no muslim left alive not a single one historical armenian barbarism in article apr sol ctr columbia edu halsall murray fordham edu paul halsall writes simple question serdar anytime if the armenians killed so many turks in eastern anatolia how come the area today is full of turks and muslim kurds and not full of armenians suffering from a severe case of myopia no muslim left alive not a single one leading the first armenian units who crossed the ottoman border in the company of the russian invaders was the former ottoman parliamentary representative for erzurum karekin pastirmaciyan who assumed the revolutionary name armen garo another former ottoman parliamentarian hamparsum boyaciyan led the armenian guerrilla forces who ravaged turkish villages behind the lines under the nickname murad especially ordering that kill turks and kurds wherever you find them and in whatever circumstances you find them turkish children also should be killed as they form a danger to the armenian nation hamparsum boyadjian m varandian history of the dashnaktsutiun p another former member of parliament papazyan led the armenian guerrilla forces that ravaged the areas of van bitlis and mush in march the russian forces began to move toward van immediately in april the armenians of van began a revolt massacring all the turks in the vicinity so as to make possible its quick and easy conquest by russians little wonder that czar nicholas ii sent a telegram of thanks to the armenian revolutionary committee of van in april thanking it for its services to russia the armenian newspaper gochnak published in the united states also proudly reported in may that only turks remained in van the rest having been slaughtered source hovannisian richard g armenia on the road to independence university of california press berkeley and los angeles p the addition of the kars and batum oblasts to the empire increased the area of transcaucasia to over square miles the estimated population of the entire region in was of whom percent were armenian percent georgian and percent moslem of the latter group were tatars paradoxically barely one third of transcaucasia s armenians lived in the erevan guberniia where the christians constituted a majority in only three of the seven uezds erevan uezd the administrative center of the province had only armenians as compared to moslems by the time of the russian census of however the armenians had established a scant majority percent in the guberniia it had risen by to percent or of the inhabitants this impressive change in the province s ethnic character notwithstanding there was on the eve of the creation of the armenian republic a solid block of tartars who continued to dominate the southern districts from the outskirts of ereven to the border of persia see also map historic armenia and map administrative subdivisions of transcaucasia in percent turk we closed the roads and mountain passes that might serve as ways of escape for the tartars and then proceeded in the work of extermination our troops surrounded village after village little resistance was offered our artillery knocked the huts into heaps of stone and dust and when the villages became untenable and inhabitants fled from them into fields bullets and bayonets completed the work some of the tartars escaped of course they found refuge in the mountains or succeeded in crossing the border into turkey the rest were killed and so it is that the whole length of the borderland of russian armenia from nakhitchevan to akhalkalaki from the hot plains of ararat to the cold mountain plateau of the north were dotted with mute mournful ruins of tartar villages they are quiet now those villages except for howling of wolves and jackals that visit them to paw over the scattered bones of the dead ohanus appressian men are like that p source stanford j shaw on armenian collaboration with invading russian armies in history of the ottoman empire and modern turkey volume ii reform revolution republic the rise of modern turkey london cambridge university press pp in april dashnaks from russian armenia organized a revolt in the city of van whose armenians comprised percent of the population closest to an armenian majority of any city in the empire leaving erivan on april armenian volunteers reached van on may and organized and carried out a general slaughter of the local muslim population during the next two days while the small ottoman garrison had to retreat to the southern side of the lake knowing their numbers would never justify their territorial ambitions armenians looked to russia and europe for the fulfillment of their aims armenian treachery in this regard culminated at the beginning of the first world war with the decision of the revolutionary organizations to refuse to serve their state the ottoman empire and to assist instead other invading russian armies their hope was their participation in the russian success would be rewarded with an independent armenian state carved out of ottoman territories armenian political leaders army officers and common soldiers began deserting in droves with the russian invasion of eastern anatolia in at the beginning of world war i the degree of armenian collaboration with the ottoman s enemy increased drastically ottoman supply lines were cut by guerilla attacks armenian revolutionaries armed armenian civil populations who in turn massacred the muslim population of the province of van in anticipation of expected arrival of the invading russian armies source stanford j shaw history of the ottoman empire and modern turkey vol ii cambridge university press london pp meanwhile czar nicholas ii himself came to the caucasus to make final plans for cooperation with the armenians against the ottomans with the president of the armenian national bureau in tiflis declaring in response from all countries armenians are hurrying to enter the ranks of the glorious russian army with their blood to serve the victory of russian arms let the russian flag wave freely over the dardanelles and the bosporus let with your will great majesty the peoples remaining under the turkish yoke receive freedom let the armenian people of turkey who have suffered for the faith of christ receive resurrection for a new free life under the protection of russia armenians again flooded into the czarist armies preparations were made to strike the ottomans from the rear and the czar returned to st petersburg confident that the day finally had come for him to reach istanbul horizon tiflis november quoted by hovannisian road to independence p fo ottoman morale and military position in the east were seriously hurt and the way was prepared for a new russian push into eastern anatolia to be accompanied by an open armenian revolt against the sultan hovannisian road to independence pp bayur iii pp w e d allen and p muratoff caucasian battlefields cambridge pp ali ihsan sabis harb hahralaram vols ankara ii fo no fo fo nos and an armenian state was organized at van under russian protection and it appeared that with the muslim natives dead or driven away it might be able to maintain itself at one of the oldest centers of ancient armenian civilization an armenian legion was organized to expel the turks from the entire southern shore of the lake in preparation for a concerted russian drive into the bitlis vilayet thousands of armenians from mus and other major centers in the east began to flood into the new armenian state by mid july there were as many as armenians crowded into the van area which before the crisis had housed and fed no more than people muslim and non muslim alike hovannisian road to independence p fop nos and bva meclis i vukela mazbatalari debates of august babi i ali evrak odasi no van ihtilali ve katl i ami zilkade september now wait there is more from the diplomacy of imperialism william l langer new york alfred a knopf pp armenians watch their opportunity to kill turks and kurds set fire to their villages and then make their escape into the mountains also since the ottomans were such great tolerators how come the armenians were counted as part of the rum millet i e forced under the control of the greek orthodox patriarchate are you people for real the main legal principles of the turkish state are summarized in article of the constitution the republic of turkey is a democratic secular and social state governed by the rule of law bearing in mind the concepts of public peace national solidarity and justice respecting human rights loyal to the nationalism of ataturk and based on the fundamental tenets set forth in the preamble of the constitution freedom of culture and religion prevailed during the ottoman empire allowing the many nations and races within its boundaries to remain autonomous the fact that the ottoman empire was the longest lived in recent history may be attributed to these freedoms despite the lack of any written constitution the first attempts to create a written constitution occurred in and although the documents adopted during these two attempts remained in force only temporarily they provided the basic elements of a constitution the constitution was the first legal document to force a parliament and the right of election to share the sovereignty of the emperor the constitution of placed some additional limitations on the emperor while increasing the power of the parliament and the government the first world war brought the ottoman empire to an end by the occupation of istanbul the parliament was dissolved and the constitution was abolished the members of parliament were sent to exile to an island by the occupying forces during the independence war the turkish grand national assembly held their first meeting on april to serve as the legislative body of the new turkish state this assembly prepared the new legal structure of the turkish republic the new republic was proclaimed on october and the new constitution was adopted in that constitution served as the legal backbone of today s modern turkish republic in turkey adopted a multi party political system the constitution of was replaced by others in and all three constitutions of the republic have been based on the principles of parliamentary democracy human rights national sovereignty division of powers private ownership and secularization major principles of the constitution the constitution with articles establishes the structure of the republic within the following principles the turkish republic is a democratic secular and social state governed by law it should be governed to maintain public peace national solidarity justice human rights and the objectives of ataturk the language of the state is turkish sovereignty is vested in the nation without any conditions or restrictions sovereignty is exercised by organizations authorized by the nation legislative power is carried by the parliament elected by the nation this power cannot be delegated transferred to any one else executive power is exercised by the president and council of ministers judicial power is exercised by the independent courts on behalf of the turkish nation all individuals are equal irrespective of language race religion color sex or political beliefs laws cannot be contradict those principles stated in the constitution structure of the state in accordance with the constitution the structure of the state is based on the principle of division of power to create a balanced and self controlled system the power is divided into legislative power executive power and judicial power balanced to secure freedoms and powers to control each other self control a legislative power the turkish grand national assembly is a parliament with one house elected by the nation for a term of five years to exercise legislative power on behalf of the nation the basic functions of this assembly are to adopt to amend or to repeal laws to approve or to dismiss the council of ministers to supervise and to question ministers or the council of ministers to debate to amend and to approve annual budgets to ratify international agreements to grant amnesty or pardons members of parliament do not have any liability for their words either oral or written during the course of their legislative duties the country is divided into constituencies the number of representatives of each is calculated according to its population every turkish citizen over the age of twenty one can vote elections are supervised by the supreme council of elections which solves all disputes or appeals in each province the local board of election runs and controls the election under the supervision and guidelines of the supreme council members of the council and boards are elected among independent judges b executive power the president of the republic is the head of state not the head of government as in the unites states the main functions of the president are to represent the state and the country to insure the implementation of the constitution to coordinate legislative judicial and executive functions act as the supreme commander of the armed forces to ratify laws and government decrees the president is elected by the grand national assembly for a period of seven years the president may ratify or return the laws for a second debate may call for a referendum executive power is exercised by the council of ministers headed by the prime minister the prime minister is appointed by the president from the members of parliament the prime minister names the ministers for approval by the president the new government council of ministers reads their program at the parliament and the vote of confidence follows there are ministers in the council ministers and other members of the administration can be sued in independent administrative courts for their misuse of power administrative errors or functions against any law c judicial power judicial power is exercised by independent courts no authority or power can instruct the judges or public prosecutors of the courts these cannot be discharged replaced or retired by executive authorities except for the reasons clearly stated by the appropriate laws there are three categories of courts in the turkish judiciary system courts of justice deal with legal commercial and criminal cases the decisions of these courts may be reviewed by the supreme court of justice upon the appeal of the parties involved the decisions or functions of the executive power including the prime minister and ministers or any governmental department can be appealed in administrative courts if these functions or decisions are against the law the decisions of these administrative courts may also be reviewed by the high administrative court the laws and decisions of the grand national assembly can be examined by the constitutional court if they contradict the constitution if found contradictory this court may cancel the decisions or laws of the parliament serdar argic we closed the roads and mountain passes that might serve as ways of escape for the turks and then proceeded in the work of extermination ohanus appressian in soviet armenia today there no longer exists a single turkish soul sahak melkonian
