Abstract:

The religious identity phenomenon within the multi-nation system that constitutes the Ottoman society has shaken the basics of the traditional nation system during the secularization process, which started with the Tanzimat reforms. The imperial orders declared during the Tanzimat period and the 1863 Armenian regulations, also affected by the influence of the missionaries, put forward the Armenian consciousness and identity towards independence instead of linking the Ottoman Armenians to the Ottoman state. In this context, the Tanzimat and the reforms that the Ottoman administrators had foreseen and desired were never able to achieve cohesion between Turks and Christians / Armenians. Developing events also caused the image of "savage Turk" to persist in the West. In fact, the main aim of these plans, imitated by the imperial states and passed on by the Patriarchate, was to separate firstly Armenians and then the Christian population from the Ottoman state. Many of the clergy, teachers and members of the parliamentary committees who served in the church and affiliated institutions regarded these wishes and desires as their mission. At the same time, the members of the resistance movement massacred many Armenians who opposed them within the Ottoman society. After the declaration of the Second Constitutional Monarchy, the intense pressure from the people a general amnesty was announced and all political prisoners were released. The Armenian committees, which had been circulating in Europe and America for years, freely returned to the Ottoman territory thanks to this amnesty. In other words, with the re-enactment of the Ottoman Basic Law, legal entitlement was granted to political organizations in the Ottoman country. More importantly, with the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy Armenians started to be able to carry weapons in Eastern Anatolia. Thus, the manifestation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy and its subsequent events were the reasons and the results of Eastern question.

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