Halide Edip and the Turkifi cation of Armenian Children: Enigmas, Problems and Questions

It is a well-known fact that the Islamisation of Christian children in the Ottoman Empire has a long history. In the great majority of cases Islamisation was carried out forcibly, accompanied by the erasure of a child’s ethnic-religious identity for those who remembered it and totally hiding their ethnic roots and religious affiliation from those who didn’t. The whole process of cultivating a new identity and character was a matter of time and of contested methods. This article identifies a problem area, raising questions and analyzing the role of Turkish intellectual Halidé Edip in the state policy of Turkification of Armenian children at the Antoura orphanage during the Armenian Genocide. It draws comparisons between the three memoirs of Armenian orphans from that orphanage that are known to date, those of Garnik Banean (Karnig Panian as written in his English language memoir), Harutyun Alboyajyan, and Melgon Petrosean and that written by Halidé Edip. As a result, certain essential differences, ploys, as well as facts disguised by Edip have been collected and presented in this article. Therefore, the research carried out identifies the problems areas relating to various aspects of the Antoura orphanage by raising new questions, offering explanations and new approaches as well as highlighting issues that need to be researched further.

The Issues of the Number of Western Armenians and Ethnic Composition of the Population of Western Armenia at Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)

References to the issues of the number of Western Armenians and the ratio of Armenians to other ethnic groups in Western Armenia on the eve of the Armenian Genocide occupy a special place in the context of processes related to drafting a peace agreement with the Ottoman Empire and Armenia’s delineation after WWI. These issues were tackled by diverse Armenian official and non-official organizations struggling for the formation of an integral Armenian state, as well as Turkish authorities manipulating, inter alia, also demographic arguments against the Armenian claim for Western Armenia and the Entente Powers (particularly the United States of America and Great Britain) needing statistical data for deciding the fate of the Ottoman Empire. In the post-war processes the long-distance controversy of the Armenian and Turkish sides over the issues in question can be figuratively characterized as one of the stages – “battles” of the “statistical war” that emerged after 1878, i.e. following the entry of the Armenian Question into the international diplomatic agenda. This article aims to present and analyse the statistics on the number of Western Armenians and the ratio of Armenians in Western Armenia to other ethnic groups on the eve of the Armenian Genocide presented by Armenian and Turkish delegations at Paris Peace Conference, as well as data circulated by the US and British diplomacy. It will try to explain the connection between the delineation of Armenia and the number of Western Armenians, the demographic composition of Western Armenia on the eve of the Armenian Genocide. The calculations of the number of Western Armenians have had a certain effect on deliberations around demarcation of the border between the Republic of Armenia and the Ottoman Empire in the context of post-war world regulation.

Diana Apcar’s Search for an Armenian Protectorate: Hope and Disappointment

This article studies Diana Agabeg Apcar’s (1859-1937) perspective regarding the proposed American mandate over genocide-ravaged Armenia. It touches on aspects of historical empathy that are important in assessing the true nature of historical events. Through examining Diana Apcar’s correspondence with different individuals such as David Starr Jordan, Thomas J. Edmonds, Charles Albert Gobat as well as her articles related to this topic, this article aims to reveal the attitudes, opinions and mindset of this Armenian historical figure regarding the mandate issue.

“On the High Seas with no Place to Land”: The Smyrnaean Inferno and Humanitarian Aid to Armenian and Greek Refugees from Turkey (1922-1923)

In September 1922, the great fire of Smyrna drove more than 200,000 Armenian and Greek refugees to the wharves of that port city. They had fled to Smyrna to escape the massacres perpetrated by Turkish nationalist troops and now urgently needed humanitarian aid to relocate them to safety in Greece. In this article we examine the actions and the roles of humanitarian workers of the Near East Relief (NER) and the American Women’s Hospitals (AMH) working in Greece among these refugees deported from Smyrna. We highlight the central role of women doctors and nurses in their humanitarian efforts to save this population. Their actions, and the gratitude of their peers and government authorities, solidified their professional status in the context of profound changes to transnational humanitarianism after 1919.

Karel Hansa: the Czechoslovak Traveller in Syria and Lebanon in 1922 and His Work for the Benefit of Armenian Genocide Survivors

In 1922, the Czechoslovak traveller Karel Hansa visited the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, where he became acquainted with the lamentable living conditions and pitiful experiences of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide. He was deeply impressed by the work of Western humanitarian organizations, especially the American Near East Relief. This experience led Hansa to decide to write, lecture and try to organise humanitarian aid for Armenian orphans in Czechoslovakia, although his humanitarian efforts had only limited success.

WWI Armenian Refugees Census Data as A Source for Ottoman Armenian Population Numbers on the Eve of the Armenian Genocide

This paper aims to present and analyze data provided by censuses of the Ottoman Armenians from Van, Erzeroum and Bitlis provinces, who, fleeing the threat of massacre during WWI, found refuge in the territory of the Russian Empire, particularly in the Russian Transcaucasia. By comparing data on the Armenian refugees with information provided by other statistical sources, particularly the Armenian patriarchate and the Ottoman government, it is possible to enrich our knowledge of the numbers of Armenian population in Western Armenia and the Ottoman Empire in general on the eve of WWI and the Armenian Genocide. It is shown that the number of refugees is about 70% higher than the number of the Armenian population for the same areas before WWI mentioned in the official Ottoman statistics and corresponds approximately to the figures of the Armenian patriarchate. If account is taken that some people were already dead by the time the refugee censuses were carried out and also that the populations of some settlements within the administrative units in question were not evacuated at all but massacred, then the actual number of the Armenian population in these areas was even higher.

ECtHR Retroactive Jurisdiction and the Possibility of Compensations for the Armenian Properties Confiscated during and after the Armenian Genocide: A Brief Analysis

This article examines retroactive jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for the possibility to litigate compensations for the Armenian properties confiscated during and after the Armenian Genocide. The study considers ECtHR platform for the Armenian Genocide reparations, as ECtHR is the most effective human rights regional Court to compel Turkey to protect human rights and remedy for violations. The paper considers only European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) Article 1 Protocol 1 to avoid as much as possible politicizing this study. Considering the fact that a long time has passed since the confiscations, this study considers ratione temporis jurisdiction of the ECtHR.