Gábor FODOR the Armenian Question As Reflected in Hungarian
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Eötvös Lóránd University Faculty of Humanities Gábor FODOR The Armenian Question as Reflected in Hungarian Sources, 1848‒1939 A Hungarian Perspective on the History of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and 20th Centuries Theses of the Doctoral Dissertation Doctoral School of History Head of the Doctoral School: Dr Gábor Erdődy, DSc, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences PhD program in the history of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Hungary, and the Republic of Turkey Head of Program: Dr Géza Dávid, DSc Supervisor: Dr Géza Dávid, DSc Budapest and Istanbul, 2018 Theses I. Background and aims of the research In recent decades the Armenian Question and the tragedy that befell the Armenians during World War I have become major areas of historical research. The events of the period, which until the 1950s had been known only from Franz Werfel’s novel, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, drew greater attention after the adoption, in 1948, of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Although the first scholarly works were published at that time, it was only in the 1970‒80s that research on the topic gathered real momentum, doing so mostly for political reasons. On the one hand, in Soviet-controlled Armenia commemorations of World War I were permitted for the first time in 1965, whereafter the Soviet leadership began to support the territorial demands of the Armenians against Turkey and their efforts to secure a revision of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). The attention of international public opinion and historical researchers was drawn to the topic following the attacks of the Armenian terror organisations (ASALA, JCOAG) on Turkish diplomats, resulting in more detailed research and analysis. In response to works by Western authors describing the events of World War I as genocide, Turkish authors – enjoying substantial support from the state – began publishing works on a similar theme that portrayed the tragedy of the Armenians as part of a program of forced expulsion conducted in line with customary Ottoman practice and explained by the treachery of the empire’s Armenian population. Ever since then, an ideological struggle has been underway between “Western” and “Turkish” interpretations of events, although it should be mentioned that there are several Western researchers who support the Turkish position as well as some Turkish researchers who support the Western view. At the same time, on this matter Turkey – as an ally of the West – could count on the support of the United States and the European countries until the 1990s. In the decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, many of the country’s former allies (as well as its adversaries) legally recognised the events of 1915-1917 as genocide. Meanwhile, in Hungary this aspect of World War I received scant attention, although in the period leading up to World War II several interesting works on the subject were published by Attila Orbók, Eghia Hovhannesian, János Bodurian and Dénes Korbuly. After many decades of silence, research on the topic expanded after the political changes of 1989/90, and this trend has strengthened in recent years, thanks in large part to the work of such distinguished researchers and writers as Kornél Nagy, Mihály Dobrovits, Bálint Kovács, Péter Kránitz, Éva Merenics, Piroska Krajcsír, Anna Birkás and István Flesch (although few of these authors made use of sources in Hungarian). The dissertation starts from the premise that, although the so-called Armenian Question and the tragedy of the Armenians in World War I have been at the forefront – and in the crossfire – of historical research, the relevant Hungarian sources have never been explored fully. Thus, two goals were defined: 1. to present, in summary fashion, the evolution of the Armenian Question based on the international scholarly literature while also providing the background information necessary for an understanding of the Hungarian sources; 2. to explore and present the sources in Hungarian that arose in the period 1848‒1939 and which relate to the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, while confirming the information gleaned through other sources where possible. A Hungarian perspective may, in addition, be of interest, in view of the historical co-existence (Hungarians living side by side with both Turks and Armenians), which led Hungarian public opinion – and the shapers of public opinion – to feel strong sympathy both towards the Armenians and towards the Turks. While the Hungarian sources do not, and cannot, give the kind of comprehensive picture of events offered by the German, American, Austrian, and French sources (or those of the other major powers), the former can be used to supplement and confirm – or perhaps refute – the latter, thereby contributing to the international discourse on this issue. Finally, it should be underlined that the dissertation seeks to step outside the polarised framework of genocide versus forced expulsion. For this reason and in line with usage in the post-WWI Hungarian sources, the events are referred to as the massacres of Armenians, whereby the aim is not to relativize or deny the suffering of the Armenian population but – in place of the legal battle over words – to concentrate on the causes and consequences identifiable in the sources. II. Research topic and methodology, structure of the dissertation The research proceeded from the assumption that numerous Hungarian politicians, soldiers, travellers, churchmen, adventurers and ordinary members of the public visited or temporarily resided in the Ottoman Empire between the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution (and war of liberation) of 1848‒1849 and World War II, and that in line with the customs of the period these individuals have left us diaries, travelogues and memoirs of their experiences. They also wrote letters, newspaper articles and sometimes even secret reports detailing their observations and touching upon the issue under investigation. All these sources offer excellent opportunities to gain insights into the everyday functioning of the empire and the situation of its religious minorities. Research of the documents was undertaken steadily over a period of years, with each source leading to further sources. Most of the diaries, memoirs and travelogues have been published, and so the easier part of the research work was accessing the various sources and selecting those parts that relate to the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire. Much of the work in this field took place in the National Széchényi Library (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, OSZK) or in its Manuscript Collection (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Kézirattára, OSZKK). A more difficult task was research on the sources and material stemming from Hungarians working for foreign governments: the secret correspondence of Ármin Vámbéry was found among the Foreign Office records at the UK National Archives, while the reports of Hungarian clerics in World War I were discovered at the Archives of the Kalocsa Archdiocese (Kalocsai Főegyházmegyei Levéltár, KFL) and at the Austrian State Archives (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, ÖstA HHStA); the papers and records of the Hungarian Scientific Institute in Constantinople were mostly found at the Hungarian National Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár, MNL MOL), which is also the location of the post-WWI Hungarian diplomatic correspondence. In addition, I also found relevant material at the Hungarian Military Archives (Hadtörténeti Levéltár, HL), in the manuscript collection of ELTE University Library and Archive (ELTE Egyetemi Könyvtár és Levéltár Kézirattára), at the Library of the Hungarian Parliament (Országgyűlési Könyvtár), and in a private collection. Finally, but importantly, I also undertook research at the Ottoman Archives (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, BOA) and Republican Archives (Basbakanlik Cumhuriyet Arsivi, BCA) of the Turkish Prime Minister’s Office, where I discovered documents relating to the Hungarian travellers and to several aspects of the Armenian Question that impacted on Turkish‒Hungarian relations. A basic criterion when selecting the sources was that they should stem from Hungarian authors and should be – where possible – in Hungarian; exceptions were made in only a few cases. The aim was to achieve the inclusion in the international discourse of Hungarian sources that have hitherto been overlooked by scholars. The dissertation comprises eight chapters and twenty-three subchapters. The first (introductory) chapter presents the historiography of the Armenian Question with a short summary of Hungarian and international research on the topic. Chapter 2 examines the general situation of minorities in the Ottoman Empire, focussing upon the case of the Armenians. Chapter 3 comprises five subchapters presenting – by means of the contemporary Hungarian descriptive accounts – the Armenian church, Armenian society, the rural Armenian population, the place of the Armenians in Ottoman-Turkish society, and the Armenian political movement. Chapter 4 investigates 19th-century events in the Ottoman Empire, the emergence of the Armenian Question, the peace negotiations following the 1877‒78 Russo- Ottoman War, and the formation of the Armenian revolutionary organisations. The bloody events and first anti-Armenian pogroms of the 1890s are also presented in this chapter, by way of Ármin Vámbéry’s reports. The next chapter (Chapter 5) examines the political movement of the Young Turks, the constitutional revolution of 1908, the “counter- revolution”, the Adana Incident, and finally the policies of the Turkish and Armenian political parties prior to WWI. Chapter 6 examines more broadly Turkey’s entry into WWI as well as Hungarian reports on the massacres of Armenians. Chapter 7 presents the general Turkish political situation in the post-WWI period, the aftershocks of the Armenian massacres, and the residual traces of Armenian influence within the Republic of Turkey. The final chapter (Chapter 8) summarises the main findings of the dissertation and puts forward a conclusion. III. Major results In the first half of the dissertation my aim was to present the historical context of the Armenian Question.