Helium
April 24 2010
How the Armenian genocide ended
by Sherry Horton Blake
The Armenian genocide took place during World War I between 1915 and
1918. It is little discussed, and its perpetrators still deny that
genocide occurred. However, genocide did occur and continued even
after the Armistice of 1918, and the Peace Treaty of 1923. The
Armenian people were subjected to deportations involving forced
marches, torture, massacre and starvation by the "Young Turk"
government of the Ottoman Empire. It is estimated that one-and-a-half
million Armenians died between 1915 and 1923.
While the genocide was occurring, there were many documented
eye-witness accounts of state-ordered massacres, but any inquiries
into the situation by foreign officials were met with claims by the
Ottoman government that they were simply protecting themselves against
a pro-Russian insurrection. Although America, along with all the major
powers, condemned the happenings, unfortunately America’s desire for
economic access to Turkey won out over any attempt by the United
States to help the Armenian people.
Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, gave
the Armenian people hope when he delivered his Fourteen Points to
Congress in 1918, as in the twelfth of these points he stated, "the
other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured
an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity
of autonomous development." Unfortunately, he had little backing in
Congress or among the American people. Congress, along with the High
Commissioner to Turkey, Admiral Mark Bristol, viewed the problem
totally from a position of self-interest, and Congress rejected the
mandate for a new Armenian state in 1920, stating the potential for
generalized instability in the Middle East.
The Armenians received no assistance from the outside world during the
genocide. It was the Armenians themselves who eventually turned the
tide. When Russian troops who had attacked the Eastern Front and made
their way into Central Turkey withdrew due to the Russian Revolution
in 1917, many Armenian survivors left with them and settled in
provinces of the former Russian Empire along with Armenians who were
already there. An estimated 500,000 Armenians gathered in this area.
Turkish armies attacked this area in 1918, killing an estimated
100,000 Armenians. However, the remaining Armenians had acquired
weapons and were able to fight back, winning the battle of Sardarabad,
and thus turning the tide. Armenian leaders then declared
establishment of the independent republic of Armenia.
Shortly before World War I ended, the Young Turk triumvirate fled to
Germany. Although repeated requests were made by Turkey’s new
government for Germany to send the Young Turks back to stand trial,
Germany refused. However, Armenian activists located them and
assassinated them.
Turkey’s defeat in World War I, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and
the battles fought by the Armenians themselves brought an end to the
Armenian genocide. Since then, the Turkish army has donated millions
of dollars to a propaganda campaign insisting that no genocide took
place. They have received support from NATO and other western
countries. All resolutions to recognize the Armenian genocide have
been opposed by the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations.
Stanley Cohen of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has stated, "The
nearest successful example {of collective denial’} in the modern era
is the 80 years of official denial by successive Turkish governments
of the 1915-17 genocide against the Armenians in which some 1.5
million people lost their lives. . . . The West, especially the United
States, has colluded by not referring to the massacres in the United
Nations, ignoring memorial ceremonies, and surrendering to Turkish
pressure in NATO and other strategic arenas of cooperation."
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