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Thu, Feb 09 2012
US holds firm on issue of 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
Greek and Armenian refugee children in the sea near Marathon, Greece, c. 1915.
Photo: library of congress
A majority of scholars and historians agree that the massacre of an estimated one million Armenians during World War I constitutes genocide as defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide. The text defines genocide as the intentional killing of all or part of a designated people defined by their faith, their race, their ethnicity or their nationality.
However as Ronald Suny with the University of Chicago explains, the Turkish government has a diametrically opposed view.
"Turkey rejects the notion of genocide - actually the word or the term 'genocide.' They have acknowledged that there were deportations - there is no question about that - and that there were massacres and killings. What they deny is that the massacres and killings were intentionally organized and carried out by the government - and that the killings were anything more than collateral damage," he said.
Turkey rejects use of "genocide"
Roger Smith, a co-founder of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, says many Turks refuse to use the word 'genocide.'
"I worked with some Turkish scholars and these are people who would be considered liberals and so on - but even they really kind of shy away from using the word 'genocide.' They will talk about massacres - you lay all of these things out and they say yeah, yeah, yeah, this happened, okay - well no, I don't want to use that word. So there is this emotional antipathy to pronouncing what people now almost jokingly call the 'G' word," he said.
Smith says Turkey's position is difficult to sustain. "Turkey's persistent denial and inability to face, or unwillingness to face up to its history is very disruptive in all kinds of ways - in terms of international relations, in terms of its own internal politics - and it also prevents it from really recognizing how do you deal with minorities," he said.
Recently the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed a non-binding resolution recommending that President Barack Obama recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
Obama administration's position
The Obama administration opposed the resolution. After the measure passed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration does not believe the full House of Representatives will or should vote on the resolution.
Turkey immediately recalled its ambassador to Ankara for consultations. And Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated he might not attend a mid-April nuclear energy summit in Washington hosted by President Obama.
About 20 countries - including France, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands, Sweden - have recognized the Armenian massacre as genocide.
"What's startling is that two important countries have not recognized it - the United States, repeatedly, because of its alliance with Turkey, its strategic interest in the region, its need for Turkey as a NATO ally, in its war against Iraq, has not recognized it. And secondly Israel, even though itself, its people originally suffered a great holocaust - the great genocide of World War II - has not recognized it, again for strategic reasons, its connection with Turkey." said Ronald Suny with the University of Chicago.
Suny and others point out that President Obama has changed his position. "Every presidential candidate, including President Obama, when they were campaigning, stated declaratively, clearly, fervently that they would recognize the genocide. Once they take power, of course, then these strategic security interests come into play and historical decisions, the historical truths have to be put aside. It's sad, but that's the case," he said.
Many experts say the resolution by the House Foreign Affairs Committee puts President Obama in an awkward position. But many analysts also say that may be a temporary situation, because they don't expect the measure to be taken up by the full House of Representatives.
Source: VOANews.com
However as Ronald Suny with the University of Chicago explains, the Turkish government has a diametrically opposed view.
"Turkey rejects the notion of genocide - actually the word or the term 'genocide.' They have acknowledged that there were deportations - there is no question about that - and that there were massacres and killings. What they deny is that the massacres and killings were intentionally organized and carried out by the government - and that the killings were anything more than collateral damage," he said.
Turkey rejects use of "genocide"
Roger Smith, a co-founder of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, says many Turks refuse to use the word 'genocide.'
"I worked with some Turkish scholars and these are people who would be considered liberals and so on - but even they really kind of shy away from using the word 'genocide.' They will talk about massacres - you lay all of these things out and they say yeah, yeah, yeah, this happened, okay - well no, I don't want to use that word. So there is this emotional antipathy to pronouncing what people now almost jokingly call the 'G' word," he said.
Smith says Turkey's position is difficult to sustain. "Turkey's persistent denial and inability to face, or unwillingness to face up to its history is very disruptive in all kinds of ways - in terms of international relations, in terms of its own internal politics - and it also prevents it from really recognizing how do you deal with minorities," he said.
Recently the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed a non-binding resolution recommending that President Barack Obama recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
Obama administration's position
The Obama administration opposed the resolution. After the measure passed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration does not believe the full House of Representatives will or should vote on the resolution.
Turkey immediately recalled its ambassador to Ankara for consultations. And Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated he might not attend a mid-April nuclear energy summit in Washington hosted by President Obama.
About 20 countries - including France, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands, Sweden - have recognized the Armenian massacre as genocide.
"What's startling is that two important countries have not recognized it - the United States, repeatedly, because of its alliance with Turkey, its strategic interest in the region, its need for Turkey as a NATO ally, in its war against Iraq, has not recognized it. And secondly Israel, even though itself, its people originally suffered a great holocaust - the great genocide of World War II - has not recognized it, again for strategic reasons, its connection with Turkey." said Ronald Suny with the University of Chicago.
Suny and others point out that President Obama has changed his position. "Every presidential candidate, including President Obama, when they were campaigning, stated declaratively, clearly, fervently that they would recognize the genocide. Once they take power, of course, then these strategic security interests come into play and historical decisions, the historical truths have to be put aside. It's sad, but that's the case," he said.
Many experts say the resolution by the House Foreign Affairs Committee puts President Obama in an awkward position. But many analysts also say that may be a temporary situation, because they don't expect the measure to be taken up by the full House of Representatives.
Source: VOANews.com
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Turkey slams Sarkozy over Armenian genocide comments
The French president, who has been on a visit to Armenia, said all great countries — including Turkey — do the honourable thing by revisiting their history. He said the French parliament could consider making genocide denial a crime in France, just like denying the Nazi Holocaust of Jews.
Turkey’s troubles
The military, the media, the Armenian genocide issue, climbing inflation and a widening current account gap – to say nothing of ambivalence about Ankara’s EU hopes
Was 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide?
Historians agree Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire - what was to become Turkey - during World War 1. But not all agree that it was genocide.
Turkish ambassador to Sweden recalled over Armenian genocide vote
The Turkish government condemned the Swedish parliament's resolution, saying it was flawed and groundless
Armenian genocide row: Turkey's ambassador not yet returning to the US
Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu says that the Obama administration is not doing enough to block further action on the genocide issue, considering that Turkey is a key ally of the United States. Turkish authorities also say the US resolution will complicate their efforts to normalise relations with Armenia.
US congressional committee approves resolution on Armenian genocide
Turkey, which rejects the genocide label, has recalled its ambassador from Washington for consultations.
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The Sofia Echo
If Turks committed a genocide which is the greatest crime of humanity, and if Turkey really avoids of facing its history, and if the Armenians and their supporters sincerely want Turkey to do it, then why do the Armenians persistently refuse Turkey’s suggestions to discuss these events together with historians from both sides and other countries? For example:
“Our objective is to have the matter investigated by historians and experts. We are ready to accept the decision of the joint historical commission. We agree for different professionals from various countries to be involved” Abdullah Gul recently [...]
Read the full comment said. If historians committee project could be realized, issue of so called Armenian genocide will not be discussed by politicians but by historians. Furthermore, other than Turkish and Armenian historians, historians from third countries will also be included.
The Turks who were eager for establishment of such an historical commission, were supported by the United Nations, European Parliament and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). [deleted link].... [deleted link], [deleted link]... and was very happy.
While Turkey was eager and very happy, the Armenians were exceedingly unwilling and very angry.
In an interview with Armenian Reporter, Prof Richard Hovannisian from California University and the father of Raffi Hovannisian, the first Foreign Minister of Armenia, said: ‘It is very dangerous to establish such an historical commission…because according to 1948 United Nations’s Genocide Convention, a deliberate and planned massacre is mandatory. The Turks will accept that nearly 200-300 thousand Armenian died; but nobody can call them deliberate acts. In Turkish Archives the Turks have the telegrams sent from vilayets about the then Armenian upraisals and documents about the Armenians who fled from the Ottoman Army. So, the Turkish historians will accuse the Armenians and say that all these events were a reaction to what the Armenians did and were not deliberate’ [deleted link]
One of the supporters of so called Armenian genocide resolutions in U.S. Congress, Adam Schiff said “A committee about history is a struggle for distracting the truth. Turkey cannot rewrite history in exchange for good relations with Armenia.”
ANCA and other Armenian lobbying organizations stated that Armenia is forced to make dangerous concessions by Turkey and that Turkey’s moves towards establishing joint historians commission aims to call so called Armenian genocide into question and suspend its international recognition. ANCA’s aim is to provide recognition of so called Armenian genocide by U.S. Congress before establishment of a historians committee to discuss the events by keeping U. S. Congress under pressure.
(See the previous news entitled ‘RA foreign minister didn’t say Armenia agrees to form commission of historians’ on November 26, 2008 in Panarmenian and ‘Dashnaks warn Sarkisian over Armenian genocide study’ on July 9, 2008 in Armenia Liberty; [deleted link]...
*Turkey sent full page ads to five popular newspapers of the United States (US) calling on Armenia to ‘bring light the events of 1915 together with Turkey and to establish a joint commission composed of historians from both sides in addition to historians from other nations’, in April 2007.
*And the Turkish prime minister repeated the same invitation on February 2008 , in Munich at the 44th Security Conference where the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Oskanian also attended?
In neither of these invitations was there any precondition, unlike it is claimed by the Armenians.
***Why did the Armenian historian Sarafyan, who accepted the invitation of the then chief of Turkish History Foundation, Halacoglu, for cooperation to investigate Harput events, abandon the project, after talking the Armenian diaspora?
*The Ottoman and Turkish archives are open, unlike it is claimed by the diaspora. [deleted link]. [deleted link]...
[deleted link]... [deleted link]... [deleted link]...
Even, Armenian historian Ara Sarafian from Gomitas Institute and Hilmar Kaiser searched the Ottoman archives ([deleted link]
*In spite of this, why are the Armenian archives including the one in Zoryan Armenian Institute in Boston closed? Both Turkish government and Turkish History Foundation offered the Armenians to open these archives; but the directors of the Zoryan Institute replied that they did not have enough money to open the archives. Turkish government and Turkish History Foundation promised financial support.Why did the Armenians refuse this suggestion too? (Nüzhet Kandemir, [deleted link]). Note that Zoryan Institute has quite enough money to provide financial support for Taner Akçam who advocated the Armenian claims while working in Minnesota University until recently.
Why have the Armenians always been terribly afraid of establishment of historical joint commissions?
Is it not striking that Sarafian, the head of the London-based Gomidas Institute, said Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s offer to Armenia to establish a commission of historians to
resolve the Armenian issue was positive, but Armenia was the wrong address. He also said that freedom of expression for historians in Armenia is limited and the genocide issue has become a political tool. [deleted link]...
If a genocide had really occured, why did Brian Ardouny of the Armenian Assembly of America announce ‘We don’t need to prove the genocide historically, because it has already been accepted politically’? Why did the chief of the Armenian Archives in Armenia tell that they were not interested in the achives, but all they are interested is the world’s public opinion.
Or why have the Armenians not admitted to an international court yet?
In your life, have you ever seen a criminal who persistently calls the victim to bring his evidences?
Have you ever seen a victim who passionately accuses somebody of committing crime and giving him great harm but strictly avoids of bringing his proofs before the referees or going to court, and tells that he need not prove that person’s guilt, because the community has already accepted him as guilty?
In this situation would you not question the era you are living in? 5000 BC or 2000BC?
What else should the Turks do to face their history? Is it Turkey/Turks or Armenia and those who support them who are terribly afraid of facing their history?
Keep the turks out of europe, they once again prove that they do not belong. With so much evidence and so many other nations already on board, do the turks really think they can bury their heads in the sand on this one? They need to grow up as a nation and recognize their bad as well as their good. As do the Kurds who actually carried out most of the genocide in order to eliminate armenian competition in an area of land they coveted. And a pox on Israel for not recognizing it as genocide after all the suffering [...]
Read the full comment the jews went through--when are they gonna do the right thing here?
Nemesis
"the Great Calamnity" approaches
"the Final Solution" two genocides
which must never be forgotten in my opinion.
The Germans accepted their part I don't see the a good enough reason
so as the Turks to accept theirs.
the krds are sitting on three nation Turkey Iraq and very mildly on Iran.
Ivan-there are volumes of evidence on this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
Yes perhaps correct but who speaks for the massacred
The real issue is land. The Turks fear that genocide recognition will result in restitution of West Armenia which is basically today's Kurdish area of Turkey (about 1/3 of the country).
We moved on and after about 30 years another Genocide occurs under a Madman, who read and interpreted Nietsche with Wagner soundig back as he wished , the name Adolf Hitler... his victims The Jews of Central Europe about 6 milliion people.
roughly around the same time we witness The Katyn massacre known as the Katyn forest massacre "zbrodnia katyńska" a mass murder of about 22000 Poles primarily officers, intellectuals by the Soviet Nvkd, based on a proposal from L Beria the document was then signed by the entire Soviet Politburo we can find the signatures of Stalin, [...]
Read the full comment Molotov Voroshilov, Beria and Mikoyan.
(the Russian government still denies posthume indemnity)
We moved on then occured.
Mai –Lai in Vietnam.
Moved-on
The Srebrenica Massacre, also known as the Srebrenica Genocide ocured by July 1995 killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the ethnic cleansing of 25,000-30,000 refugees in the area of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian war under the command of Ratko Mladic.
I think the S**T has already hit the fan.
.
Why after all these years people cannot put this aside is beyond me .
LETS MOVE ON.
Jurist Raphael Lemkin coined the word "genocide" specifically to describe the destruction of the Armenians and the barbarity that befell them at the hands of the Turkish State 1915-1923.
Denial is not just the simple negation of an act, it is much more the consequent continuation of the very act itself. Genocide should not only physically destroy a community, it should likewise dictate the prerogative of interpretation in regard to history, culture, territory and memory. As the victims, Armenians never existed.
The Turkish have not only murdered humans, destroyed an ancient culture/civilization, [...]
Read the full comment and rewritten history, but they continue to legitimize the act as well as the racist ideology that led to the act.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars unanimously acknowledge the Armenian genocide.
<<<Turkey's persistent denial and inability to face, or unwillingness to face up to its history is very disruptive in all kinds of ways - in terms of international relations, in terms of its own internal politics - and it also prevents it from really recognizing how do you deal with minorities,">>>
That is "the issue" with the the "New-turks" everything starts in 1916.