Genocide in 1915

It is well known that the First World War began in July 1914. Yet it is a little known fact that during this war, the Ottomans committed one of the bloodiest genocides in history. The leader of the Ottomans at the time was Sultan Vahdettin. After the Christian Balkan population received their independence in 1912, the Ottoman Empire suffered heavy territory losses in Africa and Arabia through both Arab and non-Arab rebellions. The Empire was also limited in Mesopotamia, Trakya and Anatolia. The Ottomans wanted to overcome their defeat and prevent a complete breakdown of their state through the First World War. Anxious that they could lose more territories, which were mostly populated by Christians, they enacted a plan for genocide in 1915. With the "Djihad" (Holy Islamic War), the Christian people became enemies and traitors and as a result the war would begin. World War I gave with its' beginning in 1914 the best conditions for this attack. Hundreds of thousands of Hellenes, Armenians and Assyrian-Syriacs were killed or starved to death due to famine or disease and hundreds of thousands more were driven out of their home country. The remaining children and women forced to join the Islamic religion.

In 1908, a group of modernization-mindes officers (Young Turks) toppled the Ottoman Sultan. The different ethnic people inside the ottoman borders generally welcomed the new regime, viewing it as a progressive alternative to Ottoman despotism. But the "Young Turk Movement" (with its political party, The Committee of Union and Progress (Ittihat and Terakki Cemiyeti) was rapidly taken over by a small group of fanatical nationalists, headed by the triumvirate of Ismael Enver Pasha, Ahmed Cemal Pasha and Mehmet Talaat Pasha. The second constitutional form of government and parliament were introduced. With this, a new constitution was passed and a new government created. The Ittihat and Terakki Cemiyeti (Comittee of Union and Progress (CUP)) took the lead of the second form of government. One of the most important men at top of the government was Talaat Pasha. As Minister of the Interior under Said Halim Pasha in 1913, he played a main role in the genocide. When Said Halim Pasha dispensed his office in 1917, Talaat Pasha became the government leader. He became one who had a great influence on the Ottoman Empire and was involved in many wars. After the First World War he flew to Berlin and was killed by an Armenian in 1921 (1874 Edirne - 1921 Berlin).

Enver Pasha was one of the main players in the Massacre of 1915. This Ottoman general was educated in military schools as an officer and joined in 1907 the Committee of Union and Progress. Against the will of Sultan Abdulhamid and many other officers, he called out the second constitutional form of government on July 10th 1908 in the District of Köprülü in Macedonian. That same year, the Sultan had to recognise it officially and introduce it. Enver Pasha became Minister of Defence of the government formed in 1914. He was a great admirer of Germany and during the First World War was the High Commando Deputy. He brought German generals to the top of the Ottoman Army, yet had to flee after the defeat. First, he flew to Odessa, then to Berlin, and later to Moscow. He was living the dream of uniting the countries of Caucasia with Turkey to form a "Turk-Turan" Empire. The army, consisting of 30, 000 men he had gathered, was dissolved by the Bolshevistic. During a battle with them, Enver Pasha was killed 1922 in Tadchikistan (1881 Istanbul - 1922 Tadchikistan).

The third man in the Triumvirate was Cemal Pasha. He, like Enver Pasha, was also educated at military schools as an officer and was responsible for many functions in the state. He was also member of the Ittihat and Terraki Cemiyeti, which founded in 1899. He had the task of organising the army corresponding to the Bond. In 1909, he was sent to Dana to push down the Armenian rebellions. In 1911, he was named as the Ottoman Governor of Baghdad. In 1914, he became a General. During the First World War, he was responsible for the sea region and was commander of the second and fourth armies. After the war, he fled to Germany, near Munich. Later he went to Tiffs and on his way to Afghanistan he was killed by an Armenian in Tiffs in 1922 (1872 Midol - 1922 Tiflis). Between-1913 - 1918, he represented the Young Turks and Turans in Ittihat and Terakki Cemiyeti.

The nationalistic Turk/Turan ideology of Ittihat and Terraki was articulated by the two main leading ideologues Dr. Mehmet Nazim and Dr. Behaeddin Shakir. Dr. Nazim told a closed session of the CUP Central Committee in February 1915 that "if this is not general and final, it will inevitably lead the problems. Therefore it is necessary to eliminate the Armenian people (Christian people) in its entirety, so that is no further Armenian on this earth and the very concept of Armenia is extinguished. We are now at war. We shall have more suitable opportunity than this". (1) Another important ideologue was Zia Gökalp, who later articulated the Kemalism. So the main thought of the kemalism, which seen as a Turk-national idea, is nothing more than the former thought of the Ittihat. For this reason, the genocide of 1915 should be seen not only as a crime by the Ottomans, but also as a crime by the Republic of Turkey. Regardless, the Republic of Turkey sees itself as the last heir and the last substitution of the Ottomans.

References:
(1) G.S. Graber, Caravans to Oblivion: The Armenian Genocide, 1915, pp.87-88) Story Source Beth-il.
Title image is a collage made of Pictures from the 1915 Genocide and Assyrian Protestors in the Netherlands, July 31, 2003.