Friday, May 8, 2009

WHAT HAPPENED IN 1915?

In order to enlighten the events known as the “1915 Crisis” between the Turks and the Armenians who lived together in an environment of peace and trust over the centuries in the Ottoman Empire, we first need to frankly answer the question “what happened in 1915?”
Yes, what happened between the Ottoman Government and the Ottoman Armenian Committees while the war waged on in 1915?
Did you know that the Committee of Union and Progress in power, and the Armenian Dashnak Committee voted for the same single list in the Ottoman Parliamentary elections almost a year before 1915?
Only 7 years before 1915, during the 1908 Young Turks’ movement, the prominent members of the Committee of Union and Progress, and the leaders of the Dashnak Committee shouted “Long live freedom!” in the squares of Istanbul together.
Well, why did then the same Turkish and Armenian leaders fought against each other on “enemy” sides when mobilization for the Great War was declared?
The world history is full of examples where the “real” is always disguised and distorted.
Let us examine our own case:
In the spring of 1915, the assaults of the Entente Powers against the Çanakkale Strait, and the ground operations of the Russian Army in the Eastern Anatolia were continuing simultaneously.
In those days, the coastal areas of the Empire were under the unceasing bombardment of the Entente battleships.
On April 24, 1915 (in other words, the date declared by the Armenian Diaspora and the Armenian Republic as a kind of “chosen trauma”), the Government in Istanbul arrested the leaders of the Ottoman Armenian Committees on the grounds of “having conducted military activities in favor of enemy forces.”

WHY ARE THE ARCHIVES IMPORTANT?
I would like to describe the picture in Istanbul and Anatolia on April 24, 1915.
At the time, the French Embassy in Istanbul was closed due to the World War. However, the intelligence reports, titled “daily events”, drawn by the French Embassy’s Chargé d’Affaires were being sent to France via the US Embassy in Istanbul.
The historical information documented in the intelligence reports prepared by the French Embassy in Istanbul between April 25 and May 1, 1915 is as follows:
(ONE) The Russian Navy is positioned at the Black Sea entrance of the Istanbul Strait.
(TWO) The British and French Navies have launched an attack on the entrance of the Çanakkale Strait.
(THREE) Armenians at the Caucasus Front are fighting against the Turkish Forces together with the Russian Army.
(FOUR) In Erzurum area, and especially in Van, the Armenian gangs are fighting against Turks.
(FIVE) The leaders of the Armenian Committees are arrested in the Ottoman capital.
(SIX) This pressure of the Ottoman Government is to the outcome of the Armenian attitude displayed in Zeytun, and at the Caucasus Front. (The term “attitude” is not explained in the report.)
(SEVEN) According to the Chief of the Ottoman Court Martial, the Armenian Committees abroad are preparing a rebellion in the six provinces of Eastern Anatolia. (In fact, the Armenian Committees had already started the rebellion; the report claims they were at the stage of “preparation”).

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