In the second constituonal period the Approach of Ottoman Governments to the Kurdish-Armenian Conflicts (1908-1914)

In the Ottoman Empire, the Armenian community and Kurdish tribes live together in Eastern Anatolia for many years. Throughout the century they faced various issues in the region, especially about public order. The conflicts between the two sides, had got an international dimension after the Ottoman-Russian War in 1877-78, consequently Ottoman Empire committed to making reforms in the region. However, due to the activities of the Armenian armed committees, the attacks of the Kurdish tribes and the central authority's failure of taking the necessary measures, the existing problems in the region continued to ocur. With the re-enactment of the Constitution, it was believed that the peace and order was established throughout the country and social peace was ensured among the societies within Ottoman. During the Second Constitutional Period, Ottoman Governments aimed to prevent the disagreements and conflicts -like all the issues that was complained about- between the Kurdish tribes and the Armenian community. However, in Eastern Anatolia, many problems continued to be experienced in many issues such as the kidnapping of girls, animal extortion, abuse of civil servants, especially in public order and in land issues. Although the Ottoman Governments carried out the necessary efforts to eliminate the problems, that is mentioned above, the desired results could not be obtained from the reforms that was put into practice with the domestic and foreign political, social and economic developments. In this study, the conflicts between the Kurdish and Armenian Communities in the Second Constitutional Period are discussed. In addition, the measures taken by the Ottoman Governments to eliminate the conflicts were revealed by using Ottoman Archive Documents, Ottoman Parliament Minutes, memoirs, newspapers and magazines of the period.