The Events Of 1915 And Overlooked Details Of Turkish Thesis
Abstract
The Relocation and Resettlement Law (the
Tehcir Law), which was adopted on May 27, 1915
and started to be implemented on June 1, 1915, was
considered as a precaution for the Armenian
uprisings that emerged especially in the Eastern
Anatolia Region during the decline of the Ottoman
State and the First World War. The use of
Armenians against the Ottoman State by the Great
States of the period goes back to the 1700s. In
addition to the fact that each state had its own
interests behind the support of the Armenians, the
desire of the minorities to establish their own state
came to the fore during the fragmentation of the
State. In the face of the Armenian theses put forward
regarding the Armenian deportation, the Turkish
thesis was located into Turkish literature; however,
it has not found much place in the English literature.
On account of this, the purpose of the study is to
mediate the understanding of the Turkish thesis
about the events of 1915. For this purpose, the focus
is on compiling details that are not accepted, or
worse, never mentioned, outside the Turkish public
opinion. The secondary purpose of the study is to
draw the attention of the circles that accept the
Armenian thesis and ignore the Turkish thesis with
some details. In this context, in the study, a
compilation was prepared by making use of
secondary sources, first of all, the time the
Armenians started to create problems, the social
structure and nationalism in the Ottoman State, and
the experiences during the First World War were
handled. Additionally, it has been emphasized that
how the Armenians in the past and the so-called
genocide in the present have been used as a foreign
policy tool.