Why Did The Armenian Genocides At The End Of The 19th Century

By the end of the nineteenth century, the relationship between the Armenians and the rest of the Ottoman Empire could be described in two words: mistrust and fear. While Armenians gradually found their footing in Ottoman society, the Turks felt increasingly threatened by this. Instances of new ideas of nationalism, revolution, rumors, and scapegoating were indicative of this relationship. Specifically, four episodes that respectively demonstrate this are the founding of the Hnchak and Dashnak political parties, the seizure of the Bank Ottoman, the lead-up to the Adana Massacre, and the Battle of Sarikamish. First, in 1887, the Hnchak political party was formed and they published their first newspaper in November of that year. They advocated
12 hours later, a Russian representative, M. Maximov, called the rebels to come to the window and discuss their terms. They agreed to safely get the surviving revolutionaries out of the bank, while also meeting the previously mentioned requests. However, this only led to crowds of Turks killing Armenians in the streets freely while the police and army stood by and watched. One Kurd compared Armenians to “rapid dogs attacking the family that fed them.” This instance would obviously make those in the Ottoman Empire suspicious of what the Armenian’s goals and motives were. In fact, Suny says that this episode made much of Europe wary of the Armenians. Before this, the Great Powers showed compassion for them and were aware of their plight. However, Suny claims, “In the aftermath of the Bank Ottoman seizure, much of Europe lost sympathy for the Armenians as victims of the “Terrible Turks.” Now, Armenians as a whole were considered violent and the Turks now had an excuse to mistrust and fear their capability of overthrowing the Ottoman
Moreover, rumors spread that Armenians were loading up on and hiding arms against the government. Fears of massacres in Adana were widespread, and Armenian merchants closed their shops, which only further incited violent crowds who thought the Armenians were planning to attack. Massacres against Armenians broke out in Adana and, despite being victims, the press put the blame on them. Suny points out that a local newspaper wrote that Armenians “were the reason for their own destruction, the Turks, and of the country.” The narrative for both locals and government officials was that Armenians were violent and dangerous, and could not be trusted. Despite many rumors about the Armenians not even being true and the Turks being the main instigators of violence, this is still the prevailing idea within the Ottoman Empire. Lastly, in the year leading up to the Armenian genocide and the beginning of World War One, the Battle of Sarikamish took place. Sarikamish is an outpost that used to belong to the Ottomans, but Russia had taken it three decades