Order for the Expulsion of Armenians from Their Homeland Issued

The following text is the third part of Kayvan Hosseini's collection of writings about the Armenian Genocide during World War I. These writings are based on a three-part special program titled 'Death Parade,' broadcasted by Radio Farda on the occasion of the centenary of the commemoration of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. (The previous two parts - Part One and Part Two - focused on the history of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, the status of this minority in the 19th century, the increasing tensions between Turks and Armenians at the end of the 19th century, and two massacres of Armenians in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the second part, we also read that in 1913, a group called the 'Committee of Union and Progress,' which was part of the radical groups of the Young Turks coalition, seized power in the Ottoman Empire through a military coup, marking the beginning of the rule of three individuals known as the 'Three Pashas.' This section is dedicated to the events leading up to World War I and the fate of Armenians during this war.) After the coup of January 1913, the three who had now become Pashas – Talat, Enver, and Cemal – each occupied one of the key positions in the Ottoman Empire. Talat became the Grand Vizier and Minister of the Interior, Enver became the Minister of War, and Cemal became the Minister of the Navy. Among these three, only Enver Pasha was born in Istanbul. The other two Pashas were born in the Balkans and were among those who had lived for years among Turks who had migrated to the Balkans; that is, a territory that had been under Ottoman control for centuries but had been lost a year before the coup of these three, during the Ottoman defeat in the First Balkan War. The result of this defeat was the influx of a large group of Turks from the Balkan countries into the Turkish regions of Anatolia; a group known as 'migrants,' which according to some estimates numbered up to two and a half million. Michael Babylian, author of the book 'Children of Armenia,' believes that the Ottoman defeat in the Balkan War had two specific impacts on the fate of Armenians in this country. This journalist and researcher residing in New York states: 'First, many Turks residing in the Balkans were pursued by Europeans in these regions, and a large group of them fled from the Balkans and became refugees. Many were also expelled from the Balkans. They returned to Asia Minor, and many settled in Eastern Anatolia, where Armenians lived. The second impact of the Balkan War was that it fueled Turkish distrust of other ethnicities under their control. They believed that they had gone to the gates of Vienna, but other ethnic groups weakened their empire. The defeat in the Balkans strengthened the belief that non-Turks were enemies of the Ottomans.' Meanwhile, the Ottoman defeat in the Balkans also escalated the chaos in this region, and shortly thereafter, the newly independent countries of this peninsula faced each other in the Second Balkan War, during which Serbia gained unprecedented power, and ultimately, the radical nationalism of this region and the dream of uniting the Slavs of the Balkans ignited the powder keg of historical tensions among European powers, leading to an unprecedented war near the Ottoman borders. At this time, the Ottoman Empire not only carried the legacy of a century of consecutive defeats but was also experiencing one of the most unstable periods in terms of political stability and economic conditions. However, the 'Three Pashas,' despite all these problems, concluded that the path to restoring their empire's power lay in participating in the Great War. Why? Jay Winter, a history professor at Yale University and author of books such as 'The Experience of World War I,' answers: 'When the war began in 1914, Ottoman development was not fully, but largely dependent on the banking system and technology of the Germans. There was no necessity for the Ottomans to enter the war in support of Germany, but the Three Pashas concluded that their interests were tied to this action, as participating in the war and inflicting a defeat on their long-standing enemy, Russia, would help them maintain their control over the route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. At that time, the Ottoman Empire was a declining power. The description of the 'sick man of Europe,' which I believe is exaggerated, was constantly used. Nevertheless, from November 1914, they entered the war as an ally of Germany, and their fate became inextricably linked to Germany's fate in World War I.' With the Ottoman entry into the war, the eastern borders of this country became a battlefield against Russia. In other words, six provinces where the majority of Armenians lived effectively became the front lines of the war; regions that also suffered from an old tension between Kurds and Armenians. The moment of declaring war against the Allies in Istanbul. However, the main concern of Ottoman officers was not this ethnic tension but the relationship of Christian Armenians with their Christian enemy across the border. According to existing estimates, at this time, 150,000 Armenians from Russian-controlled areas had joined the Tsar's army. At the same time, there are reports indicating that among a group of Ottoman Armenians, there were likely sympathies towards Russia. One Russian diplomat named Adamov, who was active as the Tsar's consul in Erzurum, claimed before leaving the city that during his visits among Armenians, many of them supported Russia and expressed their concerns about the repetition of the Armenian massacre by the Ottoman army. The defeat of Sarıkamış. At the end of 1914, Enver Pasha, who was also in command of the Ottoman Third Army, marched towards the eastern borders for a major operation. The result was a battle recorded in history as the Battle of 'Sarıkamış,' and the events of this battle had a significant impact on the fate of Ottoman Armenians. Jay Winter, author of the book 'The Great War and the Making of the Twentieth Century,' discusses the relationship between this war and the fate of Armenians: 'In the autumn and winter of 1914, Ottoman Turkish forces suffered severe defeats in the Caucasus. This defeat raised the issue of the role of Armenians who had voluntarily joined the Russian army. It is entirely true that some Armenians fought against the Ottomans in the Caucasus. However, the cause of the Ottoman defeat was geographical conditions and the logistical weaknesses in the Ottoman army. From here, the label of Armenians as internal enemies stuck to them.' One of the most significant blows to the Ottoman Empire, particularly in the 19th century, was the nationalism of ethnic groups and their independence. During World War I, this issue reached an unprecedented peak in the Ottoman Empire, with Arabs revolting against the Ottoman Sultan, who was simultaneously the caliph of Muslims, seeking an independent Arab state. Did Armenians also see the war as an opportunity for independence? Barlow Magardchian, a professor at California State University, Fresno, and president of the Armenian Studies Society in America, believes not! He states: 'No. I think this is the interesting part of the story that a large majority of Armenians, including religious leaders and senior clergy of the Armenian Church, wanted to remain Ottoman citizens. However, they said that reforms needed to be made. Of course, a minority of Armenians, including political parties like the Hunchak Party, believed that the only way to salvation was independence from the Ottomans. But I think these were a very small minority.' However, the Ottoman Turks had a different view. When the year 1915 arrived, Ottoman commanders first ordered all Armenian soldiers in the Ottoman army to surrender their weapons. From then on, Armenian soldiers were only allowed to perform non-military duties in labor battalions. Meanwhile, it seemed that the Ottoman military defeats were inevitable, and this country suffered the hardest blows during this period in both the west and the east. It reached a point where in April, Britain and France, who had launched a full-scale attack on the Ottomans to dominate the Dardanelles Strait, landed troops on the Gallipoli coast for the first time. April 1915. In such an atmosphere, where the fear of a repeat of the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire was increasing among some Armenian groups, the Hunchak Socialist Party, with the military support of the Russian army, took control of the city of Van in Eastern Anatolia. Armenians who took up arms and fought against the Ottomans in Van. This event in April was like oil on the fire of increasing Armenian phobia that occupied the minds of Ottoman leaders. Armenians claimed they were resisting the massacres. Ottoman Turks claimed they had revolted with the help of a foreign enemy. And finally, April 24, 1915 (the third of Ordibehesht 1294 in the Persian calendar) arrived; a day that marked the beginning of the end of centuries of peaceful coexistence between Turks and Armenians. Barlow Magardchian discusses what happened on this day: 'On the night of April 23 and the morning of April 24, the Ottoman government, controlled by the Committee of Union and Progress, issued orders for the arrest of 250 Armenians. These 250 were leaders, intellectuals, and senior clergy of the Armenian community. Most of this group were executed within a few months, and some were exiled from the capital.' And on this day, Talat Pasha, one of the three Ottoman leaders, issued the first order for the expulsion of Armenians. By his order, Armenians were to be relocated from Anatolia to a place in the Syrian desert, near a city called Deir ez-Zor. At this time, news about the situation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire prompted France, Britain, and Russia, who were at war with the Ottomans, to take a stance against this situation and for the first time in history, the term 'crime against humanity' was used to describe what was happening in the Ottoman Empire. The statement from these countries intensified the crackdown on Armenians, and finally, in early summer 1915, Talat Pasha issued the order for the expulsion of all Armenians from 10 Ottoman provinces in Anatolia. (In the next part, the events of the years 1915 until the establishment of the Republic of Turkey will be examined.) In this context, Armenian nationalism against Ottoman Turkification, several narratives of a 'genocide'; the event of 1915 on the cinema screen, the birth of Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman entry into the war and the European fronts, the Ottoman Empire, European alliances and the Balkan issue, the Western front, the Russian Revolution, and the Battle of Gallipoli, the Sultan, the massacres of Armenians, and the constitutional revolution of the Turks, 'genocide' of Armenians: Turkey did not allow the Bosnian Serbian President's plane to fly, does anyone remember the destruction of Armenians? The changing battlefield of 'proxy wars'; the war against the people in the streets of Iran, the first paragraph; the responsibility of the opposition and the possibility of radicalizing Iranian society, the death of the last Mossad representative in Tehran amid the Iran crisis, two weeks after complete blackout, the time for reconnecting the internet in Iran is still 'uncertain', the shadow of war over Tehran; 'Trump is looking for decisive military options against Iran', Trump says if the Islamic Republic attempts to assassinate him, 'it will be wiped off the face of the earth', senior US official: Trump's government is closely monitoring the case of Reza Valizadeh, the death of the last Mossad representative in Tehran amid the Iran crisis.