Resistance by Zeytun 1895–1896

The Zeytun Uprising or Second Resistance of Zeytun ( Armenian Զեյթունի երկրորդ գոյամարտը Zeyt'uni yerkrord goyamartĕ ) took place in the winter of 1895/1896 during the Abdülhamid massacre , when the Armenians in Zeytun (today Süleymanlı ) armed themselves to oppose the Ottoman Defend troops .

During the resistance, which took place from October 1895 to January 1896, the commanders Ali Bey, Mustafa Remzi Pascha and Edhem Pascha attacked. The commanders of the 1,500 to 6,000 Armenian fedajin were Aghasi (Karapet Tur-Sargsian) and Ghazar Shovroian.

Monument to Zeytun (both 1862 and 1895) at Surp Kework Church in Aleppo , Syria

background

The Armenians of Zeytun enjoyed a period of high autonomy in the Ottoman Empire until the 19th century . In the first half of the 19th century, the Ottoman government decided to bring this imperial region under closer control, and intended to do so by settling Muslim muhajir in the villages around Zeytun. This strategy ultimately proved ineffective, and in the summer of 1862 the Ottomans sent a military contingent of 12,000 men to Zeytun to bring the area under government control. This unit was, however, kept in check by the Armenians and through French mediation the first resistance of Zeytun was brought to a conclusion. In the decades that followed, the Ottoman government decided to take control of the area by provoking Zeytun's Armenians: newly stationed government troops threatened the population and calls for their massacre were issued by a number of Turks . Between 1891 and 1895, activists from the Armenian Social Democratic Hntchak Party visited the Cilicia region and founded a branch in Zeytun. They encouraged the Armenians to resist the measures taken by the Ottoman government. It was also at this time that the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdülhamid II , decided to stamp out the only stronghold of autonomy.

When the governor was removed from office and replaced by Avni Bey, orders were issued by the Ottoman authorities on October 24, 1895, to grind several Armenian villages near Zeytun.

The resistance

The Armenian citizens of Zeytun, under the leadership of the Hunchakist Party, heard of the ongoing massacres in the neighboring regions and therefore prepared for armed resistance. Between 1,500 and 6,000 men armed with flintlock and Martini-Henry rifles were sent to the battlefield, and sixteen Armenians were chosen to form an administrative body during the siege. At the same time, the Ottoman military commanders sent a telegram to Abdülhamid, reporting that the Armenians had started an uprising and continued massacres of Muslims. The Ottoman 5th Army Corps had an overwhelming numerical and technological advantage: the unit consisted of 24 battalions (20,000 troops), twelve cannons, 8,000 men from the Zeibek division from Smyrna and 30,000 Kurdish and Circassian volunteers.

The Armenians began to capture the nearby Ottoman garrison, capturing 600 Ottoman soldiers and officers and placing them under surveillance by Armenian women. The prisoners tried to flee, but failed and were executed. Ottoman troops were repeatedly defeated by the Armenian fedayeen . During the negotiations that later resolved the conflict, an Ottoman military commander expressed his admiration for Aghasi, one of the leaders of the resistance, for the Armenian shooting skills.

Result

After the intervention of six European powers, the Armenians of Zeytun ended their resistance. The Hunjak activists were allowed into exile, the tax burden was reduced and a Christian sub-governor was appointed. Because of the low temperatures, thousands of Turks starved to death and many others died in hospitals from the wounds drawn in the battle. The figures for casualties vary widely, but everyone agrees that the Ottoman forces suffered badly. The British consulate reported on January 6, 1896 that at least 5,000 were killed, but the joint report increased the number to 10,000. The Austrian consulate in Aleppo stated that the Armenians had killed 1,300 Turks in the last battle alone. The British Consul estimated that military and civilian casualties among all Armenians were approaching 6,000. Pierre Quillard , a French writer, estimated that the Ottoman losses were no less than 20,000.

The Armenians lived in their homeland in relative peace until the First World War , when they were finally massacred and deported by the Young Turks from Zeytun in 1915 in the course of the Armenian genocide .

See also

• Van riot
• Hamidian massacres

literature

• Hogarth, David George (1911). Zeitun . In Hugh Chisholm , Encyclopædia Britannica 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press . Pages 965, 966

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. "The Armenian Question in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1914" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century . Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) New York: St. Martin's Press, p. 223. ISBN 0-312-10168-6 .
2. ↑ Barsoumian, Hagop. "The Eastern Question and the Tanzimat Era" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II , p. 200.
3. ^ French : Victor Langlois , "Les Arméniens de la Turquie et les massacres du Taurus", Revue des Deux Mondes 43 (January-February 1863).
4. ^ Vahakn N Dadrian : The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus . Berghahn Books, Oxford 1995, ISBN 1-57181-666-6 , pp. 127 .
5. ↑ Dadrian. History of the Armenian Genocide , pp. 127-28.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Dadrian. History of the Armenian Genocide , p. 128.
7. ↑ Dadrian. History of the Armenian Genocide , p. 130.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Dadrian. History of the Armenian Genocide , p. 129.
9. ↑ On which, see Aram Arkun, "Zeitun and the Commencement of the Armenian Genocide," in A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire , eds. Ronald Grigor Suny, Fatma Muge Goçek, and Norman Naimark . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pages 221-243.