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WHAT HE SAID AND WHAT HE WROTE
Armenian Aims and Their Struggle in order to prove that the
1915-16 incidents were genocide, that is, that the Armenians were
subjected to genocide, not as a political group but as an ethnic or
religious group, most of the Armenian apologists either refer only
briefly or do not refer at all to the politically-aimed Armenian
activities including terrorism. Some of them assert that the
Ottoman administration was oppressive, and that the Armenians
engaged in political activities to defend themselves against it or to
gain their rights. They condone, as legitimate defense against a ‘big
and cruel power’, the way the Armenians resorted to terrorist
violence, as in the cases of the ‘komitaci’, hajduk, klepsos or
chetniks of the Christian peoples of the Balkans. Historically
speaking, the states do not start ethnic strives except in the case
of racist assaults on target groups. But, as I have explained earlier,
there was no racism in the Ottoman Empire. It is all the more
logical that the ethnic groups initiate struggles for independence in
disintegrating empires. That is what happened in the late Ottoman
period.
In order to reach their political objectives, the Armenians
embraced the Balkan liberation struggle model. Just like the
Balkan Christian peoples, they got organized and engaged in
political activities. This is, in fact, not so strange. In the aftermath
of the French Revolution, the idea of nation-state prevailed, and
independence struggles against the multi-religious and multi
national empires were considered legitimate. The Armenians
clearly engaged in this kind of activity with the blessing, and often
with the material support, of the Great Powers. There was no way,
some Armenians thought, that this kind of struggle could be
successful without resorting to violence. The use of violence would
have to comply with the rules of the law of war. However, the
Christian peoples of the empire almost always violated the law in
the course of their armed struggle. The Balkan-type use of violence
constituted a model in that the terrorist groups would attack the
civilian Muslim population to provoke them to retaliate. If the
Muslims retaliated or if the administration took military action,
there would be loud cries of persecution and calls on Europe to
intervene. The great Christian Powers would impose on the
Ottomans reforms favoring the Christian population. Those
reforms started with local administration rights and extended
towards autonomy. After some time, Ottoman sovereignty in
certain parts of the empire became nominal. With the first armed
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