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Dictionary of Gross Human Rights Violations

Armenian Genocide

The Armenian genocide of 1915 represented one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies of the 20th century. This tragedy has been compounded by the failure of the Turkish state to acknowledge the genocide or even allow truly open discussion of it.

During their two thousand years of inhabiting Anatolia the Armenians developed a unique identity as Christians (they adopted Christianity in 301 AD) with a unique language and alphabet. In the 15th century the Armenian homeland was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire. Under the Millet system of the Ottoman Empire the Armenians maintained a degree of autonomy but did not receive the same rights as Muslim citizens. Armenians began to agitate for greater rights and autonomy in the 1890s and the Ottoman government responded to this perceived threat to its authority with excessive force (as many as 200 000 Armenians were killed). This series of massacres in 1894-1896 came to be known as the Hamidian massacres (after the Ottoman cavalry that carried out most of the violence).

1908 was a transformative year for Turkey as the Young Turks rose to power in a military coup that forced the Sultan to relinquish his authority. In 1913 the fortunes of the empire sharply declined as most of the Balkans seceded; hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees streamed into Turkish cities, with tales of mistreatment at the hands of Christian forces. As a reaction of these events, Turkish nationalism became more strident and attitudes towards Christians soured. In 1913 the Committee for Union and Progress (CUP) formed with the slogan “Turkey for the Turks.”

In 1913 the Ottoman Empire unsuccessfully attacked Russia (in an attempt to build a pan-Turkish empire) and the Russian counter-attack included thousands of Armenians (both Russian Armenians and Armenian volunteers from within Turkey) among the Russian forces. The Young Turks and the CUP responded to these events by determining that the Armenian minority in Turkey was aligned with the enemy and needed to be dealt with. Firstly, the Armenians were “disarmed” and then they were forcibly placed into “work parties” where many of them died. From 1914-1915 the violence escalated as the Armenian intellectual and leadership elite was targeted and imprisoned, deported, or killed.

In 1915 the genocide began in earnest as deportation orders were issued for Armenians in eastern Turkey. These orders were enforced by local police (with the aid of some parts of the local population) who evicted Armenians from their homes. The Armenians were told that they were only being temporarily moved “out of a conflict zone” into the interior. What really happened is that they were (largely) forcibly marched through rough terrain and across deserts without any provisions being made for their basic needs (i.e. food). During this march they were also repeatedly attacked by armed groups (some of which were government forces and some of which were not). They were also subjected to torture, rape, and other forms of persecution. As many as one million Armenians died during the deportation and subsequent massacres from direct killing, as well as the inhumane conditions (starvation, disease, etc.).

The Armenian genocide has been extensively documented (there are 37 000 pages of documentation in the US National Archives). Furthermore, in 1915 alone there were 145 articles in the New York Times, as well as numerous diplomatic reports, detailing the atrocities. Contrary to the official Turkish position, this was not merely a kind of mutual bloodletting occurring in a civil war. This was a genocide orchestrated, with intent, at the highest levels. For example, a telegram sent on September 16, 1915 by Talaat (the Minister of the Interior, reproduced in the Encyclopedia of Genocide) stated:

It was first communicated to you that the Government, by order of the Jemiyet, has decided to destroy completely all Armenians living in Turkey. Those who oppose this order and decision cannot remain on the official staff of the Empire. An end must be put to their existence…

In 1919 Turkey convened several military tribunals and arrested over four hundred people on charges related to the genocide (the crime of genocide itself did not exist at that time). Most significantly the “triumvirate” (the leaders of the Young Turks) were found responsible for “massacres” and sentenced to death (they all escaped this sentence by fleeing the country). During this period there were other Turkish condemnations of the genocide: the President Ahmed Riza denounced the “savagery” of the attacks on Armenians in his first speech (October 19, 1918); Senator Resid Akif admitted seeing a secret Ittihad (Young Turk) Party document, in the office of the President of the State Council, ordering the massacres of Armenians when the deportation orders were given; and Ottoman 3d Army Commander General Vehib (who investigated the massacres) concluded: “The massacre and destruction of the Armenians and the plunder and pillage of their goods were the results of decision reached by Itihad’s [the Young Turks] Central Committee…The atrocities were carried out under a program that was determined upon and involved a definite case of premeditation.” It was only with the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1925 that the Turkish government, eager to make a break with the past and to orient itself towards the West, began the policy of official denial.

It is important to note that genocide is defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention not only as direct killing (with intent to destroy a religious, ethnic, racial, or national group in whole or in part) but also “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” The Armenian case clearly meets this definition.

The persistent official denial of the genocide in Turkey can be partly attributed to fears that if Turkey were to admit to the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire, that it would have to provide some form of financial compensation, or at the very least to assume a burden of shame.

References

Oregon Public Broadcasting. The Armenian Genocide – A Film prepared for the      Public Broadcasting System (PBS). 2006.
Israel, Charny (ed.). Encyclopedia of Genocide. Santa Barbara, U.S.A.: ABC-     CLIO, 1999.

 

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