WESTERN ARMENIAN REALITY IN RUSSIAN PUBLICIST T. OLGENIN’S ESTIMATION
Summary
At the beginning of the 20th century the Armenian Question entered a new stage. The defeat of Turkey in the Bal¬kan war aroused expectancies in Armenian political circles of the quick decision of that issue. The Armenian Question turned out to be in the sphere of interests of great powers - Armenia was oftener mentioned in the diplomacy on different occasions. European, and particularly, the Russian press published articles about the hard and tragic fate of Western Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
At the end of 1912 and the beginning of 1913 the correspondent of St. Petersburg newspapers “Novoye vremya” (“New Time”) - then “Birzheviye vedomosti” (“Stock-exchange Bulletin”), well-known publicist Antuan Berezovsky-0lginsky (pseudonym - T.Olgenin) arrived in Tiflis. In Tiflis (January 3), later in Etchmiadzin (January 23) he gave lectures on the Balkan war, in which he touched upon also the Armenian Question. From the end of January up to the middle of May Olgenin visited six provinces of Western Armenia ֊ Erzurum, Van, Baghesh (Bitlis), Tigranakert, Sebastia, Kharberd. Travelling about these places, he thoroughly studied the social-economic and political situation of Western Armenians. The publicist published his impressions in “Birzheviye Vedomo¬sti” in a series of correspondences under the title “Vanishing Ar¬menia”. These materials, written under the direct impression of what he had seen and experienced, have the importance of histor¬ical documents.
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