The 20 Hunchakian gallows
| The 20 Hunchakian gallows | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Armenian Genocide | |
 |
|
| Location | Beyazıt Square, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) |
| Date | June 15, 1915 |
| Target | Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchakian) activists |
|
Attack type
|
Hanging |
| Victims | 20 |
| Perpetrators | Ottoman government |
The 20 Hunchakian gallows (Armenian: Քսան կախաղան, K'san kakhaghan, also "The 20 Martyrs" and "The 20s") is the common name for the group of Hunchakian activists who were hanged in the Sultan Beyazıt Square of Constantinople on June 15, 1915 during the Armenian Genocide.
The 7th General Convention of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party which was held in Constanţa, Romania, in 1913, had a unique and great importance not only for the Hunchaks, but in the history of the Armenian people as a whole. During the Convention, members stressed their concern of the Ittihad (Young Turk) government's blatant disregard of the Armenian lives who resided in Historic Armenia. The Hunchaks feared that this disregard would only escalate as time passed. The Hunchaks also stressed the importance of a United Independent Armenia which would be impossible under the racist and dictatorial Young Turk government's rule of the Ottoman Empire.
Thus the convention adjourned with two main objectives:
I - As stated in its original program, the party was to move from licit to illicit activities, thus becoming once again a covert organization. II - To plan and assassinate the leaders of the Ittihad (Young Turk) party, the same leaders that carried out the Adana massacres of 1909, and thus the same leaders who at that moment were planning the annihilation of the Armenian people.
However, these secret objectives were passed on to the Ottomans by an agent; consequently as soon as the delegates arrived in Constantinople, they were arrested. By the end of the year a total of one hundred and forty Hunchak leaders were arrested.
After spending two years in terrible conditions in Ottoman prisons, and undergoing lengthy mock trials, twenty prominent figures - Paramaz, Dr. Benne, Aram Achekbashian, Vanig and others were sentenced to death by hanging. A few weeks after the beginning of the Armenian Genocide on June 15, 1915, all twenty men were hanged in the central square of Constantinople, known as Sultan Bayazid Square. Paramaz's last words before his hanging were, "You can only hang our bodies, but not our ideology. ...You will see tomorrow on the Eastern horizon a Socialist Armenia."
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Wikipedia