ABSTRACT
A number of influential historians continue to argue that the reason for the Armenian genocide derives from Armenian provocations, that is, from the intolerable threat that the Armenians presented to Turkey and to the Committee of Union and Progress. Turks and Armenians embraced in the streets." One assumes, therefore, that in 1908 Armenians as a whole and Dashnaks in particular were not a "deadly threat" to the Ottoman Empire and were not perceived to be such. The Armenian response was to ask for greater autonomy in internal matters and for greater government protection against Kurdish depredations. The precariousness of the Armenian situation was taken note of by Russia, which in 1912 once more reopened the Armenian Question. Moreover, the Armenians were not just any minority. The majority of the Greek population was exchanged against the Turks, and the bulk of the Armenians left Turkey gradually."
