DEMOORJIAN: HISTORICAL FACTS REVEAL ARMENIAN GENOCIDE.
Martin Demoorjian
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Apr 25, 2012 @ 09:10 AM
MARLBOROUGH – There was an article by Gwynne Dyer (Jan. 24, 2012)
about the French legislative effort to criminalize denial of the
Armenian Genocide with fines and imprisonment. In it, he espouses
Turkey’s denialist rhetoric and incorporates Jewish and Holocaust
references and comparisons, and chastises free speech in France. The
Bill went through additional steps to possibly become law. There is
a threat that under the same stigma of free speech, rejection of the
Bill could open the door to questioning a law that penalizes denial
of the Holocaust. All yet to be seen.
France recognizes the Armenian Genocide as such and this legislation
has probably attracted more international attention for the Genocide
than the bill.
While this bill raised Turkey’s ire as such always does, since 2005,
there is a law in Turkey, Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code,
which makes it a crime to insult Turkishness and criminal to discuss
the 1915 Armenian Massacres/Genocide and it too garners prison time.
At last report there are 97 members of Turkey’s media, journalists,
publishers and distributors who are jailed under Penal Code 301, human
rights groups say this number exceeds those detained in China. This
should question free speech if democracy exists in Turkey.
Perhaps inspired by the 1915 Armenian Massacres, the French Legislation
does not specifically cite the Armenian Genocide or Turkey, so Turkey’s
familiar knee jerk reactions might well prove guilt.
Gwynne Dyer’s assertion that Armenians were not victims of genocide
attempts to re-write history. He writes, ‘~Qgenocide is a deliberate
attempt to wipe out much or all of a specific ethnic, linguistic or
religious group.’~R While he does not dispute the tragedy Armenians
endured, he gives it his spin with a distorted perspective that
echoes Turkey’s denialist campaign that obfuscates the 1915 Armenian
Massacres/Genocide. An honest examination of the issue proves genocide
as correspondence from Talaat to Jemal Bey dated February 28, 1915,
conveys in the following.
“Jemiyet (Committee of Union and Progress, the Young Turks Movement)
has decided to free the fatherland (Turkey) from the covetousness
of the accursed race (Armenians) and to bear upon its shoulders the
stigma that might malign Ottoman history.”
“Unable to forget the disgrace and bitterness of the past (Young Turks
earlier attempt to overthrow the Sultan), Jemiyet, hopeful about its
future, has decided to exterminate all Armenians living in Turkey,
without allowing a single one to remain alive…”
“The Government shall give all necessary instructions to the governors
(of provinces) and the commanders of the Army for the arrangements
concerning massacres.”
There was an article by Gwynne Dyer (Jan. 24, 2012) about the French
legislative effort to criminalize denial of the Armenian Genocide with
fines and imprisonment. In it, he espouses Turkey’s denialist rhetoric
and incorporates Jewish and Holocaust references and comparisons, and
chastises free speech in France. The Bill went through additional steps
to possibly become law. There is a threat that under the same stigma of
free speech, rejection of the Bill could open the door to questioning
a law that penalizes denial of the Holocaust. All yet to be seen.
France recognizes the Armenian Genocide as such and this legislation
has probably attracted more international attention for the Genocide
than the bill.
While this bill raised Turkey’s ire as such always does, since 2005,
there is a law in Turkey, Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code,
which makes it a crime to insult Turkishness and criminal to discuss
the 1915 Armenian Massacres/Genocide and it too garners prison time.
At last report there are 97 members of Turkey’s media, journalists,
publishers and distributors who are jailed under Penal Code 301, human
rights groups say this number exceeds those detained in China. This
should question free speech if democracy exists in Turkey.
Perhaps inspired by the 1915 Armenian Massacres, the French Legislation
does not specifically cite the Armenian Genocide or Turkey, so Turkey’s
familiar knee jerk reactions might well prove guilt.
Gwynne Dyer’s assertion that Armenians were not victims of genocide
attempts to re-write history. He writes, ‘~Qgenocide is a deliberate
attempt to wipe out much or all of a specific ethnic, linguistic or
religious group.’~R While he does not dispute the tragedy Armenians
endured, he gives it his spin with a distorted perspective that
echoes Turkey’s denialist campaign that obfuscates the 1915 Armenian
Massacres/Genocide. An honest examination of the issue proves genocide
as correspondence from Talaat to Jemal Bey dated February 28, 1915,
conveys in the following.
“Jemiyet (Committee of Union and Progress, the Young Turks Movement)
has decided to free the fatherland (Turkey) from the covetousness
of the accursed race (Armenians) and to bear upon its shoulders the
stigma that might malign Ottoman history.”
“Unable to forget the disgrace and bitterness of the past (Young Turks
earlier attempt to overthrow the Sultan), Jemiyet, hopeful about its
future, has decided to exterminate all Armenians living in Turkey,
without allowing a single one to remain alive…”
“The Government shall give all necessary instructions to the governors
(of provinces) and the commanders of the Army for the arrangements
concerning massacres.”
– Minister of the Interior, Talaat
With this reference, the 1915 Armenian Massacres was obviously a
deliberate and planned Turkish policy to eradicate the Armenians who
were systematically rounded up and forced to march into the Syrian
desert, the few who survived their misery gave harrowing stories and
are miracles in their own right.
Among many inaccuracies in Gwynne Dyer’s article he writes,
‘~RBut Armenian civilians living in the cities of western Turkey
were not massacred or deported in 1915.’~R He omits the fact that
250 Armenian intellectuals and civic leaders were rounded up in
Constantinople/Istanbul on April 24, 1915, and slaughtered. This was
an Armenian’s Kristallnacht and the beginning of the 1915 Armenian
Massacres. He ignores that in Trebizon and Sepastia where Armenians
were a minority there were no deportation orders but outright massacres
of civilians.
In 1911, when Salonika was part of the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turks
held a party meeting there. Britain’s Foreign Ministry learned of this
and it was documented by Arnold Toynbee. The meeting was infiltrated by
spies from Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, and Great Britain,
an intriguing combination in a time frame with a war yet to begin. At
this meeting the Young Turks came up with a plan to annihilate the
Armenian population through death marches as opposed to the prior
massacres of 1894-1896 and 1908. Since the Young Turks’ plan called
for annihilation, under modern international law it is genocide.
There is a plethora of documents about the burgeoning Young Turks’
intentions to exterminate the Armenians in which diplomats and private
citizens attest as stated to them by Turkish officials. Imperial
Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Only
German diplomats and military officials were allowed to enter the
areas where the Armenian massacres were taking place. These Germans
and their informants from charitable missions or employees of the
Baghdad Railway were the most important non-Armenian eyewitnesses of
the atrocities. There are many telegrams, letters, and reports from
German consular officials in the Ottoman Empire to the Foreign Office
in Berlin describing the genocide of the Armenians. Some of these
reports are presented in the award-winning 2010 documentary film AGHET.
Learning of the 1911 plan in Salonika, the Armenians became wary of
forthcoming trouble and planned to defend themselves like most would
and as we see in modern day politics in the Middle East. When Russia
invaded Turkey, Armenians may have sided with them most likely because
historical actions proved that Turks would readily kill Armenians.
They could not bet on the Turks after the Hamidian Massacres of
1894-1896, which killed 300,000 Armenians including some of my family.
This greatly impacted the Armenian population as such pogroms are
meant to do and was the greatest example of man’s inhumanity to man
up to that time. This was followed 20 years later by the Armenian
Massacres of 1915 with 1,500,000 Armenians perishing and was again
up to that time regarded as the greatest example of man’s inhumanity
to man. The 1915 Armenian Massacres was the first effort of United
States foreign aid that started as Near East Relief.
Before the 1915 Massacres, Armenians sought independence from Ottoman
Turkish rule. This was encouraged by the Triumvirate of Talaat, Enver
and Jemal Pashas that turned the tables on them and started what has
become so controversial nearly one hundred years later. The Armenians
wanted their independence the same as Kurds now do in Turkey. It is
reported that Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without
a country. I doubt anyone reading this would any too willingly want
live under the yoke of another.
In both the Armenian Genocide and Holocaust there is a commonality
of hate by their oppressors. Germans wanted to eliminate Jews and
Turks wanted to annihilate their Christian subjects, both primarily
because of their respective religions. Although, the Turks did not
bother Armenians if they converted to Moslem.
The Armenian Genocide is a well-documented historical fact. It is
the second most studied genocide and is recognized by eleven NATO
allies and the European Union and one of the crimes upon which the
United Nations Genocide Convention was predicated. The majority of
reputable scholars conclude it was genocide with a growing number of
them Turkish.
There was no court verdict to characterize the Armenian Massacres as
genocide because at the time the word was unknown but the principle of
annihilation existed and proven by earlier pogroms. The 1915 Armenian
Massacres was described as the ‘~Qmurder of a nation,’~R by the United
States Ambassador to Turkey.
While there is strong Turkish opposition to the Armenians’ claim of
genocide, Turkey can prove this by opening their archives to the many
international scholars who would welcome the opportunity to examine
the records and not only those who promote Turkey’s strong denialist
campaign reinforced by Gwynne Dyer’s article.
For those who want to qualify the Turkish position, it could be
worthwhile to provide evidence of the time that supports their
assertions. As there are many articles in major newspapers of the
time about the Armenian Massacres, it would be useful to corroborate
Turkey’s stance with like articles of the period to validate their
claims that cite Armenians killing Turks to a comparable degree.
Raphael Lemkin coined the term ‘~Rgenocide.’~R He worked with
extraordinary dedication toward the adoption of the United Nations
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
and invoked the Armenian Massacres as a prime example of genocide.
The point of my writing is to emphasize the 1915 Armenian Massacres,
a Genocide, happened and that compromising the truth, as articles
like Gwynne Dyer’s along with Turkey’s denialist campaign, degrades
human life.
– Minister of the Interior, Talaat
With this reference, the 1915 Armenian Massacres was obviously a
deliberate and planned Turkish policy to eradicate the Armenians who
were systematically rounded up and forced to march into the Syrian
desert, the few who survived their misery gave harrowing stories and
are miracles in their own right.
Among many inaccuracies in Gwynne Dyer’s article he writes,
‘~RBut Armenian civilians living in the cities of western Turkey
were not massacred or deported in 1915.’~R He omits the fact that
250 Armenian intellectuals and civic leaders were rounded up in
Constantinople/Istanbul on April 24, 1915, and slaughtered. This was
an Armenian’s Kristallnacht and the beginning of the 1915 Armenian
Massacres. He ignores that in Trebizon and Sepastia where Armenians
were a minority there were no deportation orders but outright massacres
of civilians.
In 1911, when Salonika was part of the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turks
held a party meeting there. Britain’s Foreign Ministry learned of this
and it was documented by Arnold Toynbee. The meeting was infiltrated by
spies from Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, and Great Britain,
an intriguing combination in a time frame with a war yet to begin. At
this meeting the Young Turks came up with a plan to annihilate the
Armenian population through death marches as opposed to the prior
massacres of 1894-1896 and 1908. Since the Young Turks’ plan called
for annihilation, under modern international law it is genocide.
There is a plethora of documents about the burgeoning Young Turks’
intentions to exterminate the Armenians in which diplomats and private
citizens attest as stated to them by Turkish officials. Imperial
Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Only
German diplomats and military officials were allowed to enter the
areas where the Armenian massacres were taking place. These Germans
and their informants from charitable missions or employees of the
Baghdad Railway were the most important non-Armenian eyewitnesses of
the atrocities. There are many telegrams, letters, and reports from
German consular officials in the Ottoman Empire to the Foreign Office
in Berlin describing the genocide of the Armenians. Some of these
reports are presented in the award-winning 2010 documentary film AGHET.
Learning of the 1911 plan in Salonika, the Armenians became wary of
forthcoming trouble and planned to defend themselves like most would
and as we see in modern day politics in the Middle East. When Russia
invaded Turkey, Armenians may have sided with them most likely because
historical actions proved that Turks would readily kill Armenians.
They could not bet on the Turks after the Hamidian Massacres of
1894-1896, which killed 300,000 Armenians including some of my family.
This greatly impacted the Armenian population as such pogroms are
meant to do and was the greatest example of man’s inhumanity to man
up to that time. This was followed 20 years later by the Armenian
Massacres of 1915 with 1,500,000 Armenians perishing and was again
up to that time regarded as the greatest example of man’s inhumanity
to man. The 1915 Armenian Massacres was the first effort of United
States foreign aid that started as Near East Relief.
Martin Demoorjian lives in Marlborough.
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/x643676904/Demoorjian-Historical-facts-reveal-Armenian-Genocide