1236) Armenian Rebellion Of 1720s And Threat Of Genocidal Reprisal, Armen M. Aivazian

Center For Policy Analysis, American University Of Armenia
Yerevan, Armenia, © 1997

This research was carried out in the Center for Policy Analysis at American University of Armenia supported in part by a grant from the Eurasia Foundation.

Contents
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Historical Background
The International Setting
Armenian Self-Rule in Karabakh and Kapan and the Armenian Armed Forces
The Traditional Military Units of the Karabakh and Kapan Meliks
The Material Resources and Local Manufacture of Arms
Armenian Military Personnel in Georgia
Armenian Military Personnel in the Iranian Service
The External Recognition of Armenian Self-Rule in Karabakh and Kapan
3. The Rise of Anti-Armenian Attitudes and Its Ramifications
Preliminary Notes

Documents
The Irano-Armenian Conflict (1722-1724)
Ottoman Decision-Making and Exercise on Extermination During the 1720s
The Armenian Casualties
Forced Islamization of the Armenian Population
The Motives for Anti-Armenian Attitudes
4. Conclusions.
Map: Transcaucasia in the 1720s
Table 1. Major Battles between Armenian and Ottoman
Forces (1723-1727)
Notes
List of Abbreviations
Summary in Armenian
Note about the Author . .

INTRODUCTION

While studying the turbulent events of the 1720s in Iran, including the successive Afghan, Russian and Ottoman invasions, I repeatedly came across Armenian warnings of being, in their own words, "totally exterminated" by the Iranian and Ottoman Muslims. Most significantly, this anxiety was experienced throughout these states whether near the military front-line or far away to the rear in Tiflis, Rasht, Shamakhi, Karabakh, Constantinople, or Erzerum. What is interesting, moreover, is that while these primary sources reflect the varied personal backgrounds and social positions as well as divergent ideological and religious convictions of their Armenian authors, they all express their apprehensions in identical terms. This study intends to establish the basis of their anxiety; whether it was founded on a balanced assessment of regional developments and certain politicocultural realities of the early modern Iranian and Ottoman Empires or whether perhaps it was merely a largely irrational mass sentiment. If the former proves to be correct we must ask what kind of social and intercommunal relations were then in place in these two empires and what were the differences, if any, between them.

These Armenian apprehensions are all the more intriguing in light of the prevailing Western academic views on the nature of early modern, pre-genocide Armeno-Turkish relations. To. .

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