Podmootiun: The Armenian History Podcast

Episode 44 Kum Kapu Demonstration

·43 min·3 clips

Protesters stormed the altar, dragged the Patriarch, and fought soldiers in a bloody church confrontation.

This episode of Podmootiun: The Armenian History Podcast examines the 1890 Kum Kapu demonstration in Constantinople. Hosts Peter Hajinian and Pater Thaddeus Parserian explore this event as a turning point in Armenian-Ottoman relations. The discussion sets the historical context with treaties like the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, which included Article 61 demanding Ottoman protection for Armenians from Kurdish and Circassian raids. Hosts note the "Armenian Question" was leveraged by European powers like Russia and France to interfere in the empire. They detail a precursor clash in Erzurum where over 15 Armenian Hunchakian party members died in July 1890. The main event occurred on Sunday, July 27, 1890, inside the Armenian Patriarchate cathedral in the Kum Kapu district. A man named John Cullian volunteered to read a manifesto criticizing the Patriarch during the church service. Protesters dragged Patriarch Horen I Asherian from the pulpit and entered his office to remove a portrait of Sultan Abdul Hamid. A New York Times report from July 29, 1890, is cited, headlined "Fighting in Constantinople, the Armenian Patriarch Mobbed." The article states the mob was armed with revolvers and spiked staves, leading to a clash where four soldiers and three rioters were killed. The hosts reveal that after a trial, John Cullian's initial death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Another leader, Hagop Vartan Patrikian, a Russian Armenian, was deported back to Russia after his trial. The British ambassador reportedly called this the first time since 1453 that Christians took up arms to defend themselves in the Ottoman Empire. A key insight is the event marked a shift in community leadership from the traditional Armenian Church to nascent political parties like the Hunchakians, founded just three years prior in 1887. The hosts ponder whether this foreign-influenced political activism ultimately brought more harm than help, as it gave Ottoman authorities excuses for increased violence. They connect Kum Kapu to later acts of resistance like the 1896 Ottoman Bank takeover and the defenses of Van, Musa Dagh, and Zeytun. The episode questions if the demonstration, while a cry for justice, inadvertently served as a precursor to the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s. The tone is conversational and exploratory, with both hosts sharing their research and personal reflections on the event's complexity. The style is educational, aiming to understand historical nuance rather than deliver a simple narrative. Listeners interested in Armenian diaspora history, Ottoman Empire studies, or the roots of political activism within oppressed communities would find this episode compelling. Those seeking a clear-cut, heroic national story might find the ambivalent analysis challenging.

As heard by us

A conversational look at the 1890 Gumkapu event and its wider Armenian context.

This listener-requested episode goes back to the 1890 Gumkapu event in Constantinople and uses it to place Armenian history inside the larger Ottoman world.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want an Armenian history story that starts in a cathedral and opens onto a wider 1890 event.

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