ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

Great-Power Politics and the Armenian Question
The Mongols were, in their day, the great power. In 1236,
they laid waste to Ani, and in 1379 they invaded eastern
Anatolia once again under Timur-lenk. The plight of the
Armenian population was so desperate that the Catholi-
cosate had to be moved to Echmiadzin. Sis, in southern
Anatolia was the last Armenian stronghold. It was conquered
by the Mamluks in 1375.
After that date, the religious and cultural activities of the
Armenians continued to be of significance, but as far as
power or territory were concerned, they were out of the
historical picture.
To understand how an Armenian Question could
nevertheless become a factor in great-power politics, we
must consider the expansionist aspirations of Czarist
Russia and the chess moves connected with those aspirations.
The Armenians were merely a pawn in an ugly
chess game, and the Russians, whether in Moscow or St.
Petersburg, often found it useful to sacrifice that pawn.
The speed and determination with which Russia won Persian
and Turkish territory is breathtaking. They conquered
the southern part o f central Asia, northern Persia,
the Caucasus, the Crimea, and eventually won access to
the Balkans. A quick look at these events makes the importance
of an Armenian Question clear, especially if we
remember what Russia's primary goal has always been:
the conquest of the Dardanelles.
1774 was the prelude to the dismantling of the Ottoman
Empire. The Treaty of Karlowitz, sixty-five years
earlier, had already been bad enough for the Turks,
but now in the Treaty of Kiichiik Kaynarca, the Ottoman
Empire lost so much of its prestige that only
the Austrians and the Russians were left with any
say in the Balkans. In the East, it was the Russians
all alone.
Eastern Anatolia had been Ottoman since 1515. Sultan
Murad III. had conquered Georgia in 1578. The
Turks' only rivals in the East had been the Persians.
In 1639, the Ottomans signed the Treaty o f Kasr-i
§irin with the Safavids, and in spite o f the wars that
followed, the Turkish-Iranian border still follows
the line determined in 1639.
All the Turkish-Persian wars affected Armenian territory,
but "Armenian" is to be understood here as
refering to the historical province. It has nothing to
do with any official authority of the Haik people,
who lived together with other peoples and tribes in
eastern Anatolia and the surrounding area. At the
time o f the Treaty of Kasr-i §irin, 1639, the Crimea
was Ottoman as was Georgia and the entire coastline
of the Black Sea. The Black Sea was a Turkish-
Ottoman inland sea.
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Erivan had belonged to the Persians since 1639. It
was an almost exclusively Islamic city.
Russia's first step toward the Caucasus came in
1556 with the conquest of Astrakhan.
Transcaucasia nominally belonged to the Persians,
but Azerbaijan was under de facto Ottoman control.
Armenians - or more accurately, Haik - were only
mentioned once during this period. That was when
Shah Abbas moved the Armenians from Erivan and
Julfa into the interior of Persia in 1603-1604.
Mehmed the Conqueror had founded the Patriarchate
of Istanbul in 1461. All the Armenians and
Monophysites of the Empire were subject to the patriarchs
of Istanbul. The Catholicosates o f Sis and
Echmiadzin, which was at that time Persian, had
absolutely no power in the Ottoman Empire.
The Russians became involved in the Turkish-Per-
sian war of 1723-1727 and sent troops to the
Caspian Sea. The Khanate of Kuba, north of Baku,
fell under Russian influence.
In 1768, a Russian-Turkish war broke out in the
wake of the events in Poland. The Ottoman army
was defeated and the Treaty of Kiichiik Kaynarca
was signed in 1774. The Russians now advanced
into the Caucasus for the first time. They made it as
far as Kutaisi and Ahiska by way of Poti. In other
words, they were almost to the present-day border
between Turkey and the Soviet Union.
The Imperial Russian Embassy complex in Istanbul-§i§hane.
From the bel etage of the embassy, the Russians have a magnificent
view of the Straits. Russian politics, which have always betrayed
a yearning for the "warm waters", have not changed any
more than Russian support for the Armenian terrorists, which
has a bloody tradition dating back to the days of the Czars.