عبادة الأرمن (1915) بين الأسباب والنتائج
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2025
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Abstract
Making use of Armenian (in Arabic translation), Arab and Western sources, Dr. Zahreddin approaches to the Armenian Question and the massacres perpetrated by both the Young Turks and the Nationalists from the point of view of an Arab historian, putting the question in the context of right and wrong, inspite of the past that, as an Arab, he could very easily hold sides in the question at hand. On the contrary, he limits himself just with the Armenian Question and the Massacres of 1915-1922 and analyzes their causes and results.
To make things clear, the center of the article first draws the plan of the massacres perpetrated. According to him, the Turkish authorities
1. Got rid of the young Armenians by asking them to work on the construction of land roads and railroads. This left the Armenian regions with no force of protection,
2. To disarm the soldiers of the Armenian contingents, thus rendering them unable to oppose;
3. To deport Armenians suspected or those opposing the Turkish policies;
4. To apprehend the intellectuals and leaders of the Armenian community and kill them with the help of the Special Organization erected for this purpose;
5. After disarming the Armenian soldiery, to kill them all;
6. To deport the remaining Armenian women, children and the old people, accompanied with acts of robbing and massacring them at the spot, or drowning them in the rivers and seas. This phase of the plan was called 《Road to Hells》;
7. After deporting the Armenians burning, destroying or appropriating of the Armenian goods and property:
8. According to an official regulation, to appropriate the Armenian land and property as discarded property»; and last but not least
9. To destroy and annihilate all Armenian cultural and material cxpression, as well as antiquities, which could testify of the belongingness of all the Armenian regions, and to change and turkify all place names in the Armenian regions and provinces.
This plan was put into force under the silent look of both the allies of Ottoman Empire and the Entente Powers, and helped later other nations and people (Germans, Italians and Zionists) to repeat massacres unpunished. But things have to be corrected and reparations made. To do so Dr. Zahreddin finds that it is imperative
1. To let the Armenians have the right to return to their fatherland.
2. To accept that Turks have by force appropriated the Armenian lands and property;
3. To oblige the Turks to resign of their occupation of Armenian lands and hand them over to their rightful owners;
4. To pay the Armenians the appropriate indemnity for their losses endured during the deportations and massacres.
Unless the latter are imposed on the Turkish authorities who are the legal heirs to the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turks and their Turanian dreams, the Armenian Question will remain open and find its expression now and then until it finds its rightful solution.
The conclusion is clear for Dr. Zahreddin, and this is why he ends his article declaring that “we are with the Armenians and back the Armenian Question, rightful and sacrosanet; we are with the Armenians in their desire for peace both in Armenia proper and Artzakh; we are with the Armenians in their demand of their fatherland; and we are against the Turkish and Turanian schemes which are anti-Arab and anti-Armenian at the same time. This is the verdict of Truth, and we declare it out loud, because we believe that Truth has to be declared out loud even if our neck is put into the ring of the gallows».
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صالح زهر الدين، "إبادة الأرمن (1915) بين الأسباب والنتائج"، مجلة هايكازيان للأبحاث الأرمنية، بيروت، 2025، الصفحات 121–134