Written by Administrator

Category: History & Archives

Published: 16 November 2008

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Written by Administrator

Category: History & Archives

Published: 16 November 2008

Hits: 5727

The formation of independent states in the Balkans in the course of the 19th c. had been a particularly traumatic and bloody affair. Although atrocities were committed on both sides, only the Christian deaths have caused a reaction in Europe. Muslim deaths were largely ignored. In his excellent book "Death and Exile", Professor Justin McCarty investigates the toll of 100 years of wars in terms of Muslim deaths,

Taking their example from the liberation of the Balkan nations, the Haik dreamed of a liberation of their own. In return for the benevolence of their Ottoman masters and of the Turkish people towards them for centuries, they responded with ingratitude and rebellion. They were never deterred by the fact that, unlike their Balkan counterparts, who constituted a majority of the population in the liberated territories, the Haik had never been a majority in Eastern Anatolia, in the lands under Ottoman control. Instead, they:

Haik Revolutionary Societies

A report, which appeared in NYT on September 24, 1896, suggested: "Armenian revolutionary societies now existing [in Constantinople] are five in number. The members of these societies ... are bound by the most solemn oaths to bring about the ruin of the Ottoman Empire and to force the European powers to intervene in Turkey". As we know today, the Haik are still using this most despicable and characterless of tactics to get their wishes fulfilled: Begging foreign powers (today, foreign parliaments) to intervene on their behalf and convincing politicians by producing shameless lies. The terrorists then, like in the 1980s with ASALA, do not refrain from even the lowest of acts in moving towards their goal. Another report in New York Times in October 4, 1895, reveals how they can kill even their own in cold blood: "Commenting on the murder of Garabed Agha [Chief man of the Protestant community, and Chairman of the Council of Thirty, which was responsible for the peace of the city], the Rev. George E. White, an American missionary of the Congregationalist School ar Morsovan, wrote as follows: There are two parties of Armenians. Some say: "We must be loyal to the Turkish Government. We cannot effect a revolution. We are too few." Others say: " We will assasinate and stir up until we overturn this Turkish Government". And the revolutionalists are ready to kill any of their brother Armenians or missionaries who do not help on the rebellion. They killed Garabed Agha because he would not help on the rebellion".

Dashnakzootioun: Tiblisi

Armenakan:

The first revolutionary Haik party, which would adopt terrorism as political means, was founded in 1885 in Van and modeled as a European organization. One of its leaders was Migirdic Portakalian, in charge of printing the official publication of Armenakan, Armenia. He was the son of a rich Constantinople banker, and lived in Marseilles, France. The other two leaders were locals: Hirinian, who was Patriarch of Van; and Migirdic Terlemezian, who was in charge of developing the Youth Arm of the movement.

Hinchak

The first political entity inspired by revolutionary Marxist principles, the Hinchak Party was founded in 1887 by Haik youth studying in Geneva, Switzerland, who were Russian citizens. Hinchak means "Bell" in Haik. Russians had a revolutionary party called Bell in Russian, from which the Hinchakists had taken their inspiration.

Rangavar

October 1, 1921. Active in Van.

Haik Acts of Rebellion and Terrorism

The organized nature and provocative character of the earlier phases of Haik terrorism were reported quite fairly in the American press, particularly in the Ney York Times. One striking example of reporting of the deliberate provocations instigated by the Haik rebels is a statement in New York Times, which appeared on October 20, 1895, in relation to the events at Kumkapi (see below). The statement says: "The theory of the Armenian Hunchagist revolutionary party seems to be that its special work is to enlighten the world about the true character of Turkey. Leaving aside chimerical schemes for revolt against overwhelming numbers, they limit their operations to exciting the Turk until he shows himself as he is. They hold that Turkey is a wolf in sheep's clothing. If they twist the tail of the beast, he will forget and stain the snowy fleece with blood every time, although the fact that he needs a white fleece for the preservation of his disguise is perfectly well known to the reputed wolf". Only 2 months prior to that, the same newspaper had published a striking analysis, by the Associated Press correspondent upon his visit to Turkey after the Sasson incident, of the Haik character in general and of the British involvment in the Ottoman-Haik affairs, in particular: "The reason why English public opinion is generally in favor of the Armenians is both political and religious. No real esteem for the Armenians themselves exists in England. Besides, everybody admits in Europe that Armenians, as a race, are much inferior to the Turks. Armenians, even in olden times, showed no greatness. Their influence in the world has been absolutely nil. In science, in art, in literature, in warlike achievements, they have left no trace. But, they are Christians, and this is one reason why English public opinion is in their favor. The political reason lies in the fact that England wishe to harass Turkey for the just opposition of the latter to English scandalous encroachments on Egyptian territory, which, after all, belong legitimately to the Sultan. It is just as if England has taken possession of one of your States and, at the same time, were fomenting discontent for, and disapprobation of, your treatment of the Indian race which Colombus found supreme on this continent."Unfortunately, the impartial nature of the New York Times would change by 1915, when NYT would change hands. In 1915 alone, there were 194 articles published, all feverishly in favor of Haik lies and propaganda.

The First Rebellion:

Erzurum (1890)

Sassoon

Zeitoon

Siege and Occupation of the Haik Patriarchate in Kumkapi (1895)

This is the first Haik event in the capital of the Empire. Before the Haik, the Greeks, the Bulgars or the Macedons had never dared undertake military action in Constantinople. The Haik were the first minority of the Empire insolent enough to do that. On the morning of September 30, 1895, a number of protestors set off from the Haik Patriarchate in Kumkapi, towards the residence of the Grand Vizier, after having publicly declared that they intended to cause trouble. On the way, they killed the cavalry officer who was in charge of a platoon attempting to control the pervasive Hintchakist elements inside the procession. Large scale unrest ensued in the city, and many Haik ended up dead on the streets at the hands of the mob, or at the security headquarters, at the hands of the police.

The Raid on Bab-i Ali

Bab-i Ali (The High Gate) was the seat of the Ottoman Government. Therefore, the raid was a direct challenge on Ottoman authority. Major street clashes ensued, in which 900 Muslims and 700 Haik would die.

Raid on the Ottoman Bank

On August 26, 1896, a handful of Haik terrorists raided the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul, in what the Haik scholar Libaridian would later call "The first act of urban terrorism". These terrorists would set an example for similar acts that would follow in the 20th c., such as the taking as hostages, and later killing, of the Israeli Olympic team members during the 1970 Munich Olympiads. Such terroristic acts would always be characterized by taking of hostages and presenting a list of demands, mostly for the release of their comrades, recognition of their cause, a large sum of money to be paid to them, and safe passage for themselves. Unfortunately, their wish was granted and the terrorists left the bank, escorted by the Russian Embassy's dragoman, taken to the private yacht, Gulnare, of bank governor Sir Edward Vincent, and sailed to France.

World War I

Haik Relocation

A very legitimate move, much like the US relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII, from the Pacific Coast to more centrally located internment camps. The difference between the Japanese and Haik relocations was that there were no proof that the former collaborated with US war time enemies, while there was plenty of proof that the latter were in full collaboration with both Russians on the northwestern and the French on the southwestern war zones. The possessions of the refugees at their home towns were meticulously noted in order to be re-issued to their proper owners upon their return at war's end. Furthermore, the State mechanism was operated at its fullest extent in order to take care of the refugees not only on route but also at destination (Click here for the original document, its transliteration, and translation)

Paris Peace Conference

One of the most important witnesses, albeit unintentional, to the fact that the Haik have been anything but unarmed and innocent before, during and after the relocations, has been none other the very leaders of the Haik intellectual, political and military organization and eventual uprising. Along with Aharonian, Boghos Nubar Pasha was the co-chair of the Haik delegation that attended the Paris Peace conference in 1918, at the conclusion of WWI. The Allies had began to make plans for the partition of and determining the spheres of influence in the Ottoman territories among themselves long before the end of the War. With the signing of the Mundros Armistice, with which the Ottoman Empire officially and internationally admitted a most humiliating defeat on all battle fronts, time had finally come to ratify these plans on the negotiation table as well. Paris Peace Conference was nothing else than a meeting among gentlemen, who would agree which part of the Empire would go to whom. Naturaly, Boghos Nubar was anxious to let the Allies know, in no uncertain terms and before the partition was over, that the Haik had been "de facto belligerents" since the beginning of the War and they they, too, had a right to a slice of the Ottoman pie, and a big slice , at that. Little did he know that, what he innocently admitted in his letters to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and to the New York Times immediately before the Conference would be the most damning evidence against the Haik claims to innocence, one century later. Turks are forever grateful to the Pasha today, for his honesty and his fortitude.letterletter (original)letterNubar's numbers for surviving deportees are corraborated by another surprising (and unwilling) witness: Henry Morgenthau, the arch-Armenophile US Ambasador to Constantinople, who influenced NY Times to publish almost 200 anti-Ottoman articles in the year 1915 alone, among the other anti-Turkish propaganda that he tirelessly spread throughout his carrier and his life. In a letter, Morgenthau complained about the situation of the refugees but, in so doing, revealed the number of the survivors at almost 500,000, as a testimony for the future generations of Armenians to read and learn from... and then hide in a dark corner lest their lie be exposed.

Confessions from Haik Sources for Acts of Rebellion, Conspiracy and Treason

There are innumerable examples in the preserved literature, where various Haik committees pleaded for national independence while boasting about their own acts of rebellion and terrorism against their own legitimate government. Little did they know, in their greed for land, that once their rebellion was suppressed, history would judge them not as heros and martyrs (as they themselves claim to be), but as terrorists and enemies of the State, which has every right to deal them the harsh treatment that every traitor deserves.

• One such example is a 1913 confidential memorandum entitled "The Armenian Question and the Solutions It Entails: A Project for the Armenian Autonomy in Cilicia. Confidential Memorandum Presented to the Consuls of the Great Powers in Cilicia by the Armenian Committee for National Defense". The third clause of the report clearly enumerates the deeds of the Haik insurgents as follows: 3. If one upholds the principle upon which a nation aspiring to her liberty should pay for it the price of her own blood, then one submits that the Armenian Nation has acquired that right by the repeated insurrections of Sassoun and Zeitoun; by the bloody demonstrations of Constantinople in 1890, 1895, and 1896; by the various revolutionary movements that she attempted across all parts of Armenia and Cilicia; and by the devoted efforts deployed by her innumerable heros and martyrs".

• A most damning document by the mouth of a highest level official came from Hovhannes Kachaznouni, the leader of the Dashnakzootioun movement and, later, the first President of the Republic of Armenia in 1921. In the annual party congress held in Bucharest, Hungary in 1923, Kachaznouni addressed the General Assembly with a speech that he later had printed and bound as a book entitled "The Dashnaksootioun Has Nothing to Do Anymore". The first, 1923, edition of this book was in Armenian but, unfortunately, no copies of it can be found today as the Government of the Republic of Armenia" made it a crime to possess, distribute, and read this book and had all copies of it removed from circulation. We are sure some Haik libraries in Diaspora have it but they are quite unwilling to share it for obvious reasons. In a totally serendipitous event, a Turkish researcher, Mehmet Perincek, while doing his Ph.D. in International Politics, came across a 1928 translation of the book into Russian in the Lenin Public Library in Moscow. Current translations of this copy into English and Turkish are generally not accepted as correct. We are having it translated into English by third party translation bureaus.

Next: The Era of Haik Forgeries

Written by Administrator

Category: History & Archives

Published: 16 November 2008

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Every parasitic organism looks out for an occasion which would lower the immune defenses of its host in order to begin to multiply, gain strength and take over some part of the host. That is why these are called opportunistic organisms. A good example are fungi. These microbial cells cause yeast infections when their host takes antibiotics to fight off bacterial infection. Antibiotics kill good (yeast-fighting) alongside bad (infection-causing) bacteria. Same is with parasitic groups: They are always on the look-out for the weak moment of their government in order to spark separatist movements by armed rebellions. In the 19th century, the Haik subjects of the weakening Ottoman Empire proved to be one such opportunistic group that rose in armed resistance against Ottoman central authority once the Empire started to show unmistakable signs of a crippling disease; a disease that lowered all internal and external defensive mechanisms. In order to better understand the causes of this Haik infection, therefore, it may be useful to step away from our main topic and investigate, in some detail, the factors that led to the weakening and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

With the Renaissance movement in 15th c., the Reformation of the 16th c., and the Enlightenment of the 17th. c., the road was paved for Rationalism and Positivism in European thought, which in turn, ushered the Industrial Revolution in England in the 18th. c. The advances in science and technology found many applications in the military field in terms of better weaponry, arsenal, and battlefield tactics and maneuvers. Bernard Shaw , in his classic "What Went Wrong: The Clash between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East" suggests:

"With the advent of New Learning, the Europeans advanced by leaps and bounds, leaving the scientific and technological and eventually the cultural heritage of the Islamic world far behind them. The Muslims for a long time remained unaware of this. The Renaissance, the Reformation , the technological revolution passed virtually unnoticed in the lands of Islam, where they were still inclined to dismiss the denizens of the lands beyond the Western frontier as benighted barbarians, much inferior even to the more sophisticated Asian infidels to the east. Thes had useful skills and devices to impart; the Europeans had neither. It was a judgment that had for long been reasonably accurate. It was becoming dangerously out of date.

Usually the lessons of history are most perspicuously and unequivocally taught on the battlefield, but there may be some delay before the lesson is understood and applied. In Christendom the final defeat of the Moores in Spain in 1492 and the liberation of Russia from the Tartars were understandably seen as decisive victories. But in the heartlands of Islam, these happenings on the remote frontiers of civilization seemed less important and were in any case overshadowed in Muslim eyes by such central and vastly more important victories as the ignominious eviction of the Crusaders from the Levant in the 13th century, the capture of Constantinople in 1453, and the triumphant march of the Turkish forces through the Balkans toward the surviving Christian imperial city of Vienna, in what seemed to be an irresistible advance of Islam and defeat of Christendom.

The great battle of Mohacs in Hungary, in August 1526, gave the Turks a decisive victory, and opened the way to the first siege of Vienna in 1529. The failure to capture Vienna on that occasion was seen on both sides as a delay, not a defeat, and opened a long struggle for mastery in the heart of Europe".

However, the Ottomans, beginning with the death of Suleiman the Magnificient in 1566, could not keep up with European revolutions in thought and in technology. They began to lose against their foes in Europe, where their territories began to shrink; and their economy was affected as a result of these losses. The weakened State found itself in a precipitous decline, which had its consequences in the deterioration of the central administrative power. Local Lords and Vassals abused this loss of central authority by exerting more and more harsh treatment of their subject populations, which largely consisted of Christians. Popular discontent constituted a fertile soil, on which the European rivals of the Ottoman Empire would easily sow the seeds of rebellion in order to divide the Empire from inside.

Capitulations

The capitulations that were granted to European powers by overly confident Sultans of the glorious past were the perfect excuse for rival Empires of later centuries to intervene in Ottoman internal affairs, in economic as well as social spheres.

The "Armenian Problem"

According to Haik sources (page 1 2 3 , the concept of "Armenian Problem" was first coined as a word in Article 16 of the Treaty of San Stefano.

1. • San Stefano: Article 16

   • Cyprus Convention: Article 2

   • Berlin Treatise: Article 61

   • Note Identique des Grandes Puissances: 1880

   • Note Collective et le Projet de Reformes: 24 May 1895

2. The United States and the Missionary Movement: The United States chose not to exert a direct political or military interference with Ottoman affairs. Instead, they sent missionaries to divide the population and to conquer the castle from within. As always, the Ottomans were utterly unaware, initially, of the work of these people and of the consequences thereof. Their characteristic "laissez-faire" attitude would cost them very dearly, though. And, by the time they understood what was going on, it was already too late. The scholarly work by Cagri Erhan on the Ottoman official attitudes towards American missionaries is one of the most enlightening sources on the issue.

   • Goodell: Goodell, Goodell

   • Bliss: Bliss

   • Cyrus Hamlin: The life and achievements of one of the most illustrious characters among these Protestant American missionaries, Cyrus Hamlin is narrated by Malcolm P. Stevens and Marcia R. Stevens in the Saudi Aramco World 1984 article, 'A College on the Bosporus' , and illustrated by Michael Grimsdale. The greatest contribution of Dr. Hamlin to the Turkish cause is a letter, 'A Dangerous Movement Among the Armenians', which he wrote to the Congregationalist in 1894, and in which he exposes, with no uncertain words, the heinous plans of the Huntchakist guerrillas of inciting inter-communal massacres in the Eastern Vilayets of the Ottoman Empire, with the intention of founding an independent republic there (For ease of legibility of the letter, please click here).

Next: Haik Rebellion

Written by Administrator

Category: History & Archives

Published: 16 November 2008

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The Ottoman Empire developed a policy of "Open Doors" and religious tolerance, beginning with the Greeks of Constantinople and the Haik of Bursa, and later the Haik of Crimea; continuing with the Jews expelled from Spain and later from Russia; and extending to numerous other minorities and victims of political persecution. In order to accomodate all these into the existing social, political and economic system, it developed the Quranic concept of dhimma , to ensure a method of Islamic rule tolerant to different cultures. This translated into a system of minority administrations known as the Millet system, whereby religious groups could rule their own people with minimal interference while ensuring Ottoman hegemony and efficient tax collection (Salahi Sonyel).

Jews

In 1492, the Iberic Jews were given a choice. Either accept Christianity (Roman Catholicism) or leave behind everything that you own, take only your life with you, and quit Spain forever. Otherwise, they would taste the unfaltering judgment of the Spanish Inquisition. Since the Jews are not much capable of make-believe, particularly when it comes to religious matters, most decided to abandon their fortune to the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle and depart for exile. The royal couple would turn this fortune into one of the best investments for Spain: They would use it to underwrite Christopher Colombus' expeditions to discover new worlds and usher in the Colonial Age. The expulsed Jews were mostly accepted by 3 countries. Morocco, Netherlands and the Ottoman Empire. Historians record that most of the exiled Jews ended up in the Ottoman Empire, at the time ruled by Sultan Selim II, son of Suleiman the Magnificient. As they were being settled in various provinces of the Empire, particularly in the Thracian domains, names, regions of origin, and areas of resettlement were meticulously recored, in Ottoman archives (Click here for translations of page 1, 2, 3, 4).The Ottomans would extend they saving grace to the Jews over and over again in subsequent centuries. Crimean Jews, Jews of Jerusalem. The only exception was in 1666, when the son of a wealthy merchant from Smyrna claimed to be the false messiah. This man, Sebbatai Sevi, was forced by the Sunni Ottoman regime to deny his heretical views on pain of torture and death. He converted on the surface but, deep inside, he and many of his followers continued their Kabalist beliefs and practices. Today, in Turkey, there are several hundred thousand Sabbataist muslims, who occupy affluent positions in politics, trade, arts, etc. Most of the founders of the Committee of Union and Progress were Sebbataist Jews from Thessalonika, as were most of the Ottoman and Turkish administrations in the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively.In WWII, Jews again faced persecution on a grand scale. Most ended up in Nazi concentration camps and perished. Those who could escape went to Allied or neutral countries, including the Republic of Turkey. letter of Albert Einstein is testimony that the "Open Doors" policy of the Ottoman Empire had been inherited by and pursued under the Turkish Republic in the 20th century.In another example of personal heroism and sacrifice, the Turkish Consul General to Rhodes, Selahattin Ulkumen, himself a Sebbataist, interceded to save the lives of 42 Jewish families of Turkish nationality from depertation to Auschwitz. He was honored in 1990 as a "Righteous Gentile" (Zaddik) by Yad Va-Shem. His story is depicted in the movie, Desperate Hours

Millets In Balkan Territories

Turks first set foot in Europe in early 1300s and by mid 16th century, under successive successes of Mehmet II, Bayezid II, Selim I, and Suleyman I, they had already conquered all of the Balkans; what is today Romania, Wallachia, Transilvania and Moldavia; most of Hungary; and had made vassal states around almost all the shores of the Black Sea . From the onset, the Ottomans made it known to the people they subjected with these conquests that the local religious practices would not only be tolerated but respected with the utmost care by the central government and local administration. Let's follow the clear, fluid and informative style of Lord Kinross, from his "The Ottoman Empire"- Chapter 2: A Foothold in Europe, pp. 22-28 (London, The Folio Society, 2003):"The entry of the Turks into Europe was no sudden irruption, like that of the Mongols across Asia. ...As a later French traveler was to write, 'The country is safe, and there are no reports of brigands or highwaymen' - more than could be said, at that time, of other realms of Christendom". The archives are replete with documents that attest to this magnanimity so characteristic of the Ottoman rule:As Mehmet II advanced into Bosnia and Serbia, he issued an imperial firman to the Bosnian priests to practice their religious in freedom. A copy of the original letter, (dated April 4, 1478), its transliteration and translation are shown here (Living Together under the Same Sky, Archives of the Office of the Prime Minister, Republic of Turkey). This tradition would continue over the subsequent centuries, so much so that, the local Christian minorities kept sending letters expressing their appreciation for the religious tolerance of their Ottoman rulers. One such letter of gratitude (dated April 16, 1853) was sent by the inhabitants of Tuzla in Bosnia to Sultan Abdulmecid Han (ruled 1839-61), ( Transliteration Translation) and another written in Serbian and dated February 2, 1872, to his brother Sultan Abdulaziz Han (ruled 1861-76), for his assistance from the Ottoman treasury to the completion of a church in Yenipazar, Bosnia. Other examples of correspondences to and from the Sultans regarding their benevolent rule of the Christian minorities abound in the Ottoman archives.

Other Acts of Compassion

The Ottomans extended their care and compassion to other nations and groups in distress on a routine basis. Some examples are the help that was sent to Ireland during the great famine of 1847 (Click here for theoriginal document , its transliteration , and translation ); and the aid to United States during a period of devastating forest fires (Click here for the original document , its transliteration , and translation ).

The Haik

Under almost 5 centuries of Ottoman rule, the Haik prospered economically, their population increased by births and by migrations, and they were granted free religious practices, like all other non-Muslim minorities under Ottoman rule. The Haik have always been given special privileges by the Turks while their were under Turkish domination. They seldom observed the responsibilities that came with those privileges, though. They thought that an Empire as great as the Ottoman, even when ultimately weakened, would allow an ethnic minority to split and build its own state. They miscalculated several points: One, that the Balkan ethnicities were already forming a majority against the Muslims there; two, that the Allies and the Russians who sicced them against their masters would remain loyal to them till the dire end; and three, that rebellion and massacre would go unpunished. Below, is a synopsis of why the Haik were privileged and how they ignored the only responsibility that came with those privileges, i.e., loyalty.

• Population: There are various sources for the numbers of the Haik who inhabited Ottoman territories during those 5 centuries that the Haik were ruled by the Ottomans (e.g. by up to 243%, 87% and 82% between 1518 and 1523 in Ergani, Arapkir and Siverek, respectively). Most relevant to our discussion, however, are their numbers during the last quarter of the 19th and the first quarter of the 20th centuries. This is because if one adds the 200,000 to 300,000 Haik supposedly killed during the "Hamidiye Massacres" of 1895 and the 1.5 million Haik supposedly killed by the Young Turks in 1915 and the more than 1 million Haik who supposedly were forced into exile during WWI, one gets close to 3 million Haik in total, who supposedly lived in Ottoman territories in or before 1895. Paradoxically, the most reliable numbers in this case are the ones provided by the contemporary Ottoman censuses. These numbers are reliable because 1) It was the Haik who were mostly responsible of the Census Bureau (names) and 2) The Ottomans gained nothing by underestimating the Haik numbers, simply because they were taxing (dhimma) them like all other non-Muslims. The Muslim subjects of the Sultan did not pay the tax but served in the Ottoman army, from which service the dhimma-paying non-Muslims were exempt.Also, since the British, French and Germans were intimately involved with the "safety and rights" of the non-Muslim minorities of the Empire (as that gave them the perfect pretext to mingle with the internal affairs of the Ottomans), they frequently ran unofficial head counts of the Haik, esp. the Haik in the Eastern Vilayets, through their envoys. These numbers are important, because they represent an unbiased, non-Ottoman contemporary source for the Haik population of the Empire; they are also interesting because they surprisingly collaborate each other.

  • Ottoman Census:(Salahi Sonyel).

  • British Census:1890.

  • French Census:French Yellow BookThese numbers, reprinted in Excel . clearly show that the percentage of Haik population to the total population of the Ottoman Empire was only 9%. Furthermore, out of this total Haik population according to the French, only 6%. Haiks populated the 6 eastern Vilayets. This number agrees very well with the previous figures that the British have circulated among themselves.

  • German Census:German Embassy in LondonIf we compare the contemporary British, French and German sources about the Haik population, we see that all three are in close agreement with each other. The information transmitted from the local envoys of these Powers to their respective embassies, and from historical archives to us, unequivocally concur that the Haik population in the 6 eastern Vilayets of the Ottoman Empire was somewhere between 500, 000 and 600,000 during the 1890-1910 period.

  • Haik Census: The Haik Patriarchate in Istanbul provided the British an estimate of the Haik population in the Empire. Not surprisingly, these numbers were so inflated that even the British envoy to Erzurum Lloyd felt the need to correct them in his report to his superiors. Let's not forget that the Haik in Diaspora today claim to have lost 1.5 million to death and another million to exile (!). Clearly, either the French, British and German sources are altogether wrong or there is a problem with Haik memory today.

• Religion:Following the Ottoman conquest of Bursa (1336), the See of the Western Gregorian Church in Kutahya was allowed to be moved to Bursa. In 1461, Mehmet II “The Conqueror” asked the Haik Catholicos Hovakim Ovahim to settle in the recently conquered Constantinople, with a number of Anatolian Haik subjects. Mehmet II donated the Church Sulumanastir in Psamatia to the use of the Haik. The Haik who chose to stay in Anatolia were appointed as guardians of several strategically important fortresses, such as those in Kozan and Gulek. Mehmet II also allowed the relocation of more than 70 thousand Haik from the Crimean Peninsula, where they had been sent into exile by the Byzantine government, to the coast of the Marmara Sea, south of Istanbul. In addition to the Gregorian Church, the Ottoman Government officially recognized the Catholic and Protestant Haik congregations in 1831 and 1859, respectively. Most interestingly, Sultan Abdulhamid II (ruled 1876-1908), the one called the Red Sultan by his opponents (particularly by the Haik) because of his alleged murders, is noted to have helped the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate, which was suffering from lack of money. The financial aid came in November 26, 1895, the very year the Sultan was being accused of widespread massacres (!) of the Haik population of the Empire (Click here for the original document, for its transliteration, and translation).

• Press:Some 160 years prior to the establishment of a Turkish printing press, the Haik priest Apkar of Sivas was allowed to start his own press in 1567 in Istanbul. Other printing presses followed in Izmir (1759), Van (1859), Mus (1869), Sivas (1871). In 1908, there were 38 Haik presses all over the Ottoman territories. The First Haik newspaper, Jamanak, was published in 1905. By 1910, there were 5 newspapers and 7 journals printed in the Haik language. (YG Cark Turk Devletinin Hizmetinde Ermeniler (1453-1953), Istanbul 1953). By contrast, the French King Louis XIV (1643-1715) had ordered a Haik press in Marseilles closed.

• Education:The Bezcian School was founded by Artin Bezcian in Kumkapi, Istanbul, in 1823. The following year, the Patriach Garabeth took the Kumkapi Grammar School under his protection. The Haik Commission of Education was founded on October 22, 1853.

• Political Integration: Gabriel Noradounghian, who had been in charge of the Office of Legal Advisor to the Sublime Porte for 25 years, has acted as Head of Ottoman delegation in the peace talks with the Balkan countries at the conclusion of the Balkan Wars of 1912-3. In 1876, as the first Haik deputies entered the Ottoman Congress with the inauguration of the 1st National Assembly, Gabriel Noradounghian was the Minister of Commerce and Public Workes and subsequently, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Additionally, Agop Kazzazian, Mikael Portakalian and Ohannes Sakizlian served as successive Ministers of Finance; Bedros Halladjian, Krikor Sinapian and Krikor Agaton were elected to the position of Minister of Public Service; and Gharabed Artin David Anton Tingir Yaver and Oksan Mardikian were Ministers of Post-Telegraph-Telephone Services. There existed many Haik members of the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies and Chamber of Notables, Undersecretaries of State in the Ministries, Members of the Council of State (the highest administrative court in the Realm), Ambassadors, Provincial Governors and Mayors. Most notably, during the relocations of 1915, Bedros Halladjian was occupying the post of Minister of Public Works, a fact which demonstrates that the Ottoman Government had no intent or plan to annihilate wholesale its Haik citizens.In the Republic Era, which began in 1923, the Hayik deputy Munib Boya entered the first National Assembly of the newly founded Turkish Republic. In 1943, the Haik Berc Turker Keresteci entered the Turkish National Assembly as a deputy from Afyonkarahisar.

 Next: Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire