The Armenian Insurrection and the Great War

The Great Calamity that engulfed the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire has been narrowed down to a single question: Was the Government in Istanbul guilty of Genocide? The tragedy of the deaths of great numbers of Armenians, Turks and Kurds is inexplicable if confined solely to such a narrow viewpoint. It obscures important historical questions around the issues of instigation and betrayal that should be raised around such events. A political and historical context is required to explain what really happened to produce such a catastrophe. That context is the Great War and the Armenian Insurrection which it sparked off. The Armenian Insurrection is described by a leading figure in it, the Dashnak revolutionary, Dr. Pasdermadjian (Armen Garo), in writings long since forgotten. These put a very different complexion on the events of 1915. They describe a vital moment of decision when the very existence of a people was gambled in the struggle for a Great Armenia, carved out of Ottoman territories, in which the Armenians constituted a small minority. Included in this book is a commentary on the origin and development of "the Armenian Question" and its culmination and final resolution in the catastrophic events in Anatolia brought about by the Great War. The central thread running through the tragedy is one that represents a cautionary tale of betrayals. The book reveals the instrumental part played by the Liberal Anglosphere in foisting dangerous notions of historic destiny on the Armenians and then a fraudulent War that encouraged them toward destruction. It is a lesson that is as of much relevance today, in the same general region, as it was a century ago. When remembering the Armenians, a centenary after the Great Calamity, what should be sought is not only the truth, but the whole truth.