Armenian War Heroes
Posted By shirley on January 20, 2010
In light of my recent conversation with Leonard regarding an armed populace, it reminded me of the war heroes that my grandfather idolized. He idolized them so much that he carried these pictures of these heroes all the way to the States and kept them posted on his wall.
Apparently, these were people that were fighting for the autonomy of the Armenian people. Russia had already stepped in to help in this effort and unfortunately, the Armenian people thought if they took up arms, surely their Christian brethren in the West would help them. This did not turn out to be true, as we now know.
Here are a couple of pictures from my grandfather’s collection:
Below – Vartan Sophaz
Hero Vartan Sohpaz
Mourael Chrimian
Mourael Chrimian - Armenian war hero
For Christmas my son gave me “Osman’s Dream: the history of the Ottoman Empire” by Caroline Finkel written in 2005.
More on that later.
I imagine the Ottomans finally decided to draft the Armenians and all other non-Turkish minorities because of the growing crisis they faced in WWI . The Turks were fighting the British and French at Gallipoli outside of Istanbul,fighting the British along the Suez Canal and later in Palestine and in what is now Iraq, and fighting the Russians along their common border in the Armenian heartland.
Did the Ottomans also use their Armenian troops against the Russians? I imagine the Russians also had Armenian troops as Armenians live on both sides of the border. That may have led to tragic confrontations as were occurring in further west where Polish troops in the German and Austrian armies face Polish troops in the Tsarist Russian army.
The Turks with German support defeated the Russians and drove them back.That was what I was referring to when I said the Russians encouraged Armenian independence but were unable to support and protect those who rose up.
Germany was Turkey’s closest ally and made possible Turkey’s defeat of Russia. Many German officers were advisingor commanding Turkish troops in the areas where the genocide occurred
Do you think the Germans have been avoiding their share of responsibility for the Armenian genocide? German officers had to have witnessed it. Did they do nothing to stop or did they go as far as to have taken part in it? As the Germans proved a few years later, they were very capable of genocide.
Regarding the Armenians in the military, including my grandfather – here is an explanation given to me when I inquired about such from an Armenian historian. The historian’s name is Sarkis Karayan, M.D. and this was his answer:
“Dear Mrs. Collins. Armenians and other Christians
were not allowed to bear arms in the Ottoman Empire
until 1909, when the young Turks dethroned Sultan
Hamid, and declared Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
One could avoid the draft by paying a certain sum of
money. Unfortunately, the drafted Armenians were
systematically murdered by the Ottoman Government, once
the War started in 1914″
As far as the Germans and their involvement, yes, they were using the Turks for their end game. A book I am reading on the subject is called “Like Hidden Fire” by Peter Hopkirk and explores the conspiracy between the Germans and the Turks to unleash a Muslim holy war against the British in India and the Russians in the Caucasus. It’s very interesting.
There were many Germans in Turkey at that time due to the building of the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway. In fact, there are many accounts from German citizens who witnessed the attacks against innocent Armenians. These, along with pictures, were sometimes smuggled out because of the tight hold by the Turkish government against any negative reporting.
Clara Barton, the Red Cross pioneer, agreed to have any mail or correspondence to the U.S. reviewed by the Sultan as part of a deal with the Sultan in order to allow her to minister to the people of Turkey. See “The Burning Tigris” by Peter Balakian, Chapter 6: Humanity on Trial: Clara Barton and American’s Mission to Armenia.
It was very dangerous to report on the atrocities that were being committed, or one could end up a statistic as well.
And remember Hitler’s famous remark regarding that time period: “After all, who today remembers the annihilation of the Armenians.” It is not surprising that this may have very well given Hitler impetus to carry on his own genocidal actions thinking no one would do anything about it.