The Murder of Rupen Sevag Çilingiryan and a Conspiracy Theory

Abstract

Armenian poet Rupen Sevag Çilingiryan was arrested and exiled to Çankırı as part of the arrests carried out during and after 24 April 1915 and was subsequently murdered by a group of bandits on the road between Çankırı and Ankara. In recent years, several studies suggested that the murder of Çilingiryan was organized by the Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress. This article examines the allegations suggesting that the band of Kurd Alo, who murdered Çilingiryan, were being protected by the Committee of Union and Progress in general and Interior Minister Talat Pasha in particular. While the evidence offered in support of these allegations remains unconvincing, they are also based upon documents used out of their proper context as well as misinterpretation. These allegations rest upon the assumption that the two separate individuals, identified as Kurd Alo and Mehmet Ali from Nallıhan in the sources, were in fact one and the same person. The article establishes that these two were in fact different and separate individuals. There is no indication to support these allegations that the Ottoman interior minister did in fact intervened to protect and release the members of this band. Moreover, these allegations ignore that as a result of the investigations and operations launched, some members of this band had been captured and that the Committee of Union and Progress leaders actually wrote instructions in order to apprehend the members of this band.