Power vs. Progress: The HDP’s ‘Threat’ of Democracy

The real reason for the deportations was to rid the land from an opposing race, religion and culture. The Turks were very well aware of the fact that they were to lose most of their empire, and therefore, decided to clear their allocated territory from a competing minority population. Their only miscalculation was to allow the Kurds to stay. They thought that the Kurds, being Muslim, could be assimilated into Turkish society. In fact, they outlawed the Kurdish language and suppressed their culture in hopes of eliminating the threat. But as history proves, the Kurds became a burden as the years ensued. If Armenians were allows to stay, it is estimated that their numbers would have exceeded 20 million by now. Undoubtedly, a large enough number that would have caused immense pressure, friction and destabilization in Anatolia. The Turks calculation of ridding the land of a foreign and competing minority has some logic, but as usual, the Turks executed the plan in the most crude and unconscionably method that only Turks know how to do.

Reading this article it occurs to me that some may think that with the Armenian Genocide, we Armenians are no longer relevant in Turkey today… that effectively we have left the show. However, with the ever increasing news of ‘hidden Armenians’ with some estimates pushing 5 million people, it may yet be possible for Armenians to once again become relevant on the ground in Turkey, or should I say Western Armenia. Before it’s too late, we Armenians everywhere in the world need to do whatever it takes to get these ‘hidden Armenians’ to become visible Armenians in a way that is of course safe for them as much as possible. Then, the issues discussed in this article become not historically Armenian, but along with the Kurds, present day. Said another way, the Armenians have not left the show just yet.

Actually, the “main aim” of the Armenian Genocide revolves around the Ottoman Turk leadership’s aim of emptying out the six Western Armenian provinces of its entire Armenian population, and then seizing their lands along with all their properties and wealth. However, the question in all of this, is why did the Ottoman Turks attempt to wipe out their entire Armenian population in 1915, as opposed to hundreds of years earlier? The answer is the February, 1914 Armenian Reform agreement which was put into motion by the European powers, among which, happened to be the Ottoman Turks’ most hated enemy, Russia. The most significant aspect of this reform agreement was the requirement that the Europeans be appointed as the general inspectors of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian provinces in order to administer these reforms. And, in this particular moment of 1914, the Ottoman Empire’s Armenians were hopeful because this appeared to be a fulfillment of the promise of the Treaty of Berlin’s article 61, which launched the Armenian Question as an international issue, back in 1878. As a result, the Ottoman Turk leaders were determined, at any cost, to prevent the Armenians of Western Armenia from obtaining any kind of reforms, nor obtaining the slightest bit of autonomy. They became deeply paranoid and developed the extremely false belief that the Armenian population constituted a threat to the Ottoman Empire’s existence. This would be the driving force behind the Ottoman Turk leadership’s decision to wipe out its entire Armenian population, which by doing so, would also eliminate the Armenian Question.