Tragedy and Survival of the Armenian Church - Assignment Example

 Tragedy and Survival of the Armenian Church The History of the Armenian Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was tightly associated with the political situation in the country. Since the fourteenth century Armenia was divided into Eastern and Western Armenia, the first being under the rule of Persia and the second under the Turkish rule. However, at the beginning of the nineteenth century Russia in its Asian campaign captured vast regions of Armenian territories including the plain of Ayrarat with Yerevan and Echmiadzin. This brought to the clash between Russia and Ottoman Empire. After a series of battles Russia got possession over vast territories of Turkish Armenia in 1978. Thus in the nineteenth century the country was divided by Russia and Turkey. The years under Russia and Turkey were marked with genocide and oppression. Difficult was the life of the Armenians under the Turkish rule. They were treated as servants of the Ottoman Empire, suffered constant attacks of the Muslim bands and were deprived of the basic human rights. The interference of the Western Powers trying to protect the Christian nation did not help much, all the edicts promulgated by Sultan being not supported by any concrete measures. Little effect was produced by international San Stefano and Berlin treaties of 1978. The situation became only harder, so that in 1890 the Armenians organized the forces of their own, those being political parties Clarion and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. However, this only served as a pretext for massive massacres organized by Sultan Abduhamid. The massacres of 1894-1895 in the province of Mush brought away lives of many Armenians, and nearly 100,000 took refuge in Russian Armenia, The Balkans and Americas. In 1909 the massacre in Adana again brought away lives of the Armenians. The tyrannical rule of Sultan Abduhamid was overthrown in 1908. The Young Turks, the party that came to power, were largely assisted by the Armenian people, who hoped to see better times with the new regime. Their hopes were not to come to life. The Young Turks also had a dream, that being of the creation of monolithic Turkish Empire. They wanted their nation to be pure from alien cultures and traditions. That policy was called pan-Turanism. The Young Turks understood that Armenians would resist turkization. So it was decided to put an end to the Armenian Question destroying or deporting all the Armenians from Western Armenia. However, Armenian people were not aware of those plans and were preparing a program of reforms that was to give them a kind of internationally supervised autonomy. Yet, as the European governors, who were to assist the Armenians to carry out the scheme, arrived in Turkish Armenia, the First World War broke out. The Young Turks had their hands free to start implementing their plans of the extermination of the Armenian people. The wholesale massacre in 1915-1916 is considered “the blackest page” in the modern history. It took away more than one million of lives. Turkish soldiers were searching for Armenians, grown-ups and children, male and female, young and old, everywhere. Men were shot and executed at once. Women and children were deported to the new place of living. They had to go on foot, without food and water, humiliated and beaten by Turkish soldiers. As a result most of them died on the road, the caravan route being lined with their corpse. After the massacre only one million out of 2,200,000 of Armenians remained alive. This remained million of Armenians found shelter in Russian Armenia, Syria and Lebanon, Americas and Europe. Only in 1918-1920 the long-lasting dream of the Armenians realized and they got independence. Yet in 1920 under the onslaught of the Turkish army under the command of Mustafa Kemal the Armenian independent Republic was forced to sign a treaty of peace with Turkey and was transformed into the Soviet Republic of Armenia, while people from the Western part of the country, protected and abandoned by the French Forces, dispersed all over the world. Thus at the beginning of the twentieth century there were two distinct spheres of the Armenian people: a) the Soviet Armenia and b) Diasporas living in many countries of the world. Though easier, yet not as happy as they would have dreamt of, was the life of the Armenian people in Russian Armenia. As Armenian territories were freed from Persia, and then Turkey, people experienced years of revival. However, soon tsarist Russia demonstrated that their policy in the country would be imperialistic. The Armenian Church was under the supervision of the Russian authorities, which was fixed by the regulation of 1826 called Polojenye. This regulation, consisting of ten chapters and 141 articles, defined the procedures of the administration of the Armenian Church Affairs by the Russian State. There were two major points of criticism of Polojenye: 1) it reduced the participation of the laity, which occupied a considerable place in the administration of the Armenian Church; 2) it allowed the State interference in Church Affairs during the election of the Head of the Church, and in everyday work of the Catholicosate in Echmiadzin. The Polojenye lost its power with the downfall of the tsarist Russia. The integrating policy of the Tsarist Russia brought new troubles. An official edict of 1884 demanded russification of schools, which were organized by the Armenian Church to support the national religious, linguistic and cultural identity. In 1903 a new edict required the confiscation of all the church properties. The broad campaign organized by the Catholics Mkrtich Khrimian in Russian Armenia and the Diaspora in the European countries, as well as the general resistance in Russian Armenia made Russia refuse this policy. The Church of Armenia took immediate part in the life of the people, being a centre of education and national spirit. However, by the First World War there remained only two of five major centers of the Armenian Church in the nineteenth century – the Catholicosate of Echmiadzin (the Mother See) in Russian Armenia and the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Catholicosate of Aghatamar, was wiped away wholly during the massacres of 19151. The destiny of Church was tightly intertwined with the fate of the nation and that was a tragic one. However, the Armenia people survived. They settled all over the world and built new churches and organized new religious organizations that served as the tool of mutual support and assistance between the scattered Armenians, that were the stronghold of the nation’s identity and integrity. Read More