Global InformationArmenian national movement information
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The Armenian national movement[1][2][3] (Armenian: Հայ ազգային-ազատագրական շարժում Hay azgayin-azatagrakan sharzhum)[note 1] included social, cultural, but primarily political and military movements that reached their height during World War I and the following years, initially seeking improved status for Armenians in the Ottoman and Russian Empires but eventually attempting to achieve an Armenian state.
Influenced by the Age of Enlightenment and the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire, the Armenian national movement developed in the early 1860s. Its emergence was similar to that of movements in the Balkan nations, especially the Greek revolutionaries who fought the Greek War of Independence.[21] The Armenian élite and various militant groups sought to defend the mostly rural Christian Armenian population of the eastern Ottoman Empire from banditry and abuses by Muslims, but the ultimate goal was to push for reforms in the six Armenian-populated vilayets of the Ottoman Empire at first, and after this failed, the creation of an Armenian state in the Armenian-populated areas controlled at the time by the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire.[1][9]
Starting in the late 1880s, the movement engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Ottoman government and Kurdish irregulars in the eastern regions of the empire, led by the three Armenian political parties named the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, the Armenakan Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Armenians generally saw Russia as their natural ally in the fight against Turks, although Russia maintained an oppressive policy in the Caucasus. Only after losing its presence in Europe after the Balkan Wars, the Ottoman government was forced to sign the Armenian reform package in early 1914, however it was disrupted by World War I.
During World War I, the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated by the government in the Armenian genocide. According to some estimates, from 1894 to 1923, about 1,500,000—2,000,000 Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire.[22] After the decision to exterminate the Armenians was taken by the Ottoman Ministry of Interior and first implemented with the Directive 8682 on February 25, 1915, tens of thousands of Russian Armenians joined the Russian army as Armenian volunteer units with a Russian promise for autonomy. By 1917, Russia controlled many Armenian-populated areas of the Ottoman Empire. After the October Revolution, however, the Russian troops retreated and left the Armenians irregulars one on one with the Turks. The Armenian National Council proclaimed the Republic of Armenia on May 28, 1918, thus establishing an Armenian state in the Armenian-populated parts of the Southern Caucasus.
By 1920, the Bolshevik Government in Russia and Ankara Government had successfully come to power in their respective countries. Turkish forces had successfully occupied the western half of Armenia, while the Red Army invaded and annexed the Republic of Armenia in December 1920. A friendship treaty was signed between Bolshevik Russia and Kemalist Turkey in 1921. The formerly Russian-controlled parts of Armenia were mostly annexed by the Soviet Union, in parts of which the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was established. Hundreds of thousands of genocide refugees found themselves in the Middle East, Greece, France and the US giving start to a new era of the Armenian diaspora. Soviet Armenia existed until 1991, when the Soviet Union disintegrated and the current (Third) Republic of Armenia was established.
- ^ a b Chahinian, Talar (2008). The Paris Attempt: Rearticulation of (national) Belonging and the Inscription of Aftermath Experience in French Armenian Literature Between the Wars. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles. p. 27. ISBN 9780549722977.
- ^ Mikaberidze, Alexander (2011). Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 318. ISBN 9781598843361.
- ^ Rodogn, Davide (2011). Against Massacre: Humanitarian Interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815-1914. Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 323. ISBN 9780691151335.
- ^ Kaligian, Dikran Mesrob (2011). Armenian Organization and Ideology under Ottoman Rule: 1908-1914. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. p. 149. ISBN 9781412848343.
- ^ Nichanian, Marc (2002). Writers of Disaster: Armenian Literature in the Twentieth Century, Volume 1. Princeton, NJ: Gomidas Institute. p. 172. ISBN 9781903656099.
- ^ Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians: From Kings And Priests to Merchants And Commissars. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 204. ISBN 9780231511339.
- ^ Kirakosyan, Jon (1992). The Armenian genocide: the Young Turks before the judgment of history. Madison, Conn.: Sphinx Press. p. 30. ISBN 9780943071145.
- ^ Chalabian, Antranig (1988). General Andranik and the Armenian Revolutionary Movement (. Southfield, MI.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b Ishkanian, Armine (2008). Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia. New York: Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 9780203929223.
- ^ Reynolds, Michael A. (2011). Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires 1908-1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781139494120.
- ^ Chalabian, Antrang (2009). Dro (Drastamat Kanayan): Armenia's First Defense Minister of the Modern Era. Los Angeles, CA: Indo-European Publishing. p. v. ISBN 9781604440782.
- ^ Libaridian, Gerard J. (1991). Armenia at the crossroads: democracy and nationhood in the post-Soviet era : essays, interviews, and speeches by the leaders of the national democratic movement in Armenia. Watertown, Massachusetts: Blue crane books. p. 14. ISBN 9780962871511.
- ^ Høiris, Ole; Yürükel, Sefa Martin (1998). Contrasts and solutions in the Caucasus. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. p. 230. ISBN 9788772887081.
- ^ Ter Minassian, Anahide (1984). Nationalism and socialism in the Armenian revolutionary movement (1887-1912). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Zoryan Institute. pp. 19, 42. ISBN 9780916431044.
- ^ Balakian, Grigoris (2010). Armenian Golgotha: a memoir of the Armenian genocide, 1915-1918. New York: Vintage Books. p. 44. ISBN 9781400096770.
- ^ Dadrian, Vahakn N. (2003). Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko-Armenian Conflict. Transaction Publishers. p. 115. ISBN 9781412841191.
- ^ Midlarsky, Manus I. (2005). The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 161. ISBN 9781139445399.
- ^ Vratsian, Simon (1950–1951). "The Armenian Revolution and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation". Armenian Review. Watertown, MA.
- ^ Giuzalian, Garnik. Hayots Heghapokhuthiunits Aratj [Before the Armenian revolution], Hushapatum H.H. Dashnaktsuthian 1890-1950 [Historical collection of the A.R. Federation 1890-1950] (Boston: H.H. Buro [Bureau of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation], 1950
- ^ Suny, Ronald Grigor (1993). Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History. Bloomington: Indiana university press. pp. 67–68. ISBN 9780253207739.
The Armenian revolution was born in a romantic haze, inspired by Russian populism, the Bulgarian revolution...
- ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1992). The Armenian Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 129. ISBN 9780312048471.
- ^ Auron, Yair (2000). The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide. Transaction Publishers. p. 44. ISBN 9781412844680.
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