That does not make the crime any less horrific, nor make us any less responsible for trying to stop it. Nick Danforth is a Ph. He writes about Middle East maps, history and politics at Midafternoon Map.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America's editorial policy. Sorry, your comment was not saved due to a technical problem. Please try again later or using a different browser. Clinton, Sanders spar over specifics in Iowa.
Yoga used to help kids cope with violence in Chicago. Seeking charges against a Chicago officer. Dismiss Attention The browser or device you are using is out of date. A gathering at a monument in Yerevan, Armenia, to the victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks. What we all get wrong about Armenia, Turkey and genocide. The popular understanding of genocide presumes a clear-cut division between victims and killers April 24, AM ET.
Turks are left to choose whether to believe that their people were evil or that they were blameless. Share This:. Related News. Places Armenia , Turkey. Get email updates from Al Jazeera America. Sign up for our weekly newsletter Submit. Editor's Picks. Tweets by NicholasDanfort. More From Nick Danforth. Can we criticize the Kurds? In the words of U. Ambassador Mark Bristol, "While the Dashnaks [Armenian revolutionaries] were in power they did everything in the world to keep the pot boiling by attacking Kurds, Turks and Tartars; [and] by committing outrages against the Moslems ….
Where Ottoman control was strong, Armenians went unharmed. In Istanbul and other major western Anatolian cities, large populations of Armenians remained throughout the war.
In these areas Ottoman power was greatest and genocide would have been easiest to carry out. The term "genocide" did not exist prior to The term was subsequently defined quite specifically by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
This high crime is now recognized by most nations, including the Republic of Turkey. The standard of proof in establishing the crime of genocide is formidable given the severity of the crime, the opportunity for overlap with other crimes, and the stigma of being charged with or found guilty of the crime.
While presenting the Convention for ratification, the Secretary General of the U. The Secretary General further cautioned that those merely sharing political aims are not protected by the convention. Under this standard of proof, the Armenian claim of genocide fails.
First, no direct evidence has been discovered demonstrating that any Ottoman official sought the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians as such. Second, Ottoman Armenian Dashnak and Hunchak guerrillas and their civilian accomplices admittedly organized political revolutionary groups and waged war against their own government. A recent comment on the U. All of the accused were acquitted. The Peace Treaty of Sevres, which was imposed upon the defeated Ottoman Empire, required the Ottoman government to hand over to the Allied Powers people accused of "massacres.
The principal informants to the British High Commission in Istanbul leading to the arrests were local Armenians and the Armenian Patriarchate. While the deportees were interned on Malta, the British appointed an Armenian scholar, Mr. Haig Khazarian, to conduct a thorough examination of documentary evidence in the Ottoman, British, and U.
Archives to substantiate the charges. Access to Ottoman records was unfettered as the British and French occupied and controlled Istanbul at the time. At the conclusion of the investigation, the British Procurator General determined that it was "improbable that the charges would be capable of proof in a court of law," exonerated and released all detainees -- after two years and four months of detention without trial.
No compensation was ever paid to the detainees. In , a secret Armenian network based in Boston, named Nemesis, took the law into its own hands and hunted down and assassinated former Ottoman Ministers Talaat Pasha and Jemal Pasha as well as other Ottoman officials. Most recently, Mourad Topalian, former Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, was tried and convicted in federal court in Ohio of terrorist crimes associated with bombings in New York and Los Angles and with the attempted assassination of the Turkish Honorary Consul General in Philadelphia.
The Armenian youths whom Topalian directed and who conducted these attacks were recruited from the Armenian Youth Federation and Armenian Revolution Federation in Boston. FACT 7: The archives of many nations ought to be carefully and thoughtfully examined before concluding whether genocide occurred. Armenian make frequent reference to the archives of many nations while carefully avoiding calls for the examination of those archives. They know that no evidence of genocide has been found to date, as was the case in the Malta Tribunals.
They also know that the national archives of several nations, including the U. Take, for example, the Armenian revolt in Van where at least 60, Muslims perished. Though the evidence for this is overwhelming, the official archives of several countries mention only Christian deaths.
Still, Armenian carefully avoid calls for the collection and examination of all records regarding the events in question. Such would include Ottoman records describing the activities of Armenian rebels and the Russian invaders whom they supported, as well as the archives of Germany, Russia, France, Britain, Iran, Syria and the United States.
Only those who fear the truth would limit the scope of an investigation. Jews did not demand the dismemberment of the nations in which they had lived. By contrast, the Ottoman Armenians openly agitated for a separate state in lands in which they were numerically inferior. The Hunchak and Dashnak revolutionary organizations, which survive to this day, were formed expressly to agitate against the Ottoman government.
Jews did not kill their fellow citizens in the nations in which they had lived. By contrast, the Ottoman Armenians committed massacres against local Muslims. By contrast, during World War I, Ottoman Armenians openly and with pride committed mass treason, took up arms, traveled to Russia for training, and sported Russian uniforms.
Others, non-uniformed irregulars, operated against the Ottoman government from behind the lines. Solemn tribunal at Nuremberg proved the guilt of the perpetrators of the Holocaust and sentences were carried out in accordance with agreed-upon procedures. By contrast, the Malta Tribunals, which were convened by the World War I victors, exonerated those alleged to have been responsible for the maladministration of the relocation policies.
Open Armenian-Nazi collaboration is evident in the activities of the th Armenian Battalion of the [Nazi] Wehrmacht, commanded by Drastamat Kanayan a. Anti-Jewish, pro-Nazi propaganda was published widely in the Armenian-language Hairenik daily and the weekly journal, Armenian. Hitler did not refer to the Armenians in plotting the Final Solution; the infamous quote is fraudulent. All sources attribute the alleged quote, "Who remembers the Armenians? The Times of London author claims the speech was introduced as evidence during the November 23, session of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
Story highlights The th anniversary of the start of the mass killings will be commemorated Friday Turkey and others reject the use of the word "genocide" Most estimates of the deaths fall between , and 1. The issue of whether to call the killings a genocide is emotional, both for Armenians, who are descended from those killed, and for Turks, the heirs to the Ottomans.
For both groups, the question touches as much on national identity as on historical facts. Some Armenians feel their nationhood cannot be fully recognized unless the truth of what happened to their forebears is acknowledged.
Some Turks still view the Armenians as having been a threat to the Ottoman Empire in a time of war, and say many people of various ethnicities -- including Turks -- were killed in the chaos of war. In addition, some Turkish leaders fear that acknowledgment of a genocide could lead to demands for huge reparations.
So, what do we know about happened in those fateful days? Here are some answers:. Read More. What preceded the mass killings of Armenians that began years ago? Russia had long coveted control of Constantinople now Istanbul , which controlled access to the Black Sea -- and therefore access to Russia's only year-round seaports.
How many Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire at the start of the mass killings? Many historians agree that the number was about 2 million. However, victims of the mass killings also included some of the 1. How did the mass killings start? By , Ottoman authorities were already portraying Armenians as a threat to the empire's security.
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