1914 Armenian reforms
The Armenian reforms, also known as the Yeniköy accord, was a reform plan devised by the European powers between 1912 and 1914 that envisaged the creation of two provinces in
Background
The
The project suggested the formation of a single province from six vilayets (Erzurum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakır, Kharput and Sivas) under either an Ottoman Christian or a European governor general. The governor general was to be appointed by the Powers for the ensuing five years. Germany opposed the project and succeeded in obtaining significant modifications, including splitting the region into two provinces.[4]
Plan
The reform package was signed on February 8, 1914, between the Ottoman Empire (represented by Grand Vezir Said Halim Pasha)[5] and Russia. Louis Constant Westenenk, an administrator for the Dutch East Indies, and Nicolai Hoff, a major in the Norwegian Army, were selected as the first two inspectors.[6] Hoff was in Van when the war broke out, just as Westenenk was preparing to depart for his post in Erzurum.[7][8]
Historian
On the two demands existential for the Armenians— that muhacir not be settled in these seven provinces (which would make nonsense of proportional representation) and that measures be undertaken to return stolen lands to their original Armenian owners—the Porte remained adamant, and they went unmentioned in the Yeniköy accord. European negotiators were left with the hope that the two European inspector-generals stipulated in the accord might be able to adjudicate such problems.[9]
References
- ^ Davison, Roderic H. "The Armenian Crisis, 1912-1914," The American Historical Review 53 (Apr., 1948), pp. 481-505.
- ^ (in Armenian) Karapetyan, N. V. (1981). "Հայկական բարենորոգումների խնդիրը 1912-14 թվականներին" [The Issue of the Armenian Reforms in the Years 1912-14] in Հայ Ժողովրդի Պատմություն [History of the Armenian People], eds. Tsatur Aghayan et al. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, vol. 6, pp. 520-35.
- ISBN 0-520-00574-0.
- ^ Reynolds, Michael A. (2011). Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman Empires, 1908-1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 73-77.
- ^ Şeyhun, Ahmed. "Said Halim and the Armenian Reform Project of 1914," Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 19/2 (2010), pp. 93-108.
- ^ Kévorkian, Raymond (2011). The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. London: I. B. Tauris, p. 171.
- ^ Hovannisian. Armenia on the Road to Independence, p. 39.
- Armenian Review39 (Spring 1986), pp. 29-89.
- S2CID 73167962.
Further reading
- Kieser, Hans-Lukas; Polatel, Mehmet; Schmutz, Thomas (2015). "Reform or cataclysm? The agreement of 8 February 1914 regarding the Ottoman eastern provinces". Journal of Genocide Research. 17 (3): 285–304. S2CID 58280593.