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Abstract
This article is set in the environs of the Eastern Anatolian town of Palu at the turn of the twentieth century. At the heart of this investigation is a puzzle: how did the local elite manage to maintain their power in the face of first Tanzimat (1839–1876) and then Hamidian centralization (1876–1908)? Based on the study of a range of primary sources, it appears that the local elites were able to ‘use’ the Armenian Question, and the fears of the central authorities, to their advantage. The elites increasingly presented themselves as ‘loyal Muslims’ in the face of supposedly ‘seditious Armenians’ to maintain control of the land. In addition to British Foreign Office documents, our article relies primarily on a voluminous legal file compiled from the catalogues of the Ottoman Archives, Istanbul composed by different segments of the region’s population.
Disclosure statement
The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.
Notes
1 Department of State Archives, the Ottoman Archives division (henceforth OA), ŞD 1482/7, 20 M 1319/9 May 1901. Havav was located near the city of Harput, attached to the district (kaza) of Palu, but was part of the province (vilayet) of Diyarbekir.
2 OA, ŞD 1482/7, 20 M 1319/9 May 1901.
3 OA, ŞD 1482/7, 20 M 1319/9 May 1901.
4 Nilay Özok-Gündoğan, ‘The Making of the Modern Ottoman State in the Kurdish Periphery: The Politics of Land and Taxation, 1840–1870’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, SUNY-Binghamton, 2011), pp.98–99; Nilay Özok-Gündoğan, The Kurdish Nobility in the Ottoman Empire: Loyalty, Autonomy and Privilege (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022), pp.110–11, 114–20.
5 OA, İ DH 1376, 26 Ra 1318/24 July 1900.
6 OA, İ DH 1365/25, 10 M 1317/21 May 1899.
7 Henry Algernon George Percy noted that the kaymakam of Palu was Laz. See Highlands of Asiatic Turkey (London: Edward Arnold, 1901), p.122. Mehmed Tevfik was the son of one Ali Rıza Bey, a civil service official (kaymakam) with also some affiliation with the army (OA, DH SAID 77/303, 12 Ş 1321-21 Te 1319/3 November 1903). Notwithstanding that the evidence at hand does not allow us to make sure, it looks likely that Mehmed Tevfik’s father was the Ali Rıza Bey who was born in 1842–43 in Lazistan. After working as a civil service official, mostly as a district governor, in the regions of the Black Sea (with his first post being in Batumi) and Eastern Anatolia, this Ali Rıza Bey became affiliated with the army and eventually was appointed to Baghdad. It is interesting to note that, in addition to Turkish, he spoke both Georgian and Russian (OA, DH SAID 10-893, 6 C 1303-28 Şu 1301/12 March 1886).
8 Prosopographic studies of Ottoman bureaucrats suggest that many of the vali (governor-generals) hailed from Albanian and Circassian families. One measure of this can be found in the number who spoke Albanian or Circassian, see Abdulhamid Kırmızı, Abdülhamid’in Valileri: Osmanlı Vilayet İdaresi, 1895–1908 [The Governors of Abdülhamid: Ottoman Provincial Administration, 1895–1908] (Istanbul: Klasik, 2007), pp.70–80.
9 David E. Gutman, The Politics of Armenian Migration to North America, 1885–1915: Sojourners, Smuggles and Dubious Citizens (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019), pp.10–14, 25, 34–36.
10 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), pp.91–92; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.63–67.
11 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), pp.101–04; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.9, 63–67.
12 Gülseren Duman Koç, ‘A Negotiation of Power during the Age of Reforms in the Ottoman Empire: Notables, Tribes and State in Muş (1820–1840)’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.57/2 (2021), pp.209–12.
13 The scholarship of Metin Atmaca, Uğur Bayraktar and Sabri Ateş has illuminated many aspects of the history of the Kurdish Emirates.
14 Metin Atmaca, ‘Resistance to Centralization in the Ottoman Periphery: the Kurdish Baban and Bohtan Emirates’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.55/4 (2019), pp.519–20.
15 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), p.174; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.114–25, 177–78, 210–12.
16 Murat Alanoğlu, ‘Osmanlı İdârî Sistemi İçerisinde Palu Hükûmeti’ [The Palu Government in the Ottoman Administrative System] (unpublished PhD dissertation, İstanbul Üniversitesi, 2017), pp.339–41; Özok-Gündoğan (2011), pp.180–82; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.177–84.
17 Sabri Ateş, The Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands: Making a Boundary, 1843–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp.80–81; Uğur Bayraktar, ‘Reconsidering Local versus Central: Empire, Notables, and Employment in Ottoman Albania and Kurdistan, 1835–1878’, International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol.52/4 (2020), p.12.
18 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), p.113; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.184–85.
19 Alanoğlu (2017), pp.340–41; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.192–201.
20 Alanoğlu (2017), p.345.
21 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), p.239; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.186–203, 192–94.
22 Gutman (2019), p.28. Although Havav and Palu were officially included within Diyarbekir province, they were geographically closer to Harput. It is reasonable that this observation might be true for the Palu region.
23 Gutman (2019), pp.28–29.
24 Chris Gratien, The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022), pp.101–02.
25 Mesrob Grayian, Palu: Pictures, Recollections, Poetry and Prose Taken From the Life of Palu [in Armenian] (Antilias: Catholicosate of Cilicia, 1965), p.38.
26 Jelle Verheij, ‘1890'larda taşradan İstanbul'a Ermeni göçü: Göçmen profili’ [The Armenian Immigration from the Provinces to Istanbul during the 1890s: A Migrant Profile] in Şekeryan, Ararat and Nivart Taşçı (eds), Yok Edilen Medeniyet: Geç Osmanlı ve Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemlerinde Gayrimüslim Varlığı (Istanbul: Mas Matbaacılık, 2015); Vazken Khatchig Davidian, ‘The Figure of the Bantoukhd Hamal of Constantinople: Late Nineteenth Century Representations of Migrant Workers from Ottoman Armenia’ (unpublished dissertation Birkbeck, University of London, 2019).
27 Gutman (2019), pp.12–14, 30; Grayian (1965), pp.426–28.
28 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), pp.118–19; Alanoğlu (2019), p.336; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.177–218, 242–79.
29 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), pp.116–31; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.186, 189, 192–94, 203–07, 211, 244–49, 252–62, 267–69.
30 Foreign Office (henceforth FO) 424/187, inclosure in no. 26, from Vice-Consul Hallward to Consul Cumberbatch, 17 March 1896.
31 Alanoğlu (2019), p.345.
32 Parliamentary Papers (henceforth PP), 1896, Further Correspondence, Turkey, no. 8, p.128.
33 Palu – Ottoman Constitution in Houshamadyan (website), citing Dikran S. Papazian, History of Havav Village of Palu (in Armenian) (Beirut: Mshag, 1960).
34 Palu – Local History in Houshamadyan (website), citing Papazian (1960), p.67.
35 Gutman (2019), pp.23–25, 34–42.
36 Sabri Ateş, ‘The End of Kurdish Autonomy: The Destruction of the Kurdish Emirates in the Ottoman Empire’, in Hamid Bozarslan, Cengiz Gunes and Veli Yadirgi (eds), The Cambridge History of the Kurds (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), p.93.
37 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), pp.116–20; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.159, 189.
38 Palu – Local History in Houshamadyan, citing Papazian (1960), pp.50–53.
39 For a detailed and incisive analysis of the Hamidiye Cavalry Regiments, see Janet Klein, The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011).
40 Mehmet Polatel, ‘The Complete Ruin of a District: The Sasun Massacre of 1894’, in Yaşar Tolga Cora, Dzovinar Derderian and Ali Sipahi (eds), The Ottoman East in the Nineteenth Century: Societies, Identities and Politics (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016), p.180; Owen Robert Miller, ‘Sasun 1894: Mountains, Missionaries and Massacres at the End of the Ottoman Empire’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 2015), p.2.
41 OA, DH ŞFR, 176/77, R-1311-05-13, 25 July 1895.
42 Arshag Tchobanian, Les massacres d’Arménie, témoignages des victimes [The Massacres of Armenia, the Testimonials of Victims] (Paris: Mercure de France, 1896), p.182.
43 Tchobanian (1896), pp.182, 183.
44 Edwin M. Bliss, Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities (NP: Edgewood Publishing, 1896), p.484.
45 See Jelle Verheij, Diyarbekir and Armenian Crisis of 1895 in Joost Jongerden and Jelle Verheij (eds), Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870–1915 (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
46 FO 424/184, inclosure 1 in no. 277, from Consul General Drummond Hay to Sir P. Currie, 14 October 1895.
47 See, for instance, The Standard, 18 October 1895; The Daily News, 18 October 1895, p.22; The Times, 22 October 1895; Bliss (1896), p.401, 443; and FO 424/184, no. 140, pp.95–103, from Sir P. Currie to Marquess of Salisbury, 17 October 1895.
48 FO 424/184, inclosure in no. 368, from Acting Consul Meshaka to Sir P. Currie, 18 October 1895.
49 Jelle Verheij, ‘Armenian Massacres of the Hamidian Period, 1894–1897’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam, 2022); Mehmet Polatel, ‘The Armenian Massacre of 1895 in Bitlis Town’, Kurdish Studies Vol.9/1 (2021), pp.59–76. For primary accounts of the Bitlis massacres, see letters from George P. Knapp, ABC 16.9.7 (Reel 701); the diary of Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Cobleigh Cole in MSS Royal M. Cole, Interior Turkey Reminiscences: Forty Years in Kourdistan (Armenia) (Amherst College Archives & Special Collections), pp.272–79.
50 See PP 1896/2, Vice-Consul Hampson to Consul Cumberbatch, p.147.
51 Frederick Davis Greene, The Armenian Crisis in Turkey (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1895), p.286.
52 George P. Knapp, ABC 16.9.7 (Reel 701), 14 January 1896, Letter to Mr. Peet.
53 FO 424/184, no. 175, reported by Said Pasha, the governor of Bitlis, on 25 October 1895.
54 FO 424/184, no. 172, from Sir P. Currie to the Marquess of Salisbury, 26 October 1895.
55 FO 424/184, no. 186, Mr. Herbert to the Marquess of Salisbury, 28 October 1895.
56 Over the past few years, much research has been conducted on the Armenian massacres. For research on specific massacres, see the work of Ümit Kurt, Jelle Verheij, Mehmet Polatel, Sinan Dinçer, Ali Sipahi, David Gaunt, Owen Robert Miller and Toygun Altıntaş.
57 FO 424/187, inclosure in no. 26, from Vice-Consul Hallward to Consul Cumberbatch, 17 March 1896.
58 Ibid.
59 Ibid.
60 Palu – Local History in Houshamadyan, citing Grayian (1965), pp.473–74.
61 FO 424/187, inclosure in no. 26, from Vice-Consul Hallward to Consul Cumberbatch, 17 March 1896. Les massacres d’Arménie, témoignages des victimes, pp.213–14.
62 FO 424/187, inclosure in no. 26, from Vice-Consul Hallward to Consul Cumberbatch, 17 March 1896.
63 OA, ŞD 1482/7, 20 M 1319/9 May 1901.
64 FO 424/187, inclosure in no. 92, from Vice-Consul Hallward to Sir P. Currie, 21 April 1896.
65 See, for instance, PP 1896, no. 8, pp.93, 118–21; 127–28.
66 FO 424/188, inclosure in no. 105, from Vice-Consul Hallward to Mr. Herbert, 21 July 1896; FO 424/187, no. 110, from Sir P. Currie to Marquess of Salisbury, 14 May 1896.
67 Özok-Gündoğan (2011), pp.118–19; Özok-Gündoğan (2022), pp.147–51.
68 PP 1896, no. 8, pp.118–21; FO 424/188, inclosure in no. 105, from Vice-Consul Hallward to Mr. Herbert, 21 July 1896.
69 Ufuk Gülsoy, Osmanlı Gayrimüslimlerin Askerlik Serüveni [The Adventure of Military Service among Non-Muslim Ottomans] (Istanbul: Simurg, 2000), pp.18–26.
70 Gülsoy (2000), p.20; George Finlay, History of the Greek Revolution (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and Sons, 1861), pp.22–23.
71 Garo Sasuni, Kürt Ulusal hareketleri ve 15.YYdan Günümüze Ermeni Kürt İlişkileri [Kurdish National Movements and Armenian-Kurdish Relations from the 1500s to Our Day] (Istanbul: Peri Yayınları), p.70.
72 Richard Wilbraham, Travels in Trans-Caucasian Provinces of Russia (London: John Murray, 1839), p.335.
73 James Dallaway, Constantinople, Ancient and Modern (London: T. Bensley, 1797), pp.387–88.
74 The Daily News, 30 July 1890.
75 OA, İ ZB, 1-40, 29 Ra 1314/7 September 1896.
76 OA, A MKT MHM, 636-15, 16 Ca 1313/4 November 1895.
77 OA, YA RES, 77-52, 17 C 1313/5 December 1895.
78 FO 424/178, inclosure 2 in no. 192, from Vice-Consul Hallward to Consul Graves, 31 July 1894.
79 W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction: An Essay toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880 (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1935), pp.700–01.
80 OA, ŞD 1482/7, 20. M 1319/9 May 1901.
81 W.E.B. Du Bois, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920), pp.29–30.