csillagkohó’s Reviews > Roving Revolutionaries: Armenians and the Connected Revolutions in the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman Worlds > Status Update

An Armenian (1906) writes that "in all the meetings where only Armenians were present, there has been 'noise, disorder, fighting'. In contrast, multiethnic meetings with Armenians, Georgians, Russians and Turks were 'organized, calmer'. This, he contends, is federation, attributing the difference to the wish of all nationalities to conduct themselves in such a way that others do not get a bad impression of them."

"In 1880 alone, 63 percent of all telegraphic dispatches—that is, 42,719 telegrams—went through the South Caucasus via the Indo-European telegraph."

🚂 "For Zavarian, every whistle of a train is 'equal to the beautiful speech recited about liberation and justice' and 'every kilometer of every steel line is worth a school, a school that serves all without distinction of language, religion, class, sex.'"

How did a "liberal" constitutional revolution lead to the Armenian Genocide? "If we adopt Şükrü Hanioğlu's argument that 'they were not constitutionalists for the sake of establishing a constitutional system; rather they thought that having a constitution would help overcome many of the problems of the empire', and that they leaned towards 'authoritarian theories' and Turkism, we get an important piece of the puzzle"