The Events in the Ottoman Eastern Vilayets Before the Reform of 1913, Claims, Answers

The reform project of the Armenians, which was dictated to the Ottoman government in 1913 and implemented for a short time in the Eastern Anatolia and abrogated soon owing to the outbreak of the First World War, had many reasons. The first reason for these reform efforts was the 61th article of the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 including reformation for the Armenians living in the Eastern Anatolia. Throughout his 33 years of reign, Abdulhamid II did not put the reforms into practice as he thought this would lead to an independent state, instead he implemented his own projects. The second reason of the reform efforts in 1913 has emerged after the declaration of the Second Constitutional Monarchy. After the proclamation of the second constitution, the reforms began to be expected by Armenians, Greeks and Albanians as the principles of the equality and fraternity for all the citizens living in the Ottoman state was accepted and guaranteed by the written constitution. As the executives of the Committee of Union and Progress who held the constitutional administration and aimed many different applications for the Eastern Anatolia were faced with unexpected events, the reforms began to delay. Like the other ethnic groups, the Armenians in 1911-13 wanted the immediate implementation of the reforms for themselves by the government. They engaged in an intense propaganda in order to get support from all the elements of the Ottoman and European states. In this study, how the Armenian patriarchate and European public opinion propose the Armenian Question for the agenda again and the reality of their claims will be examined in the light of archival materials and the reports of the governors of the region