I have put together excerpts about the Ottoman Bank and Armenians dealing with the Ottoman bank, from Mano Chil’s postings on his Facebook page. They give an interesting and fascinating insight about the Ottoman Armenian relations with the Ottoman Bank.
The following can be unequivocally said about the Ottoman Bank:
1. The Ottoman Bank was Ottoman by name only.
2. The Ottoman Bank put an end to the glorious era of the Armenian Amiras.
3. On Wednesday, 26 August 1896, 26 Armenians from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, occupied the Ottoman Bank of Constantinople. Vahe H Apelian
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| Image: Imperial Ottoman Bank Headquarters, 1896. Designed by Alexander Vallaury. |
Armenian achievements in the Ottoman Empire (posted on December 7, 2021)
“Armenian achievements in the [Ottoman] Empire were not only in trade.
In the 19th century, various Armenian families became the Sultan's goldsmiths, Sultan's architects and took over the currency reserves and the reserves of gold and silver, including customs duty.
16 of the 18 most important bankers in the Ottoman Empire were Armenian.
-- Astrig Tchamkerten”
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Armenian assets confiscated from all Ottoman Bank branches (posted on September 4, 2023
“All Imperial Ottoman bank branches complied with the strict government orders and delivered all of the bank assets, valuables and safe deposits, cash deposits and jewelry belonging to the deported Armenians. These patently illegal acts were justified by the so-called “Abandoned Properties Act.” The clout and the machinery of two powerful ministries, Interior and Finance, were fully exploited in the execution of what appears to be the twentieth century’s first state-sponsored massive robbery of its citizens.
The confiscated assets from all Ottoman bank braches were systematically transferred to the Central Ottoman Bank in Constantinople. Upon the insistence of the bank’s executives, Finance Minister Djavid provided receipts for the loot, which stated that the assets would be returned to the owners when they return to their homes. However, in September 1916 the Ittihadist leaders secretly transferred five million Turkish gold pounds ($22 million in 1915) to Berlin’s Reichsbank and deposited them… to the personal accounts of the triumvirate Talât, Enver, and Djemal.
—A Perfect Injustice: Genocide and Theft of Armenian Wealth”
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Europe’s chuck-hold of the Ottoman Empire Economy (posted on September 14, 2023)
“The two main instruments of France’s economic penetration during this period are the Imperial Ottoman Bank and the Ottoman debt.
The Imperial Ottoman Bank, which is acting both as a central bank and as a business bank, is established in 1863 and controlled at 80% by French banks, a majority which precisely marks the transition from the British preponderance to a return to the French one. It helps the French investors to have the biggest share in the railways (46.9% in 1914) and in the banks sector (37.77% the same year).
The Ottoman public finances are carelessly treated until the reign of Abdülhamit II and the situation leads in 1881 to the creation of an Administration of the Ottoman public debt (Düyun-u Umumiye), partly controlled by the creditors, to collect a part of the taxes directly and to reimburse, as a result, the debt. Yet, from 1880 to 1909, the French investors represent around 70% of the capital invested in the Ottoman debt, and 63% for the period 1910-1914.
-- Maxime Gauin”
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Mr. Berj Kerestejian, Armenian chief of the operations service of the Imperial Ottoman Bank (posted on January 2, 2023)
“Thursday, 16 July, 1914.
During a conversation with Mr. Berj Kerestejian, Armenian chief of the operations service of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, said that he always warned his countrymen against rash actions and too exaggerated demands from the Turkish government.
"There are always hot-headed persons and these are dangerous." He spoke, for instance, about the bomb attack on the bank in 1896; he was still young then and worked "upstairs"; it was an incredible audacity, and it had been successful, in spite of all of Abdul Hamid's spies.
But what did the Armenians obtain through this bomb attack? The next day thousands of Armenians were massacred in Constantinople. The Armenian officials of the bank got off relatively well — they were moved to the Ottoman Bank in Egypt — but all Armenian civil servants and officials were dismissed, driven off, and the business of the Armenians was crippled for at least ten years.
I told him my opinion on the work over there in Armenia.
"Excellent . . . tell my countrymen that they should not get involved in politics; let them do two things, which we Armenians are permitted and able to do: work and make money, nothing else. Hotheaded persons are needed for overthrowing governments, but not in Armenia."
-- L.C. Westenenk
He served for a period as a Deputy at the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Ottoman Parliament.
An anecdote is being told about his contribution to save the life of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as he informed Atatürk's lawyer about a British plot to sink his ship SS Bandırma in the Black Sea, on which Atatürk left Constantinople (today-Istanbul) in 1919 to initiate the Turkish War of Independence. He was awarded the white stripe Medal of Independence after the war.
In 1923, Berj Kerestejian sent a telegram to Atatürk in his capacity as the honorary president of the Turco-Armenian Friendship Association and a member of the secular council of the Armenian Patriarchate, confirming the loyalty and the support of his community to the political authority of the government in Ankara.
According to Fehmi Akin, following the surname reform on June 21, 1934, Atatürk gave Berj Kerestejian the family name Türker (Turkish for Turk man) for his patriotism.
Encouraged and supported by Atatürk, he run as an independent candidate for a deputy seat from Afyonkarahisar at the 1935 general elections and became a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on March 7, 1935 as the first Armenian and one of the four non-Muslims in total. The same day, he also became a member of the economic commission of the parliament thanks to his expertise. He repeated his membership of the parliament twice more after the general elections in 1939 and 1943.
During his political career in the parliament, Berj Türker Kerestejian made significant contributions to issues of general political, economic, social and international developments.
After his retirement in 1947, he lived at Büyükada, Istanbul. Berj Türker Kerestejian died in Istanbul, on 27 July 1949, and interred on 29 July in the same city.”
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