Germany, the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian question

The issue of the Armenian community's relocation of the Ottoman Empire during World War I is still being discussed today among academicians, politicians and even among parliaments of several states. A consensus could not be reached on the intent of the responsible party in passing of the relocation law without establishing any doubt. Although the views of some German generals in the Ottoman army during the war were taken into consideration, it is assumed by wide circles of the academic world that it was the Ottoman state who passed this law. The role of the German government and the German military command has not been deeply analyzed up to now. An analysis of the Armenian question which emerged at the end of the nineteenth century cannot be done without looking into the role of Germany since the German military command took over of the planning of every aspect of the war in the Ottoman Empire. In this thesis, I examined the issue from this angle and tried to analyze the German role as well as their intent in issuing this law since Germany was the main ally of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. I mainly used German archives and German primary documents in my research. I collected materials from German military, foreign and state archives and concluded that the German military command, as well as the government, had an extensive role in the passing of the relocation law since the nationalistic Armenians were considered to be dangerous elements in the German military planning and its doctrine.