614) Documents from Russian Archives

(Document-15)
For the interests of the Allied powers…

From the article dated 03 December 1920 of Araç, the publication organ of Vratsyan, the last Prime Minister of Tashnaks:

Armenia was under the influence of the Allied Powers and particularly of the policy of England until the present day. The day we got out of their influence, we have to say that collaboration with the Allied Powers has quite damaged us. We have made Armenia, the arena of war, which has never finished with our neighbors, for the interests of Allied Powers. (…)


(RGAPSİ fond 80, list 4, Folder 83, leaf 136)
Source:Source: Aydınlık Daily-04.03.2007 (No 1024) . .

Documents from Russian State Archive-IX-X (Document-11)
The lies of the Allied agents…

Baku /To Çiçerin/Moskow/03 November 1920


(…) I am warning. Initially, the rumors regarding the dimensions of the assaults of Turks against the Armenians are being exaggerated by the agents of the Allied States. Why are you listening to these rumors? Please, be calm.
Source:Source: Aydınlık Periodical-04.03.2007 (No 1024)

Documents from Russian State Archive-IX-X (Document-16)

Giving Van, Muş and Bitlis to Armenians is nothing but an imperialist demand…

The telegram from Orconikidze to Kremlin and the note, which written with Stalin’s personal handwriting/ (It will be delivered) to Associate Lenin/ Moscow-Kremlin/ To Associate Çiçerin, Lenin, Troçki and Stalin


Turkish delegation has set out on November 6. There is no reason for distracting them. An agreement should be done with them, as soon as possible. According to the information available the situation is as following: After Çiçerin demanded Muş, Van and Bitlis, the position of the Allied Powers has strengthened.

Orconokidze

Brother Lenin, I just learned yesterday that Çiçerin, heaven knows why, has conveyed Turks a foolish and provocative demand, which urges the evacuation of the Turkish provinces Muş, Van and Bitlis, where Turks consist the majority in population. This imperialist demand cannot be our demand. Sending diplomatic notes should be prohibited in the direction of Çiçerin’s nationalist Armenian inspirations.
Stalin
Source:Source: Aydınlık Periodical-04.03.2007 (No 1024)


Documents from Russian State Archives–I (Document 14)
There is no massacre in the regions that Turkish forces invaded…

To Stalin,

(…) I report with Kavsan (The Chairman of Armenia Revolution Committee), Bekzadyan (The Deputy Chairman of Armenia Revolution Committee and Foreign Ministry Public Official) and Nuriciyan’s remarks the following: Tashnaks deserted the city of Gümrü with the attacks of Turkish forces. Our associates, who stayed in the city, took out our arrested associates from jail and set up a revolution committee. They have made a call. Following the union of Tashnaks learnt this situation they retuned and they acquired the city of Gümrü.

There is no army. Tashnaks confess that the propaganda activity, which is based on Kemalist-Bolshevik union by the Tashnaks, has strengthened the tendency not to battle against Kemalism as an ally of Bolshevics. (…)There is no massacre in the regions that Turkish forces invaded.

(RGAPSİ fond 85, list 14, folder: 30, leaf: 2-3)
Source:Aydınlık Periodical-04.03.2007 (No: 1024)

Documents from Russian State Archives-V-VI (Document-3)
Two missions that were given to the Armenians of Turkey…

From the speech of the representative of the military wing of the Taşnaksutyun Party during the Armenian National Congress in Tbilisi, in the 1915 February;

As it is known, Russian government had given 242,900 rubles prior the war, for arming and preparing Armenians of Turkey to initiate an uprising inside the country during war time. Our voluntary units have to create anarchy in and at the back of the front by breaking the defense line and uniting with the rebels, they also should secure the pass of the Russian armies and facilitate the seizing of the Russian Armenia.
Source:Aydınlık Periodical-04.03.2007 (No: 1024)

Documents from Russian State (Document-1) Archives-V-VI
The time has come for the Armenian Revolt…

Telegram from the Consultant of the Third Political Department of the Tsarist Russia to the Istanbul Ambassador M.Girs


10 September 1914

Commander-in-chief and Governor of Caucasus agree that the time has come for the uprising of the Armenians, Syrians and Kurds, who are in conflict with Turkey. The gangs will be composed, secretly from the Iran administration, under the supervision of our Consulates and the commanders of our units in Azerbaijan. The arms, which are all set, will be given only when it is necessary. Credit is available for financial aid. The gangs will only be mobilized with our permission.

Attributing to the telegram you sent to Admiral Ebergard, today the minister has sent a telegram to the General Staff, indicating the requirement for initiating the preparations right away prior the uprisings starts as a result of the tensed situation, in the framework of the aforementioned precautions.
Source:Aydınlık Periodical-04.03.2007 (No: 1024)

Documents from the Russian State Archives-III (Document-8)
Armenian units are committing mass violence…

To the Prime Minister of Tbilisi, the Caucasus

The Armenian units that are deployed against Turkish units at the present time are completely incapable even against the Kurdish gangs and cannot resist even against the regular Turkish forces. And these units do not apply the military orders, just like the Russian units, which left here. The units are rapidly corrupting. Having no actual punishment for the violence they are committing against the armless Turkish nation, including women and children, is influencing these circumstances.

(…) The stored food in the warehouses, which were placed at the back front, (between Erzurum and Sarıkamış), have been looted and moved by the Russian units, that are leaded by the Revolutionary Committees.

12,000 people of the Armenian nation would become violent if they will be forced to move backwards to the road where the Russian Revolutionary Units had deserted after the withdrawal. In this situation, it is hard to estimate whether the inhabitants in the vicinity will experience and what would the situation of the army, itself be. (…) 15 February 1918


Odişelidze
The Commander of the Russian Caucasus Armies
Source:Aydınlık Periodical-04.03.2007 (No: 1024)

78448521
(Document-9)

The regions where the Muslims consist the majority four times more compared to the others, remained to Armenians

From the Memories Denikin, the General of the Belo-Russian Armies

When the instruction , which will be sent to Paris (The Paris Conference, which convened following the World War I) was debated in The Parliament, in the end of December, a mutual opinion did not come out. The Votes of Tashnaks, the party in power, were divided into two. While some of them defended either autonomy or federation, as being part of Russia, for both Armenia (Russian Armenia and Turkey Armenia); the others, demanded “Great and independent Armenia” , which includes Cilicia and open to Black sea and the Mediterranean. This was an American project, which was born with the fantasies of the victorious states and still exists with the illusions of the big states. According to this project, the regions where the Muslims consist the majority four times more compared to the others, remained to Armenians…

(Document -10)

27 mountain villages remained from 105 villages…

From the Telegram which was encrypted and classified as confidential that was sent from Baku to Moscow by Y.Y.Upmal, the Secretary of the Soviet Embassy delegation which first came to Turkey…

(…) Tashnaks are systematically organizing raids to the villages by exploiting from Turks’ passiveness and putting the Turks on sword. The representatives of Sürmeli and Kağızman region in Karakilise have asked for help. 27 mountain villages remained from 105 villages in the region. They had put the inhabitants of the eight villages on sword, in the month of August. They want us to shelter them or relocate the families of all men for to be able to go to any of the fronts. Tashnaks are practicing of annihilating Muslims entirely, who live in the mixed villages that Armenians will be located following the Peace talks. The inhabitants of Porin, which is the last mixed village in the region of Kağızman, were put on the sword in August 20th.

Source: Aydınlık Periodical-04.03.2007 (No: 1024)

Armenian cruelty in Erzincan is a tragedy which makes humanity shed tears of blood…

The letter of Vehib Pasha, the commander of the Turkish armies of the Caucasus front, to General Prjevalskiy, the commander-in-chief of the Russian armies of the Caucasus front:

22 January 1918
His Excellency,

I present my deepest thanks due to the your definite orders to relevant officials for protecting the Muslims of Ottoman Empire in the provinces where the Russian armies invaded against Armenian cruelty and also your order for taking concrete and firm precautions to prevent every kind of inappropriate precautions resulting from situation.

Recently, I have briefed Odişelidze, the Commander of the Caucasus Armies on the incidents that have recently occurred with the intention of requesting from to take precautions for giving an end to these kinds of incidents.

I consider that it will be helpful and necessary to convey the following information to your Excellency, which was reported to me. Particularly, following the departure of the Russian army corps from Erzincan, Armenian cruelty went beyond assaulting houses and murdering people in the quiet and secluded places, and has spread out. Now it has turned into undisclosed assaults to villages, raping women, massacring men and setting the villages on fire.

Meanwhile, the village of Zekkih, which is 18 kilometers far in the Southeast direction of Erzincan was exposed to these kinds of regrettable incidents on 12 January 1918. A week ago, a Muslim village named Koksa, which is 3 kilometers far from Ardası was assaulted by an Armenian gang, which was consisted of 30 people, and following the village was set on fire, a tragedy was experienced, which made humanity shed tears of blood…

Hoping that necessary precautions would be taken, I present my deepest respects to your Excellency.

The Commander of the Armies of Caucasus Front (General)
Vehib Mehmed

Source: Aydınlık Periodical-04.03.2007 (No: 1024)

The telegraph of İvantskiy, the commissioner of the invaded provinces of Turkey, in respect of the Invasion Law

“The immigrant Armenian families of Russian origin are moving from the back front and invading the villages of Plain of Pasin”

To General Levandovskiy,
Hasankale

I am forwarding the telegram of the commissioner of the invaded provinces of Turkey in respect of the Invasion Law:

The telegram no 2691 and dated 18 May (1917) from Sperransky, the provisional commissioner of Hasankale is taken by me and the President of Kafkasardı Special Committee. The immigrant Armenian families, most of whom are Russian origin, are moving from the back front in masses and settling the villages of Plain of Pasin for the last two-three weeks. These people are invading the residences of the Turkish origin families, the legal residences that are allocated to the military units and also the harvest districts by expelling the local Turkish residents. The settlement of the Armenians to the villages of Hasankale was realized with the plan of settling the inhabitants that emigrated from Ognot region of Erzincan, without the information of the Commissioner of the region. I supply and demand authority to give all the instructions and issue urgent orders to prevent the mentioned immigration, which is organized by the special Armenian associations. I demand that orders to be given to all units for helping commissioner Speranskiy by charging Kafkasardı Special Committee and reporting this to army headquaters. 1862. Commissioner İvantskiy. Commander gave orders for helping Commissioner Speranskiy.

(Russian Military History and State Archive-RGVİA fond 2100, list 1, Folder 1191, sheet 40 and the back)
Source:The Armenian Issue in 100 Documents from the Russian State Archives Mehmet Perinçek

The Telegram of General Ohanovskiy to the Headquaters of the Caucasian Army Regarding the Military Situation of Kars

“The Armenian Volunteers are even opening fire to the Russian units while they are steeling the goods they looted.”

To the Headquarters of the Caucasian Army
12-45d I
From 4th Army Corps
1485

Acceptation Date: 31.01.1915
Number: 243
Accepted: Skatov

Operation Division
6/6
31.01.1915
Number: 135
It will be placed in the folder number 21

General Nikolayev, reports that the Armenian volunteers are even opening fire to the Russian units while they are steeling the goods they looted. Moreover, numerous looting and robbery incidents were realized by the Armenian volunteers. To prevent these kinds of incidents right from the beginning, I wrote to General Nikolayev demanding him to report these incidents to the military court in Van and to add the article number 1309 of the 24th binding as the appendix number 8 to the new redaction, which was publicized by the Department of War in the command number 464th dated 1914. The Armenians should be judged for the crimes suggested in the 22nd binding of the 279th article. The verdict will be valid following it will be revealed and it will be executed by the judge of the court, which will be founded not later then a day.

Explanation: The 158th command dated 4 May of the Commander-in-chief which addresses the military units of the Caucasus military region. 6325

Signature: General Ohanovskiy

(Russian Military History State Archive-RGVIA fond 2100, list 1, Folder 982, Leaf 3-5.)

Source: The Armenian Issue in 100 Documents from the Russian State Archives

Mehmet Perinçek
Source:The Armenian Issue in 100 Documents from the Russian State Archives/ Mehmet Perinçek


The Documents from the Russian State Archives- XI
A report (Number 2) dated 4 January 1915 written by the military Deputy Governor of the Kars province to the military Governor of the Kars province prior to the relocation

“It is essential to protect the Muslim villages from the attacks of the Armenians.”

I would like to inform your Excellency that 11 Armenians and 3 soldiers, one of whom is Armenian and two of whom are Russians, of the 1st Battery of the 39th Artillery Brigade, who were armed with the Turkish and Russian Berdanka rifles intended for looting “Kotanlı”, are arrested after entering the district of the stronghold passing by the Verh, Kotanlı villages and subdivision of Soğanlı province on December 28th by me and the accompanying officer Ramfopul and the troop of guardsmen.

100 Rubles, documents and arms were taken back by me that was acquired from the aforementioned prisoners by the inhabitants of the Kotanlı village.

. For the time being the money and the arms are with me; and the detailed investigations of the prisoners except for the soldiers, who were handed over to their units were presented to the General Governor of the Kars province in the report numbered 81 dated 30 December, by me. I informed in the mentioned report that I gave the full responsibility of protecting the Muslim villages from the attacks of the Armenians to 7 guardsmen.


Colonel Grigoliya




(Russian Military History State Archives-RGVİA fond 2100, List 2, Folder 460, leaf 36 and the back page)

Source: From The Russian State Archives Armenian Issue in 100 Documents
Mehmet Perinçek
Source:The Armenian Issue in 100 Documents from the Russian State Archives/ Mehmet Perinçek


The Documents from the Russian State Archives-XII
The Telegram of the Military Governor Podgurskiy, to Colonel Grigoliya as well as the Commanders of Ardahan, Oltu, Kağızman Regions

“Take every possible precaution to prevent the looting realized against the Muslim inhabitants by the Christian population.”

Under the conditions of the war;

Take every firm precaution to prevent the looting realized against the Muslim inhabitants by the Christian population. Inform them that they will be sent to courts and convicted to heavy punishments; arrest, disarm and send the criminals to courts. Hand over the soldiers to their units. Inform me about the developments.

The telegram No 59 was sent at 12 January 1915.


Podgursky
Military Governor


(Russian Military History State Archive-RGVIA fond 2100, list 2, Folder 460, Leaf 75.)

Source: The Armenian Issue in 100 Documents from the Russian State Archives

Mehmet Perinçek
Source:The Armenian Issue in 100 Documents from the Russian State Archives/ Mehmet Perinçek

From the book entitled A Decade of War and Establishment by H.Hovsepyan which is published in Azerbaijani by the Armenian state in 1930.

“Tashnaks were in pursuit of establishing great Armenia by means of licking the boots of America, England and France”

(…) The ethnical origin wars reached unbelievable dimensions during the three-year long rule of the Tashnaks.

The Tashnaks once fought against Menshevik Georgia; twice with Turkey and several times with Azerbaijan. They trailed the policy of removing the Turkish society from the country. Tens of thousands of Turkish citizens were massacred in Agbaba, Zengibazar and Şarur. The assets of these citizens were pillaged and passed on to the possession of humbapetas’ ownership.

The counter-revolutionary Tashnak government called nearly forty thousand people to arms for national struggles and to annihilate Turkish nation. The Tashnak government formed tens of humblars besides the so-called “regular armies”. To realize this, the government taxed proletarian villagers and workers heavily. Nevertheless, it was enough to realize its own policy. The Tashnak government resorted to English-American imperialists for help and obtained equipment in great amounts from them.

As a result of the ugly policy of the Tashnak government, interference of populace was totally dispersed. A part of the society was physically removed. Hunger and disorder in the country were going on. Millions of people were dying because of contagious disease and typhoid fever. Hundreds of thousands refugees, who came from Turkey and Greece, were in a fix without a house and food in rags as the result of the ugly Tashnak policy.

(…) All workforces were called to arms under the mobilization practice. No more than men, who were not in use and women were left in the villages. The counter-revolutionary Tashnak government, which brought the country face to face with death, was in pursuit of establishing “Great and independent Armenia” with the help of the imperialists by licking the boots of America, England and France.

However, it is evident that their plans remained as a dream. Western Europe and American imperialists used Tashnaks just to size Kaskasardı and Baku petroleum. (…)

After a while the Tashnak government entered into a new adventure by starting a war with Turkey with the incitement of and under the protection of English imperialists. While the workers and the villagers were against this war, they were forced to join the army and sent to the fronts.

(H.Hovsepyan, A Decade of War and Establishment, State Publishment, Yerevan, p. 3, 1930)

1 The text is translated into Turkish
2 It is the name for a commander of Tashnak voluntary units.
Source:Source: The Armenian Issue in 100 Documents from the Russian State Archives Mehmet Perinçek

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