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Makale
İkinci Dünya Savaşı Sonrasında Diaspora Ermenilerinin Anavatana Geri Dönüş Çağrısını Yeniden Okumak
Rereading the Call for Diaspora Armenians to Return to Motherland After the Second World War
Hülya ERASLAN
Year 6, Issue 12, Pages:310-338
The subject of this study is the rereading of the call for immigration to Soviet Armenia, which was initiated under the leadership of the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War, according to the Turkish and British archival documents. Considering these readings, the evaluations of the period in the Turkish and Armenian press will also be used to understand the reaction of the Armenian community in Türkiye to the call for immigration. This migration movement, which is defined as the "great return" and "return to the homeland" in Armenian literature, resulted in the departure of approximately 90 thousand diaspora Armenians living in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States between 1946-1949 to the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. With the confidence of being one of the winners of the Second World War, the Soviet Union saw itself as one of the two policy-making powers in the new world order. Türkiye, which did not compromise on its neutrality policy throughout the war, was held to account by launching a immigration campaign to Soviet Armenia. The Soviet Union used the call for "return to the motherland" to legitimize the lands it demanded from Türkiye and designed the re-emergence of the Armenian question in line with its interests. As Western countries sided with Türkiye in the process, the Soviet Union could not get what it wanted and disappointed those who immigrated to Armenia. The Armenian organizations in the diaspora - the church, political parties, and committees - that supported this immigration movement from the beginning were frustrated by the failure of the Soviet attempt. This study uses historical design research, descriptive design research, and qualitative content analysis for British and Turkish archival documents and newspaper news.