А.
Дж. Киракосян
ВЕЛИКОБРИТАНИЯ И АРМЯНСКИЙ ВОПРОС
Содержание Tитульный
лист и т.д. Введение
Глава I-1 Глава
I-2 Глава I-3 Глава
II Глава III
Заключение Примечания
Библиография и Указатель имен
Summary Оглавление
(как в книге)
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GREAT BRITAIN AND THE ARMENIAN QUESTION
(the 90s of the 19th Century)
BY ARMAN J. KIRAKOSSIAN
SUMMARY
By the end of the 19th century the status of the Armenian population
of the Ottoman Empire became critical. Between 1894—1896 the government
of Sultan Abdul Hamid II organized a mass slaughter of Armenians
using as a pretext the Armenians desire to liberate themselves from
the centuries-old Ottoman yoke. The ferocity of the Turkish sultan
threatened the existence of a whole nation. The attempts of Armenian
national parties to ease the fate of Western Armenia by making appeals
to European countries were fruitless. In the struggle against the
Sultan's violence they set definite hopes on European government's
assistance, who were completely occupied with the growing colonial
aspirations of the financial-industrial circles of their countries.
Having realized the way the Armenian question could affect the politics
of these powers,, the Sultan decided to exterminate the Armenian
population of the country.
In the Middle East, the interests of Great Britain, Russia, Austro-Hungary
and Italy were clashing. The government of the new imperialist predator—
the Kaser's Germany— was supporting the anti-Armenian policy of
the Sultan's government, because the condemnation of it could threaten
the far-reaching expansionist plans of German capitalists in the
Middle East. Germany's ally— Austro-Hungary, adhered to the policy
of maintaining the status quo towards the Ottoman Empire. The formation
of independent slavic states in the place of a destroyed Sultanic
empire, could become an incitement to the disintegration of the
multinational Austrian power.
For the bourgeois rulers of France, who had invested great capital
into the Turkish financial system, the disintegration of the Ottoman
Empire was undesirable. The French government, protecting the financial
interests of
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its capitalists, was carefully maintaining the status quo of the
Ottoman Empire and was rather reticent concerning the Armenian question.
The National liberation struggle of the Armenian people was supported
by the Russian people, Russia. After the joining of Eastern Armenia
to Russia, the peaceful conditions of life of the Transcaucasian
Armenians demonstrated Russia's progressive role in the life of
Western Armenians, groaning under the yoke of Turkish rule. In spite
of the traditionally positive role of Russia in the fate of Armenian
people, in spite of great efforts of progressive-minded Russians
in helping the long-suffering Armenian people, the reactionary government
of Nicholas II responded to Sultan Abdul Hamid II's anti-Armenian
policy in 1894—1896 with unusual indifference.
During the Berlin Congress (1878), the British government reduced
Russian control over the realization of reforms in the Ottoman Empire
and pledged to control the improvement of living conditions of the
Christians, inhabiting Turkey. But in the course of fifteen years
the English government did nothing to ease the life of the Armenian
population of the Ottoman Empire.
In addition, the British government used the poor living conditions
of Armenians to put pressure on the Sultan, obtaining more and more
political and territorial concessions. The Ottoman Empire, therefore,
was the arena, where London diplomates implemented the "splendid
isolation" doctrine of Prime-Minister Lord Salisbury, successfully
playing on the contradictions among the European powers.
In the 90s of the 19th century the Armenian question had a great
response in the public opinion of Great Britain. The democratic
part of the English society was following the aralming news from
the Ottoman Empire with unconcealed sympathy. Appearing in the press,
social and political figures of Great Britain introduced to the
readers the history and cultural life of the Armenian people, telling
about the scenes of massacres, criticizing the policy of the British
government and the governments of other European powers with respect
to the Armenian question.
Though the activity of the British public did not play any considerable
role in easing the tragic status of the Armenian people, nevertheless,
the close study of the opinions of politicans, publicists, historians
and other figures reveals the state of public opinion and their
attitude towards the
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Armenian people and their national liberation movement. Such study
expose the essence of the policy of British government in the Armenian
crisis, to define the place, meaning and role of the public in the
foreign policy of Great Britain. The anti-Armenian policy of the
"Bloody Sultan" was inherited by the Young Turks and climaxed
during World War 1, when 1,5 million Armenians suffered the genocide
in the Ottoman Empire.
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