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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915: AN OVERVIEW
19:27, 24 April, 2013
YEREVAN, 24 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. On the eve of World War I, there were
two million Armenians in the declining Ottoman Empire. By 1922, there
were fewer than 400,000. The others - some 1.5 million - were killed
in what historians consider a genocide.
But to Turks, what happened in 1915 was, at most, just one more messy
piece of a very messy war that spelled the end of a once-powerful
empire. They reject the conclusions of historians and the term
genocide, saying there was no premeditation in the deaths, no
systematic attempt to destroy a people. Indeed, in Turkey today it
remains a crime - "insulting Turkishness" - to even raise the issue
of what happened to the Armenians. In the United States, a powerful
Armenian community centered in Los Angeles has been pressing for
years for Congress to condemn the Armenian genocide. Turkey, which cut
military ties to France over a similar action, has reacted with angry
threats. A bill to that effect nearly passed in the fall of 2007,
gaining a majority of co-sponsors and passing a committee vote. But
the Bush administration, noting that Turkey is a critical ally - more
than 70 per cent of the military air supplies for Iraq go through
the Incirlik airbase there - pressed for the bill to be withdrawn,
and it was.
In March of 1914, the Young Turks entered World War I on the side
of Germany. They attacked to the east, hoping to capture the city of
Baku in what would be a disastrous campaign against Russian forces in
the Caucuses. They were soundly defeated at the battle of Sarikemish.
Armenians in the area were blamed for siding with the Russians and
the Young Turks began a campaign to portray the Armenians as a kind
of fifth column, a threat to the state. Indeed, there were Armenian
nationalists who acted as guerrillas and cooperated with the Russians.
They briefly seized the city of Van in the spring of 1915.
Armenians mark the date April 24, 1915, when several hundred Armenian
intellectuals were rounded up, arrested and later executed as the start
of the Armenian genocide and it is generally said to have extended
to 1917. However, there were also massacres of Armenians in 1894,
1895, 1896, 1909, and a reprise between 1920 and 1923.
Following the surrender of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the Three
Pashas fled to Germany, where they were given protection. But the
Armenian underground formed a group called Operation Nemesis to hunt
them down. On March 15, 1921, one of the pashas was shot dead on a
street in Berlin in broad daylight in front of witnesses. The gunman
pled temporary insanity brought on by the mass killings and a jury
took only a little over an hour to acquit him. It was the defense
evidence at this trial that drew the interest of Mr. Lemkin, the
coiner of "genocide."
19:27, 24 April, 2013
YEREVAN, 24 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. On the eve of World War I, there were
two million Armenians in the declining Ottoman Empire. By 1922, there
were fewer than 400,000. The others - some 1.5 million - were killed
in what historians consider a genocide.
But to Turks, what happened in 1915 was, at most, just one more messy
piece of a very messy war that spelled the end of a once-powerful
empire. They reject the conclusions of historians and the term
genocide, saying there was no premeditation in the deaths, no
systematic attempt to destroy a people. Indeed, in Turkey today it
remains a crime - "insulting Turkishness" - to even raise the issue
of what happened to the Armenians. In the United States, a powerful
Armenian community centered in Los Angeles has been pressing for
years for Congress to condemn the Armenian genocide. Turkey, which cut
military ties to France over a similar action, has reacted with angry
threats. A bill to that effect nearly passed in the fall of 2007,
gaining a majority of co-sponsors and passing a committee vote. But
the Bush administration, noting that Turkey is a critical ally - more
than 70 per cent of the military air supplies for Iraq go through
the Incirlik airbase there - pressed for the bill to be withdrawn,
and it was.
In March of 1914, the Young Turks entered World War I on the side
of Germany. They attacked to the east, hoping to capture the city of
Baku in what would be a disastrous campaign against Russian forces in
the Caucuses. They were soundly defeated at the battle of Sarikemish.
Armenians in the area were blamed for siding with the Russians and
the Young Turks began a campaign to portray the Armenians as a kind
of fifth column, a threat to the state. Indeed, there were Armenian
nationalists who acted as guerrillas and cooperated with the Russians.
They briefly seized the city of Van in the spring of 1915.
Armenians mark the date April 24, 1915, when several hundred Armenian
intellectuals were rounded up, arrested and later executed as the start
of the Armenian genocide and it is generally said to have extended
to 1917. However, there were also massacres of Armenians in 1894,
1895, 1896, 1909, and a reprise between 1920 and 1923.
Following the surrender of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the Three
Pashas fled to Germany, where they were given protection. But the
Armenian underground formed a group called Operation Nemesis to hunt
them down. On March 15, 1921, one of the pashas was shot dead on a
street in Berlin in broad daylight in front of witnesses. The gunman
pled temporary insanity brought on by the mass killings and a jury
took only a little over an hour to acquit him. It was the defense
evidence at this trial that drew the interest of Mr. Lemkin, the
coiner of "genocide."