ARMENIAN ATROCITIES IN MARASH DURING THE FIRST WORD WAR
ARMENİAN ATROCİTİES İN MARASH
According to 1908 Aleppo Province yearbook, there were 4 Armenian, 3 protestant, 2 catholic and 1 Latin Church and 15 Christian schools in central Marash. 6 churches, 2 monastery, 1 non- Muslim high school and 5 elementary schools were in Zeytun (Suleymanlı). 3 Churches in Elbistan and 1 Armenian church and 4 protestant schools in Goksun were running to provide necessary things to the non-Muslims. The population of central Marash was 67,974 of which 46,557 Muslims, 11,180 Armenians and 3,567 Catholic.
The Armenians enjoying wide religious tolerance of the Ottoman Empire lived a happy life between 1453 and 1909. Some of the ungrateful, adventurer, day dreaming, double faced, deceitful, rebellious, liars, cunning, obstinate, opportunist Armenians , the arch enemy of the Turks and the Islamic world, who could have done everything for their own interest, were unable to realize the faith of the Ottomans invested in them and the privileges they had been granted, organized so many rebellions throughout the country. There were numerous rebellions and mutinies among the Armenians influenced by the adverse political propaganda carried out by Russia, America and Europe against the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians rose against the Ottoman rule in Zeytun in 1862, in Van in 1863, and in Çarsancak in 1863.
The American College and the American missionaries in Marash played a prominent role in the organization of the rebellion staged in Zeytun. The missionaries agitated the Armenian people living in the region against the Ottoman rule by spending millions of dollars. The Americans further extended their activities by assigning a consular to Marash.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Kahranmanmaraş Sütçü İmam Üniversity (KSÜ) Faculty of Science, departmemt of History.
Abdullah Emircan, Mehmet Emin Gerger, Ermeni Vahşeti (Armenian Atrocities), Cemre Yayınları, İstanbul 1992, p.15-16.
A. Nimet Kurat, Türkiye ve Rusya, Kültür Bakanlığı Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 150, Ankara, 1990, p. 113.
There were nearly four hundred American educational institutes in Turkey during the reign of Abdulhamit II. When the Ottoman government tried to close the unlicensed ones among these, the American consulate asked for the permission for 10 out of them. The Ottoman government granted the permission for them. Among these were the religious school, American Girl's school and the residence of the missionaries in Marash. In other words three out of ten institutes, which were allowed to continue their activities, were in Marash. This in turn resulted in the rapid increase in the number of American missionaries and the intensification of their activities in the region.
The biggest goal of the Hunchack committee, centered in London, was to make the European media aware of the so called Armenian matter and provoke them against the Turks. In fact the Hunchack committee in London was under total political and financial control of the British government, and it was used as a tool for their political interest.
The activities, planned by the leader of the Hunchack committee, Nazar Beg, in London, were started in the first months of 1895. The site chosen for the rebellion was Zeytun. A propaganda committee consisting of the Hunchack members was sent to the region. The committee started to arm the people and told them that the British government was going to send them arms and money and the British navy was going to occupy Mersin and Iskenderun ports upon the start of the rebellion.
The rebel leaders of, representatives of the villages and the members of the propaganda committee held a meeting in Karanlıkdere in September 1895 where they decided the time, way and the site of the rebellion. The rebels were equipped with modern English weapons. The rebellion participated by 6000 Armenians started on 19 October 1895. The rebels occupied the governmental buildings took the soldiers, officers, local and other authorities as hostages. The rebellion spread all through the region in a very short time as planned. However the rebels were surrounded by the troops sent against them. The British, French and the Russian Embassies anxious of the extermination of the rebels by the surrounding troops, asked for the termination of the military movement. As a result of the intervention of the consulates, the rebels surrounded their arms and they, including the committee members, were allowed to leave the country without any charges. The rebels were allowed to leave the country. This was the end of the rebellion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yaşar Akbıyık, Milli Mücadelede Güney Cephesi: Marash, Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu, Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi, Ankara 1999, p. 312.
Ahmet Eyicil, Marashta Ermeni Siyasi Faliyetleri (Armenian Activities in Marash), Gün Yayıncılık, Ankara, 1999, pp. 214-226., Osmanlı Arşivi Yıldız Tasnifi Ermeni Meselesi (Ottoman Archaives Yıldız Collection Armenian Question), Tarih Araştırmaları ve Dökümasyon Merkezi Kurma ve Geliştirme Vakfı, İstanbul, 1989, v. 2, p. 433.
In a congress of the Armenian committees directed by the patriarch in 1905 in Paris, they decided to establish an Armenian state in Cilicia (Adana and Marash). This decision taken by the influence of the patriarch was the pact of the cross and the sword.
The Armenians ,who took the chance that the Ottoman Empire entered the first world war, started to stab the Ottoman army at the back and massacre the innocent Muslim population with big grudge and hatred in order to ruin the Empire from the inside by the provocation of occupying western forces. They ruthlessly massacred 1.5 million Muslims between 1878 and 1915. All these treason and back stabbing of the Armenians culminated in the enactment of the deportation law on 14 May 1915. The Armenians causing great harm to the state and the people were deported to much safer regions.
On 23 April 1914 a gendarme team was sent to Zeytun to arrest eight Armenian bandits hiding in a house. The bandits, who refused to surrender, opened fire against the team causing killing an innocent person. Just as the house was surrendered the Armenian Patriarch started to provoke the people and the Armenians attacked the gendarme team. The battle reached the proportion beyond control and the gendarme team had to come back to Marash empty handed.
The rebels from Zeytun attacked the 100 Muslims from Andırın discharged from the Zeytun military command on 17 August 1917 and killed them ruthlessly. They also killed many people from Beşen village during this assault.
http://eskiweb.ksu.edu.tr/sites/erme...rm_mez(e).html