The 61th article of the Treaty of Berlin (1878) stipulated that reforms should be done in the Armenian vilayets of the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Sultan, Hamid II, fiercely opposed these reforms, regarding them as pretext by the Great Powers to intervene in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire. He masterfully manipulated the political rivalries between Great Britain, France, Russia and Germany in order to avoid any reforms in the Armenian Vilayets.

It was during the Ittihad ve Terakki regime of the Ottoman Empire that an agreement was signed between the Great Powers and the Turkish government, regarding the reforms in “Eastern Anatolia”, namely in the vilayets of Erzurum, Trabzond, Sivas, Van, Bitlis, Harpoot – Kharpert – and Diarbekir. This agreement stipulated, among other things, that two European controllers (called General Controllers) would oversee the reforms.

This is the Armenian translation of that agreement (the original is in French), which was signed on January 26, 1914. This translated document bears the call number 116-28 in the ARF archives.

Filed under: Documents