Day: February 13, 2025

  • “The Century’s Greatest Robbery: The Confiscation of Armenian Properties in the Ottoman Empire”

    “The Century’s Greatest Robbery: The Confiscation of Armenian Properties in the Ottoman Empire”

    “The Heist of the Century: The Dispossession of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire”

    “The Heist of the Century” by Anahit Astoyan

    For centuries, Armenians have fought for their independence, the restoration of their statehood, the liberation of Armenia from the rule of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, and the unification of the Armenian people within the Armenian Highlands, their ancestral homeland, to rebuild a strong and sovereign nation.

    Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the “Armenian Question” became an integral part of the “Eastern Question.” To rid itself of this issue, the Ottoman Empire implemented various measures—systematically weakening and destroying Armenians economically and materially, subjecting them to massacres and extermination.
    Yet, despite repeated violence, plunder, and the confiscation of Armenian lands and wealth, Armenians held a prominent place in the Ottoman Empire’s economy.

    Until the early 20th century, numerous Armenian and foreign sources documented the economic strength of Armenians.

    In a memorandum submitted to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 12, 1917, by Poghos Nubar Pasha, head of the Armenian National Delegation, it was stated that Armenians controlled 60% of imported trade, 40% of exported trade, and more than 80% of domestic trade.
    In the six Armenian vilayets (Erzurum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Kharpert, and Sivas), Armenians dominated 69-86% of commerce, industry, and various crafts.
    All Armenian schools were under the full care of their communities, constituting more than 80% of the country’s total number of schools.

    A 1920 article in the New York-based newspaper “Call of Armenia” (“Kotsnak Hayastani”), titled “The Situation in Bursa”, noted that before 1915, 40 out of 50 silk production enterprises in Bursa and its surroundings were owned by Armenians.
    Other Armenian and foreign sources reveal that in Erzurum, two-thirds of the city’s 3,000 shops belonged to Armenians, or, as M. Vrochenko wrote in 1835:
    “The wealthiest merchants in the inner cities of Asia Minor are Armenians.”

    One of the rare studies on the material losses suffered by Armenians due to the 1915 Genocide is Anahit Astoyan’s “The Looting of the Century: The Dispossession of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1914-1923,” published in Yerevan in 2013.
    This work, of exceptional significance, compiles irrefutable historical facts, archival documents, testimonies from Armenian, Turkish, and foreign sources, and press reports, reaffirming the systematic looting and expropriation of Armenian property by the Turkish authorities and others.

    Here are a few excerpts from the book:

    “Among the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, Armenians stood out due to their numbers, resilience, and abilities, occupying a leading position. They controlled key sectors of the empire’s economy—crafts, trade, and industry—and were among its primary taxpayers.
    Yet, Armenians became victims of Ottoman authorities and the Muslim population.
    Through persecution and massacres, the Ottoman rulers succeeded in weakening the Armenian people, while the Muslim population, exploiting the situation, continued to exterminate Armenians by fire and sword, seizing their wealth.”

    (From the book “Militarism” by Italian historian and writer Guglielmo Ferrero).

    “British diplomat Pearce considered one of the main reasons behind the Hamidian massacres to be the fact that Armenians had managed to concentrate significant economic power in their hands and had played a pioneering role in the empire’s economic development.”

    On October 31, 1915, from Constantinople, the Italian Commissioner for the Protection of Italian Nationals in Turkey, Talayan, sent a telegram to Italy’s Foreign Minister, Sonnino:
    “The confiscated property of the deported Armenians is being handed over to the emptied state treasury, but more often, it simply enriches Turkish officials’ personal wealth.”

    Johannes Lepsius summarized the situation bluntly:
    “A robbery of this scale, unmatched in history, could only take place under Turkish rule.”

    In another work, he noted:
    “The deported Armenians had no choice but to leave behind everything—their homes, land, livestock, household and farming tools. The deportation was, in reality, the systematic seizure of Armenian wealth.”

    U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau described it even more starkly:
    “The true aim of the deportations was plunder and destruction; it was a new method of extermination. When the Ottoman authorities ordered these deportations, they knew they were signing the death warrant of an entire people. They understood it fully and did not even try to deny it in our discussions.”

    Fridtjof Nansen, in his book The Betrayed People, wrote about the Armenians’ financial losses:
    “The Turkish authorities not only displaced and massacred entire populations of desperate people but also stole all their assets, worth billions.”

    The material losses suffered by Armenians during the 1915-1923 Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turkish government were so vast that their full extent is almost impossible to calculate. The challenge is even greater because the precise value of Western Armenian wealth before the genocide remains unknown.

    One account from Karin (Erzurum) illustrates the scale of the looting:
    *”Only during the deportations did the staggering wealth of the Armenians of Karin become evident, shocking everyone. If even a fraction of this wealth had been used for self-defense, it could have changed the fate of Armenians in the region. The forced deportations merely exposed these hidden and often denied fortunes.

    Tens of thousands of sacks filled with valuables were stored in the Surp Asdvadzadzin Church, American institutions, and even in the homes of Turks once considered friends. Thousands of ox-carts carried away the essentials and precious belongings of Karin’s Armenians, along with vast amounts of gold—hidden on family members or within household items.

    This gold and property were plundered and distributed across the region, from Karin to Baberd, Erzincan, Kemakh, Akn, Arabkir, Malatya, Adıyaman, Urfa, Suruç, and all the way to Aleppo—traded, stolen, and handed over to Turks and Kurds as bribes or ransoms.

    As a result, hundreds of Armenian women, girls, and even some men and boys were able to escape and reach Urfa, Suruç, Aleppo, and Mosul. They survived the massacres and later testified to the atrocities—the systematic genocide committed with official approval by the Turkish government, using criminal police forces, bloodthirsty Turkish and Kurdish militias, and violent mobs.”*

    “Armenian wealth was seized not only by the Turkish government and local Turkish, Kurdish, and Circassian populations but also by foreign interests. Reports in the Armenian press following the Mudros Armistice confirm this.”

    Today, as the world faces critical political decisions, recognizing the Armenian Genocide and seeking reparations—including compensation for victims’ descendants and the Armenian nation—demands the preparation of a legal case against the Republic of Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman Empire, to restore rightful Armenian lands and property.

  • “The Wild Rose Embodies My Land”or”Spring Will Arrive in Armenian, Your Centuries Will Arrive in Armenian”

    “The Wild Rose Embodies My Land”or”Spring Will Arrive in Armenian, Your Centuries Will Arrive in Armenian”

    «“The Wild Rose Embodies My Land”
    or
    “Spring Will Arrive in Armenian, Your Centuries Will Arrive in Armenian”…»

    Պարույր Սևակ

    On this day, April 14, 1914, the Armenian poet Hamo Sahyan was born—a poet who glorified his homeland, his birthplace with its “dewy lips,” and sang the “Song of the Cliffs.”

    Deeply rooted in the culture of our ancestors, with an unshaken and pure spirit, this great Armenian poet has left us verses we often recall…

    The singer who fought for the “Nairian Green Poplar,” the symbol of our historical homeland—the Land of Nairi—wrote:

    You sway with grace in your emerald robes,
    Shading the path of my childhood’s green fields.
    Your call rings clear and loud
    In the deep gorges of my heart,
    O my far, far Nairian green poplar!

    Ah, you burn like a bonfire,
    A blaze of green flame!
    From afar, I embrace you
    With the longing fire of my heart.
    You fill the fields with your familiar rustling,
    O my far, far Nairian green poplar!

    My skylark-child plays in your shade,
    Singing your praise
    With lips like a budding rose.
    Bless his life, cradle him like a sleepless father,
    O my far, far Nairian green poplar!

    I am a singer of fire and steel;
    I desire nothing but your love.
    With a life as green as yours,
    I have fought for you.
    I shall die, so long as you may whisper free through the ages,
    O my far, far Nairian green poplar…

    “The wild rose is the symbol of my country.

    …It asks for nothing. Even in drought, it bears good fruit.
    It blooms multiple times—greens, whitens, yellows, reddens…
    Humble, giving, yet covered in thorns.

    A foreigner should recognize me by the wild rose bush, clinging to the rock.
    It has the richest scent, the most vibrant color, the sweetest fruit.
    Its roots run deep, strong, and firm—just try to uproot it…

    The wild rose does not know how healing it is, how beautiful, how essential.
    It does not know—and could never know—that it is Armenian,
    That it carries the spirit of our people, so deeply characteristic of our nation.

    It is we who must know this and show it to the world.

    The wild rose holds the same worth as Tumanyan’s rock…

    Through the essence of the wild rose, we must come to understand ourselves.”

    These are the words of Hamo Sahyan (from Susanna Babajanyan’s Facebook page)…

    “I am the eyes and ears of Mother Nature,
    The consciousness of her embodied form.”

    Thus, Sahyan described himself…

    In one of his letters, Paruyr Sevak called Sahyan “one of the finest versifiers of our poetry.”

    Here stands the proof…

    «Our language»

    Our language is our conscience,
    The sacred bread on our table,
    The righteous voice of our soul,
    The very taste upon our lips.

    Our language is the smoke of our home,
    The weight that holds balance in this world,
    The salt of our identity,
    The essence of who we are.

    Our language is our blood,
    More precious than blood itself,
    Our fragrance, our color,
    Our language is us—it is our existence.

    It must be our first
    And our last love,
    For what else in this world
    Belongs to us so completely?

    “Spring Arrives in Armenian”

    Spring arrives in Armenian,
    Your snows cry in Armenian,
    Your waters surge in Armenian.

    Your birds sing in Armenian,
    Your plows carve the earth in Armenian,
    Your letters endure in Armenian.

    Your sun rises in Armenian,
    Your trees blossom in Armenian,
    Your words burst forth in Armenian.

    Your seeds sprout in Armenian,
    Your hands mold and forge in Armenian,
    Your stones keep their silence in Armenian.

    Your valleys breathe in Armenian,
    Your martyrs rest in Armenian,
    Your sorrows ache in Armenian.

    No matter how much has been taken,
    You have remained Armenian,
    Your mountains still rise in Armenian.

    May God protect what still stands,
    And no matter what the future holds,
    Your snows will cry in Armenian,
    Your spring will arrive in Armenian,
    Your centuries will return in Armenian.