The bourgeois transformation and Ottomanism among Anatolian Armenians after the 1908 revolution

Abstract

This thesis examines the bourgeois transformation and the Ottomanist discourse among Anatolian Armenians. The period it focuses is between the 1908 Revolution, which was saluted with joy by most of the people in the Ottoman Empire, and the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, which was the beginning of the end for the Empire. This thesis utilizes two periodicals in Armenian published just after the Revolution as primary resources, one in Sivas and one in Harput. The main parameters along which the bourgeois transformation is examined are the mechanical and scientific advance, the expansion of the modern Western-style education, the emergence of voluntary associations and public life, the implementation of the rule of law, and the examples of entrepreneurship. A certain level of improvement was realized in all these parameters except the implementation of the rule, which should be provided by the state. The implementation of the rule of law and the equality before law were the weakest ring of the Ottoman bourgeois transformation. One aspect of the bourgeois transformation is the emergence of public opinion and its increasing importance. This thesis also looks at how some Armenian intellectuals and professionals in Anatolia tried to shape Armenian public opinion around the Ottomanism. These opinion leaders achieved to create a certain level of resonance in the Armenian community. However, the catastrophe of the First World War ruined all these efforts.