Bulgarian Democracy and the Armenian Connection - 3
"The original Bulgars were Turkic tribes running away from the Mongols of Central Asia"
By Ahmet Gursoy, Special to The Turkish Times (Part III of IV) - For the Russian Armenians, Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty was a victory, but for the Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul it was a great disappointment.

While the Congress granted a self-government for the Bulgarians, the Western powers offered nothing more than empty promises of reforms for the Armenians. In his closing statement the Patriarch warned European delegates: "The Armenian delegation will return to the East, carrying with it the lesson that without struggle and without insurrection - such as the Bulgarians had launched - nothing can be gained."(30)

From 1770 to 1920 the Russian imperial expansion developed a unique program called "Population Exchange" to solve political problems in the ethnically unstable regions of the empire. From the northwest corner of the Black Sea to the south end of the Caucasus, millions of ethnic minorities were uprooted to satisfy the future expansion plans of Imperial Russia. Major examples from these events can be listed as the 400,000 Tartars of Crimea in the 1850s, followed by the 475,000 ethnic Turks from Bulgaria in 1878, were all exiled to the Ottoman Empire. In addition, the uprooting of 1.2 million Caucasians and 1.4 million other Moslims, including Azeri Turks in the Yerevan area in Caucasus, were undertaken to make room for the incoming Armenian refugees to settle in the land known today as Armenia. For these activities Russians trained Armenian rebels as security officers, spies, policemen, and other terrorist or logistical duties such as blowing up power lines, railroads, and telephone lines. When the Soviet revolution in Russia started in 1905, the Armenian cause in Russia lost support. But for the rebels, Armenian nationalism was replaced by the internationalism of the Marxist-Leninist brotherhood and the Russian support for the arms sale to the Armenian rebels continued. Armenians trained in Russian academies served as generals during the 1878 war against the Turks.(30)

Up to the 1878 war, Istanbul was the safe haven for the Balkan revolutionaries, including Bulgars, Croats, and Montenegrins.

Earlier in 1848, when the Polish uprising against the 80-year-old Russian-Austrian domination was suppressed in Poland, about 100,000 Polish nationalists moved to Istanbul and settled in a village known today as Polenez Koy, under the direction of their national heros: Constantine Bozecki and poet Adam Mickiewiez.

As a result, in 1876 the Christians were a majority in Istanbul and the Bulgarians with 50,000 in residence built a church in Fener, in a Russian neo-Gothic style in 1870.(30) In 1875, while the Armenian-born Russians were training Bulgarians for terrorism, Bulgarian students at Robert College in Istanbul were being educated intellectually to take leadership in their first national "revival" movement in Bulgaria. In short, Abdulmecit's dream of creating a city of mosaics like New York, open to national and religious freedom for Istanbul (1839-1861), was crumbling from the friction created by the radical nationalism, spilling over from the Balkans. Later, fever of nationalism influenced Turkish intellects, producing leaders like Ziya Gokalp, Namik Kemal and others.

About ten years after the Bulgarian liberation, the first Marxist Armenian revolutionary party was established in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1887 under the name of Hunchakians. In 1890, a sister organization named Dashnaks in Tbilisi, Georgia, was established. The model the Armenian revolutionaries were to follow for terrorism was the Bulgarian Revival, a scheme used in Bulgaria prior to the 1878 war. The terrorists would attack the Moslim civilians to provoke retaliation, in return the terrorist organization would cry for help from the European press and strike back for revenge, forcing the Turkish minority to leave their land for safe haven.

From 1890 to the beginning of World War I in 1914, more than twenty terrorist attacks were organized in Eastern Anatolia and in Istanbul by the two Armenian Committees. The very first demonstration took place on Sunday, July 27, 1890, at the front door of the Armenian Patriarchate in Kumkapi, who read out a manifesto by the "Hunchak" against the Sultan, provoking intervention from the European Press. In the end, twenty Armenians and two policemen were killed. Terrorist activities by the two committees continued, including violent actions resulting in death among innocent Turkish and Armenian civilians in Erzurum in 1890; in Merzifon, Kayseri, and Yozgat in 1892; in Siirt and Mus in 1894; in Istanbul, Trabzon, Erzincan, Batlis, Maras, Erzurum, Diyarbakir, Malatya, and Harput in 1895; the bombing of Istanbul's Banks in 1896; an assassination attempt on the Sultan in Istanbul and attempts to start uprising in Siirt in 1904; and in Adana in 1909.(58)

Although organized well, these terrorist activities were not very successful. The basic aim of creating panic among Turkish communities so the people would run for safe haven was not taking place.

Armenian leaders in Geneva and Tiflisi recognized that conditions in Anatolia were the reverse of the Bulgarian example. In Bulgaria, Turks were in the minority so it was easier to push them for exile.

In Anatolia, Turks were in the majority. It was difficult for Armenians (who made up only 17% of the total population in Eastern Anatolia) to force the Turks to relocate.

They had to make some policy changes. As a temporary solution, it was decided to assassinate the high-level Armenians within the Ottoman government, particularly in the foreign office. Armenians in high government positions were creating a damping effect on the success of their terrorism.

For example during the period up to the Balkan war, Armenians were entrusted to run three different ministries of the government: finance, post office, and Foreign Affairs.

In addition to the ambassadorships in Berlin, London, Rome, and Vienna, the counselors of the Ottoman embassies in Berlin and Brussels were also Armenians.

In total, about 50 Armenians worked in the Foreign Ministry, fifteen of them as counsels. There were 51 lieutenant governors, including high officials in finance, justice, education, public work, postal services, forestry, and the agricultural departments.(58) In the 1878 Parliament, four Armenian senators and nine Armenian representatives were elected.

In the 1908 and 1914 elections, thirty-three Armenian representatives were in the Parliament.(30)

As the assassination of high-ranking Armenians in the Ottoman government increased, every embassy in Istanbul began to provide their own security.

It was a terrifying experience for the local Armenians that continued until the beginning of World War I. Ironically, eight generations later, much younger Armenians born in California who call themselves ASALA, initiated a similar assassination program against the Turkish diplomats around the world, murdering in daylight more than 34 unreplaceable talents of the Turkish government.

I remember so well from 1970 to the 1980s, the city of New York provided a permanent police booth in front of the Turkish House where the Turkish Consulate is now operating.

A second constitutional monarchy in Turkey was declared on July 23, 1908. The Armenian committees of Hunchag and Dashnag opened offices in every major city.

On April 13, 1909, Bishop Musheg of Cilicia in Adana declared an Armenian uprising. Four days and four nights of struggle ended with the death of 1,700 Armenians and 1,850 Turkish civilians. The government set up martial law and military court in which 47 Turks and one Armenian were executed.(58)

During World War I, the Armenian population in Turkey was estimated to be 1.5 million. After the minister of war Enver Pasha took control of the Caucasian front, the largest battalion of the Ottoman army was almost frozen to death because of the extreme weather conditions and bad military decisions. The Ottoman army was in retreat. On April 15, 1915, when the Russian army moved into the City of Van, one of the major cities of the Eastern front, not a single Turkish civilian was alive in the city. Armenian rebels cleaned them all out before the arrival of the Russian army.

In 1918, when the city of Van was resettled, not one of the new inhabitants was from the original Van. After Van, the Russian army marched to capture Erzurum and Erzincan in 1916, and the Armenian rebels followed the Russian army. In October 1916, the start of the Russian Revolution created turmoil on the Eastern front, and in December 1917 a peace treaty was signed in Erzincan in a hurry. The Ottomans recaptured the lost lands back, but the "Relocation Act" of the Armenians from the Eastern Anatolia was in full swing.

The conclude in our next issue…