8 - The Inspectorates

Summary

The Balkan Wars had cost the Ottomans more than the loss of territory that had been theirs for centuries. Ottoman loss had convinced both the Europeans and domestic rebels to strike against the Empire when it was at its weakest. With much of their land lost and their army and treasury in disarray, the Ottomans had no choice but to bow to the British and Russian plans for Eastern Anatolia. Any promises that the European Powers would protect the integrity of the Ottoman Empire had long been forgotten. In the Treaty of London (30 May 1913), the Ottoman border in Europe had been placed near Istanbul. When the Ottomans retook Edirne and Eastern Thrace, the British and Russians did all they could to force them to relinquish it. The British had decided that the Aegean Islands, including those close to the Ottoman shore, would be given to Greece. No rational observer could have thought that the Eastern Anatolian ‘reforms’ were not another step in the dismemberment of the Empire.

Eastern Anatolia in 1913

Before the Balkan Wars, security in Eastern Anatolia had actually greatly improved. Raids and fighting among Kurdish tribes had markedly decreased. Behind the improvements in civil order were administrative reforms and especially an increased military presence in the East. Local regions were brought under the control of provincial governors. Mounted patrols improved safety in cities. New government commissions studied and adjudicated land disputes between Kurds and Armenians and between Armenians and other Armenians. The gendarmerie was slowly reformed and put under new officers. The army pursued Kurdish raiders and even managed to collect some taxes from the tribes. (An evidence of the success of the reforms was the bitter complaints from Kurdish chiefs.) The driving force behind the improvements was the need of the government to exert control, both out of good intentions to provide security and from the desire for peaceful collection of taxes. The European Powers also could take some credit for the progress – the Ottoman Government knew that troubles in Eastern Anatolia could lead to the loss of the Eastern provinces.

Having failed in their 1890s rebellions, the Hunchak Party had been rent by internal dissension. Leadership of the Armenian revolution passed to the Dashnak Party (Dashnaktsutyun).