L’opinion publique britannique et la Question arménienne (1889-1896)Quelles archives pour quel récit ?

Abstract

This article will look at the massive outcry triggered by the Hamidian massacres of 1894-96 in Britain. It is almost absent from the historiography of the early Armenian Question in Britain (before 1915) to the point that the dominant historical consensus has it that the lot of Ottoman Armenians was a diplomatic concern to which the Britain remained aloof. This view will be challenged. It will be argued that the relative historiographical silence and error partly result from the apparent absence of traces of such an outcry (in the shape of public petitions) in collections that are expected to contain them – namely Foreign Office papers and the Houses of Parliament archives. Hypotheses as to why these petitions have not survived in such records will be looked into, since such an absence informs the view that the Armenian agitation in Britain at the time was very limited. This article will also attempt to sketch a history of the Armenophile movement between 1894-96 – thanks to previously unstudied sources. Eventually, it will be argued that it was at the core of intense agitation over a foreign policy and diplomatic questions in 19th century Britain

Keywords

• archives
• Armenians
• extraparliamentary movement
• Britain
• Ottoman Empire
• Hamidian massacres