1896 Ottoman Bank Takeover
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The 1896 Ottoman Bank Takeover (Armenian: Պանք Օթօմանի գրաւումը) was the seizing of the Ottoman Bank in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, on August 26, 1896, by members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnak Party). In an effort to raise further awareness and action by the major European powers, twenty-eight armed men and women led primarily by Papken Siuni and Armen Karo took over the bank which largely employed European personnel from Great Britain and France. Stirred largely due to the inaction of the European powers in regards to pogroms and massacres instigated by the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, the Dashnak members saw its seizure as their best attempt to bring full attention to the massacres. The Ottoman bank, at the time, served as an important financial center for both the Empire and the countries of Europe.
Armed with pistols, grenades, dynamite and hand-held bombs, the seizure of the bank lasted for fourteen hours, resulting in the deaths of ten of the Armenian men and Turkish soldiers. Turkish reaction to takeover saw further massacres and pogroms of the several thousand Armenians living in Constantinople and also Hamid threatening to level the entire building itself. However, intervention on part of the European diplomats in the city managed to persuade the men to give, assigning safe passage to the survivors to France. Despite the level of violence the incident had wrought, the takeover was reported positively in the European press, praising the men for their courage and the objectives they attempted to accomplish.[1] Nevertheless, aside from issuing a note condemning the pogroms in the city, the European powers did not act on their promises to enforce reforms in the country as future massacres of Armenians continued to take place.
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[edit] Preceding events
Contrary to Turkish claims, the Armenians suffered from persecution and forced assimilation under Ottoman rule. The Armenians lived in their own villages and city quarters, separate from the Turks. They were subjected to heavy taxes and were downgraded as a separate group of Ottoman society, called a millet. Various Armenians who were resentful of Ottoman persecution took up arms to defend their basic rights. This infuriated the Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Hamid II who viewed the small resistance as a threat to his power.
In the 1890s, up to 300,000[2] Armenians were massacred on orders from Sultan Hamid, massacres commonly known as the Hamidian massacres.
[edit] Takeover
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation sought to stop the murder of Armenians and planned the bank takeover to gain the attention and intervention of world powers.The brain of the operation was Karekin Pastirmaciyan. From the start, the Tashnagtsoutioun (ARF) handed out fliers to the general population of the Ottoman Empire stating that their fight was not against them but the Ottoman Empire's oppression:
| “ | For centuries our forbearers have been living with you in peace and harmony...but recently your government, conceived in crimes, began to sow discord among us in order to strangle us and you with greater ease. You, people, did not understand this diabolical scheme of politics and, soaking yourselves in the blood of our brothers, you became an accomplice in the perpetration of this heinous crime. Nevertheless, know well that our fight is not against you, but your government, against which your own best sons are fighting also.[3] | ” |
After careful and long planning, on Wednesday, August 26, 1896, 13:00 o’clock, 26 Armenians from the Dashnak party, armed with pistols and grenades and led by Papken Siuni, attacked and occupied the Ottoman Bank of Constantinople. During the initial operation, 9 of the attackers, including leader Papken Siuni, were killed. Karo (otherwise known as Karekin Pastirmaciyan) took over as leader of the armed revolutionaries in defending the building against the government forces, who tried to gain control of the building.
The decision to take over the Ottoman Bank was a strategic one as the bank held many European treasuries which would therefore grab the European attention the Armenians wanted. On the same day, the revolutionaries sent a letter to the European major powers demanding that the sultan promise to attend to their demands and hand over the solution of the Armenian Question to an international judge. Otherwise, on the third day, they would blow themselves and the bank up. After 14 hours of occupation and repelling government attempts to retake the bank, ambassadors of Europe and the director of the bank, Sir Edgar Vincent (Lord of Abernon), succeeded in persuading the occupiers to leave the bank, by promising to meet to their demands as well as grant them safe passage out of the bank.[4]
Throughout the ordeal the personnel of the bank were treated well and were told that they -the Armenians- were not robbers, were not looking to harm them, and did not want to rob the bank's money. They clarified that their goal was to simply dictate their political demands to the Ottoman and European governments. Nothing was stolen from the vault.
[edit] Aftermath
The Armenian Patriarch immediately excommunicated all Armenians linked to the bank takeover,[5] as a recurrence of savage anti-Armenian pogroms shook Constantinople. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation's goals had been accomplished in getting the attention of the major powers, but right after the takeover the Turks loyal to the government began to massacre the Armenians in Constantinople itself, murdering around 7,000 Armenians. Within 48 hours of the bank seizure, estimates had the dead numbering between 3,000 and 4,000, as authorities made no effort to contain the killings of Armenians and the looting of their homes and businesses.[6] On September 15, 1896, three weeks after the raid, Turkish authorities organized a new massacre in the town of Eğin. Ottoman troops killed "upwards of 2000 Armenians" including "many women and children" according to a report by the French Ambassador.[7] Of the 1500 houses located in the Armenian quarter of Eğin, 980 were pillaged and burned. Eğin was chosen to be the target of the massacre because the leader of the bank raiding party, Papken Siuni, was a native of Eğin. According to a report by the British Consul at Harput, the pretext used to attack the town's Armenian quarter was that the Armenians of Eğin were "set to cause trouble". The same report by the Consul said that there were no revolutionary movement whatever and no powder magazine exploded during the massacre. A few pistols and revolvers were found in the ruins of the burnt houses.[7] In protest of all the massacres, the representatives of the major powers addressed an insulting letter to the sultan.[4]
Despite the nature of the Bank Takeover, the brutality endured by the Armenian civilian population in the wake of the incident overshadowed the incident itself,[8] renewing Western concern for Armenian safety in the Ottoman Empire.[9] U.S. President Grover Cleveland, responding to widespread support for the Armenian cause galvanized by American missionaries stationed in the Ottoman Empire,[10] condemned "the rage of mad bigotry and cruel fanaticism," the "not infrequent reports of the wanton destruction of homes and the bloody butchery of men, women, and children, made martyrs to their profession of Christian faith."
I do not believe that the present sombre prospect in Turkey will be long permitted to offend the sight of Christendom. It so mars the humane and enlightened civilization that belongs to the close of the nineteenth century that it seems hardly possible that the earnest demand of good peoples throughout the Christian world for its corrective treatment will remain unanswered.[11]
Cleveland rejected the possibility of asserting American military force to protect Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, offering accommodation to "those who seek to avoid the perils which threaten them in Turkish dominions."
[edit] Trivia
- An Armenian Revolutionary Song titled Papken Siuniyi Hishadagin or popularly known as Ottoman Bank is about the events of the takeover.
- Before boarding the ship to France, the survivors were told they were not allowed to carry their weapons along with them. Although initially refusing to give them up, Ambassador Maxmiov bargained and bought the entire armament from them.
[edit] References
- ^ Balakian, Peter. The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response. New York: Perennial, 2003. pp. 107-108
- ^ Akcam, Taner. A Shameful Act. 2006, page 42.
- ^ Balakian, The Burning Tigris, p. 104
- ^ a b Armenian Question Armenica
- ^ BOMBS FOR THE TURKS; Man Killed and Several Others Injured by an Explo... - Article Preview - The New York Times
- ^ http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00B16F9355E10738DDDA00A94D0405B8685F0D3
- ^ a b Dadrian, Vahakn N. (2003). The History of the Armenian Genocide. Berghahn Books, p. 146. ISBN 1571816666.
- ^ Peace In Constantinople; The Stores All Open And Gen- Eral Business Re... - Article Preview - The New York Times
- ^ Peace In Constantinople; The Stores All Open And Gen- Eral Business Re... - Article Preview - The New York Times
- ^ To Aid The Armenians; Meeting Of Sympathizers Held In Chickering Hall - Article Preview - The New York Times
- ^ MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT; Belief Expressed that Christendom Will Not M... - Article Preview - The New York Times
