Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 177: 37) The Great Revolt of Armenians

One thing leads to another!

Just as Bulgaria was preparing for war, the Ottoman Empire made big news again - the Armenians revolted!

Of course, the Armenians had revolted for more than a day or two, but it was different this time. They succeeded in their uprising!

It is Ferdinand's own pot. In order to trouble the Ottoman Empire, he even funded a special operation command years ago.

It was led by the rising star of the intelligence service - Molka Vardo - who led the intelligence work in the Ottoman Empire. There is only one mission, to cause trouble for the Sultan's government!

Whether it's provoking internal government strife, supporting the revolutionary party, creating ethnic conflicts, or religious conflicts, it's fine! Even if it's spreading rumors and making something from nothing.

He did not expect that Molka Vardo, who had just recently taken office, would live up to Ferdinand's expectations and make a piece of big news.

To alleviate the country's economic crisis, starting from 1893, the Sultan's government increased the exploitation of ethnic minorities. Among them, the Armenians were the most vocal and began to make their independence.

In 1894, a bloody massacre was carried out to suppress the Armenian independence movement. However, it became different in this time and space due to Ferdinand's meddling.

They delivered a steady stream of Bulgarian arms to the Armenians. Faced with the brutal repression of the Sultan's government, Armenians took up arms and rose against a well-planned massacre that turned into a civil war!

Of course, civilians are no match for the regular army, and even when the Armenians rose, they were only met with increased repression by the regime.

Historically, it took until June 1896 for the Armenians launched a massive uprising in Constantinople. In this period, they pushed it forward to February 1896, and the scale was much larger. The uprising also gained the support of other minorities such as Greeks and Jews!

On January 24, 1896, Dilange, an Armenian, owed a loan shark to the Turkish aristocrat named Gzd and could not repay it under the interest rates.

However, Lord Gzd, who is not to be messed with, brought people to collect the debt in anger, to take away Dilange's daughter to cover the debt, and the two sides clashed.

Gzd's men beat Dilange almost to death and took away his daughter, and before they left, they set fire to the family's house in order to vent their anger.

The problem lies in the fire. Dilange lives in the ghetto, a gathering place for Armenians. The house is said to be actually a shack but also stacked with firewood, which is extremely easy to burn.

If it is usually the same, the people of the surrounding area will come to put out the fire. They can soon extinguish it. At most, it will burn a few unlucky families nearby.

But this time, there was an exception. The Bulgarian intelligence agent who managed to infiltrate the Armenian resistance - Viktorikis Georgiev - was present.

He knew that the actions of the Turkish aristocrat Gzd had angered the Armenians. Still, after a long period of oppression, these ordinary people had become as numb as the walking dead and did not dare to rise against them.

He took the chance and fired a shot at Gzd, who was leaving, right in the chest, and then quickly left. The matter is very big. He shot the aristocrat lord, of course. The common people ran at once, not caring to put out the fire!

If they are implicated, the Ottoman government will not care about that much. All of them are going to lose their heads! Not to mention Gzd's men, who have the energy to fight fires?

Then, the fire grew and spread rapidly in all directions. This year, there is no professional firefighter. The fire had already spread when the government people came over.

It is also a blessing that most of the buildings in Constantinople are made of stone, and after burning the slums, it stopped. If it was in Japan, where wooden buildings dominate, it could have been the end of a city!

Even so, the fire left dozens dead, hundreds injured, and tens of thousands homeless! It included, in addition to Armenians, some Greeks, Bulgarians, Jews, and other minorities.

Viktorikis Georgiev, who had already blended into the Armenian pair, immediately reported the Turkish atrocities to the resistance, and upon receiving the news, the angry Armenian revolutionaries instantly organized demonstrations!

Demand that the government should punish the murderers and compensate the people for their losses! Obviously, the reasonable demands of the Armenians, instead of being accepted, ushered in the suppression of the army and police.

Under the survival threat, these tens of thousands of people were united by Victorikis in the name of a resistance group, and Molka, who got the message, gave him support on the spot.

They delivered two thousand rifles and more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition to the Armenian resistance, and at the instigation of Victorikis, it was decided unanimously to revolt!

Of course, it is not a rebellion that will not work. These tens of thousands of refugees' homes were destroyed by fire. It is a question of what to eat for the next meal!

The great uprising broke out, and because Victorikis performed well, the key was to get the weapons, so it was logical to become one of the leaders of the uprising!

Compared to others, Victorikis is at least a well-trained professional, participated in the Serbian uprising, and can be considered as having a lot of experience in rebellion.

With his rich experience, he led the first to capture the police station, robbed the arsenal, and quickly expanded the pairs, whether Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, or Jews, all came to be integrated.

Then with growth like snowballs, it continued to plunder Constantinople, and after capturing the Ottoman Bank building and moving all the vaults, it simply blew up the building.

Anyway, his mission was only to sabotage, and as for historically Armenian occupation of the bank building and talks with the Ottoman Empire, it did not exist.

How much Constantinople began as one of the capitals of the Ottoman Empire, the garrison was still quite a lot, and Viktorikis knew very well that with this mob of insurgents, they could not win against the regular army!

It was already the eighth day after the uprising broke out when the insurgents captured the government building, and the Ottoman Empire reacted even if they were slow to react.

After destroying the information, Viktorikis decisively handed over the building to the interim government that the resistance had set up. Under the pretext of setting up an alley battle, and in essence, was ready to run away.

As for the army's composition, unfortunately, these are not problems for Viktorikis to consider. In order to expand the revolt against the army, these are trivial. As long as the submission is made, everyone is one of us!

The Turks in Constantinople, then, were out of luck. The 'martyrs' were, of course, the heads of the Turkish aristocrats, and the insurgents soon followed his action!

Take revenge for revenge, have grievances and complaints! 1)

The whole of Constantinople has been a mess. The interim government set up by the Armenians is incapable of controlling the situation. Rape and pillage are happening in the city at all times!

Translator:

1) This is a common saying, meaning to take revenge on the person who makes a grudge and to beat up the person who makes a complaint. It usually refers to the situation when someone who is powerful and has made a lot of grudges with others, and when he is out of power, others take revenge.