THE PERPETUATION OF STATE VIOLENCE: THE TURKISH ARMY’S INSTITUTIONAL ROLE IN THE MASSACRES OF ARMENIANS IN KARS AND SHIRAK PROVINCES (1920) AS A MANIFESTATION OF GENOCIDAL CONTINUITY

Abstract

The Ottoman army consistently played a distinct role in the implementation of the Turkish authorities’ premeditated genocidal policy against Armenians. Units of the regular Turkish army participated in the forced deportations of Armenians, the destruction of settlements, and mass killings. The Young Turks’ policy, guided by Pan-Turkist ideology, aimed not only to annihilate the Armenian people within the borders of the Ottoman Empire but also to eliminate any manifestation of Armenian statehood.

            This political line was also continued by the Kemalists. The massacres in the Vanand (Kars) and Shirak provinces of the Republic of Armenia in 1920 demonstrate that the violence against Armenians was not limited solely to the years of the Genocide but continued as a perpetuation of the same ideology. Therefore, the actions of the Young Turk and Kemalist authorities against Armenians should be examined not as isolated episodes but within the context of different stages of the same program and ideology. The article demonstrates this connection through the study of archival, field research, and specialized materials. The purpose of the article is to analyze the Turkish authorities’ continuous pattern of involving the army in the process of carrying out massacres against Armenians, exemplified by the provinces of Kars and Shirak