Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide - Bogosian Eric - Страница 28

Wilson defined “a people” as the ethnic group constituting the majority in a region, without taking into account that “ethnicity” was likely to come down to religion—Muslim or Christian. Such a vague definition only guaranteed more ethnic cleansing. The Ottoman government wanted to be very sure that the Great Powers could not claim a Christian “majority” anywhere in Anatolia. Talat, having assumed the role of of Grand Vizier in February 1917, had made it clear through his directives that no vilayet should be left with more than ten percent non-Muslim population. This program of Turkification had been an underlying rationale for the genocide. But now, each side bent to the task of killing as many from the opposing side as possible. This was true of both Muslims and Christians.

In March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded, formalizing Russia’s exit from the war. As part of the treaty, the new Soviet government conceded the key cities of Ardahan, Kars, and Batumi to the Ottomans. This freed up Russian troops to deal with the civil war at home in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.24 Many sectors that Russia had conceded to the Turks lay within the newly established Georgian and Armenian states. Worse, the Russians committed to “utilize every available means to disperse and destroy the Armenian bands operating in Russia and the occupied provinces of Turkey.”25

Moving eastward, with Russian troops abandoning the region, the Ottoman army took Erzurum on March 11. The Armenians, left with no options, retreated. As they moved, so did the bloody fighting. Twelve hundred Armenian soldiers were attempting to hold off over a hundred thousand Turkish soldiers. After receiving a severe wound to his right arm, Tehlirian was removed from the ranks of fighters in order to seek hospitalization behind the lines in Yerevan. Surrounded by the chaos of refugees streaming out of the territory, Tehlirian’s train once again passed through Kars, and by noon of his day’s long journey, the young soldier had returned to Alexandropol in Armenia. Three years earlier he had passed this way en route to the front. Crowds of fearful relatives searching frantically for lost family members had replaced the cheering throngs applauding the troop transport trains heading for the front. By evening Tehlirian was back in Tiflis, Georgia, where he was sent to Hospital Number Four.

Upon his release from the hospital Tehlirian found his favorite coffeehouses deserted. The massive deportations and killings back in Turkey were no longer a secret, and a depressing pall hung over the Armenian quarter of the city. Every Armenian in Tiflis had relatives who had vanished without a trace. Many expats hailed from towns and villages that no longer existed. Nishan Tatigian, Anahid’s father, sought out Tehlirian and brought the quiet young man home to the only refuge that remained for him.

Three years had passed since Tehlirian had said farewell to Anahid. In his usual earnest style, his autobiography recounts how surprised he was to find the girl had grown into a young woman of great beauty. Soghomon and Anahid shared their worries about her brother in the army and what had happened to friends back home. They dared to discuss the notorious labor battalions and the cold-blooded executions of the Armenian soldiers in the Ottoman army. But their relationship had changed. They were no longer teenagers. Tehlirian was a seasoned soldier now, potentially dangerous, not to be trusted. Anahid kept her distance.

On April 22, 1918, Transcaucasia was declared an independent state. But the fragile coalition of the three new “nations,” Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, was already dissolving as each one tended to its own needs. The Turkish army took advantage of this instability to advance deep into the disputed Armenian territory. Then, on April 24, 1918, Akaki Ivanovich Chkhenkeli, the Georgian premier-designate of the Transcaucasian Federation, surrendered Kars to the Ottomans.

Within weeks, Turkish forces surged forward, invading the new democratic Republic of Armenia, no longer protected by any kind of Transcaucasian alliance or by the tsar’s army. The Georgians brokered a deal with the Germans, hoping for their support against the looming threat of the new Soviet Republic. At the same time, Azeris intent on connecting with their Turkish Muslim brothers attacked Armenians in Baku. All efforts to save an independent Armenia came to naught. The little nation was doomed.

Furious and unfettered, Armenian troops roamed the countryside, sporadically attacking both Turkish troops and Muslim civilians. The Ottoman government protested publicly. Tehlirian claims that reports of atrocities were “baseless,” stating, “Supposedly Turks and mosques were burned.” The Turkish command began to use Armenian-Kurdish clashes which it was encouraging (and in which both Armenians and Kurds were killed) as grounds for complaint against Armenian actions. Tehlirian gives an example: “Supposedly, we on January 12 burned the Turkish village of Zeggiz 18 kilometers to the southeast of Erznga. Supposedly, we raped the women of the Turkish villages of Kesg southeast of Ardas, and massacred the men; supposedly, after the Russian troops of Erznga withdrew, partial massacres were conducted in the region.” He admits that Turkish troops were killed but insists that no violence against civilians occurred.26 The atrocities committed by these troops were nevertheless recorded and publicized. They would become an important weapon in the denialists’ arsenal of counter-history to the genocide.

By mid-May 1918, Ottoman troops had entered Alexandropol, seventy-five miles from the Armenian capital of Yerevan. In a final, hopeless battle against the Turkish nationalists, the Armenians drew a line in the sand at Karakilisa, Bash Abaran, and Sardarabad, managing to stop the advance only twenty or so miles from the capital city. Invasion was imminent.

Back on his feet, Tehlirian ran into friends who had served as volunteer fighters just as he had. The war-wracked veterans harbored feelings of bitterness and resignation. Some Armenian fighters in Georgia wanted to fight on, to head for Baku as the British and Turkish forces converged on the oil city. But as the Turkish armies moved northward through Armenian territory, it became clear that a battle on Muslim territory could not be won.

Tehlirian and Anahid’s family, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the war front, migrated northward and deeper into Russian territory along the Black Sea coast. Along the way, Tehlirian ran into the grizzled Armenian General Torkum (Arsen Arshag Harutiwn Nakashian, 1878–1953), who urged him to travel to London, where Armenian fighters were gathering to join the still active British and French armies to attack the Turkish Mediterranean littoral. Tehlirian decided against joining these men, claiming in his autobiography that he replied, “Colonel, forgive me, but I have no capacity for diplomatic activities. This is not my work.”27 Perhaps he was also prescient, as the French-Armenian invasions of Anatolia would lead to disaster.

Now that he was reasonably healthy, Tehlirian needed to come to some kind of understanding with his beloved, Anahid. Was it time to propose marriage, break off from the fighting and settle down? Have children? Wasn’t the war almost over? Hadn’t the Armenians been soundly defeated? But what about his mother, his little brother Avedis? Tehlirian knew he could never settle into a normal life as long as their faces haunted him. Until he made some kind of peace with his guilt over “abandoning” his family, he could never start one of his own.

On October 30, 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed and World War I officially ended for Turkey. Constantinople, now occupied by British and French forces, became a safe haven for the likes of Tehlirian, a former enemy combatant. In the Ottoman capital city, the British were arresting members of the CUP in preparation for war crimes tribunals. The time seemed right for Tehlirian to head for Constantinople to see if he could discover what had happened to his mother, his sisters-in-law, and his younger brother.