Biden, a stone’s throw from the recognition of the Armenian genocide, opens the door to historic reparation

One hundred and six years later, the world advances in the recognition that the pogroms and the displacement of the Armenian people in the former Ottoman Empire by Turkish nationalist forces were genocide. In Washington, it is expected that this Saturday recognition of US President Joe Biden may arrive, who in this way would confront his NATO ally Turkey, which denies the existence of the murders of more than a million and a half Armenians between 1915 and 1923. The current Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reiterates the argument that it was “regrettable excesses”. A fact which has deep roots and which Biden’s decision brings him closer to uncovering historical truth.

The great mountainous plateau of eastern Anatolia – now eastern Turkey – was inhabited since ancient times mainly by Christian Armenians who shared the region with Muslim Kurds. In the Middle Ages, the region was ruled by a succession of Armenian dynasties facing many outside powers. The political independence of the Armenians was largely terminated by a wave of invasions and migrations of Turkic-speaking peoples from the 11th century, and by the 15th and 16th centuries the region was secured by the Ottoman Turks and integrated into the vast Ottoman Empire. . However, Armenians have retained a strong sense of community identity, embodied in the Armenian language and in the Armenian Church. This sense of distinction was fostered by the Ottoman millet system, which gave non-Muslim minorities significant administrative and social autonomy.

At the start of the 20th century, around 2.5 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire, mainly concentrated in the six provinces of eastern Anatolia. Another large group of Armenians was settled beyond the eastern border of the empire, on the territory of Russia. In eastern Anatolia, Armenians lived intermingled with the dominant Kurdish nomads. They did not constitute a majority in any of the areas in which they lived, although many resided in villages and homogeneous neighborhoods within cities. They were harassed by the Kurds that local courts and judges had in their favor when they were victims of violence or when their land, livestock and property were confiscated.

The vast majority of Armenians were poor peasants, but a few became merchants and artisans. The participation of Armenians in international trade led in the 17th and 18th centuries to the creation of main Armenian settlements in Istanbul and other Ottoman port cities, as well as in India and Europe. Although Ottoman society was dominated by Muslims, a small number of Armenian families were able to occupy prominent positions in banking, commerce and government. For several generations in the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, the main architects of the Ottoman court belonged to the Armenian Balian family. But this prominence and influence of the well-educated and cosmopolitan Armenian elite, faces resentment and suspicion of Muslims. In the 19th century, Armenians fought the perception that they were an alien element within the Ottoman Empire and that they would eventually betray it to form their own independent state.

Young Armenian activists, many from the Russian Caucasus, tried to protect their compatriots by campaigning for an independent state. They formed two revolutionary parties called Hënchak (“Bell”) and Dashnaktsutyun (“Federation”) in 1887 and 1890. None of them gained wide support among the Armenians of Eastern Anatolia, most of whom remained loyal and rather they hoped that supporters of Christian Europe would put pressure on the Ottoman Empire to apply new reforms and protections for Armenians. However, the activities of the Armenian revolutionaries fueled fear and anxiety among Muslims.

These anti-Armenian sentiments erupted into massive violence on several occasions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When, in 1894, the Armenians of the Sasun region refused to pay an oppressive tax, Ottoman troops and Kurdish tribesmen killed thousands of Armenians of the region. Another round of massacres began in the fall of 1895, when the repression by the Ottoman authorities of an Armenian demonstration in Istanbul turned into a massacre. In all, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed between 1894 and 1896, in what were called the Hamidian massacres. Some 20,000 more Armenians were killed in 1909 during the Adana and Hadjin pogroms.

In 1908, a small group of Ottoman revolutionaries – the Committee on Union and Progress (CUP), an organization within the wider Young Turk movement – came to power. Armenians hailed the restoration of the Ottoman constitution, and the promise of elections led them and other non-Turks in the empire to cooperate with the new political order. However, over time itYoung Turks’ ambitions have become more militant, less tolerant of non-Turks and increasingly suspicious of their Armenian subjects, which they imagined collaborating with foreign powers. More and more authoritarian, the Young Turks consolidate their position, push aside their more liberal opponents and in January 1913 the party hawks, Enver Pasha Yes Talat Pasha, came to power with a coup.

Antipathy towards Christians increased when the Ottoman Empire suffered a humiliating defeat in the First Balkan War (1912-13), which meant the loss of almost all the territory that remained in Europe. Young Turkish leaders blamed the defeat on the betrayal of Christians in the Balkans. In addition, the conflict has sent hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees east to Anatolia, intensifying the struggle for land between Muslims and Christian peasants.

The Armenians took advantage of the Ottoman defeat to push for reforms, calling on the European powers to force the Young Turks to accept some autonomy in the Armenian provinces. In 1914, the European powers imposed a major reform on the Ottomans which required the supervision of inspectors in the East. The Young Turks viewed this agreement as further evidence of Armenian collusion with Europe to undermine the sovereignty of the empire.

When World War I broke out in the summer of 1914, the Young Turks joined the central powers (Germany and Austro-Hungary) against the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France and Russia). While Armenians and Assyrians lived on the Russo-Ottoman front, the Russians and Ottomans tried to recruit local Christians in the campaigns against their enemies. The Young Turks proposed to the Dashnaktsutyun, then the main Armenian political party, to convince Russian Armenians and those from Ottoman lands to fight for the Ottoman Empire. The Dashnaks responded that the Armenian Ottoman and Russian subjects would remain loyal to their respective empires. This was seen by powerful young Turks as an act of treason.

In January 1915, Enver Paşa attempted to repel the Russians at the Battle of Sarıkamış, but suffered the worst Ottoman defeat of the war. As might be expected, the government of Young Turks blamed everything on the Armenian betrayal. Armenian soldiers and other non-Muslim armies they were demobilized and transferred to labor battalions. Unarmed Armenian soldiers were then systematically killed by Ottoman troops, they became the first victims of the genocide. Almost at the same time, irregular forces began to commit massacres in Armenian villages near the Russian border. Three months later, in April 1915, the Van Armenians barricaded themselves in the Armenian quarter of the city and clashed with Ottoman troops. In retaliation, Talat Paşa ordered the arrest of some 250 Armenian intellectuals and politicians in Istanbul, including several deputies of the Ottoman Parliament. Most of them were killed in the following months.

Soon after, the Ottoman government began to expel the Armenians from eastern Anatolia on the grounds that their presence near the front constituted a threat to national security. In May, the Ottoman Parliament approved a law formally authorizing expulsion. Throughout the summer and fall of 1915, Armenian civilians were driven from their homes and forced to march through the valleys and mountains of eastern Anatolia towards concentration camps in the Syrian desert. The deportation, supervised by civilian and military officials, was accompanied by a systematic campaign of mass murder led by irregular forces, as well as local Kurds and Circassians. The survivors who reached the Syrian region languish in the concentration camps, many starved to death, and the massacres continued until 1916. Between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians have been massacred or died in marches and containment camps.

The Armenian genocide laid the foundation for the nation-state that eventually became the Republic of Turkey. By the end of the war, over 90% of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire had disappeared, and many traces of his previous presence had been erased. Abandoned Armenian homes and properties in eastern Anatolia were turned over to Muslim refugees, and surviving women and children were forced to renounce their Armenian identity and convert to Islam. Tens of thousands of orphans have managed to survive thanks to the protection of foreign Christian missionaries.

Since, successive Turkish governments refuse to recognize that these events constitute genocide. After decades, they admitted from Ankara that deportations had taken place, but argue that the Armenians were a rebel element that needed to be pacified during a national security crisis. They recognize that there have been murders, but that they were not initiated or directed by the government. The United States, Israel and Britain have also refused to label the events as genocide so as not to damage their relations with Turkey. Since coming to power, Erdogan has threatened to close the NATO base in Incirlik, which is strategic for operations in the Middle East. In exchange, France and Germany have recognized the genocide despite Turkish intimidation.

Now, a statement from Biden in favor of the Armenian position could be a game-changer. During Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, fundamentalist nationalist Erdogan enjoyed American support and was never forced to recognize Armenian rights. The 180-degree diplomatic turn could end any controversy and lead to an international compensation process for the descendants of the victims.