Resistance by Sason 1894
As 1894 Sasun Rebellion or first resistance of Sasun ( Armenian Սասնո առաջին ապստամբութիւն ), a conflict between Ottoman units and the Armenian fedayeen from the Hunchak party in the region Sasun (now Sason called). The uprising led by Mihran Damadian , Hampartsum Boyadjian and Hrayr Dzhoghk was directed against the massacres of the Armenians at the time and is considered to be the first awakening of the Armenian National Liberation Movement.
background
The Huntschak Social Democratic Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Taschnaken) were the most important organizations of the Armenian National Liberation Movement and had been active in the region since the 1890s. The first persecution of the Armenians began in 1894, culminating in the Hamid massacres of 1894–1896. This persecution strengthened a nationalist self-confidence among the Armenians. As early as 1893, the Armenian residents of Sasons had repelled Kurdish invaders from the area around Diyarbakır . Another attack, to which the Kurds were then encouraged by the Ottoman authorities, was successfully repulsed by the Sason Armenians, who were considered to be able to defend themselves.
The conflict
In the summer of 1894 the Sason Armenians refused to pay the double tax burden demanded by the local Kurdish tribal leaders. Activists of the Huntschak Party tried to take advantage of this tax revolt, which eventually spread to 25 villages, and to call a nationwide uprising. Although there were armed opposition, these did not have the character of a general Armenian insurrection movement. Nevertheless, the Ottoman state power struck with great severity. The Armenians of Sason, including Kevork Çavuş , were confronted by a Turkish army and Kurdish volunteers who were in the majority. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation also played a significant role in arming the people of the region and helping them defend themselves. Ottoman military and irregular Hamidiye units with a strength of around 3,000 men stormed the villages in August after fighting for more than two weeks and carried out bloody massacres in which, depending on the source, between 900 and 4,000 Armenians were killed. 32 of the 40 Armenian villages in the region were destroyed.
Foreign states protested vehemently against the attacks on Sason; the British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone called the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid "the great criminal" and "the Red Sultan". Other states demanded the implementation of promised reforms for the six Armenian provinces . A committee of inquiry made up of French , British and Russian officials was sent to the region to investigate the events.
Aftermath
In April / May 1895, the last-named powers proposed reforms, which, however, were never implemented as they were ignored and not ratified by Ottoman Turkey. Britain, on the other hand, gained considerable influence and power in the former Ottoman colonies of Cyprus and Egypt, and for Gladstone good relations with the Ottomans were not as important as before. The Ottoman Empire has now found a new Western European ally - Germany under Bismarck .
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Balakian : The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response. HarperCollins Publishers, New York 2004, pp. 54f.
- ↑ Stefanos Yerasimos: Azgelişmişlik Sürecinde Türkiye. Istanbul 1977, pp. 554f.
- ^ Tessa Hofmann : Approaching Armenia. History and present. Munich: Beck, 1997, p. 85f.