Armenian Genocide denial
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| − | *[http://www.armeniangenocidedebate.com Research on Armenian Genocide | + | *[http://www.armeniangenocidedebate.com Research on Armenian Genocide Debate] |
*[http://www.armenian-genocide.org/index.htm Armenian National Institute genocide research library] | *[http://www.armenian-genocide.org/index.htm Armenian National Institute genocide research library] | ||
*[http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/armenian_genocide.htm United Human Rights Council on the Armenian Genocide] | *[http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/armenian_genocide.htm United Human Rights Council on the Armenian Genocide] | ||
Revision as of 02:52, 28 August 2013
| Not just a river in Egypt |
| A dirty dozen gems |
Armenian Genocide denial refers to the denial of the genocide against the Armenians committed by the Ottoman Empire under the rule of the Young Turks from 1915-1918. Turkey denies that the Ottomans were responsible for the systematic killing of Armenians during World War I, arguing that the death toll has been inflated, ethnic violence killed Turks as well, and deportations and death marches were simply "relocation" of Armenians for "security reasons." The Armenian populations were transferred from the Eastern Turkish locations into Syrian-Ottoman territory. The argument being made by those who reject the genocide conclusion is that during the Russian invasion of Ottoman-Turkey from the North-East, the Christian Armenian rebels were guiding and volunteering for the Christian Russians and attacking supply lines in central Turkey from their Eastern positions. When the Ottoman leadership realized they could not stop the rebels efforts due to their hidden identities and using common policing tactics, they decided to forcibly but temporarily remove Armenians from their villages in the East.
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World War I and aftermath
As early as 1915, the Triple Entente alliance which includes Britain, France, and Russia issued a statement that the Armenians were the victims of crimes against humanity and civilization (the term "genocide" didn't exist then).[1] This was the response to Imperial German statements and outreach to American minorities raising awareness that the Jews were victims of crimes against humanity by the Russian Empire after the Jews were blamed for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. Tsar Alexander III had also publicly blamed the Jews.[2][3]
The Treaty of Sèvres signed in 1920 between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire created an Armenian state. However, the leader of the Turkish-nationalists and president of the Grand National Assembly, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was wanted dead-or-alive by the Ottoman leadership rejected the treat and began the Turkish Independence War.
Ataturk then attacked the Allies, including the invading Greeks, French, British, and Armenian forces and occupied Armenian territories that were captured in World War I. The Treaty of Sèvres was annulled in the course of the Turkish War of Independence and the parties signed and ratified the superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
The Treaty of Lausanne was signed between Turkey and the Allied British Empire, French Republic, Kingdom of Italy, Empire of Japan, Kingdom of Greece, Kingdom of Romania, and Serb-Croat-Slovene State since the onset of World War I.[4]
The Turkish national movement signed the Treaty of Moscow with the Soviet Union on 16 March 1921. Therefore Armenia was left without allies and without an army to contest the territory it desired during its own nationalist movement and was left with a much smaller state.
Recognition
Recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a thorny issue since Turkey occupies a very strategic position in the world. Currently, 43 nations provide some level of political recognition of the event. Historically, Turkey has leveraged its position as an important ally in the Middle East to keep the United States from issuing statements recognizing the genocide. The United States has recently joined the group of nations that recognize what the Ottomans did. Another holdout is Israel, which has only tepidly recognized the genocide. This is largely because the Israelis are in-between a rock and a hard place; Turkey is one of the few predominantly Muslim nations in their region which maintains some level of diplomatic ties.[5]
However, recognition is usually politically tied to the Armenian diaspora which has a powerful activist movement with large populations of citizenry (established when they migrated from the Ottoman Empire during World War I) in many of the countries that recognize the genocide. Therefore, those who reject the genocide conclusion tend to see no relevance to politicians recognizing the genocide. The common criticism is that politicians should not judge history, but rather historians should judge history.
Within Turkey
The Turks are probably the most outspoken objecters to the term "genocide".
Criticism of using the term "denial"
Many historians including Dr. Bernard Lewis, renowned for their expertise in Islamic empires reject the genocide conclusion. However, labeling people as "denialists" is considered a propaganda attempt to silence dissent in academia and to liken the debate to Holocaust denial, where there are no qualified academics or historians who reject the Holocaust.
Criticism of sources used to support the genocide
Those who object to the genocide conclusion point to a lot of the citations on the Armenian genocide, authors such as Peter Balakian, Taner Akcam are frequently cited for this subject, despite having no qualifications and significant bias (Peter Balakian is Armenian writer; Taner Akcam is an escaped convict from a Turkish prison).
Many of the historians cited for the genocide, are of Armenian descent such as Ara Sarafian (An Armenian historian), Vahakn N. Dadrian (an American sociologist),
While many historians rejecting the genocide conclusion are from Western nations: Islamic-empire historian Bernard Lewis, Demographics historian Justin McCarthy, Politics professor Guenter Lewy, Ottoman historian Stanford J. Shaw, WWI historian Norman Stone, and Ottoman military historian Edward J. Erickson.
External links
- Research on Armenian Genocide Debate
- Armenian National Institute genocide research library
- United Human Rights Council on the Armenian Genocide
Footnotes
- ↑ France, Great Britain and Russia joint declaration, May 24, 1915
- ↑ [http://www.bobrowen.com/nymas/propagandapaper.html German and English Propaganda in World War I]
- ↑ Anti-Jewish pogroms
- ↑ Treaty of Lausanne
- ↑ See the Recognition of Armenian Genocide Wikipedia article for a full list.