This chapter provides a brief history of the genocide and the period up to the establishment of the Turkish Republic. It first discusses the status and conditions of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and then focuses on the anti-Armenian actions and policies that led to the mass destructions, arrests and killings from 1915 to 1923.

The importance of Kurdish tribes or theHamidiye cavalry for today is explained, as Kurdish public figures, intelligentsia or politicians, have become significant actors in pushing Turkey to come to terms with its past.

1. 1.

   According to research conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1914, declining to 387,800 by 1922. For detailed information on the non-Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire, see Braude and Lewis (1982) and Karpat (1982).

2. 2.

   The millet system was created by the Pact of Umar in the seventh century to organize and protect distinct religious communities in exchange for payment of a tax, orcizye. The millets communicated with Ottoman authorities through intermediaries but retained the ability to self-regulate internal matters. Though there were three main millets, Greek, Jewish and Armenian, these groups were internally diverse and incorporated smaller minorities. The millet system by the end of the nineteenth century included a ‘Greek’ Orthodox (Chalcedonian) millet, an Armenian Apostolic millet (non-Chaldean Christians), an Armenian Catholic millet, an Armenian Protestant millet and a Jewish millet, all representing what were increasingly understood as ethno-national entities. For more on the millet system, see Kemal Karpat (1982); Barkey and Gavrilis (2016).

3. 3.

   Some of them being: Nahapet Rusinian, Dr. Servichen, Dran Nazariantz, Nigogayos Balyan, Krikor Odian, Krikor Margosian

4. 4.

   On the gathering decline of the Ottomans, see J. J. Reid (1994)Crisis of the Ottoman Empire (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner); A. Palmer (1994)The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire (New York, NY: M. Evans); H. Inalcik (2000)The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600 (London: Phoenix) and D. Goffman (2002)The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press).

5. 5.

   See E. J. Erickson (2013)Ottomans and Armenians (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan) for Armenian revolutionary movements between 1878 and 1915.

6. 6.

   Dashnak has been a full member of the Socialist International since 2003 and has affiliates in more than 20 countries.

7. 7.

   See Ely B. Soane’s travel notes on the massacres and vandalism in Diyarbakir in 1895 in E. B. Soane (1912)Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise: With historical notices of the Kurdish tribes and Chaldeans of Kurdistan (London: J. Murray).

8. 8.

   On the Hamidiye Cavalry, see Martin van Bruinessen (1992)Kurdish Society, Ethnicity, and Refugee Problems, in P. G. Kreyenboek and S. Sperl (eds)The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge); J. Klein (2007)Kurdish Nationalists and Non-nationalist Kurdists: Rethinking Minority Nationalism and the Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1909,Nations and Nationalism 13(1): 135–153; S. Deringil (2009)The Armenian Question Is Finally Closed: Mass Conversions of Armenians in Anatolia During the Hamidian Massacres, 1895–1897,Comparative Studies in Society and History 51(2), 344–371.

9. 9.

   For more on the abandoned properties, see N. Onaran (2000)Emval-I Metruke Olayı: Osmanlı’da ve Cumhuriyette Ermeni ve Rum Mallarının Türkleştirilmesi [Abandoned Properties: The Turkification of Armenian and Greek Properties Under the Ottoman and Republican States], Istanbul: Belge.

10. 10.

    Taner Akcam, in his book titledA Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, analyzes the discussion which took place in the parliament in 1918 and analyzes the details of the trials of crime suspects.

11. 11.

    ‘Operation Nemesis’ was a covert operation and assassination campaign by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaksutyun) carried out between 1920 and 1922. A number of former Ottoman political and military figures were assassinated for their roles in the Armenian Genocide. For more, see Eric Bogosian’sOperation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide (2015); Edward Alexander’sA Crime of Vengeance (2000).

12. 12.

    Ali Naci Karacan, Ali (1896–1955), a Turkish journalist and publisher who participated in the Treaty of Lausanne, was the Switzerland press attaché for a long time (1935–48), wrote a book titledLozan Konferansı ve İsmet pașa (1943) on the Conference of Lausanne and İsmet İnönü, second president of Turkey. Also see, ‘Ali Naci Karacan’in Gözüyle Lozan Konferansı ve İsmet Paşa’ (Conference of Lausanne and Ismet Pasha from the Eyes of Ali Naci Karacan) by Fatih Tuğluoğlu (2013),Ankara Üniversitesi Türk İnkilap Tarihi Enstitüsü Atatürk Yolu dergisi, 53: 285–328.

13. 13.

    The coverage of non-Muslim minorities in the treaty was restricted to just Armenians, Jews and Orthodox Greeks, leaving out other non-Muslim groups, including Assyrians, Chaldeans, Catholics and Protestants. These groups’ rights and demands are either ignored or they consist of being allowed to practice their own religion without having been officially granted cultural, educational and religious institutions. See N. Kaya (2009)Forgotten or Assimilated? Minorities in the Education System of Turkey, London: Minority Rights Group.

Authors and Affiliations

1. The School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

   Özlem Belçim Galip

Corresponding author

Correspondence toÖzlem Belçim Galip.

Reprints and permissions

© 2020 The Author(s)

Policies and ethics