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HINCHAK
The Hinchak (Ring of Bell)
Committee was established in 1886 in Switzerland by Avedis
Nazarbelg, a Caucasian Armenian and a citizen of Russia, his
wife Maro and other Caucasian students. In order to disseminate
the idea of the committee, a newspaper called Hinchak was
published. The heads and most of the members of this committee
were Russian Armenians. This committee chose Eastern Anatolia
as the area of operation. After some period of time, the headquarters
of the committee was moved from Switzerland to London.
The program of the Hinchak
Committee was Socialist, Marxist and Centralist. The principles
of Karl Marx were adopted as fundamental. Although the members
of this committee were called themselves as social democrats
their political program totally had the nature of the communist
manifesto. The Committee had its headquarters primarily in
Istanbul and opened branches in some states of the Ottoman
country. In this way, it started its organised activities.
The main political objective of this committee was to save
the Armenians in Turkey from the Turks, Iranian Armenians
from the Iranians and Russian Armenians from the Russians
and after that, getting rid of the capitalists in these countries.
PROGRAM
"Labourers and productive
class comprise great majority of humanity. This class shall
be free from the exploitation of the wealthy, sovereign minority,
which has the capital, thereby having all the power and means
of production, land, plants, mines and means of transportation.
The independence of the productive class means the freedom
of humanity as a whole, general economic prosperity.
In order to attain this
objective and put this into practice actually, the productive
classes in all civilised countries ought to organise in ways
peculiar to themselves and materialise the communist revolution
in all countries through activating the general political
opportunities under their rule. Therefore, the other classes
will disappear and the productive class will establish a socialist
order. In this establishment, people will enact their own
laws and show their power.
(…)
Now, the Armenians are under
the rule of the classes which are dependent on autocratic
regimes. Their administration, taxation and financial systems
are destructive for them. One hand capitalist production methods
are applied in these countries and on the other hand the old
economic and management methods are being annihilated continuously."
Considering all these conditions,
the provision of a general and comprising socialist rule for
the Armenian social democrats and all the Armenians was accepted
as a long-term objective and because of that reason all the
tendencies and struggles required a short-term objective.
This short-term objective was the basis for the social democrat
Armenian Revolutionary Hinchak Party. These objectives were
as follows:
a. To revolt
b. To annihilate the
sovereign classes of the autocratic regimes
c. To save the Armenians
from the slavery
d. To support the Armenians
for their intervention to the political affairs
e. To remove the obstacles
that affect economic and cultural developments
f. To prepare an environment
where the working class can voice its wishes and tendencies
openly
g. To rearrange the
heavy working conditions
h. To provide information
for the class so that they can organise themselves as a
political unit peculiar to them
i. To facilitate the
activities of the people and assist them to attain the long-term
objectives
In accordance with this idea,
the short-term objective of the Hinchak Committee was to struggle
for the removal of autocratic regimes and its classes; and
to replace them with constitutional regimes. Its main conditions
were as follows:
a. For the representation
of the people, a legislative assembly ought to be established
through elections, in which all the sections can vote directly.
This assembly ought to have the right to examine decide
on all the political and economic affairs of the country.
b. Broad autonomy ought
to be granted to the states
c. Complete freedom
ought to be provided for the people
d. People ought to be
able to select the government officials, all the people
in public services security officials and the officials
in the fields of education and justice
e. Without taking nationality
and class differences into consideration, all major citizens
ought to have the capacity to be elected both for states
and autonomous administrations
f. All the citizens
ought to be equal in the presence of law without taking
nationality and religious differences into account
g. Complete freedom
ought to be granted to press, expression, conscience, organisation,
establishment of association and election procedures
h. All the citizens
themselves and their homes ought to be protected against
attacks
i. The churches ought
to be separated from the government; all the religious organisations
ought to survive with the help of the people themselves,
who are frequenting these organisations
j. In peace, all the
people ought to do its military service in militia forces
k. Secular and compulsory
education system ought to be implemented; the government
ought to aid poor people
Since the political rights
mentioned above concern the improvement of the economic situation
of the people, it is necessary to fulfil the conditions below:
a. The present tax system
ought to be annulled and it ought to be replaced by a tax
system, which is advanced and is in accordance with the
power and the payment capacity of the people.
b. Indirect taxes ought
to be abolished totally
c. The peasants ought
exempt from all kinds of debts
d. Agricultural machines
ought to be provided with the help of the people and the
government. People should be thought how to use these machines
and these ought to be delivered to the people
e. Agricultural corporations
among the people ought to be established. The goals of these
corporation ought to be the sale of the agricultural products,
purchasing and management of some products like seeds, cereals
etc.
f. All kind of transportation
and contact means ought to be supplied
g. In order to hinder
the exploitation of the working people, the government ought
to procure help in this respect and ought to pass laws to
protect them
The Turkish Armenians are the
majority of the Armenians and the regions where they live,
are the largest territories of our country. Thanks to the
61st article of the Berlin Agreement and the other
international conditions, the struggle of most Armenians became
a matter of rights and is recognised by the big European countries.
The political, economic and
financial disorders, the decrease, the exhaustion, the interior
chaos and the disturbances in the Ottoman Empire made the
collapse of the Ottoman government necessary and definite.
The other European states influenced this situation as well.
Some parts of the Ottoman territories in Europe were separated
in a systematic way and was owned by other states. Because
of this reason, the procurement of the points below became
a historical necessity and requirement:
a. The Armenian committee
members shall exert their efforts for the defence and finalisation
of the Armenian struggle in accordance with the short-term
objective.
b. In this context,
the struggle area of the revolution shall be the region
of Armenians, who are living in Turkey.
c. Since the future
of the Armenians shall necessitate the separation from the
Ottoman State, the primary condition of short-term objective
is the Armenian independence.
The solutions to attain the
short-term objective is to mess up and create chaos in the
Armenian regions in Turkey by revolution namely by force;
and to declare war against the Turkish government with a general
revolt. The means of these activities are as follows:
a. To make propaganda
through the press, books and speeches among the people,
especially the workers, to disseminate the revolution idea
of the Hinchak Party, to establish some revolutionary organisations
among the people and to rebel
b. To punish Turkish
autocrats, detectives, informers, traitors; to use terrorism
as the means for the defence of the revolutionary organisations
and as a shiled against the infamous and those, who oppress
the people.
c. To posses an active
armed force for the purpose of protecting the people against
the attacks of the government soldiers or tribes, to form
raider troops. These troops shall play a leading role in
a general revolution in the future.
d. A general revolutionary
organisation, which will comprise many regular interconnected
groups ought to be established. This organisation will work
for the common goal with unity and will apply same tactics
given and directed from a single centre.
e. To prepare the incidents
for the implementation of an organised rebellion
f. The most appropriate
instant for the success of a general revolt is the time
when a country has declared war against Turkey.
g. To make the other
minorities, which shared same destiny with the Armenians,
side with us in order to make war against the Turkish Government,
our joint enemy. The most important objective of the Hinchak
Committee is to be free of the slavery of the Ottoman State
and to establish a federation as in Switzerland.
The Hinchak Committee worked
according to a political program and made the Marxism propaganda,
which was very attractive especially for the working class.
The young people, religious leaders, adventurers and the unemployed
were very eager to be a member of the committee and work with
us to create chaos and revolt. The Committee executives wanted
to create an Armenian Proletariat by working on the class
concept. Within the context of the living standards in Turkey,
these activities of the Committee could not go beyond the
propaganda of socialism. A lot of people from many foreign
countries especially Russia and who were familiar with these
matters participated in many of the revolts organised by the
Hinchak Committee.
The start of the Armenian activities
caused many tragic and bloody incidents, which could not be
compensated for. For the foundation of the organizations of
the Hinchak Committee, ªimavonfrom Tblisi, S. Danielyan, Russian
citizen Rupen Hanazat and H. Megavoryan came from Geneva,
Iran, Trabzon and Batum respectively. After very long discussions,
the Istanbul Hinchak Committee Center was established. The
other revolutionary organisations, which were established
before 1890 in Istanbul, joined it as well.
As we can see, the destiny
of the Armenians in Turkey was left to the hands of many Russian
Armenians. In the way, those, who did not enter the committee
and who did not help financially were put under pressure or
killed. The organisations also extended to many states in
Anatolia in a rapidly.
ACTIVITIES
The rules and regulations,
and the program of the Hinchak Association were published
in 1909, in Istanbul. These rules and regulations were delivered
to the Ministry of Interior in accordance with the law concerning
the associations; and obtained the certificate no. 90, of
February 8, 1909, of the Governor of Istanbul. The rules and
regulations were composed of 5 sections.
Concerning the activities of
the Armenian Hinchak Committee, it was written as follows
in the decision books of the years 1910,1911,1912 and 1913:
a. To work for supply
of arms, ammunition and explosives
b. Military Training
of the arms (by Marufyan, Yavruyan, Candan)
c. To speed up propaganda
d. To establish contact
with the Tashnak Committee
e. To establish contact
with the unionists
f. Formation and the
management of guerrillas in Van (These guerrillas are; Orsfan,
Cang, Goçnak,Juraçak, Pencak, Badami, Tejohenk, Maro and
Paros)
On 24 July 1914, Hinchak Committee
held its Third Congress in Turkey. This congress was opened
under the chairmanship of Cangülyan and under the Secretaryship
of Tancutyan with 28 delegates from 51 divisions and these
decisions were adopted:
“Taking the serious responsibility,
that is required by our activities and objectives and the
danger emanating from them into account, we have to avoid
adventures and irresponsible behaviour in order to prove,
that we are civilised people. The balanced influences and
means, which are planned meticulously, are the only solutions
to achieve our goals and our operations”
Upon this, the Hinchak committee
members started to leave Turkey in 1896. Disagreement occurred
among the members of this committee and they were divided
into two sections. Some of them were called the original Hinchaks
(the supporters of Nazarbeg) and the others were called Reformed
Hinchaks (Veragazmiyal Hinchak). A man, called Arpiyaryan
started to lead this second group.
Both committees acted in accordance
with the opinions and attitude of the directors, not according
to their principles and program. They gave top priority to
their personal interests and they defended this point of view.
This disagreement among them turned into street fights and
some of them were beaten and some were killed.
The Armenian people, who understood
that Hinchak members were Marxist, refused the views of the
members of bands. The struggles increased in 1902 and many
members of the committees from both sides were killed in streets
fights in Britain, Russia, Egypt, Bulgaria, the Caucasus and
Iran. Although some small guerrillas were renamed as Hinchaks
after the Revolt in Van, they were deprived as sufficient
power. Some of the Hinchak leaders understood the disguised
goal of the Russians and they derailed the way that they pursued
and this played a major role in the dissolution of the Hinchak
Committee.
REFERENCE:
Sakarya,
Emg. Tümg. Ihsan, Belgelerle Ermeni Sorunu, Genelkurmay Askeri
Tarih ve Stratejik Etüt Baskanligi Askeri Tarih Yayinlari,
Genelkurmay Basimevi, Ankara, 1984, 2. Edition, pp. 76-87
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