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Kurds and the Armenian Genocide
By Deniz Serinci
COPENHAGEN, Denmark ` What role did the Kurds play in the Armenian
genocide under the Ottomans?
On April 24 every year, Armenians worldwide commemorate the genocide,
in which between 1-1.5 million died under Ottoman campaigns that began
in 1915. Turkey acknowledges that during World War I many Armenians
were killed, but claims the numbers have been exaggerated, and that
killings were committed by both sides.
Ugur Umit Ungor, assistant professor at Utrecht University in the
Netherlands and an expert on the Armenian genocide, told Rudaw that
some Kurdish tribes helped the Ottoman government in killing
Armenians. He said that others, for example Kurds in Dersim and
Mardin, resisted and helped the Armenians by giving them shelter, a
hiding place or help in getting to Russian-held land.
`If many Armenians live now, it is because the Kurds in some areas
protected them,' Ungor said.
`The leader of the Nurcu Movement Saidi Nursi, or Saidi Kurdi as the
Kurds call him, was probably involved in rescuing hundreds of Armenian
children by delivering them to the Russians,' he said.
Those who participated in the killings did so because of economic and
geopolitical reasons, according to Taner Akcam, a historian at Clark
University in the United States and one of the first Turkish academics
to acknowledge and openly discuss the Armenian genocide.
`The Kurdish tribes were used by the Turkish government against the
Armenians, because the Kurds claimed the same territorial area as the
Armenians in eastern Anatolia. At the same time, the tribes wanted to
gain economic advantages by killing Armenians,' Akcam told Rudaw.
The main responsibility for the massacres is blamed on the Ottoman
State and its three leaders, Enver, Talat and Cemal Pasha.
>From the 1890s the Ottoman Empire had `organized the Kurds against the
Armenians under the so-called Hamidiye Regiment, which massacred the
Armenians," Akcam explained.
Others were instigated to murder by religious propaganda.
`Many uneducated Kurds were told that if they kill some infidels then
they will go to heaven,' Ungor said.
Some Armenians escaped the genocide by converting to Islam or by
hiding, sometimes growing up in a Kurdish family. One example is
Karapete Xaco, an Armenian musician born to genocide survivors. He
later moved to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and worked for Yerevan
Radio, recording hundreds of songs in Kurdish and playing a major role
in developing Kurdish music.
Last year Ahmed Turk, a Kurdish politician in Turkey, declared that
the Kurds have their share of `guilt in the genocide, too,' and
apologized to the Armenians.
'Our fathers and grandfathers were used against Assyrians and Yezidis,
as well as against Armenians. They persecuted these people; their
hands are stained with blood. We as the descendants apologize,' Turk
said.
Although most genocide scholars have acknowledged the Armenian
massacres as one of the first modern, systematic genocides, not
everyone is convinced of that. In Turkey, referring to the 1915
killings as genocide risks legal action by the state.
According to Daniella Kuzmanovic, lecturer at Copenhagen University
and an expert on Turkey, many Turks fear that by admitting to genocide
the state risks claims of financial compensation from the descendants
of victims, or losing territory in eastern Anatolia.
But the opposition to the recognition goes much deeper: There is no
mention of the Armenian genocide in Turkish schoolbooks.
`The vast majority of Turks hardly know what you are talking about
when you mention the Armenian genocide, because it is not a story they
were told,' Kuzmanovic told Rudaw.
The denial is also about preserving Turkish national pride and
self-esteem. `To be associated with genocide means a violation of the
national pride and honor,' Kuzmanovic says.
Ungor agrees.
`If you lie to a country of 80 million people for 90 years, how
difficult is it now to say, `by the way, all we told you was a lie?''
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Kurds and the Armenian Genocide
By Deniz Serinci
COPENHAGEN, Denmark ` What role did the Kurds play in the Armenian
genocide under the Ottomans?
On April 24 every year, Armenians worldwide commemorate the genocide,
in which between 1-1.5 million died under Ottoman campaigns that began
in 1915. Turkey acknowledges that during World War I many Armenians
were killed, but claims the numbers have been exaggerated, and that
killings were committed by both sides.
Ugur Umit Ungor, assistant professor at Utrecht University in the
Netherlands and an expert on the Armenian genocide, told Rudaw that
some Kurdish tribes helped the Ottoman government in killing
Armenians. He said that others, for example Kurds in Dersim and
Mardin, resisted and helped the Armenians by giving them shelter, a
hiding place or help in getting to Russian-held land.
`If many Armenians live now, it is because the Kurds in some areas
protected them,' Ungor said.
`The leader of the Nurcu Movement Saidi Nursi, or Saidi Kurdi as the
Kurds call him, was probably involved in rescuing hundreds of Armenian
children by delivering them to the Russians,' he said.
Those who participated in the killings did so because of economic and
geopolitical reasons, according to Taner Akcam, a historian at Clark
University in the United States and one of the first Turkish academics
to acknowledge and openly discuss the Armenian genocide.
`The Kurdish tribes were used by the Turkish government against the
Armenians, because the Kurds claimed the same territorial area as the
Armenians in eastern Anatolia. At the same time, the tribes wanted to
gain economic advantages by killing Armenians,' Akcam told Rudaw.
The main responsibility for the massacres is blamed on the Ottoman
State and its three leaders, Enver, Talat and Cemal Pasha.
>From the 1890s the Ottoman Empire had `organized the Kurds against the
Armenians under the so-called Hamidiye Regiment, which massacred the
Armenians," Akcam explained.
Others were instigated to murder by religious propaganda.
`Many uneducated Kurds were told that if they kill some infidels then
they will go to heaven,' Ungor said.
Some Armenians escaped the genocide by converting to Islam or by
hiding, sometimes growing up in a Kurdish family. One example is
Karapete Xaco, an Armenian musician born to genocide survivors. He
later moved to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and worked for Yerevan
Radio, recording hundreds of songs in Kurdish and playing a major role
in developing Kurdish music.
Last year Ahmed Turk, a Kurdish politician in Turkey, declared that
the Kurds have their share of `guilt in the genocide, too,' and
apologized to the Armenians.
'Our fathers and grandfathers were used against Assyrians and Yezidis,
as well as against Armenians. They persecuted these people; their
hands are stained with blood. We as the descendants apologize,' Turk
said.
Although most genocide scholars have acknowledged the Armenian
massacres as one of the first modern, systematic genocides, not
everyone is convinced of that. In Turkey, referring to the 1915
killings as genocide risks legal action by the state.
According to Daniella Kuzmanovic, lecturer at Copenhagen University
and an expert on Turkey, many Turks fear that by admitting to genocide
the state risks claims of financial compensation from the descendants
of victims, or losing territory in eastern Anatolia.
But the opposition to the recognition goes much deeper: There is no
mention of the Armenian genocide in Turkish schoolbooks.
`The vast majority of Turks hardly know what you are talking about
when you mention the Armenian genocide, because it is not a story they
were told,' Kuzmanovic told Rudaw.
The denial is also about preserving Turkish national pride and
self-esteem. `To be associated with genocide means a violation of the
national pride and honor,' Kuzmanovic says.
Ungor agrees.
`If you lie to a country of 80 million people for 90 years, how
difficult is it now to say, `by the way, all we told you was a lie?''
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress