1986_02 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper February 1986

              February 1986
Hye Sharzhoom
Musa Dagh:
The fight for survival
By Marc E. Agabashian
Contributing Writer
Historical Research
By Robert Vartabedian
The purpose of my editorial is to acknowledge the
self-defense of Armenian peoples during the various
genocides committed against them by occupation forces.
Many people, including Armenians, are of the impression
that Armenians were led apathetically to the gallows,
playing with their prayer beads along the way. I do not
address this editorial to those people for they are so sadly
uninformed that I have neither the inclination, the time,
nor the energy to enlighten them.
There are many among us who would point to the civil
disobedience, the covert and active resistance, the
diplomatic and military aggression, as acts that would
remove the term genocide, and replace it with "Turkish
Civil War", or/§dme such term that would imply that the
Armenians confronted the Turkish government and then
lost in a collision of forces that was somehow of their own
making. Further, the Armenians pressed hard enough
and with such force within the interior of the Ottoman
Empire for an autonomous state, that the Turks had
legitimate cause to sanction the removal of the Armenian
population from those areas.
In the form of analogy I point to the genocide
committed against the North American Indians. This
period (1870-1900) is tragically depicted in American
history books as the "Indian Wars". To say that the
American Indians "warred" with the United States is as
obscene as to say the Armenians "warred" with the
Ottoman government. The American Indians faced the
same options that the.Annenians faced during the same
period. Whether one fought or not, lands would be
taken; cultures would be destroyed; populations would
be massacred or deported. One fighting man would face
numbers a thousand times greater than his own; with
primitive weapons he would face a well fed, a well
supplied, and a well trained army with modern weapons.
These were not "Indian Wars" or "Civil Wars"; these
were genocides committed on men and women who
would exercise their only options: when, where, and
under what conditions they would die. Like the American
Indians, the Armenians decided, in many cases, to die as
warriors and not as cowards, in a desperate struggle
against a people they despised.
On 13 July 1915, the Ottoman government sent
deportation orders to the villages of Musa Dagh, giving
the people eight days to prepare for evacuation. The
village elders knowing the historic realities of these orders
decided to leave this earth taking some Turks with them
as their only fulfillment during the final struggle of their
lives.
The battle of Musa Dagh is the most famous Armenian
battle during the First World War. Like the battle for
Stalingrad or the Alamo, Musa Dagh is a showcase for
the fighting wills of men and women against impossible
odds. The battle was immortalized in Franz Werfel's epic
novel, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. More importantly,
the battle (which actually lasted fifty-five days) is of
historical significance because it is one of the few major
Armenian-Turkish battles in which Armenians survived
to chronicle the events.
There were six villages located in the foothills
surrouding the mountain of Musa Dagh. Musa Dagh
was located on the Syrian coastline in the Turkish
province of Hatay, on the coastal strip which was given
back to the Turks by the French in 1939. At the time of
the battle the total population was not more than 6500
people.
At the time of the deportation orders Armenian
leadership decided to roundup the villagers and setup
camp on the mountain of Musa Dagh. Within a fortified
area the villagers took their livestock, farm implements,
and a large stockpile of food. When the five-thousand
Armenian villagers within the fortification took stock of
all available combative weapons, they found 120 Martini
rifles and shotguns, and about 350 old flintlocks which
the elders had used for hunting. Some 1,500 Armenian
villagers decided to remain in their homes and show their
loyalty to the state; they were never heard from again.
The Armenians at Musa Dagh fielded approximately
600 men of fighting age and ability. When the Turks
launched their first attack on 21 July 1915, only seventy
percent of the Armenian fighting men were armed with
guns. The women fought with knives, clubs, and an
assortment of farm implements. The attack lasted six
hours, and through a valiant effort by the Armenians the
Turks were driven back, leaving some small arms and
light artillery behind. Four days later the Turks reinforced
themselves with 2000 fresh professional troops and a light
artillery unit. The Turks pounded the Armenians
through the day and into the night. When dawn had
broken the following day, the Turks had been repulsed
further back. An infuriated Captain Rifaat Bey called in
1000 more Turkish regulars and 1800 Kurkish and Arab
Bashi-Bozooks who volunteered to come in and help with
the Armenian problem. The combined Turkish forces
broke through Armenian lines and captured the high
ground, only 400 yards from the heart of the stronghold.
But the Armenians held together, and under the cover of
darkness they staged a daring attack on a Turkish force
'The Case Of Soghomon Tehliriai
translated by Vartkes Yeghiayan
from the Armenian transcript
This book recounts the proceedings of the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian, accused of (
\the March 15, 1921 assassination of Talaat Pasha in Berlin, Germany.   Talaat Pasha i
)was the chief architect of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Tehlirian was a survivor of than
> Genocide and his subsequent trial for murder is detailed in this English translation from\
the Armenian.
First published in Germany in 1921
Mail order to:
Armenian Studies Program
California State University, Fresno
Fresno, CA 93740
Please send me ....copies @ $10.50 each
that outnumbered them ten to one. The confused lurks,
thinking that thousands of Armenians were attacking,
retreated beyond their original perimeter leaving behind
over 200 dead, seven Mauser rifles, and 2500 rounds of
ammunition, giving the Armenians replenishment of
badly needed supplies.
The frustrated Turkish army regrouped and gathered fresh
troops, and set siege on Musa Dagh from all landward
sides. The south side of the mountain bordered on the
sea, giving the Armenians hope for a rescue from the
Allied ships that patrolled the area.
The Turks became increasingly frustrated at their
inability to crush the Armenians, as they hammered at
them from their sides. Increasing their troop strength to
15,000 men, the Turks launched an assault on the 600
man contingent with 7,000 ground troops and support
units. With the Armenians relying on geographic
advantage and man-made fortifications the Turks were
never able to enter the heart of the stronghold and
eliminate the Armenians.
On 12 September 1915, on the 53rd day of the siege, as
Armenian supplies were dwindling dangerously low, the
French vessel Guichen spotted a distress flag the
Armenians had hung on a tree on the southern cliffs of
Musa Dagh. The Guichen lowered her rescue craft, and
the captain, upon hearing of the valiant defense,
telegraphed the flagship of the fleet, Jeanne d'Arc. On
admiral's orders a convoy of French ships was sent to
Musa Dagh to pickup all remaining survivors. Out of an
estimated 6,000 Armenian residents of Musa Dagh, 4,200
were rescued and transported safely to Port Said. The
Turkish casualty rate, though known to be high, has
never been tallied.
The obvious purpose of this article is to show that the
Armenians are a hardy group of people who can and will
fight effectively; who have not always been entirely doped
by superstition and other bizarre phenomena; and who,
like the American Indians, are willing to fight bravely,
knowing in almost all cases that their efforts would end in
failure. And like those of the American Indians, it would
be the future generations of Armenians who would
experience the psychic collapse created by these failures.
It is a psychic collapse that is unfounded and foolishly
subsidized by genocide revisionists who try to tamper
with the historic realities of Armenia.
The Armenians did what they could within the
historical framework of those times to survive. For
example, a fanatic fundamental religious movement was
climaxing at that time. The thought of questioning one's
Christian convictions was alien, foreign, unheard of. It
was against Ottoman law for Christians to bear arms.
Armenians were not autonomous, but they sought an
autonomous state in the very heartland of the Ottoman
Empire. To an empire on the verge of collapse, the
Armenian threat seemed very real. The Armenians were
aligned politically and religiously with Turkey's oldest
enemies—Greece and Russia. If one takes into account
the 1894-96 massacres, the years from 1896-1914, and
finally the great massacres of 1915-23, two million
Armenians (mostly women and children) were literally
butchered during a thirty period, in which the Turkish
government attempted to annihilate the Armenian people
as a whole. Given the variables involved and the design of
the Turkish government, the battle of Musa Dagh serves
as a textbook example of the valiant effort, will, bravery,
ingenuity, and especially downright luck that the Armenians needed to survive at all.
rmenian
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