Kumkapı demonstration

The Kumkapı demonstration ( Turkish Kumkapı Gösterisi ) took place in the Kumkapı district of Istanbul on July 27, 1890. It led to skirmishes in which several people, including a police officer , were killed. Many more were wounded. The aim of the demonstrations was to shake the Armenians awake and to make the Sublime Porte aware of the suffering of the Armenians.

background

Towards the end of the 19th century, Armenian revolutionary societies began to campaign for democratic reforms and to draw European attention to the Armenian question . The Huntschak Social Democratic Party in particular used the tactics of mass demonstrations to move the process forward.

Protests of July 27, 1890

On July 27, 1890, Harutyun Cangülyan , Mihran Damadyan and Hambartsum Boyacıyan read a manifesto against the indifference of the Patriarchate of Constantinople of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian National Assembly to the oppression of Sultan Abdülhamid II in front of an agitated crowd with Murad of Sebasteia .

They soon got the Patriarch Choren I to join the large gathering in the Yıldız Palace in order to implement Article 68 of the Berlin Treaty of 1878 . As the crowds gathered, police surrounded the crowd and fired shots, which resulted in the deaths of several people, including a police officer. Many more were wounded.

Result

The Huntschakists believed that the demonstrations at Kumkapı, although unsuccessful, had caught the attention of the European powers. At the same time, although there was no clear result, the Hunchakist press praised the courage and courage of the Armenians during the event. Similar demonstrations on a smaller scale followed throughout the 1890s, but led to the massacre of the Armenians in 1894–1896 .

Web links

New York Times report of July 29, 1890

Individual evidence

^ Louise Nalbandian: The Armenian revolutionary movement: the development of Armenian political parties through the nineteenth century, Los Angeles, London 1963, p. 119
↑ Hovhanissian, Richard G. (1997) The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Volume II, Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century . New York 1997, pp. 218-9

[1] Louise Nalbandian: The Armenian revolutionary movement: the development of Armenian political parties through the nineteenth century, Los Angeles, London 1963, p. 119

[2] Hovhanissian, Richard G. (1997) The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Volume II, Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century . New York 1997, pp. 218-9