Rus Diplomatik Belgelerinde 1915 Van Ayaklanması ve Fransa’nın Selanik Maslahatgüzarı’nın Raporu

Abstract

The outbreak of World War I described as such a marvelous opportunity for the Armenians, who desired to found a state of their own through the lands that they were going to break off from the Ottoman State. Armenians who had been acting together with the Entente Powers in this case: perpetuated their separatist activities in The Ottoman State, under the guidance of Russia by the approach of the World War I. The association of Russian- Armenian, which initiated before the First World War took its most intense form with the war. Russia on the other hand which desired to substantiate its goal of founding the Great Russian Empire by occupying Istanbul and Straits, perpetuated to back up Armenians in order to prompt them riot against The Ottoman State. Russia, which provoked the Armenians against The Ottoman State during the toughest times of The World War I; wished to entrap The Ottoman State on the fronts it battled. It did not disregard to back the Armenians up politically as well while supporting the Armenians militarily. It desired to initiate some political enterprises in order to conceal the Armenian rebellion and the massacres of the Armenians on Muslim community in Van, 1915, also with the intention of taking England and France as allies. One of these enterprises was to cover up the slaughter operations carried out by the Armenians in Van. Accordingly, Russia desired to establish an international declaration about Van incidents accompanied with England and France. However, at this exact moment a report came to the fore by the charge d’affaires of France in Thessaloniki that the incidents which took place in Van was initiated by the Armenians and The Ottoman State intervened to quell the rebellion. The mentioned report was such as to bring to a standstill the politics of Russia on Armenians. In this study, the initiatives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the declaration that Russia desires to publish about the Van events is going to be attempted to be revealed by the use of diplomatic correspondence of the Minis