Adjarian genocide in the winter of 1914-1915: why is it hushed up?

24.12.19 14:15


In the context of the “genocidal hysteria” that the Armenian media raised regarding the recognition by the US Congress of the mythical “Armenian genocide”, one must remember:

 

Firstly, what really happened was the genocide by the Armenian militants of the peaceful Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire (Turks, Kurds, Lazs) and as a reaction to this genocide, there was a decision to partially deport part of the Armenian population from the frontline zone (and, unlike the victims of the Dashnak pogroms and the massacres almost all the deported Armenians survived and now their descendants belong to the richest Armenian diasporas in various countries of the world).

 

In the second, the genocide of Turks, Kurds and Laz and part of the Armenians forced because of this deportation was preceded by the Adjara uprising against the Russian authorities in late 1914 and the terrible genocide of the civilian population of Adjaria by the regular Russian army and punitive Dashnak groups after its suppression.

 

105 years have passed since the genocide. However, it is strange why even in Adjara the mass tragedy of the Georgian Adjarians is deliberately hushed up in the winter of 1914-1915. and in the early spring of 1915

 

The worst thing is the kind of death that tens of thousands of Adjarians died then. Most of them died from hunger and cold in the snowy winter mountain forests and passes. And the height of the cynicism of the Armenian “historians” is that they, recalling the events in Adjara and Artvin in 1914-1915. crocodiles shed tears about the allegedly "Armenian genocide" by the rebels and the Turkish army. But regarding the real extermination of almost the majority of the Georgian Muslim population of Mountainous Adjara and the Artvin district, they say that “nothing terrible” happened. They say that the people who supported the Turks and the rebels “fled to the mountains and forests” and to Turkish territory, and then “returned”.

 

Alas, this tragedy was only a little information. But, even reading them, you understand the horror of the situation in which the Adjarians found themselves in the winter of 1914-1915. For example, an excerpt from the story of Alexei Tolstoy "In the Caucasus" where he gives the story of a Russian officer.

 

“When the Turks approached Batumi itself, there was great excitement; all Adjara crossed to the Turkish side; it turned out a stupid situation: the Turks were thrown away, and the Adjara people had nothing but a rifle; look from the mountain to your village - and you cannot return. But the Adjarians — these in the mountains went wild — it was not difficult to lure them; Turks fell into a trap - they put a loop on themselves. I saw them near Sarykamysh: the impression is that they were driven to slaughter for forty days in the snow. And there is snow, - he nodded to the south, - soft, deep, crumbly; at the passes - cold, snowstorms; the Turks walked, after them, the corridors remained in the snow; they were driven back along these corridors. And soon it will begin to melt - even worse: such a stench and infection will arise - God forbid; where there was a battle, where there was not - frozen Turks are everywhere; they’ll hurt him a little bit – they’ll crawl away, there’s no help, and he will freeze”.

 

Here, Alexei Tolstoy in the story, as it were, “unites” the fate of the Adjarians who fled into the mountains and the soldiers of the Turkish army who were freezing near Sarykamysh. It is clear that the Russian officer knew well what was happening in the winter at the front near Sarykamysh since he himself participated in this battle. He knows firsthand what was in the mountains of Adjaria, since there were few formations of the regular Russian army here, and basically the Dashnak bands burned and cut Adjarian villages, from which the Adjarians fled to the mountains.

 

But the fact of the matter is that much greater losses, frozen, were not among the Turkish soldiers, but namely among the peaceful Adjarians who fled in the winter in the mountains, into whose villages Russian troops and Dashnak thugs burst. They had nowhere to retreat. It is impossible to return back to the villages, where Dashnaks killed them. The passes are impassable due to snow. The main roads are controlled by punitive. In frosty winters there is no food in the snowy forests. As a result, a mass of people froze to death and died of hunger and exhaustion in the mountains of Adjara.

 

What happened in the mountains and forests of Adjara and the Artvin district in the winter of 1914-1915 can imagine the surviving refugees from Sukhumi who, 79 years later, escaped from the Russian army captured by Sukhumi and gangs of militants from the Baghramyan battalion.

 

Then we recall that on the mountain roads leading from the Kodori Gorge of Abkhazia to Svaneti, thousands of Georgian refugees froze to death and starved to death. But it must be recalled that the tragedy of refugees from Abkhazia occurred in late September - early October 1993. Frosts were still not strong and only at night. And most importantly, the mountain passes have not yet been littered with snow. Help was provided by rescue helicopters from Ukraine. And still, according to some estimates, thousands died in the mountains at the passes in Svaneti.

 

Now imagine the situation of the Adjarians who, fleeing the Dashnak thugs and the Russian army, were forced to flee to the mountain forests in December 1914 and January-February 1915. The mountains are covered with 2-3 meters of snow cover. Passes are impassable. There is no food in the snowy mountains. It’s impossible to even drive cattle from villages to the mountains. Frost's in the highlands reach 20-30 degrees and lower with a freezing wind. Indeed, at the same time, under Sarykamysh, most of the losses of both the Russian army and the Turkish were frozen and frostbite to death. However, it was easier for a regular army soldier dressed in winter uniforms to escape than families of Adjara women and children in winter mountain forests who had nowhere to wait for help.

 

Behind the dry calculations of historians, a picture of the terrible ethnic cleansing and massacres of the Adjarians opens, which accounts for tens of thousands. The most interesting thing is that the materials are published by the pro-Armenian media themselves, confirming this genocide. Here, for example, are excerpts from an article by Jandan Badem published on the Regnum website under the mocking headline: “How Anti-Russian Nationalist Historians Distort History” https://regnum.ru/news/polit/2612031.html:

 

“Many Turkish and some foreign historians still claim that the Russian Caucasian army killed 45 thousand Muslim civilians in the Batumi region and 40 thousand Muslim civilians in the Kars region during the war against the Turkish army and Muslim gangs in early 1915.

 

These figures are clearly fictitious and do not rely on an analysis of documents or eyewitness accounts. "45 thousand victims of the Russian army" first appeared at the English journalist Philips Price, who visited the places of military operations in both areas in 1916. He writes that before the war, there were 52,000 Adjarians in the Artvin district, and when he visited the district, only 7 thousand people remained there. So, 45 thousand people were exterminated by the troops of General Lyakhov! Here, the lack of the most elementary logic is striking. Why exactly are "exterminated"? After all, the local population could have escaped? So it was. Most Muslims in the area fled to Turkey with the Turkish army and gangs, which is also confirmed by Turkish historians based on eyewitness accounts. ”

Today, there is a need for the parliaments of Georgia and the Turkish Republic to recognize the actions of the Russian regular army and the Armenian Dashnak band formations against the peaceful Georgian Muslim population of Adjara and the Artvin district in the winter of 1914-1915 as an act of genocide. It is important to establish a memorial day for the victims of the genocide of the Georgian Adjarians in 1914-1915.

 

 

 

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