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Neonatology on the Web: Brandt 1895 neonatology.org | CenterWatch Clinical Research Profile (4504) Trial #1895, Central... centerwatch.com | Robert Bike, Class of 1895, Freeport High School, Freeport, Illinois bibleplants.com | The 1895 Society doylestownhospital.org |
The Second Zeitun Resistance (Armenian: Զեյթունի երկրորդ գոյամարտը) took place in the winter of 1895-1896, during the Hamidian massacres.[2] The Armenians of Zeitun, fearing the prospect of massacre, took up arms to defend themselves from Ottoman troops.[3]
[edit] BackgroundThe Armenians of Zeitun had historically enjoyed a period of autonomy in the Ottoman Empire. The government had attempted to bring them under more tight control by settling Muslims in the villages around Zeitun and inciting them against the Armenians in the first half of the nineteenth century.[4] This strategy proved ineffective and in the summer of 1862 the Ottomans decided to send a 12,000-man military force to Zeitun to assert government control. The force was held at bay by the Armenians and, through French mediation, the conflict was brought to a close. The Ottoman government, however, was upset with the results of the mediation. In the following years, it once more resolved to bring the area under control by provoking the Zeitun's Armenians: newly stationed governments troops harassed the population and frequent calls for their massacre were issued by a number of Turks.[5] Between the years 1891 and 1895, Hunchak activists toured various regions of Cilicia and Zeitun to encourage resistance, and established new branches of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party. The ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, wished to eliminate the only stronghold of Armenian autonomy during the Armenian massacres of 1895-1896.[2] As the governor of the province was removed and replaced by Avni Bey, a man who held a deep-seated hatred for Armenians, orders were given on October 24, 1895 by Ottoman authorities to use the troops to begin razing several of the Armenians villages near Zeitun.[6] [edit] ResistanceThe Armenian inhabitants of Zeitun, under the leadership of the Hunchakian Party, heard of the ongoing massacres in nearby regions, and thus started to prepare themselves for an armed resistance. Between 1,500 to 6,000 men, armed with flintlock guns and Martini-Henry rifles, were sent to the battlefield and sixteen Armenians were selected to head an administrative body during the siege.[1] With this, the Ottoman military commander sent a wire to Abdul Hamid and told him that the Armenians had started an uprising and were proceeding to massacre Muslims.[7] The Ottoman forces possessed an overwhelming numerical and technological advantage: the entire force consisted of 24 battalions (20,000 troops), twelve cannons, 8,000 men from the Zeibek division from Smyrna, and 30,000 Kurdish and Circassian irregulars.[7] The Armenians started by conquering the nearby Turkish garrison, taking 600 Turkish soldiers and officers as prisoners and placing them under the surveillance of Armenian women.[1] The prisoners tried to flee, but failed and were killed. Ottoman troops were repeatedly defeated in their engagements with the Armenian militia. During the negotiations which later settled the conflict, a Turkish military commanders expressed his admiration to Aghasi, one of the leaders of the resistance, for the Armenians' accurate marksmanship and their determination to resist.[8] With the intervention of the six major European powers, the Armenians of Zeitun ended the resistance. The Hunchak activists were allowed to go into exile, the tax burden was eased, and a Christian sub-governor was appointed. Due to the freezing temperatures, thousands of Turks died and many others died in hospitals from wounds sustained in battle.[7] The figures on casualties are heavily conflicting but all agree that the Ottoman forces suffered greatly. The British Consulate reported on January 6, 1896 that "at least 5,000 have been killed though common report swells the number to 10,000."[9] The Austrian Consulate based in Aleppo stated that the Armenians killed 1,300 Turks in the final battle alone.[9] The British consul estimated that combat and non-combat fatalities among all Armenians neared the figure of 6,000.[9] Pierre Quillard, a French writer, estimated that Ottoman losses totaled no less than 20,000 men.[1] Armenians lived peacefully until 1915, with the outbreak of the war and the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.[2] [edit] See also[edit] Notes
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