INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE DEDICATED TO 1909 ADANA MASSACRE
Yerevan (Yerkir)
17.04.2009 16:56
The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute will be organizing an
international conference on April 20-21, 2009 dedicated to the
centennial anniversary of the Armenian massacres in Adana district of
the Ottoman Empire. Historians from Armenia, Italy, Hungary, Austria,
France, USA and Sweden specialized on these issues will make speeches
at the conference.
The speakers will have the opportunity to present their papers and
share their knowledge about the massacre in Adana district and in
the city of Adana itself in spring 1909 in the main reverting on the
motives of massacres as well as international responses.
In 1908, the Young Turkish revolution brought some hope for change
for the Empire’s Christian minorities. However, the initial euphoria
and hopes for equal rights for Muslims and Christians were dashed in
brutal slaughtering of Armenian population in Cilicia and its center
Adana. This massacre revived the fears of Christian minorities,
particularly of Armenians towards the traditional Ottoman policy
against them.
The Adana massacres of April 1909 became a symbolic prelude for the
state orchestrated and executed policy of genocide against the Armenian
population of the Ottoman Empire. Ethnical cleansings and large-scale
massacres were carried out even earlier; during the Hamidian massacres
in 1894-1896 about 300.000 Armenians were annihilated a nd evicted.
The study of Adana massacre reveals several important issues,
particularly in terms of crime investigation, reparation and
involvement of Turkish regular army in the massacre. These tragic
events resonated with the events of the earlier attacks on the
Armenians and brought back the feeling of the coming catastrophe.
The Adana massacres heralded a large-scale extermination policy,
which was implemented shortly after the breakout of the WWI. This
resulted in the genocide of Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire
during 1915-1922, and expulsion of several hundred thousand people
from their homeland.