Great-Power Politics and the Armenian Question
The
Mongols were, in their day, the great power. In 1236, they laid
waste to Ani, and in 1379 they invaded eastern Anatolia once again
under Timurlenk. The plight of the Armenian population was so desperate
that the Catholicosate had to be moved to Echmiadzin. Sis, in southern
Anatolia was the last Armenian stronghold. It was conquered by the
Mamluks in 1375.
After that date, the religious and cultural activities of the Armenians
continued to be of significance, but as far as power or territory
were concerned, they were out of the historical picture.
To understand how an Armenian Question could nevertheless become
a factor in great-power politics, we must consider the expansionist
aspirations of Czarist Russia and the chess moves connected with
those aspirations. The Armenians were merely a pawn in an ugly chess
game, and the Russians, whether in Moscow or St. Petersburg, often
found it useful to sacrifice that pawn.
The speed and determination with which Russia won Persian and Turkish
territory is breathtaking. They conquered the southern part of central
Asia, northern Persia, the Caucasus, the Crimea, and eventually
won access to the Balkans. A quick look at these events makes the
importance of an Armenian Question clear, especially if we remember
what Russia's primary goal has always been: the conquest of the
Dardanelles.
1774 was the prelude to the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire.
The Treaty of Karlowitz, sixty-five years earlier, had already been
bad enough for the Turks, but now in the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca,
the Ottoman Empire lost so much of its prestige that only the Austrians
and the Russians were left with any say in the Balkans, In the East,
it was the Russians all alone.
Eastern Anatolia had been Ottoman since 1515. Sultan Murad III.
had conquered Georgia in 1578. The Turks' only rivals in the East
had been the Persians. In 1639, the ottomans signed the Treaty of
Kasr-i Sirin with the Safavids, and in spite of the wars that followed,
the Turkish-Iranian border still follows the line determined in
1639.
All the Turkish-Persian wars affected Armenian territory, but "Armenian"
is to be understood here as referring to the historical province.
It has nothing to do with any official authority of the Haik people,
who lived together with other peoples and tribes in eastern Anatolia
and the surrounding area. At the time of the Treaty of Kasr-i Sirin,
1639, the Crimea was Ottoman as was Georgia and the entire coastline
of the Black Sea. The Black Sea was a Turkish Ottoman inland sea.
Erivan had belonged to the Persians since 1639. It was an almost
exclusively Islamic city.
Russia's first step toward the Caucasus came in 1556 with the conquest
of Astrakhan.
Transcaucasia nominally belonged to the Persians, but Azerbaijan
was under de facto Ottoman control. Armenians -or more accurately,
Haik - were only mentioned once during this period. That was when
Shah Abbas moved the Armenians from Erivan and Julfa into the interior
of Persia in 1603-1604.
Mehmed the Conqueror had founded tile Patriarchate of Istanbul
in 1461. All the Armenians and Monophysites of the Empire were subject
to the patriarchs of Istanbul. The Catholicosates of Sis and Echmiadzin,
which was at that time Persian, had absolutely no power in the Ottoman
Empire.
The Russians became involved in the Turkish-Persian war of 1723-1727
and sent troops to the Caspian Sea. The Khanate of Kuba, north of
Baku, fell under Russian influence.
In 1768, a Russian-Turkish war broke out in tile wake of the events
in Poland. The Ottoman army was defeated and the Treaty of Kucuk
Kaynarca was signed in 1774. The Russians now advanced into the
Caucasus for the first time. They made it as far as Kutaisi and
Ahiska by way of Poti. In other words, they were almost to the present-day
border between Turkey and the Soviet Union.
The Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca also gave Kabartay in Transcaucasia
(on the east slope of Mount Elbrus) to the Russians, but more important
than any territorial gains, it granted to the Russians a certain
say in protecting the rights of the Christians of the Ottoman Empire.
From this point on, Russia was constantly striving to expand its
territory at the expense of the Turks and Ottomans. This was almost
always done under the pretense of protecting Christians.
1783 Russia concluded a defense treaty with the Christian princes
of Georgia, thus winning a great deal of control over ancient "Iberia".
1787 Empress Catherine II. of Russia met with Emperor Joseph II.
of Austria in Kherson, on the Crimean peninsula, just sixty kilometers
from Yalta. From May 14 until June 13, they discussed how they would
divide up the Ottoman Empire. The leaders agreed to the "Greek Scheme",
which envisaged the formation of a Greek Orthodox state to be called
"Dacia".
It was to encompass Bessarabia, Moldavia, and Walachia. This would
secure the Russian lands west of the Dnieper as well as Austrian
influence in the Balkans. In case of the fall of Constantinople,
a new Byzantium was to be established. A short time later, the Ottomans
declared war on the Russians, and there was once again fighting
in the Caucasus. No more territory changed hands, however.
1796 The Russians took advantage of Persian attempts to win back
lost territory as an excuse for marching into Kuba, Baku, Derbent,
Shirvan, and Karabagh.
1801 The Russians annexed Georgia.
1812 Following the Peace of Bucharest, the Russians gained control
of the Rion Basin, west of Souram in the Caucasus.
1813 Following the Peace of Butistan, the Russians occupied the
Persian territories on the Caspian Sea (roughly in accordance with
the present-day Russian-Iranian border). When Shah Abbas Mirzan
tried to win back his lost territory, he was defeated once again,
this time disastrously.
1828 In the Treaty of Turkmenchai, the Persians were forced
to cede the Khanates of Erivan and Nakhichevan (today an autonomous
S.S.R., just to the southeast of Ararat) to the Russians. The borders
laid down at that time are still valid today. This was the first
war in which Armenian volunteers took part in large numbers, as
they did later in 1914-22. The Haik of the Erivan region were now
under Russian rather than Iranian control. This had very grave consequences,
since the Russians had already seen how they could exploit the Armenians
as useful tools. Echmiadzin, the seat of an Armenian Orthodox Catholicos,
also fell under Russian control in 1828.
In the wake of the Treaty of Turkmenchai and the dismal war with
the Greeks, British, and French in the West, the Russians were able
to advance as far as Erzurum.
1829 In the Treaty of Edirne, the Russians obtained the Black-Sea
strongholds of Poti and Anapa, as well as Ahiska, Ahilkalek, and
Akchur, thus establishing the present-day Russian-Turkish border.
The Caucasus now belonged entirely to the Russians.
This peace treaty granted the Haik and the Moslems the right to
choose between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. More than 100.000
Armenians left the areas beyond Erzurum at that time and moved to
the region that is now the Soviet Republic of Armenia. Likewise,
the majority of Moslems left the Caucasus and settled in Anatolia.
Until this time, Erivan had been inhabited almost exclusively by
Moslems.
After the Treaty of Turkmenchai (1828, Turkmenchai is located in
northern Persia, on Lake Urmia), the Czar founded an Armenia out
of the former Khanates of Erivan and Nakhichevan. He made all inhabitants
of the region Russian citizens, and declared himself "King of Armenia".
He also had the title "King of Poland".
1849 The Caucasus region was divided into two parts, but in 1854
this division was revoked because of constant riots as the Moslems
simply could not accept the rule of the Georgian and Armenian Christians
in these large regions.
Prince Vorontsov, who was in charge of reorganizing this region,
broke it up into a large number of small political provinces. The
Armenians lived mainly in the province of Tiflis, but they soon
in large numbers to the Erivan region as well.
1854 was also the year of tile Crimean War, which broke out because
the Ottomans refused to recognize a general Russian protectorate
of the Christians of tile Ottoman Empire.
The goal of the Russians was to bring about the fall of the Ottoman
Empire. They wanted to let tile "sick man on the Bosphorus" die
and seize power themselves.
1854 Kars fell to the Russians after a heroic defense.
1856 The "Protocol of Vienna" brought an end to the Crimean War.
'The Peace of Paris, in the same year, was a genuine success for
the Ottoman Empire. Kars was given back to them, and the odious
"protectorate" over the Orthodox Christians of Turkey was abolished.
(This protectorate could almost be seen as an anticipation of the
later Brezhnev Doctrine.)
England, in particular, had refused to accept the plans for dividing
up tile Ottoman Empire because they saw their own interests endangered,
just twenty years later, Russia would try once again to bring the
Ottoman Empire to its knees.
1863 A "Reglement de la nation armenienne" was published. This
did not alter the status of the Armenians within the Ottoman Empire
in any way. Its purpose was to restrict the rights of tile patriarch,
in accordance with the wishes of tile representatives of the. Armenian
minority. The creation of the Catholic and Protestant millets had
already curbed tile power of the patriarch, Now the political representatives
of tile Armenians were getting into the act as well, and everyone
was fighting with everyone else to gain the upper hand within tile
Armenian Millet. The effect was obviously detrimental to the Armenians
and only profitable for the radicals.
Sensible Armenians recognized even then that it could only have
disastrous consequences for their people if the old plans to set
up a Greek Orthodox Byzantium under Russian protectorate were realized.
These plans had not been forgotten since the Crimean conference
between Joseph II. and Catherine II. If carried out, they would
certainly have led to renewed attempts from the Greek (or Russian)
Orthodox Church to bring the Armenians entirely under their control.
Russian rule in the Caucasus had already demonstrated quite clearly
that the Czar had never dreamed of granting special rights to the
Armenians and certainly had no thought of granting them their independence
as some had hoped. That would only have led the other nations under
Russian control to have similar thoughts of independence. The fact
is that until 1870 the Armenians were of almost no significance
on the international political scene. The calamity that was to come
crept up slowly, almost unnoticed.
1876 A conference of ambassadors in Istanbul simply refused outright
to accept a demarche from the Armenian patriarch. The only ones
who had ever shown any interest in the Armenians were the Russians,
who sometimes found the Armenian minority useful for their territorial
expansion in the East.
Occasionally, they even used the Armenians as henchmen to spread
fear and panic among the Moslems without getting their owh hands
dirty. (A good example is the conquest of Erzurum in 1839 where
the Armenians were responsible for a massacre of Moslems.)
1877 With the Balkans already given away, it became clearer and
clearer that the Russians wanted to advance along the Erzurum-Alexandretta
(today Iskenderun) axis toward the Mediterranean.
Now the Armenians started to take on real importance for the Russians.
They were expected to serve as a Fifth Column. At this point, the
Russians no longer restricted themselves to exploiting the Armenian
clergy. They started using the Armenian revolutionary cadres more
and more.
At the same time, the English developed an interest in the Armenians.
They came up with the idea of an Armenian buffer state, which could
serve as a check on the great powers in the event of a collapse
of the Ottoman Empire.
1877 April 24 saw the beginning of a new war with Russia. It was
the shortest of all the wars, but also the most devastating for
the Ottomans. "The catastrophe of twelve-ninety-three", (that was
the year according to the Ottoman calendar) is still proverbial
for the Turks of today. From the start, the Russians had the advantage
on the eastern front. Kars fell on November 18. The Russians were
under the command of the Armenian general Loris Melikof. While Erzurum
stood firm against all the Russian attacks, the Turks suffered a
disastrous defeat near Plevne on the Balkan front.
The Armistice of Edirne was concluded on January 31. The fate of
the Ottoman Empire appeared to be sealed. Nothing could stop the
Russians from marching right on to Constantinople.
The Armenians now established contact with the Russians in Edirne.
At the beginning of the war, they had stood solidly behind their
Ottoman fatherland. Now, after the catastrophe of Plevne, the entire
Armenian camp swung over to the Russian side. The first contacts
took place in Edirne. Whether and in what way the patriarch and
the catholicos were involved in this scenario is a subject of debate.
In any case, the result of these interventions was that the Russians
interceded expressly on behalf of the Armenians in the peace dictate
of San Stefano. The wording of the passage was, however, left entirely
non-commital since the Russians clearly had no intention of granting
independence to their own Armenians.
Article 16 of the Treaty of San Stefano (Yesilkoy) states: " ...
la Sublime Porte s'engage a realiser sans plus de retard les amelioration
et les reformes exigees par les besoins locaux dans les provinces
habitees par les Armeniens et a garantir leur securite contre les
Kurdes et les Circassiens."
This totally empty clause does nothing more than demand that the
Ottomans provide for the security of the Armenians against Kurdish
and Circassian attacks. It was nevertheless a turning point. The
Armenians had now for the first time been mentioned in an international
treaty, even if it was in fact a dictate. The Armenians appreciated
it, regardless of its insignificance (and the Russians had good
reason for making it so insignificant).
Only too soon did it become clear that the "peace treaty" of San
Stefano was of a very provisional nature. Both England and Austria
rejected it. Eventually the parties agreed to Bismarck's suggestion
that a conference be held in Berlin to deal with the Ottoman Question.
The representatives of the great powers met in Berlin from June
13 to July 13, 1878. Aside from the two chancellors, Gorchakov and
Bismarck, those present in the new German capital included Count
Andrassy of Austria-Hungary, Lord Beaconsfield of Great Britain,
Waddington of France, Corti of Italy, and Karatheodori and Mehmed
Ali of the Ottoman Empire. The only purpose of the Congress was
to remove those conditions from the dictate of San Stefano which
were too oppressive for the Ottomans. And that is just what was
done.
The strong Armenian delegation, under the leadership of Prelate
Khrimian - a former Armenian patriarch - had traveled to Berlin
in vain. It was already common knowledge that the Armenians did
not constitute a majority anywhere in Anatolia. it was only in Van
itself that they even made up a third of the population. No one
wanted to grant autonomy to such a minority. On what grounds could
such an action be justified?
On the 8th of July, 1878, the Congress replaced Article 16 of San
Stefano with "Article 61", which for the most part corresponded
to the original. Article 62 also dealt with religious freedom, but
nowhere was there any talk of autonomy. The Armenian millet was
simply not large enough for that.
The nineteenth century had become a century of the triumph of the
nation states - but also of the democratic majority. Bulgaria, Serbia,
Greece, and Romania all became independent, but in every case the
nation constituted a solid majority.
In the case of the Armenians, the situation was totally different.
It may have been true that an Armenian king had once ruled over
an Armenian kingdom in the vast territories that the Armenians were
claiming, but that had been almost two thousand years earlier under
totally different circumstances. The nineteenth century called for
majorities, and it was the Moslems who had the majorities - throughout
Anatolia.
There were certain Armenian circles that simply could not come
to terms with these facts. Groups of revolutionaries, intellectuals,
and clergymen, egged ,on primarily by the Russians but also to some
extent by the missionaries, turned to ever more daring and adventurous
means in order to attract attention and eventually gain power over
the majority.
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