What really happened to the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and the evil of separatism, and how people manipulated into separatism eventually lead to disaster, was explained very clearly by the writer, publicist and philosopher Mikhail Tevosyan. He compared Armenian separatism in the Ottoman Empire with separatism in the post-Soviet space, in particular in the Ukrainian Donbass.

"...We should first understand what was going on. Here is a fresh example in 2014 in Donetsk. What happened in Donetsk? In Donetsk, Russian special services brought weapons brought money. It would not hurt to ask Surkov (at that time the curator of separatist projects, including in Abkhazia and Samachablo - ed.) how much money and how many weapons were brought to Donetsk and were distributed to you know, the plebs... And then what happened? A simple terror took place inside Donetsk and inside Luhansk. Why? Because someone brought weapons, someone brought money to provoke this conflict situation, i.e. it was a provocation organized by Russian special services...".

According to Mikhail Tevosyan the situation in the Ottoman Empire was "of a similar nature, when during the war the Tsarist Russian security services at the time had the task to create here such a conflict situation, a provocation by throwing in weapons and money to create a separatist mood, nationalist rise with the aim of "liberation".

In the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1915, according to Mikhail Tevosyan: "...This was instigated by the Tsarist secret services in order to, to create this separatist movement within the Ottoman Empire... It was the Van Valley that was to rise up, right there when it happened, and then left alone with the Young Turks... To get them beaten up, destroyed and after that would weaken them all, to enter this Van Valley and then demand from the Ottoman Empire the Bosporus and Dardanelles in return for it."

This means that the Armenian nationalist Dashnaks, with their betrayal of the Ottoman Empire and separatism, were originally a "bargaining chip". Russia did not need the landlocked Lake Van area for nothing. They would have easily exchanged it for the Bosphorus and the Dardenels, the main objective of the military campaign "in the Turkish direction".

Well, the Armenians would still have had to 'deal alone' with the Turks. However, the separatists were mostly deported and during the 1915 deportations the vast majority of Armenians survived and settled all over the world without any problems. It should be understood that at the beginning of 1915 the war was just beginning and there were no mass deaths of soldiers at the fronts and the Turks had no hatred towards Armenians or even any resentment against their betrayal.

It is useful for other separatists to remember all this. They include Abkhazia and Samachablo. Even now they are shaking, fearing on one hand defeat of Russia and de-occupation, and on the other hand, fearing that Russia, being in a critical situation, will not use them as a "bargaining chip" to attract Georgia to its side. In any case, the separatists will have to "pay their dues" and in any case, the separatist regimes will not survive for long.

As for the Armenian nationalists, unfortunately, they never realised that they were simply being used. On the contrary, a real "cult of sacrifice" was created out of them on the basis of the events of 1915, about which Mikhail Tevosyan speaks very well:

"For over 100 years the cult of victimhood has been cultivated by the Armenian people within the Armenian nation and this course of victimhood has created insanity, and this insanity has prevented people from living a normal life.".

George Kvinitadze