Abstract
Most of the Armenian historians believe that the Sasun massacre represents the starting point of what came next during First World War, namely the genocide to which the Ottoman Armenians were subjected. The authorities’ violence marks the reaction of a dying regime, discontent with the unfolding of modernity – the principle of nationalities – , with the hopelessness of controlling the outer territory, especially the one inhabited also by Kurd tribes and with the incapacity of offering a minimum standard of living to the Muslim populations from Anatolia.
The Armenians have been deemed a scapegoat to distract the empire’s reformist emerging forces, hence the regime has sacrificed them for an impossible return in time, not being possible to go back to the times of the millet system and to the cusp of certain subjects ruling over others, specifically Muslims ruling non-Muslims.