April 24th is the day that the many commemorate the Armenian Genocide committed by Turks in 1915. Amid the upheaval of World War 1, when countless villages across the
Ottoman Empire became killing fields as the desperate leadership of this
region, having lost the Balkans and facing the prospect of losing its
territories as well, saw an imagined threat at home.
Worried that the Christian Armenian population was planning to align
with Russia, the then primary enemy of the Ottoman Turks, officials
embarked on what historians have called the first genocide of the 20th
Century.
Nearly 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed, becoming
tragically part of one of the biggest atrocities of the Great War.
Initially intellectuals and community leader were rounded up, one by
one, then thousands were instantly slaughtered, there were reports of
mass burnings, others put in concentration camps, to be tortured and
gassed, others left to die of starvation, exhaustion and disease. Rape
was frequently reported too. All this occurred between 1915-1923, to
further add to this misery, the great bulk of the Armenian population
were forced from Armenia to Syria, where the vast majority were sent
into the desert to die of thirst and hunger.Armenians have since called these events Medz Yeghern (the great crime) or Aghet (catastrophe)
In 1919, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Grand Damat Ferid Pasha officially declared that a crime had been perpetrated against the Armenians and the foreign mininster admitt that some 800,000 Armenians had been deported..When Mustafa Kemal Ataruk, the father of modern Turkey opened his new country's parliament in Ankara on April, 24,1920, he called the genocide of Armenians a "shameful act of the past."
On the same day, the Armenian community that had survived held a commemoration ceremony at the St. Trinity Armenian church in Constantinople. Following its initial commemoration in 1919, this date became the annual day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide.
This horrific moment in time has since though with great shame been
bitterly contested by Turkey, under President Erdogan the successor of
the Ottoman Empire, who has consistently denied the word genocide, as an
accurate term for what happened. Despite pressure from Armenians and social justice advocates throughout
the world, it is still illegal in Turkey to talk about what happened to
Armenians during this era. After the Ottomans surrendered in 1918, the leaders of the Young Turks
fled to Germany, which promised not to prosecute them for the genocide.
Ever since then, the Turkish government has denied that a genocide took
place.
Years later the issue of whether to
these killings a genocide remain raw and emotional, both for the
Armenians, who are descended from those killed, and the Turks, the heirs
to the Ottomans. For both, the question touches as much on national
identity, as it does on historical facts.
Whilst at the same time for geopolitical reasons the U.S.A too, has
never labelled the atrocities committed by Turkey as genocide, being
close friends with Turkey, their allies in the NATO alliance, .U.S. presidents have at least for decades acknowledged Remembrance Day, though it
should be noted that Robert Dole in the Senate once introduced a mild
resolution commemorating 1990 as the 75th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide, at the time when the Israeli government worked with the Turkish
government to lobby against it. ( The resolution was subsequently
defeated in the Senate)
President Obama himself, pledged in his Presidential
campaign to call it genocide, but two terms into to his Presidency,but he
remained silent.
However in positive news President Joe Biden today recognized the Armenian genocide, fulfilling a campaign promise and
taking a step that his recent predecessors have avoided while in office and. , signals the president’s desire
to prioritize human rights despite potential fallout in the U.S.
relationship with Turkey.
President Joe Biden on Saturday
recognized the Armenian genocide, fulfilling a campaign promise and
taking a step that his recent predecessors have avoided while in office.
Biden’s designation, signals the president’s desire
to prioritize human rights despite potential fallout in the U.S.
relationship with Turkey.
“The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide,” Biden said.
"!Over
the decades Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in
countless ways, but they have never forgotten the tragic history that
brought so many of their ancestors to our shores. We honor their story.
We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame
but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.”
The full statement can be read here ;- https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/24/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-armenian-remembrance-day/
Biden’s designation, which coincided
with Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, signals the president’s desire
to prioritize human rights despite potential fallout in the U.S.
relationship with Turkey. it has been said that he plans to follow through on a
campaign pledge to formally recognize that atrocities committed against
the Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire more than a century ago in
modern-day Turkey were genocide, according to U.S. officials.
During a telephone call Friday, Biden informed Turkey’s president, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, of his plan to issue the statement, said a person
familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss the
private conversation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Separate statements afterward by the two governments made no mention
of Biden’s plan. The White House said Biden told Erdogan he wants to
improve ties and find “effective management of disagreements.” The two
also agreed to a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit in Brussels in
June.
Biden, who pledged as a candidate to recognize the massacre as
genocide, arguing that “silence is complicity,” wanted to speak with
Erdogan before making the formal recognition, according to officials
familiar with Biden’s deliberations and plans. The officials were not
authorized to publicly discuss the matter before Biden issued the
proclamation and they spoke on condition of anonymity.
Friday’s call was the first between the presidents since Biden took
office more than three months ago. The delay had become a worrying sign
in Turkey. Erdogan had good rapport with President Donald Trump and had
been hoping for a reset despite past friction with Biden.
The fact that Israel has continued to this day to be very strongly opposed to
efforts being made to recognise the Armenian genocide, for me is really
quite astonishing. Especially from a country founded in the aftermath
of its own genocide, holocaust. There are growing calls from within
Israel for them to finally recognise this historical fact , and not to
be in denial, which would be good, since both peoples, the Armenians
and the Jewish people having suffered the same fate, the same terrible
tragedies. But at the end of the day the Turks are their allies, and
you don't want to alienate allies, do you, because that's much too
important. Israel thinks it's not their business, lets simply not talk
about the Armenian holocaust, but any conciliatory offerings, I am sure
will be welcomed.
Sadly the British government will not
recognise it, despite ironically Winston Churchill hilst making war on Turkey, ton Turkey, who used the Greek word Holocaust - originally meaning a
sacrifice by fire - to refer to reported burning of Armenians in a pit,
and thus gave the word its modern meaning of genocide and also wrote "There is no reasonable doubt that this
crime was planned and executed for political purposes." He also used
the phrases "Administrative Holocaust" and "clearance of race".
Yet countries like Canada, Argentina, France, Greece and Russia,
Poland and Switzerland where the survivors of the Armenian genocide
and their descendents live have officially recognised the Armenian
genocide, thus helping the process of healing.
I believe the voices of the people killed and those haunted should
not be forgotten, we should mark their identity, and the psychic wounds
that have passed through generations.
Years later Hitler would use this model of genocide for his own tools
for a Holocaust. Hitler and Himmler, guided by the same evil, were
inspired by the Ottoman Empires own methods of quiet extermination.
Mass genocidal maniacs since like Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot followed suit
with their own reigns of terror and slaughter of millions.
We should recognise the sad fact that Turkeys lack of contrition
leaves descendents struggling to reconcile loss and renewal. It is
simply implausible that we should still question the reality of this
appalling terrible injustice.
It is a moral necessity that we continue to condemn these massacres
and ethnic cleansing of Armenians, that began on this day. To continue
to deny this truth amounts to a criminal lie. We need to enshrine in our
collective memory this crime against humanity, so as to ensure that it
is understood, learnt and transmitted to future generations. We need to
recognise the wounds that have never been able to be healed.
Armenian refugee children 1915
Hearing the cry of a mother's inconsolable grief following the death of a child in a war zone - is a cry like no other!
ReplyDeleteWhat was the percentage of Armenians killed compared to their population?
ReplyDeletenot sure of exact percentage There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the Empire. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide.
DeleteOn a history site in relation to this post I have been accused o being a liar. Despite hundreds of books by genocide scholars, tons of documents in German, Austrian, British, French, American and Russian archives, eyewitness accounts, diplomatic reports and countless Western newspaper reports, Turkey inexplicably denies that, in 1915, it committed a deliberate, government-organised genocide against its Armenian minority.The Turkish government repeatedly denies the genocide took place, which is a painful experience for Armenian communities. One of the reasons why Turkey continues to deny the Armenian Genocide took place are the potential repercussions and reparations if acknowledged. Evidence states that Turkey continues to re-frame history by blaming and dehumanizing Armenians. In Turkey, it is illegal to mention the Armenian Genocide and children are socialised from a young age into a supposed nationalist view. Many historians who have carried out research and claim what happened to Armenians was a “genocide,” has further fuelled anger in Turkey. Researchers and journalists who have openly spoken about the Armenian genocide in Turkey have been prosecuted, received death threats, and viewed as enemies by the Turkish government. This highlights the danger in openly speaking out on the genocide in Turkey, as it is a challenging subject that may have a detrimental impact on one’s life. The Turkish denial has a damaging impact on Armenian people by making them live in a world where their suffering is overlooked by those who committed the genocide.
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