Yük Taşımacılığından Devlete İsyana: Ermeni Hamallar
From Burden Bearing to Rebellion against the State: the Armenian Porters

Summary/Abstract: How could effective porters be in the social and political life of a state? Some interesting answers can be found to this question by evaluating the Armenian porters who worked in all around Anatolia and particularly in the ports of the Ottoman capital, Istanbul. The Armenian carriers, whose amount reached tens of thousands, lived in bachelor rooms rather than neighborhoods. They were so strong that they supported Habsburg boycott, that they supplied the church and the schools, and that they participated in the ethnic rebellions, which were triggered by Armenian committees like Dashnak and Hınchak. Although Armenian Carriers was sent to their home cities with local exportation because of their potential threat to public security, they cooperated with the Russian Army in the Great War for the establishment of their nation-state as Bulgaria and Romania. Therefore, porters, who belonged to the lowest class of society had the power to change the balances of the Ottoman State.

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