Armenians were considered the most dangerous [nation] for the Ottoman Empire, the Belgian newspaper La Revue Nouvelle writes in an article dedicated to the works of the French historian of Armenian descent Mikaël Nichanian. The article reads:

“The work of Mikaël Nichanian describes the historic picture of those times: threats to the future of the Ottoman Empire and the treatment towards the Christian communities, who were considered as the “fifth column” of the western superpowers and Russia. Financial possibilities of the Christian communities also attracted attention, since they controlled the significant part of the Ottoman Empire through trade and craft.

The Ottoman Empire realized that the reduction of its territory was conditioned by the fact that the Christian superpowers of the West and East backed wars for independence in the Balkans and Transcaucasia. The Ottoman Empire faced two challenges: modernize its army and suppress the movements for independence among the non-Turkish, mainly Christian nations. Armenians were considered the most dangerous among them.

The Armenians, who escaped persecutions in the Caucasus, fell victims to the mass murders of 1918, when the Turkish army invaded the Caucasus after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Although the Turkish tribunal sentenced to death the leaders of Young Turks, including Talaat, the Genocide has been denied since the times when Ataturk came to power. And the crime of silence is the continuation of that crime.”