The Events of 1915 and Overlooked Details of Turkish Thesis

27 Mayıs 1915 tarihinde kabul edilen ve 1 Haziran 1915 yılında uygulanmaya başlanan Sevk ve İskan Kanunu (Tehcir Kanunu), Osmanlı Devleti’nin gerileme dönemi ile Birinci Dünya Savaşı sırasında özellikle Doğu Anadolu Bölgesinde ortaya çıkan Ermeni ayaklanmalarına yönelik bir tedbir olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Ermenilerin Osmanlı Devleti aleyhine dönemin büyük devletlerince kullanılmaları ise 1700’lü yıllara kadar geriye gitmektedir. Ermenilerin desteklenmesinin arkasında her bir devletin kendi çıkarları olmasının yanı sıra, devletin parçalanma döneminde azınlıkların kendi devletlerini kurma arzuları da ön plana çıkmıştır. Ermeni tehciri ile ilgili olarak ortaya atılan Ermeni tezlerinin karşısında Türk tezinin Türkçe yazına aktarılmış; ancak İngilizce yazında çok fazla yer bulamamış olmasından kaynaklı olarak çalışmanın amacı, 1915 olayları ile ilgili Türk tezinin de anlaşılmasına aracılık etmektir. Bu amaç çerçevesinde, Türk kamuoyu haricinde kabul görmeyen ya da daha kötüsü, hiç anılmayan ayrıntıların derlenmesine odaklanılmıştır. Ermeni tezini kabul eden ve Türk tezini görmezden gelen çevrelerin, ortaya konulan birtakım ayrıntılarla dikkatlerini çekmek de çalışmanın ikincil amacını oluşturmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, çalışmada ikincil kaynaklardan yararlanılarak bir derleme hazırlanmış, öncelikle Ermenilerin ne zamandan itibaren sorun çıkarmaya başladıklarına, Osmanlı Devleti’nde toplumsal yapı ile milliyetçiliğe, Birinci Dünya Savaşı sırasında yaşanılanlara değinilmiştir. Bununla birlikte, Ermenilerin geçmişte ve sözde soykırımın da günümüzde nasıl bir dış politika aracı olarak kullanıldığı vurgulanmıştır.

1915 Olayları ve Türk Tezinin Gözden Kaçan Ayrıntıları

The Relocation and Resettlement Law (the Tehcir Law), which was adopted on May 27, 1915 and started to be implemented on June 1, 1915, was considered as a precaution for the Armenian uprisings that emerged especially in the Eastern Anatolia Region during the decline of the Ottoman State and the First World War. The use of Armenians against the Ottoman State by the Great States of the period goes back to the 1700s. In addition to the fact that each state had its own interests behind the support of the Armenians, the desire of the minorities to establish their own state came to the fore during the fragmentation of the State. In the face of the Armenian theses put forward regarding the Armenian deportation, the Turkish thesis was located into Turkish literature; however, it has not found much place in the English literature. On account of this, the purpose of the study is to mediate the understanding of the Turkish thesis about the events of 1915. For this purpose, the focus is on compiling details that are not accepted, or worse, never mentioned, outside the Turkish public opinion. The secondary purpose of the study is to draw the attention of the circles that accept the Armenian thesis and ignore the Turkish thesis with some details. In this context, in the study, a compilation was prepared by making use of secondary sources, first of all, the time the Armenians started to create problems, the social structure and nationalism in the Ottoman State, and the experiences during the First World War were handled. Additionally, it has been emphasized that how the Armenians in the past and the so-called genocide in the present have been used as a foreign policy tool.

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