Armenian genocide

The term Armenian Genocide (also known as the "Armenian Holocaust" or "Armenian Massacre") refers to two distinct but related events: first, the campaigns conducted against the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II in 1894-1896; and second, the deportation of Armenians by the Young Turks government in 1915-1916.

First Armenian Massacre

In 1890 there were 2.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, of whom the vast majority were of the Roman Catholic or Oriental Orthodox Christian faith. The Armenians were encouraged by Russia to push for autonomy. Russia for territorial reasons wished to weaken the Ottomans, ultimately hoping to take Constantinople. Although the movement for autonomy grew rapidly, Abdul-Hamid remained determined to maintain control. To counteract the autonomy movement the Ottoman government encouraged anti-Armenian feelings among Kurds who neighbored the Armenians. The resulting harassment by the Kurds and an increase in taxes led to an Armenian revolt. In response Ottoman troops and accompanying Kurdish irregulars killed thousands of Armenians and burned several villages (1894). Two years later, apparently in an attempt to gain international attention, Armenian revolutionaries seized Ottoman Bank in Istanbul. Mobs mostly of Muslim Turks then killed 50,000 Armenians. The level of Ottoman government involvement with the mobs is not well known and debatable.

Second Armenian Massacre

Before World War I the Ottoman Empire came under the Young Turks government. At first some Armenian political organizations supported the Young Turks in hopes that there would be real change from Abdul Hamids’ policies towards the Armenian population. However they were later to be disappointed. The Young Turks feared the Armenian community, which they had believed was more sympathetic to allied powers (specifically Russia) than to the Ottoman Empire. In 1914 Ottomans passed a new law that required all adult males up to age 45, to either be recruited in the Ottoman army or pay special fee in order to be excluded from service. Most of the Armenian recruits were later turned into road laborers and executed. Those who escaped, joined the Russians on the east. In early 1915 battalions of Russian Armenians organized the recruiting of Turkish Armenians from behind the Turkish lines. In response the Young Turk government executed 300 Armenian nationalist intellectuals. The fact that most Armenian men were also butchered in the army and many influential figures arrested and killed, disproves the Turkish arguments that Armenians organized revolts and that there was a civil war, given that Armenians were outnumbered outmanned and outgunned. After the recruitment of most men and the arrests of intellectuals, widespread massacres were taking place throughout Ottoman Empire. In desperate attempts of survival, upon hearing of massacres of nearby villages, Armenians in Musa Dagh and Van organized their self defense. After waves of massacres the Ottoman government ordered the deportation of over 1 million Armenians living in Anatolia to Syria and Mesopotamia. Although the word deportation seems pretty innocent, things were not, because the deportations themselves were a silent method of massacring the rest of population, by forcing them to march endlessly through desert, without food or water or enough protection from local Kurdish or Turkish mobs. In the process several hundred thousand died in the resulting death marches from starvation, dehydration, disease or exhaustion. Several hundred thousands more were massacred by Kurdish militia and Ottoman army, giving an estimated total of 1,500,000 Armenians dead.

Statistics of the Second Massacre

Statistics regarding the number of Armenians living in Ottoman Anatolia and the number killed during the Second Massacre are disputed. The lowest numbers are given by Turkish sources and the highest by Armenians sources.

In 1896 the Ottoman government recorded 1,144,000 Armenians living in Anatolia. Justin McCarthy estimated that there were 1,500,000 Armenians in Anatolia in 1912. According to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople there were between 1,845,000 and 2,100,000 Armenians in Anatolia in 1914. Estimates range from 1,000,000 given by some Turkish sources to more than 3,500,000 given by some Armenian sources. Arnold J. Toynbee who served as an intelligence officer during World War I estimates there were 1,800,000 Armenians living in Anatolia in 1914. Arnold Toynbee's estimate is generally considered the most accurate of the ones given above. Encyclopaedia Britannica upon reviewing all available estimates took 1,750,000 Armenians living in Anatolia as their estimate.

Estimates for the numbers of Armenians who died during the Second Massacre vary even more. Some Turkish sources claim that 200,000 Armenians died whereas some Armenian sources claim 2,500,000 Armenians died. Talat Pasha, a prominent Young Turk and Grand Vizier from 1917-1918, claimed that 300,000 Armenians died. Toynbee estimates that 600,000 Armenians died during the Second Massacre. McCarthy (who is known to have a strong pro-Turkey bias) independently arrived at the same number of deaths. The historians estimate there were between 500,000 and 2,000,000 dead, but 1,500,000 is mostly used and accepted.

Events of Musa Mountain

Austrian-born author Franz Werfel, has written a book Forty Days of Musa Dagh about the events that took place in Musa Mountain in 1915. This book has been a central point in the Armenian Genocide campaign worldwide. The contents of the book has been accepted as fact rather than the fiction inspired by fact as it actually is. Later Austrian author and documentary filmmaker Prof. Erich Feigl (author of A Myth of Terror: Armenian Extremism) has claimed that the book is based on "fake and false documents" and "incorrect evidence". According to this, Werfel has written the book using the version of events told by Aram Andonian and used documents (actually the photographs of documents) provided by him. The only undisputed fact about this event is that five months after receiving the order of immigration, on September 22nd 1915, most of the Armenians in this region went to Musa Mountain (This, incidentally, shows that the order was not forced and applied simultaneously at all places, as is claimed by some sources to prove that this was a preplanned act to exterminate all Armenian presence in Anotolia). The Ottoman army force in that region was not enough to oppose and overcome the five thousand people fortified in such a mountain. Whether there was a strong engagement of forces is hence unclear. Author of one of the best books about the Ottoman fronts during World War I (Ordered to die: A history of the Ottoman army in the First World War), Edward J. Erickson, has written that there have been strong fighting for forty days in Musa Mountain, but a native of the only Armenian village in Turkey (indeed the only one outside Armenia; Vakıflı, a village very close to Musa Mountain, see the figure on right), Avedis Demirci says "There was no fighting. We went to the mountain, we stayed there for forty days, then left with the ship" (Note about translation: It is hard to preserve the exact meaning. The original interview is in Turkish and the conjugation of the verb in Turkish implies he learnt of these events rather than witnessed.)

After spending forty days at Musa Mountain, the Armenians got on to two French ships that they had contacted. The side of Musa Mountain close to sea is very steep, also the ships could not approach the land and boats needed to be made to reach them. The process of getting on the ships was difficult and painful. These ships then took the Armenians who were already tired and starved to a camp in Port Said in Egypt, after a long journey.

Later assessments

Armenians around the world recognize April 24 as marking the start of genocide at the hands of the Young Turks.

The Turkish side denies that such an event occurred. Instead, Turkish historians claim that most of the Armenian deaths resulted from armed conflict, disease and famine during the turmoil of World War I, and acts of self-defense.

In 2000, French President Jacques Chirac signed into law a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, adding France to a growing list of nations that acknowledge the atrocities of 1915.

In a sense, one of the first Usenet spamming incidents can be linked to the Armenian Genocide. During the first few months of 1994, an individual under the pseudonym "Serdar Argic" posted thousands upon thousands of messages to many different newsgroups; these messages contained long diatribes claiming that the genocide had never taken place. Similar campaigns on Usenet over this issue and others relating to attempted-genocide still continue today.

The Armenian Genocide is the subject of a 2002 film by Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan, Ararat.

The American rock band System of a Down, whose members are Armenian in ancestry, wrote the song P.L.U.C.K. (Political Lying Unholy Cowardly Killers), about the Armenian Genocide and its denial.

On April 21, 2004, the Canadian House of Commons voted to officially recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide. The motion passed easily by 153 to 68, however, the Liberal-controlled Cabinet was instructed to vote against it. The federal government, in opposing the motion, did not express a position on whether the genocide took place, but rather cited a desire to avoid reopening old wounds and to maintain good relations with Turkey.

In the past, many prominent American politicians have made statements in support of formal recognition of the Armenian genocide. While president Ronald Reagan publicly referred to the events of 1915 as a 'genocide', a major feat in and of itself, nonetheless to this day no formal resolution recognizing the genocide has been passed by the US government. The Armenian side speculates that fear of retribution from Turkey, a US ally and NATO partner, is behind the lack of formal recognition, whereas the Turkish side speculates that the only reason for the possibility of such a recognition would be the strength of Armenian lobby efforts within US rather than the genuineness of the claims.

On April 24, 2004, in marking the 89th Anniversary of the genocide, John Kerry issued a statement calling for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

President Bill Clinton issued a news release on April 24, 1994, to commemorate the "tragedy" that befell the Armenians in 1915, yet he bowed to political pressure and refused to refer to it as "genocide."

Also breaking a campaign promise, the subsequent President George W. Bush did not acknowledge the Armenian genocide in 2001, due to extreme pressure from Turkey.

Currently, only a few countries officially recognize the Armenian Genocide which include France and Canada.

Armenian Genocide memorial

Genocide memorial at the Tsitsernakaberd hill, Yerevan

Idea about the memorial arose in 1965, at the commemorating of the 50th anniversary of the genocide. Two years later the memorial (by architects Kalashian and Mkrtchyan) was completed at the Tsitsernakaberd hill above the Hrazdan gorge in Yerevan. The 44 metre stele symbolizes the national rebirth of Armenians. 12 slabs postioned into a circle, represent 12 lost provinces in present day Turkey. In the centre of the circle, in depth of 1.5 metres, there is an eternal flame. Along the park at the memorial there is a 100 metre wall with names of towns and villages where masacres are known to have taken place. In 1995 a small circular museum was opened at the other end of the park where one learn about basic information about the events in 1915. Some photos taken by German photographers (Turkish allies during the World War I) and some publications about the genocide are also displayed. Near the museum there is a place where foreign statesmen plant trees in memory of the genocide.

Reference

1915: Yüzleşme -- Gerçeği Unutan Yıl (1915: Confrontation -- The Year That Forgot the Truth), May 2004, Atlas Dergisi, İstanbul.

External links

Armenian point of view

http://www.anca.org/ (Armenian American grass roots outreach organization)
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/ (educational resources and genocide research)
http://www.theforgotten.org/ (multimedia resources, survivor accounts)

Turkish point of view

http://www.ermenisorunu.gen.tr/english/index.html (Armenian Question-Allegations / Facts)
http://www.eraren.org/eng/eren.html (Institute for Armenian Research)