EXPLAINING COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT IN EASTERN ANATOLIA, 1800-1878 by Brad ...

389 Pages·2015·2.68 MB·English

EXPLAINING COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT
IN EASTERN ANATOLIA, 1800-1878

by

Brad Ronald Dennis

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of
The University of Utah
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Department of History

The University of Utah

December 2015
Copyright © Brad Ronald Dennis 2015

All Rights Reserved
The University of Utah Graduate School

STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL

The dissertation of Brad Ronald Dennis
has been approved by the following supervisory committee members:

Peter John Sluglett , Chair 06/11/2015
Date Approved

Peter Von Sivers , Member 05/20/2015
Date Approved

M. Hakan Yavuz , Member 05/20/2015
Date Approved

Leonard C. Chiarelli , Member 05/20/2015
Date Approved

Edward Erickson , Member 05/20/2015
Date Approved

Walter P. Reeve , Member 05/20/2015
Date Approved

and by Isabel Moreira , Chair/Dean of
the Department/College/School of History

and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School.
ABSTRACT

It is a common assumption in much of the scholarship on Eastern Anatolia that
groups in the region, both today and throughout the past, primarily defined and
distinguished themselves in terms of their ethnicity and religious affiliations and that such
distinctions were the primary causes of tension and conflict throughout history.
However, an in-depth investigation of government documents, firsthand accounts,
memoirs, interviews, court records, official and private investigations, and travelogues
written in Ottoman Turkish, Armenian, Russian, French, German, and English reveals
that tensions in Eastern Anatolia between 1800 and 1878 ran along a number of different
lines besides religion and ethnicity and that groups did not appear to even imagine a
conflict along such lines until the Great Powers became more involved in Ottoman
politics. This study traces the major tensions and conflicts in Eastern Anatolia between
1800 and 1878 and seeks to understand what factors escalated and mitigated these. It
contributes the growing body of literature that shows how groups who experienced large-
scale violent ethnic and religious conflicts at different periods in history managed to
coexist even amid tension before said conflicts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii

PRONUNCIATION GUIDE FOR TURKISH WORDS AND NAMES ......................... vii

GLOSSARY OF TERMS ................................................................................................ viii

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1

Historiography: Modernist and Structuralist Frames of Understanding ......................... 4
Sources .......................................................................................................................... 15
Methodology and Contributions ................................................................................... 18
Layout............................................................................................................................ 19

Chapters

1 TOLERANCE, RESISTANCE, AND DISTRIBUTION OF POWER IN EASTERN
ANATOLIA BEFORE 1829: NON-MUSLIMS .............................................................. 23

The Theoretical Basis for the Ottomans’ Tolerance of Religious Diversity ................. 25
Realpolitik and Ottoman Treatment of Non-Muslims 1500-1736 ................................ 30
The Relationship Between the Ottomans and the Christian Clergy in the East ............ 38
Loyalty and Opposition to the Ottoman State and Iran Among the Armenian Clergy . 42
Power-Sharing Between Local Muslims and non-Muslims .......................................... 59
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 63

2 EASTERN ANATOLIA 1800-1829: INTERNATIONAL WARFARE,
CENTRALIZATION, AND THE POLITICS OF STABILITY ...................................... 65

The Politics of Decentralization in Eastern Anatolia .................................................... 66
Zones of Administrative Control over Muslim Lands .................................................. 70
Initial Centralization Efforts in Eastern Anatolia .......................................................... 82
Waning Central Control and Political Uncertainty ....................................................... 88
Suppression of Resistance: Recapturing the East ......................................................... 91
1821-1823 Ottoman-Iranian War and its Aftermath ................................................... 100
The 1828-1829 Russo-Ottoman War .......................................................................... 107
Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 117

3 REFORM, CENTRALIZATION, AND THE CHANGING NATURE
OF CONFLICTS IN EASTERN ANATOLIA: 1829-1847 ........................................... 120

Renewed Attempts at Centralization ........................................................................... 121
Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia in the 1830s .................................... 125
Uprising in the Southeast ............................................................................................ 132
Hafız Paşa's Military Campaign .................................................................................. 143
Bedr Khan: The Sources of His Power ....................................................................... 149
Reasons for the Massacres of Assyrian Christians...................................................... 153
The Invasion of Diz, Tiyari, and Aşita ........................................................................ 171
Negotiating New Power Sharing ................................................................................. 176
Further Loss of Control ............................................................................................... 181
Declining Power in the East ........................................................................................ 186
Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 193

4 STATE AND LOCAL MANAGEMENT OF ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS
TENSIONS, 1847-1869 .................................................................................................. 198

Competing Visions over Eastern Anatolia .................................................................. 199
New Centralization: The Eyalet of Kurdistan ............................................................. 202
Ottoman-Christian Relations 1847-1853 .................................................................... 207
The Crimean War 1853-1856 ...................................................................................... 212
The Revolt of Yezdan Sher ......................................................................................... 221
Diverse Kurdish Loyalties ........................................................................................... 230
Dissolution of Power Among the Kurds After the Crimean War ............................... 232
The Assyrians and Conflict ......................................................................................... 238
Postwar Transformations in the Eastern Anatolian Armenian Community ................ 244
Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 263

5 LATENT POLARIZATION ALONG RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC LINES,
1868-1878 ....................................................................................................................... 265

Crisis at the Head ........................................................................................................ 266
The New Administrative Reform Effort, Cause and Effect ........................................ 270
Relations Between the Ottoman Administration and the Locals ................................ 276
Continued Power Struggles ......................................................................................... 280
Seeking Recourse ........................................................................................................ 286
v
Abuses of Armenians .................................................................................................. 296
Reverberations of Conflict .......................................................................................... 299
Dersim: A Last Frontier in Eastern Anatolia? ............................................................. 309
The Russo-Turkish War 1877-1878 ............................................................................ 314
Negotiating the Future ................................................................................................. 324
Revolt and Disorder .................................................................................................... 328
Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 339

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 341

APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................... 350

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 355

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PRONUNCIATION GUIDE FOR TURKISH WORDS AND NAMES

Ç, ç: Like the “ch” sound in “chart.”

C, c: Like the “j” sound in “job.”

Ğ, ğ: Silent letter. Ağa is pronounced “ah-ah” and ağnam is pronounced “ah-nahm.”

I, ı: Similar to the vowel sound of the last syllable in the word “open.”

İ, i: Like the “ih” sound in “miss.”

Ö, ö: Similar to the vowel sound in “heard” (upper-class Londoner pronunciation).

Ş, ş: Like the “sh” sound in “ship.”

Ü, ü: Similar to the French “u” sound in “une,” the German umlaut sound, and the vowel
sound in “new” (upper-class Londoner pronunciation).
GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Ağa: Honorific title given to village heads and tribal chiefs in Kurdish society. Also
spelled “agha” in citations from other texts.

Ağnam: Annual tax on sheep and goats levied by Ottoman state.

Akçe: Silver coin used as the primary monetary unit in the Ottoman Empire during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Amira: Elite Armenian financier class living mostly in Western Anatolia and Thrace.

Ashkharh: Armenian word for “world,” often used to refer to the larger Armenian
community.

Azg: Armenian word for “nation.”

Bab-ı Ali: See Sublime Porte.

Başıbozuk: Irregular infantrymen.

Bedel-i Askeri: Military exemption tax levied on non-Muslims.

Bey: Honorific title given to tribal chiefs.

Beylik: Political domain governed by a bey.

Catholicos: The ecclesiastical head of the Armenian Gregorian Church at Echmiadzin.

Cizye: A per capita tax on non-Muslims stipulated by Islamic law. Also spelled jizya.

Derebey: Semiautonomous leader of dynasty.

Devşirme: System of recruiting Christian boys, through both abduction and bilateral
agreement with families, to serve in the military (practiced by the Ottoman Empire in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries).

Dönüm: Area of land approximately the size of an English acre (with variations in size).

Emir: Commander of military force, often self-proclaimed descendant of Muhammad.
Esnaf: Merchant guilds.

Eyalet: The main administrative division in the Ottoman Empire. Similar to a province
or state. Also spelled eyâlet.

Ferik: Major general.

Ferman: Decree issued by the sultan. Also spelled firman.

Gavur: Derogatory term for non-Muslims; heathen.

Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif: The reform edict decreed by the sultan in 1839.

Has: Government-owned land that produces over 100,000 akçes.

Hatt-ı Hümayun: The Imperial Reform Edict decreed by the Ottoman sultan in 1856.

Hoca: A teacher or moral guide; honorific title for the sultan’s adviser.

Hükümet: Semiindependent governorship.

İcra-yi Zemin: Rent tax.

Imtiyaz: Formal term for a political privilege or set of privileges granted by the sultan to
another inhabitant of the empire, often a local magnate.

Ishkhan: Honorific title for Armenian royalty, prince.

Istilam: Official inquiry into grievances made by certain inhabitants of the Ottoman
Empire.

Jihad: Holy war.

Kadı: Judge.

Kale: Fortress.

Kapıcıbaşı: Head gatekeeper of a major fortress or imperial palace.

Kassam: Officer of law who assesses the value of land and determines shares of
inheritance.

Kaymakam: Lieutenant colonel; district chief.

Kaza: Administrative subdivision of a sancak consisting of a large town or cluster of
villages. Under the jurisdiction of a kadı.
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