3385) Armenian Minister in the Ottoman Foreign Ministry: Gabriyel Noradunkhian Effendi

ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the 19th century, the multinational structure of the Ottoman Empire was one of the primary problems that threatened the empire’s survival. Th ere were also various acts of rebellion against the state by the Armenians who went up to the highest degrees of the Ottoman state administration and were given the title “Millet-i Sadika – the loyalist nation.” Gabriel Noradunkhian E? endi, who served as a bureaucrat and minister for approximately a half century, was rewarded by being bestowed a lot of medals by the Empire because of the result of that service. He went abroad and settled in France before World War I. Th en he was on the Armenian Committee during the Paris Peace Conference in which the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was intended and the Lausan-ne Peace Treaty that ccepted the independence of the new Turkish State.

Keywords: Gabriel Noradunkhian Efendi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Armenian File, Armenian Home, Sevres, Lausanne. . . .


Summary

Gabriyel Noradunkhian Effendi, descended from a powerful and deep-rooted Armenian family that had individuals given very important missions in the various positions of the bureaucracy of the Ottoman Empire, had received a good education, completed significant tasks in key positions of the Foreign Affairs and Bureaucracy of the State, and had been an active and effective person in the internal and external developments in the last years of the Ottoman Empire due to his technocrat personality. Gabriyel Effendi was also one of the important figures among the Armenian commu-nity in this period. He worked as a legal adviser in the Foreign Affairs of the Ottoman State for many years before he was appointed to Th e Senate on 15 December 1908 by the Sultan Abdülhamid II. In addition to this task, at the same time he took office as a minister in the many governments of the State. He served as the Minister of the Commerce and Public Works in the four Cabinets and the Minister of the Foreign Affairs in the two Cabinets. While performing the task of the Minister of the Public Works, he prepared a comprehensive schedule, but it could not be performed. In the last period of the Ottoman Empire, during the Tripoli (Libya) and Balkan Wars, Noradunkhian Effendi served as the Minister of the Foreign Empire. He was at the meeting of the Cabinet in the course of the infamous Sublime Porte raid on 23 January 1913 by the Union and Progress Party. After the Sublime Port raid, in which Nazim Pasha, the Minister of the War, was killed, Noradunkhian Effendi went abroad by taking his family, settled in France and lived there until his death. While performing his duties, he came to the fore and was granted a lot of medals and decorations in the both internal and external arenas because he solved very crucial international problems and was a competent and successful person.

Gabriyel Effendi, in the reign of Abdülhamit II, prepared a comprehensive report to solve the Armenian problem – the subject which had troubled the Ottoman State the most in the international arena. Th is report, dated 17 September 1897, included a five-article solution plan. In this report, he pointed out preventing the use of the Armenian issue by the Europeans and Russians, blocking the negative effects of the Catholic and Protestant missionaries on the Armenians to rebel against the Ottomans, making the patriarchate have power in the regions where the Armenian inhabitants lived, providing jobs for the unemployed so as to prevent these people from join the seditious committees. Th e initial thoughts of Gabriyel Effendi, especially for the solution of the Armenian problem, replaced the idea of the establishment of an independent Armenian state along with the disintegration of the Ottoman State after World War I. During this term, he acted as a senior representative of the Armenian delegations in Paris and Lausanne. He came together with Ismet Inönü, who was the chief delegate of Turkey at the Lausanne Peace Conference, and requested an Armenian homeland within the borders of Turkey. He exerted himself and intensely lobbied the delegates of the Entente Powers not to sign the Lausanne Treaty when his requests were not accepted. Th ese activities of Gabriyel Noradunkhian Effendi at the Paris and Lausanne Peace Conferences should be seen as efforts to make best use of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, such as the activities of the Arabs and Kurds.

This article does not claim that it has solved every matter related to Gabriyel Noradunkhian Effendi. On the contrary, it is a pioneering study giving comprehensive information about the political career of an Ottoman bureaucrat, who remained in the shadows, and his role in the international arena. Biographical studies such as this article help re-cognize important figures living in this era, but it also gives the reader the opportunity to evaluate political events more comprehensively and correctly.

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Original: Osmanlı Hariciyesinde Bir Ermeni Nazır: Gabriyel Noradunkyan Efendi

Ercan Karakoç
Dr., Gebze İleri Teknoloji Enstitüsü, Milli Güvenlik Stratejileri Anabilim Dalı

Bu makaleye atıf için: Karakoç, Ercan, “Osmanlı Hariciyesinde Bir Ermeni Nazır: Gabriyel Noradunkyan Efendi”, Uluslararası İlişkiler, Cilt 7, Sayı 25 (Bahar 2010), s. 157-177.

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Source: http://www.uidergisi.com/?p=1792

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academia.edu/1563116/Osmanli_Hariciyesinde_Bir_Ermeni_Nazir_Gabriyel_Noradunkyan_Efendi

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