...The Ottoman Empire at its zenith was well governed, and religious and national minorities were treated as well as any place in the known world. With its decline, however, the Empire became a corrupt and backward state. Christians were treated as gavours (infidels) and denied basic civil, religious, and human rights; and, at times, they suffered dire persecutions.
In the nineteenth century, when so much of Europe was being inspired by the ideas of the French revolution--liberty, equality, and fraternity--reforming Sultans in the Ottoman Empire sought to bring about progressive change under the banner of the Tanzimat. The Armenian church was able to take advantage of the reform atmosphere (under Abdul-Mejid [1839-1861] and Abdul-Aziz [1861-1876]) to establish the Armenian National Constitution (1863), a liberal document--involving substantial lay participation--by which the church and the community (Millet) were governed.
The coming to power of Abdul-Hamid II (1876-1909) marked the end of the Tanzimat, especially after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Abdul-Hamid, who had witnessed the empire disintegrate in the Balkans and the Caucasus under Russian pressure, decided to punish--through periodic massacre--his subject Christians, whose general plight served as an excuse for European intervention.
It was the Young Turks (1908-1917), however, inspired by neo-fascist and pan-Turanian ideologies, who decided to rid themselves (under the cover of World War I) of the Armenians. The Armenian genocide of 1915-1916 effectively wiped out the Armenian population of Turkey, claiming some 1.5 million victims. Perhaps 75,000 Armenians endure in Turkey today, most of them in Istanbul. With the demise of the Armenian population of Turkey, the Armenian Patriarchate has become--just like the Greek Patriarchate--a melancholy anachronism...
From "ARMENIANS" 1687
By Dennis R. Papazian
Professor of History
The University of Michigan, Dearborn
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