Gradually, it became clear that the CUP was a totalitarian party which could not be expected to modernize Ottoman society. What is more, it began to dawn on all levels of the Armenian community that the Armenian heartland was being drained of its lifeblood and that, if something were not done, Ottoman Armenia would soon be a mere memory. In the speech he delivered to the 15 May 1914 general assembly held in Cairo, the president of the AGBU drew up a preliminary balance-sheet: “You are all aware of the exceptional circumstances that, last year, prevented us from convening a general assembly. . . .
Moreover, as you know, I was obliged to leave Egypt at the request of His Holiness, the Catholicos, who entrusted me—at a critical moment in which the Armenian Question was again on the agenda—with the task of representing our nation in Europe as the leader of our National Delegation and demanding that the great powers enact the Reforms that were promised by the ... Read all
The enactment of a reform plan in the Armenian provinces of the Ottoman Empire came as the culmination of a long process. By the end of the first Balkan War in December 1912, the Empire had been re¬duced to its territories in Asia: European Turkey no longer existed. Among the Armenians, who had participated in the July 1908 Constitutional Revolution, the April 1909 massacres in Cilicia had considerably chilled the fervor of even the most enthusiastic partisans of the Young Turks. Moreover, the policies that the Committee of Union and Progress had been carrying out in the Armenian provinces had fallen far short of Armenian expectations; indeed, it semed that the state of constant insecurity prevailing there was even being encouraged by the regime.
The AGBU and the Reforms in Asiatic Turkey, 1912-1914
Boghos Nubar, a photomontage of the man with three faces: the diplomat, right, observes the businessman, left, and the philanthropist, center
(Coll. Bibl. Nubar/ Paris)