman archives could present Turkey in an unfavorable light. This explains his desire since the 1960s. sharply limit the access of specialists to Ottoman archives. Only a few of them were given the right to work in them.
Note that in Turkey there is practically no research into the history and culture of national minorities of the Ottoman Empire, in particular the Armenian people. Addressing this issue is not only undesirable, but actually prohibited. According to one Turkish scientist who wished to remain anonymous, some researchers “constantly felt the closeness of the sword of Damocles hanging over them, and feared that the publication of anti-Turkish materials would once and for all deprive them of the right to engage in scientific activity” ( Guardian, 1989, January 17). Such “selectivity” of the Turkish authorities caused legitimate discontent in international scientific and public circles and dealt a serious blow to the country’s authority. Milliyet newspaper columnist Mehmed Ali Birand recently admitted that “we put such barriers to those who wanted to use the archives that we were called a country that seeks to hide the truth” ( Milliet, 1989, January 13).
Already in the early 80s. a number of Turkish figures called for the opening of Turkish archives to foreigners. Thus, a famous scientist and journalist, newspaper columnist “ Milliet” Mümtaz Soysal wrote in 1981 that opening the archives would add “respect” to Turkey ( Milliet, 1981, May 30). Turkish President Kenan Evren and Prime Minister Turgut Ozal also made statements about the need for this step. Milliet, 1989, January 13).
Work on processing Ottoman archives began back in 1981 ( Milliet, 1989, January 13). However, years passed, and the archives still remained under lock and key. What is the reason? The veil was lifted by the publication of a report by Jean Howard from Ankara in the English newspaper “ Guardian" It described in detail how, under the leadership of the Director General of the General Directorate of Archives of Turkey, Ismet Miroglu, work on the selection and classification of archival documents unfolded. About 400 people were involved in this work, trained to read the Ottoman language, as well as “a good dozen archivists” ( Guardian, 1989, January 17). It is not difficult to guess what goals were set for them. After all, M. Yilmaz himself, in his statement mentioned above, emphasized that “only part of the documents relating to the Armenian question will be made available to scientists in order to expose the Armenian version of the 1915 genocide.” Thus, from the very beginning, archival specialists were given the goal of “exposing the Armenian version.” If we compare this with the message that flashed on the pages of the Turkish democratic press, published in exile in Western Europe, that contained truthful information about the events of 1914-18. documents and books from libraries and archives of Istanbul, Ankara and Erzurum were burned in steam heating ovens, and this “operation” was carried out under the leadership of uniformed officers ( Turkic posts, 1984, January 13), then it will become clear that the opening of the archives is another action of the Turkish government in its widespread campaign aimed at misleading the world community.
The announcement of the opening of the Ottoman archives received wide resonance both in Turkey and abroad. Turkish newspapers published many articles on this topic, the authors of which unanimously declared that now, finally, justice will prevail and “... the shameful charge of organizing genocide will be dropped from Turkey.” From these publications, two articles by M.A. Birand stand out, entitled very characteristically - “Ottoman archives are full of danger” ( Milliet, 1989, January 13) and “Such an opening of archives will not help matters” ( Milliet, January 14). The author is forced to admit that “the opening of the Ottoman archives is the last trump card in our hands.” Therefore, he calls for taking this as seriously as possible and not making any mistakes that would make the task of countering “Armenian genocide claims” much more difficult. In his opinion, the Turkish side is close to making a number of mistakes. To the first, he attributes the fact that in 1989 the archives of the period 1691-1894 will be opened, then over the next years access to documents relating to 1894-1922 will be opened. This circumstance, according to the Turkish journalist, will enable Armenians to claim that by doing so the Turkish government seeks to hide the truth. In order to avoid this danger, he proposes to immediately, this year, open for access to researchers exactly those documents that relate directly to the problem of genocide. At the same time, he makes the following “profound” conclusion: “In any case, it’s like this: the first impression is the most important. If you miss this moment, then no matter what you do, you still won’t achieve a good result.”
M.A. Birand believes that it is necessary to ensure access to documents for anyone, including Armenians.
The most notable is his proposal to create a special commission of Turkologists from the USA and England, known for their Turkophile works, and task them with selecting the necessary documents and publishing them as a separate book. According to Birand, this will have a much more favorable effect than if the collection was published and distributed by the Turkish government and scientists close to it.
Based on the above considerations, Birand makes the following conclusion: it is not enough to open archives, you also need to be able to “present” and “sell” documents well. Well, you couldn’t say it any clearer. The Turkish journalist cannot be denied sincerity. Approximately the same thoughts are expressed in the articles of Milliyet newspaper columnist Hasan Pulur ( Milliet, 1989, January 2) and retired Ambassador Sajit Somel ( Cumhurriyet, 1989, January 27).
On May 16, 1989, the Turkish government officially announced the opening of the Ottoman archives. As previously repeatedly noted in the Turkish press and official statements, researchers were given access only to documents about Armenians dating back to the period of history from 1691 to 1984. Moreover, out of 7 million archival items classified by a special commission during 1987-1989, access is open to only 10 thousand documents. It was also stated that over the next three years, another 20 thousand documents relating to the period of history from 1894 to 1922 will be open to researchers. ( Mond, 1989, May 19). It should be noted that this decision applies only to government documents. As for the military archives, where most of the documents related to this problem are located, access to them is still possible only with special permission.
During the solemn opening ceremony of the archives, Miroglu addressed the Armenians with a demagogic appeal to also open their archives for a final solution to the problem of genocide ( Arminian Update, 1989, May-June, p. 3).
The opening of the archives was timed to coincide with the screening of two documentaries on Turkish television. The first of them, a multi-part series, “Memory of States - Archives,” talks about Ottoman archives, the conditions for storing documents in them and the use of them by scientists. The scientists speaking in it complain, in particular, that the procedure for obtaining permission to work in the archive is very complicated and that each researcher has the right to receive photocopies of no more than 100 units.
The second film, lasting 12 minutes, is dedicated specifically to documents on the history of the Armenian people located in the Ottoman archives. This film is intended to support the official point of view and is part of a propaganda campaign regarding the opening of Ottoman archives. However, the film does not contain any specific information that sheds light on the contents of these documents.
In June 1989, the coordinator of the study commission of the archives of the Turkish government, Orel, made a statement in which he again recalled that the Turkish side had opened the Ottoman archives of the period 1691-1894 to foreign researchers, including Armenian scholars. According to him, access to documents collected in 17 volumes under the general title “Armenians in Ottoman documents” is open, and in three years the number of such documents will increase to 55. He also stated that the Armenian question is not political, but historical, and therefore it should be discussed among scientists, but not among politicians. Orel also noted that the initiative of the Turkish side to open the relevant archives “was a good response to allegations of genocide.”
Soon, on June 29, 1989, representatives of the Turkish Embassy in the United States immediately presented microfilms of open archival documents to the Library of the US Congress in Washington ( Arminian Update, 1989, May-June).
In an interview with journalist Emin Cholashan, Turkish historian Atayev said that in the archives opened by Turkey for the period 1691-1894. not a single (?) document has been found indicating the cruel policy of the Turkish authorities towards the Armenian population. At the same time, he noted that the Turkish side, even with a strong desire, allegedly will not be able to hide any document from the public, since they are all interconnected with each other. The Turkish historian again stated that not a single document previously published by the Armenians corresponds to reality and is a fake ( Ashkhar, 1989, October 3). Let us remind Ataev that back in 1982 in Ankara, the Turkish historian Bilal Shimshir published a two-volume collection of documents “British documents on the Ottoman archives (1856-1890)”, which, despite some tendentious approach of the compiler, contains a significant number of documents (reports of British consuls , testimonies of missionaries, etc.), testifying to the cruel attitude of the Turkish authorities towards subjects of Armenian origin.
In the above-mentioned interview, Atayev claims that the Armenian side is only strong in its propaganda, has great connections in Western countries, a rich lobby, with the help of which it carries out its anti-Turkish campaign ( Ashkhar, 1989, October 3). We are not going to comment on the statements of Turkish historians regarding the “anti-Turkish campaign” allegedly carried out by Armenians. Let us only note that the demands of the Armenian people are not directed at all against the Turkish people, but against the official position of the Turkish side.
Armenian scientists both in Armenia and abroad are ready to accept the proposal of the Turkish side to be granted the right to work in Ottoman archives. Moreover, back in May 1989, the Zorian Institute (USA) officially appealed to the Turkish authorities about their readiness to send a number of specialists to Turkey (including one of the authors of this article) to study open Ottoman archives. However, so far there has been no response. At the same time, it was recently announced on Turkish television that a large number of foreign researchers had already visited the archives of Turkey, but there were no Armenian scientists among them, which allegedly indicates the falsity of the Armenian version of events.
It is possible that sooner or later access to the Ottoman archives will be open to specialists on the problem of the Armenian genocide. There can hardly be any doubt that documents confirming the guilt of the Turkish authorities in this crime will no longer be there. However, this in no way can cast doubt not only on the fact of the Armenian genocide, but also on the responsibility of the Turkish government for its organization and implementation.
