The Historical End of Armenians in Today's Turkey

(In previous parts - Part One, Part Two, and Part Three - we examined the background of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire and reached the point where, in 1915, Talaat Pasha, the Ottoman Minister of the Interior, ordered the expulsion of all Armenians from 10 provinces of the country. This part focuses on the events from 1915 to 1923 and the killing of over one million Armenians by Ottoman Turks.) Talaat Pasha's order was for Armenians to move from one end of the empire to the other. At this time, the Ottomans not only controlled areas that are now Turkey but also all of Greater Syria, which later became Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. The 'Three Pashas' wanted to send Armenians to the south, to a place in the deserts near the city of Deir ez-Zor (in present-day Syria). What happened during the events of 1915 and 1916, and how did areas that were once home to nearly two million Armenians become permanently empty of Armenians? Michael Babylian, a journalist for Forbes who has written a book about these events, believes that the genocide of Armenians occurred step by step. He states: 'First, they gathered and killed the leaders of the Armenian community; individuals such as Armenian parliamentary representatives, prominent merchants, and local and national Armenian leaders. Then they went after Armenian men and killed them. Thus, in a patriarchal society, the only thing they left behind were women and children. In other words, Armenians completely lost their leadership. From here, they entered the phase of expelling Armenians from their homeland and forcibly sent them towards temporary camps in Syria. Aleppo was one of the places where they stayed for a while before being sent to Deir ez-Zor. Along the way, many were shot dead or butchered with knives. Some were even drowned in rivers or burned alive. However, the majority of this group died from hunger and disease. In this way, many Armenians were killed.' How was the relocation of hundreds of thousands possible in years when there were no highways or modern vehicles? Especially for the Ottoman Empire in 1915, which was already burdened with the costs and problems of multiple war fronts... Jay Winter, an American historian and Yale University professor, believes that what happened was much more complex than public perceptions of the event. This author of multiple books on World War I states: 'The planning for the expulsion was very complex. They employed various methods. They extensively used Kurdish militia forces to accompany Armenian women and children.' According to Jay Winter, the location of Armenian residences was also very important during the forced relocation, as some areas in Anatolia had railroads, and some Armenians lived near train stations. He states: 'If Armenians lived in a place with a railroad, they were sent south by train. If they were in places without railroads, they were made to walk hundreds of kilometers on foot. What is crucial during this forced relocation, according to this historian, is the treatment of Armenians during the journey from present-day Turkey to the deserts of present-day Syria. Jay Winter says: 'During this relocation, there were incidents of rape, robbery, various forms of violence, and cruelty. Additionally, mass killings and deaths from hunger and thirst in the summer heat of the Middle East occurred. Some survived and reached the city of Aleppo across the desert. We do not have accurate statistics, but over one million people were killed during the forced relocation of Armenians from Anatolia in the summer of 1915.' Richard Hovannisian, a UCLA professor who has published many books on Armenian history and is himself the child of two survivors of the events of 1915, believes that one of the important features of what happened that year was the different treatment of men and women by Ottoman forces. 'You are from Iran and understand very well what the summer heat in July and August means. These poor people were displaced from their homes in the months of Tir, Mordad, and Shahrivar, walking on foot without any facilities in the desert every day. Sometimes they went two or three days without food.' Richard Hovannisian describes what happened to Armenians during this historical journey: 'You are from Iran and understand very well what the summer heat in July and August means. These poor people were displaced from their homes in the months of Tir, Mordad, and Shahrivar, walking on foot without any facilities in the desert every day. Sometimes they went two or three days without food. They had to beg for drinking water. Even sometimes, while the Euphrates River was in sight, they were not allowed to go and drink water.' The continuation of the massacre in Syria, as remaining documents show, did not end with the genocide of Armenians during their long journey, and even some Armenians who survived and managed to reach refugee camps in Syria still faced the threat of mass executions. Jesse Jackson, the American consul in Aleppo in 1916, wrote in a report for senior diplomats at the U.S. Embassy and experts at the State Department about a place called 'Tel Maskeneh' near Aleppo: 'The information I have received indicates that 60,000 Armenians are buried there. They died from hunger, all kinds of deprivation, gastrointestinal diseases, and typhus. As far as the eye can see, there are mounds of earth, under each of which are buried 200 to 300 corpses of men, women, and children from various families. Currently, nearly 4,500 Armenians are being held between Tel Maskeneh and the Euphrates River. They are like wandering souls. Their caretakers occasionally and irregularly give them a piece of bread. Sometimes these starving people have nothing to eat for three to four days.' Jesse Jackson, one of the eyewitnesses of the events of 1915 and 1916, estimated that over 90% of the Armenians transferred to Syria lost their lives. According to estimates, at the end of the death march in Syria, nearly 150,000 Armenians were killed among three points: Deir ez-Zor, Ras al-Ain, and Mosul. Moreover, the massacre was not limited to Armenians, as Ottoman soldiers, upon entering Iranian territory, killed a large group of Assyrians in areas of West Azerbaijan. Richard Hovannisian describes the massacre of Assyrians: 'In 1915, the Ottoman army invaded Iran, and thousands of Assyrians and Armenian villagers were killed around Lake Urmia during the occupation of that region in 1915.' The counting of victims began while the events in the Syrian deserts were still ongoing. The first estimates indicated that 600,000 Armenians were killed within less than a year. Jamal Pasha, one of the three main architects of what happened during this period, wrote in his memoirs in 1922 about what happened to the Armenians: 'Let us assume that the Ottoman government expelled one and a half million Armenians from the eastern provinces of Anatolia, and 600,000 of them were killed; some were murdered, and some died from hunger and displacement.' However, more than the estimate of someone who is described as one of the perpetrators of this genocide, the Ottoman government, after the end of the war and the flight of the Three Pashas from the country in 1919, accepted that 800,000 Armenians were killed during the expulsion from Anatolia. Let us assume that the Ottoman government expelled one and a half million Armenians from the eastern provinces of Anatolia, and 600,000 of them were killed; some were murdered, and some died from hunger and displacement. Many historians believe that at least one million Armenians lost their lives in this genocide, and the Armenian government, in its official positions, has declared the number of victims to be one and a half million. Some historians also believe that the genocide of Armenians continued until 1922, as the conditions for Armenians during the War of Independence and the establishment of the newly founded Turkish Republic under Mustafa Kemal were not different from those under the Three Pashas. Richard Hovannisian, who is among these researchers, states: 'The genocide actually occurred between 1915 and 1922, and its last phase was the burning of the city of Smyrna [present-day Izmir], where Armenians and Greeks were thrown into the sea. However, the majority of the Armenian population that was killed did so in 1915 and 1916. Historians disagree on whether this was a planned act or whether it was like a snowball rolling down a mountain, getting larger and larger, with this massacre escalating and resulting in this outcome. However, believing in this second theory is difficult because if they did not have prior planning for genocide, then why did they decide to move Armenians to the middle of a desert? How do you expect to take a million people to the middle of a desert and have them survive? The end of the Armenians in Anatolia, the Ottoman Empire ultimately, like the other allies of Germany, was defeated in World War I, and the Three Pashas fled the country. Britain and France, along with their allies in the Balkans in 1920, decided to completely eliminate this country, and for this reason, all Arab parts of the Ottoman Empire became areas under British and French mandate. The victorious powers in the war also devised a complex plan for the Turkish-speaking provinces of Anatolia, which was formalized in the Treaty of Sèvres. In the Treaty of Sèvres, major parts of eastern Anatolia, from the north of Trabzon to the south of Van, were recognized as an independent Armenian country. This treaty also recognized all areas on both sides of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, including the cities of Istanbul and Çanakkale, as an international demilitarized zone, while southern Anatolia was divided among Italy, France, and Britain. A part of the heart of present-day Turkey, including Bursa near Istanbul to Samsun on the Black Sea coast, with Ankara as its center, was considered the land of Turks. According to this treaty, Izmir and several islands in the Aegean Sea would belong to Greece. An Armenia would be established in eastern Anatolia. Some areas were also considered for the establishment of Kurdistan. The initial plan for Armenia to be designated as a U.S. mandate did not pass in the U.S. Congress and was dropped. Two years before this treaty, following the collapse of the Russian Empire after the Bolshevik Revolution, Armenian nationalists had succeeded in declaring independence in eastern Armenia with Yerevan as its capital. The defeat of Armenia in the war against Atatürk's 'national forces' marked the end of the history of Armenians in eastern Anatolia. Atatürk also expelled Europeans from the west and south of Anatolia and ultimately established the independent country of Turkey. However, there was no news of the Ottoman Armenians at a time when global powers wanted to grant them a large country, as the majority of their population had been killed, and the rest had been forcibly displaced from Anatolia. Additionally, a large group of Ottoman Turkish officers, led by Mustafa Kemal, who later became known as Atatürk, did not accept the surrender and the Treaty of Sèvres and began the independence wars. They were completely opposed to the establishment of an Armenian country in eastern Anatolia and had sufficient military power to impose their demands on the newly established Armenian state. The defeat of Armenia in the war against Atatürk's 'national forces' marked the end of the history of Armenians in eastern Anatolia. Atatürk also expelled Europeans from the west and south of Anatolia and ultimately established the independent country of Turkey. He signed a new treaty called the Treaty of Lausanne with the world powers, in which there was no longer any mention of an independent Armenian country in eastern Anatolia, and what remained for Armenians was a small part of the Caucasus region that had been administered by Iran and Russia for years. Armenians were thus forever expelled from their homeland in Anatolia.