armenian genocide

The term Armenian Genocide (also known as the Armenian Holocaust or Armenian Massacre) refers to the deportations and related deaths of Armenians during the government of the Young Turks in 1915-1917. Several facts in connection with the Armenian Genocide are currently causing dispute between parts of the international community and Turkey. There is an agreement about the occurence of the tragedy. However, there is ongoing debate on two issues, "whether it was a state-sponsored extermination plan, hence genocide" and "whether the tragedy was one sided or the Turks were also massacred by Russian-supported Armenian militia". Most Armenian, many Western and some Turkish scholars believe that the Armenian deaths were the result of a state-sponsored extermination plan. Most Turkish scholars, on the other hand, claim that a clash between the two sides, along with famine and disease, was the reason why a number of Armenians perished. Death toll claims range from 200,000 to 1.8 million, and while there is no official international consensus regarding exactly how many Armenians died, most Western sources maintain that at least one million deaths took place. What is referred to as the Armenian Genocide is the second most studied case of what is called genocide and often draws comparison with the Holocaust. Some countries, as discussed below, have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide.

Armenians in Anatolia

In 1914, before World War I, there were an estimated 2 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, the vast majority of whom were of the Armenian Orthodox or Roman Catholic faith. Until the late 19th century, the Armenians were referred to as "millet-i sadika" (fidel nation) by the Ottomans, as they were living in harmony with other ethnic groups in Eastern Anatolia without any major conflict with the central authoritythis despite religious and ethnic differences and the Christian Armenians being subject to Islamic dhimmi laws. While the Armenian population in Eastern Anatolia was large and clustered, there was also a considerably large community of Armenians in the west, most of whom lived in the capital city of Istanbul where a substantial community remains to this day. The communities in Eastern Anatolia suffered the heaviest fatalities.

The Relocation of Armenians

Before World War I, the Ottoman Empire came under the government of the Young Turks. At first some Armenian political organizations supported the Young Turks, in hopes that there would be a significant change due to a variety of Abdul Hamid's policies towards the general and Armenian population. In this respect, many Armenians were elected to the Ottoman Parliament, where some remained throughout World War I. In 1914, the Ottoman government passed a new law to support the war effort that required all enabled adult males up to age 45 to either be recruited in the Ottoman army or pay special fees in order to be excluded from service which would still be used in the war effort. Following Ottoman Empire's entry in WWI, the Imperial Russia has invaded Eastern Anatolia, where the Armenian and muslim communities were interleaved. Taking advantage of common religion and recent discomfort of the Armenian community in Ottoman Empire, Russia was promoting Armenian nationalism and there were many Russian-Armenians in the Russian army. Late in 1914, Russian supported and tranied Armenian militia started treachery and attacking on muslim villages. On April 24, 1915, the Young Turk government ordered the relocation of hundreds of thousands, or perhaps over a million, Armenians from the Caucasus regions (Eastern Front) to Mesopotamia and what is today Syria. One consequence of this relocation was a significant number of fatalities. The statistics regarding the number of fatalities are disputed; the numbers range from 200,000 to 1.8 million, as aforementioned. Official German and Austrian documents record that the total may be over a million, while the official Ottoman records present 800,000 killed (suggesting that over a million may have perished); most Western scholars accept the contention that one million or more died. The Turkish government, most Turkish scholars, and some Western scholars dispute those figures, claiming that the actual number of casualties was much lower.

The Camps

The Ottoman Empire had set up a recorded twenty-five to twenty-six of what are often called major "concentration camps" (Deir-Zor, Ras Ul-Ain, Bonzanti, Mamoura, Intili, Islahiye, Radjo, Katma, Karlik, Azaz, Akhterim, Mounboudji, Bab, Tefridje, Lale, Meskene, Sebil, Dipsi, Abouharar, Hamam, Sebka, Marat, Souvar, Hama, Homs and Kahdem), under the command of ukru Kaya, one of the right hands of Talat Paşa. The majority of the camps were situated near the Iraqi and Syrian frontiers, and some were only temporary transit camps. Other camps were only used as temporary mass burial zonessuch as Radjo, Katma, and Azazthat were closed in Fall 1915. After reports of deaths, the camps Lale, Tefridje, Dipsi, Del-El, and Ras Ul-Ain were built specifically for those who had a life expectancy of a few days. The majority of the guards inside the camps were Armenians. Even though nearly all the camps, including all the major ones, were open air, according to records, some were not. Other camps existed, according to the military court, that were irregular Red Crescent camps used to kill by morphine injection (two Saib (health inspector) colleagues, Dr. Ragib and Dr. Vehib, testified during the court) and from which bodies were thrown into the Black Sea. In other instances, according to records, there were some small-scale killing and burning camps where the Armenian population was told to present itself in a given area, and was subsequently burned en mass. Other records from the military tribunal suggest that gassing installations existed as well. Other tribunal testimonies put forth that Dr. Saib and Nail, an Ittihadist deputy, were heading two school buildings used as extermination camps for children. Both Saib and Nail were allegedly in charge of providing the list of children who were to be distributed among the Muslim populace; the rest of the children were to be sent to the mezzanine floor to be killed by a mass gassing installation. The children were sent there under the pretext of taking baths but were poisoned instead. While the total number of victims that perished in all such camps is hard to establish, it is by some sources estimated that close to a million would be a reasonable figure. This excludes Armenians who may have died in other ways, but may include the special organizations participation in the events; the majority of the excluded losses are recorded in Bitlis and Sivas.

The special organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa)

While there was an official special organization founded December 1911 by the Ottoman government, the second organization that participated in what led to the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians community was founded by the lttihad ve Terraki technically appeared in July 1914 and was supposed to be different than the already existing organization in one important point, according to the military court and other records, it was meant to be a government in a government(without needing any orders to act). Later in 1914, the Ottoman government decided to draw the direction the special organization was supposed to take by releasing criminals from central prisons to be the central elements of this newly formed special organization. According to the Ottoman commissions attached to the tribunal, example, the Mzhar commision, in Sivas, as soon as November 1914, 124 criminals were released from Pimian prison, and many other releases followed, in Ankara following few months later, 49 criminals were released from its central prison. Little by little from the end of 1914 to the beginning of 1915, hundreds of prisoners were freed to form the members of this organization that later were charged to escort the convoys of Armenian deportees, the number then grew to thousands. The commander of the Ottoman third army, Vehib called those members of the special organization, the butchers of the human specy. This organization was led by the Central Committee Members Doctor Nazim, Behaeddin Sakir, Atif Riza, and former Director of Public Security Aziz Bey. The headquarters of Behaeddin Sakir were in Erzurum, from where he directed the forces of the Eastern vilayets. Aziz, Atif and Nazim Beys operated in Istanbul, and their decisions were approved and implemented by Cevat Bey, the Military Governor of Istanbul. According to the same commisions and other records, the criminals were chosen by a process of selection, they had to be ruthless butchers to be selected as a member of the special organization. The Mazhar commission during the military court, has provided some lists of those criminals, in one instance for example, from the 65 criminals released 50 were in prison for murder, the lists all gave such a disproportionate ratio between those condemned for murder and others for minor crimes which constituted a clear minority. This process of selection of the criminal was according to most Western researchers was a clear indicative of the government intention to commit mass murder of its Armenian population. It must be noted as well, that according to records, physicians participated in the process of selection, where health professionals were appointed by the war ministry to determine whether the selected convicts would be fit to apply a degree of savagery of killing that was required. It is estimated that the members of the special organization have killed hundreds of thousands of Armenians.

Millitary trials, Istanbul, 1919

Many of those responsible for the genocide where sentenced to death in absentia, after having escaped their trials in 1918. The accused succeded in destroying the majority of the documents, that could be used as evidence against them, before they escaped. The martial court established the will of the Ittihadists to eliminate the Armenians physically, via its special organization. The Court Martial, Istanbul, 1919: "The Court Martial taking into consideration the above-named crimes declares, unanimously, the culpability as principle factors of these crimes the fugitives Talat Pasha, former Grand Vizir, Enver Efendi, former War Minister, struck off the register of the Imperial Army, Cemal Efendi, former Navy Minister, struck off too from the Imperial Army, and Dr. Nazim Efendi, former Minister of Education, members of the General Council of the Union & Progress, representing the moral person of that party;... the Court Martial pronounces, in accordance with said stipulations of the Law the death penalty against Talat, Enver, Cemal, and Dr. Nazim."

Recent History - Timeline

1975: ASALA, a terrorist group that claimed recognition of genocide by Turkish government, was founded. Backed by some western countries, the group has killed several civilians and Turkish diplomats in various bombings and assasinations until the early 80's.
April 24, 1994: President Bill Clinton issued a news release to commemorate the "tragedy" that befell the Armenians in 1915, yet he bowed to political pressure and refused to refer to it as "genocide," despite referring to the massacre as such before being elected president.
2002: The Armenian Genocide is the subject of the film Ararat, by Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan.
February 20, 2003: A recent report on "The Applicability of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to Events which Occurred During the Early Twentieth Century" by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) states that "...at least some of the perpetrators of the Events knew that the consequence of their action would be the destruction, in whole or in part, of the Armenians of Eastern Anatolia, as such, or acted purposively towards this goal, and, therefore, possessed the requisite genocidal intent." The report concludes that "...the Events, viewed collectively, can thus be said to include all of the elements of the crime of genocide as defined in the UN Convention, and legal scholars as well as historians, politicians, journalists and other people would be justified in continuing to so describe them" (p. 17).

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.
April 24, 2004: in marking the 89th Anniversary of the genocide, John Kerry issued a statement calling for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
March 1, 2005: Two Armenian historians withdrew from the second Vienna Armenian-Turkish Platform meeting to be held in May, which was arranged for document exchange between Turkish and Armenian historians.
March, 2005: Poltical parties in Turkey came togerther made a declaration to invite Armenia to bring together a committee of historians from both sides to clarify the historical accounts in cooperation. The Armenian foreign minister rejected the invitation immediately, stating that "the genocide is a matter of politics, not history".
????: Also breaking a campaign promise, the subsequent President George W. Bush refused to use the word "genocide" to describe the killings, though promising Armenian-Americans during his election campaign to recognize the "genocidal campaign" to which Armenians were subjected.
????: 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 the denial of it as genocide.

Official Recognition

Several countries officially recognize the Armenian Genocide, including Argentina, Armenia, Canada, France, Italy, Greece, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay and Vatican City.

The majority of US states also recognize the Armenian Genocide, however there is no federal (Country-wide) recognition.
the Canadian House of Commons voted to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. The federal government, in opposing the motion, did not express a position on whether the genocide took place.
International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) Report Prepared for TARC
La Ligue des Droits de l'Homme
Parlamenta Kurdistan Li Dervey Welat
Permanent Peoples' Tribunal
European Alliance of YMCAs
The Association of Genocide Scholars
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
World Council of Churches
The Turkish Human Right Organization
United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly
European Parliament

Turkish intellectuals who support the theses of genocide

There are a number of Turkish scholars who support the theses of genocide, including Taner Akam and Halil Berktay. Despite being protested strongly by some Turkish nationalists, these scholars freely express and publish their opinions in Turkey. However, the Armenian propagandists falsely claim that confirming the so-called genocide is a crime subject to imprisonment in Turkey. Orhan Pamuk, a famous Turkish novelist, has also recently told the press that he believes that a million Armenians were killed in Turkey. The reason why some Turkish intellectuals accept the theses of genocide, lies behind three important points. First, the fact that this organization members were criminals, and that those criminals were specifically sent to escort the Armenians, for them is enough evidences of a government criminal intention. Second, the fact that not only the Armenians living in the war zone were removed, according to them this plays against the theses of military necessity vehiculed by the Ottoman government. Thirdly, according to them, the theses of simple relocation does not make sense, because there was no dispositions taken suggesting a resettlement, which could mean that the government didn't expected Armenians would survive. Dr. Taner Akam, a Turkish specialist, write about this point: The fact that neither at the start of the deportations, nor en route, and nor at the locations, which were declared to be their initial halting places, were there any single arrangement, required for the organization of a people's migration, is sufficient proof of the existence of this plan of annihilation. Those Turkish intellectuals believe that at the very least 800,000 perished.

Armenian Genocide memorial

The idea of 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 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 massacres 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 World War I) and some publications about the genocide are also displayed. Near the museum is a spot where foreign statesmen plant trees in memory of the genocide. Each April 24th (Armenian Genocide Commemoration Holiday) hundreds of thousands of people walk to the genocide monument and lay flowers (usually red carnations or tulips) around the eternal flame. Armenians around the world mark the genocide in different ways, and many memorials have been built in Armenian Diaspora communities.