We have learned in Episode 50, from Boghos Nubar Pasha’s confessions that the Armenians have been, since the beginning of the war, ‘de facto belligerents’ as they have fought alongside the Allies on all fronts.” Then in Episodes 51 and 52, another major Armenian confession was explored: that of the first prime minister of Armenia, in the book The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Has Nothing To Do Any More, The Manifesto of Hovannes Katchznouni. In this book, Katchznouni confessed that “…the struggle (that) had begun decades ago against the Turkish government brought about the deportation of the Armenian people… Katchznouni’s 1923 conclusion was supported by Louise Nalbandian’s 1963 book The Armenian Revolutionary Movement, pages 67-89. The Zeitun Rebellion of 1862 was the beginning of massive uprisings.
After establishing many secret societies like the Union of Salvation, the Black Cross Society, the Protectors of The Fatherland, the Armenakan Party, the Hunchaks, and the Dashnaks, and staging hundreds of bloody uprisings, assassinations, raids, bombings, and finally joining the invading enemy armies, Armenians sealed their own fate. Turks only reacted to defend their home. In Episode 54, the third massive confession, the one by the Armenian author Kapriel Serope Papazian in his book “Patriotism Perverted,” dedicated to the Armenian victims of Armenian terrorism, the hate crimes of the ARF, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, or Dashnakzoutune, were revealed. Papazian wrote that by committing senseless violence against Muslims, the ARF deliberately exposed innocent Armenians to retaliatory massacres.
In Episode 55, confessions by the ARF itself in their book called Houshamatyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Centennial, Volume I, were analyzed. In it, the ARF tells us how great fighters Armenians were, where they smuggled arms into the Ottoman Empire, and how they ambushed and murdered Turks. A far cry from the “poor, starving Armenians” cliché, 1915 crowds are relentlessly promoting, isn’t it?
Dashnak historian, Hratch Dasnabedian, the author of the book History of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Dashnaksutiun (1890-1924), accepts ARF’s terrorism on page 47. Nalbandian, echoed this in her book Armenian Revolutionary Movement, page 171 “ …(The ARF) program of 1892 officially sanctioned terrorism as a method of activity.” The American General Harbord, who was sent to the Caucasus by president Wilson in 1919, commented in his Report on Russian Armenia, “…It is probable, that the Dashnaktzoutune still employs terroristic methods..” On page 16 of Houshamatyan, Vajhan Novasardian exalts ARF’s terrorism as freedom fighters. The former president Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Radio Address to the Nation is a good reply: “Freedom fighters do not need to terrorize a population into submission.”
In Episode 57, we reviewed the ARF’s ideology, military preparations, the first terrorist attack in 1890, the First World Congress in 1892 in Tiflis, objectives, ways and means, arms transporting groups, and raids on Turks between the years 1890 and 1896. On page 41, we see a map of ARF’s acts of terror from 1896-1898, including Van. After the failure of the first Sasun insurrection in 1893-94 and following the bloody revolts in 1895 and 1896, ARF-terrorists devised a violent plan to take over the Ottoman bank in 1896 to compel the European powers to intervene in favor of the Armenian revolutionaries. One terrorist in the raiding ARF-gang, namely Garegin Pasdermadjian, played a major role in the assault. More maps and gangs on pages 63 to 67. ARF’s acts of terror during 1900 and 1901 are listed on page 90-91.
Pages 92 to 97 are reserved for more acts of terror, while pages 98 to 105 for terrorist ARF-leaders’ bios and photos. From page 110 to 169, we see more bios and photos of ARF-terrorists and maps of their raids. In 1906, the ARF established its own Armenian Military Academy in Dubnitsa, Bulgaria, under the guidance of Armenian terrorists Andranik and Poghosian. During the first Balkan War of 1912 Armenian terrorists led by Andranik and Njdeh joined the massacres of Turks started by Bulgarian and Greek irregulars. The entire Turkish population of the village of KIRLIKOVA was exterminated with the exception of a one-year-old baby, my father, “Akif’s son Ratip, born in Kirlikova, 1911”, according to a scribbled faint note on a crumpled, old piece of paper pinned on his baby clothes. We will continue this discussion in the next episode.
Add comment