Massachusetts Honors Genocide Victims in State House Ceremony

Awesome story about this strong woman who survived the Genocide. It moves me so much.

What happened in Marash at that years was extremely sad and frightening. Not only for those who were force to leave their home, but also for the next generations, it was a huge trauma. I deeply share your pain. But it shouldn’t necessarily mean to distort historical realities. Of course Armenians were the ones suffered the most, but it was not something like “one day, bad turks came and killed everyone.” No living creature would deserve such terrible things but to be able to understand, we have to seek for the truth all together.

Please read to have an objective information regarding to what happened there:

Zeytun, whose name is Süleymanlı today, was an ancient settlement center founded on the Zeytun River in a narrow valley at the feet of steep and woody Mount Berit, which has an altitude of 3014 meters and is between the Göksun River and the Ceyhan River in the northwest of Marash. The region where Zeytun is situated is quite indented as it has many rivers which are watery and have shoot. The place is called Zeytun (Olive) as both sides of the mountains had olive trees in large quantities (Ahmet Cevdat Pasha, 1991, 120-121). Zeytun County, which is part of the Marash Sandjak of the Aleppo Province, is a place of great significance in terms of the development of Turkish-Armenian relations. Zeytun Armenians made it a habit of not giving taxes by taking advantage of the hardship of the access of the state to this place due to the fact that the land they were living in was a steep and hilly place. There had always been riots in this region as some of the Zeytun Armenians saw brigandage as a kind of source of income. In the number of these riots, generally broken out not to give taxes seemingly, there was an increase after the last quarter of the 18th century (Günay, 2007, p. 228-230).

The fact that Armenians living in Zeytun were always in a state of uprising also drew the attention of missionaries who were conducting activities in Anatolia. Missionaries who were from the “American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,” which was doing activities concerning the renewal of Armenian churches in 10 cities including Marash by gathering in Istanbul in 1832, made connections with Armenians living in this city and at the same time being their targeted mass. Zeytun Armenians who got the support of foreigners in this way attacked the Muslim villages in the region. Thereupon, Bayezidoğlu Süleyman Pasha took Zeytun under siege. Even though this siege was very effective, it was removed before a definite result was gained due to winter conditions. The Zeytun Armenians broke out events also in the years 1836, 1840, and 1842. The government wanted to know why the Zeytun Armenians broke out in so much unrest and they sent a committee to the region to investigate this. At the end of the investigation in the region, it was understood from the reports which were read in the Vala Assembly that the riots in Zeytun were not only about the issue of taxes but the issue had a political aspect as well (Günay, 2007, p. 230-231).

The Zeytun Armenians’ attitudes, which did not recognize the authority of the state, continued also in 1853 and 1854. The events starting with the impact of the conflict between the Bayezid and Dulkadir families in 1854 were not able to be stopped with the influence of the Marash people objecting to the regulations of Edict of Reformation in 1856. Among the precautions of the government to stop the conflicts, which started in May, they were to send additional military troops to the region (A. MKT. UM, 236/15) and to collect the weapons of the people living in the Zeytun region and Marash (A. MKT. UM, 240/14). The Zeytun Armenians reacted to the plan of placing many Cherkes and Caucasian immigrants in this region in 1857 and some immigrants being hosted in Elbistan (MVL, 628/37). When the attacks of Armenians against the immigrants increased, Hurşit Pasha walked up to the Zeytun Armenians who did not give taxes and attacked Marash. Hurşit Pasha was not successful in his operation and Aziz Pasha was appointed to his position (Aghassi, 1897, p. 112-113).

After the declaration of the Edict of Reformation, there were unrests in different parts of the Ottoman Empire. The most important of these was the unrest in Lebanon. The Marunis living in Lebanon were protected by France and the Durzis were protected by Britain. There was no unity among the Marunis due to different reasons (Karpat, 2001, p. 68-69). The fact that Durzi and Sunnis wanted to re-establish their dominions by taking advantage of the divisions among the Marunis caused the tension in the relations of the communities living here. The events spread to Syria and around 7,000 to 12,000 people from each religion died. The issues were taken to an international dimension by Britain and France, and Lebanon was given the status of a privileged and independent province on 9 June 1861 (Shaw&Shaw, 1983, 183). To the lieutenant governorship of Lebanon, a Catholic Armenian, Davit Efendi, was appointed by being conferred with the rank of vizier (Karal, 1983, p. 41).

Please go to the link to continue: http://turksandarmenians.marmara.edu.tr/en/the-zeytun-riots/