Opposed to Tsar and Sultan
Armenian Terrorism before the First World War
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The Armenians lived for centuries without statehood. In the Ottoman Empire, they were threatened by repression. The parties Hunchak and Dashnaktsutyun, founded at end of the 19th century, fought for more autonomous rights up to independence. Terrorism was seen by both as a legitimate means to destabilize the imperial order and to attract the attention of the major European powers to their struggle. However, their violent actions did not have the desired effect initially. The great powers’ involvement in solving the “Armenian question” remained half-hearted. The Ottoman Empire’s leadership responded by intensifying repression. Russia’s autocracy also perceived a threat in the emerging national consciousness of its Armenian population and curbed their rights.
(Osteuropa 4/2016, pp. 49–62)