2704) Turco-Armenian Adana Incidents In The Light Of Secret British Documents Jul1908- Dec1909 Dr Salahi Sonyel

Updated: 23 May 2011
Introduction
For almost six centuries the position of the Armenian nation (millet) within the Ottoman Empire, was one of relative peace, order, security and prosperity until the genesis, in the 1870s, of the so-called "Eastern Question". The Turco-Russian war of 1877 had resulted in the abortive Treaty of San Stefano, and had brought about the signature of the Cyprus Convention and the Treaty of Berlin. These treaties were supposed to procure more privileges for the . . . Ottoman Armenians, but they were actually intended to enable the Great Powers, in particular Britain and Russia, to interfere in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire with the hope of snatching a greater share of the spoils when the Empire ultimately collapsed.

From 1878 onwards various efforts were made by the Great Powers, particularly by the British Conservative and Liberal Governments, for the introduction of reforms in the Ottoman Empire to benefit the Christians, especially the Armenians, who were dispersed throughout Anatolia. One of their earliest unsuccessful attempts was directed towards the establishment of an autonomous Armenian province, which encouraged the Armenian extremists to provoke rebellions that almost led to an armed intervention by the Great Powers. When, in April 1880, the Liberal Party came to power in London, the new British Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, showed greater zeal than his predecessors, Lords Beaconsfield (Benjamin Disraeli) and Salisbury, in inducing the Great Powers to put joint pressure on the Ottoman Government so that it might succumb to their demands and introduce wide-ranging reforms in Eastern Anatolia. This danger to the very existence of the Ottoman Empire, and to that of his throne, forced Sultan Abdülhamit II to concentrate all power in his hands. It also encouraged the Armenian extremists to set up secret societies, and to prepare for revolt, in order to procure an autonomous, or semi-independent, Armenian province in Eastern Anatolia where the Armenians were hopelessly outnumbered by the Muslims to the tune of four to one. . .

Dr. SALÂHÎ R. SONYEL

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