From PBS- Jay Winter quote

[Joseph]

"The presence in the northeast of the country of a thriving cultured and relatively wealthy community of Armenians was a difficulty to Turks long before the First World War.

"It became a political and strategic threat when the war broke out because of the place of Armenians in the Russian Empire. However, most Armenians, two million of them living in the Turkish Empire, were no threat whatsoever.

"In many ways, it shows that the old idea that war is politics by other means is outdated in the 20th century. War is hatred by other means. And in this case, hatred means extermination. The First World War was the biggest war ever to date. The Second World War was bigger still. It's not accident on my mind that both of them were marked by genocide. This is the logic of the brutalization of total war."

[1.5 million]

Exellent post Joseph. It is no coincidence that both the Germans (in WWII) and the Ottomans (in WWI) entered into war with racist motivations and with the intention of expanding their territory at the expense of others and attemtped to scapegoat (and ultimatly destroy) hated internal ethno-religious minorities for their previous and percieved failings as a nation. Both Germany and the ottomans had suffered prior defeats in war and their empires were weakened and their national pride was severely wounded and the economic and social condition of the majoriy populations was in decline at the same time the once downtrodden minorites were experience cultural social and economic resurgence. Each majority group villified their monorities, were jealous of their success and blamed them for the majorty group's misfortunes. Likewise each empire felt threatened by their internal minority groups percieved links to outside brethren in other nations that it considered threatening (the reality of the fears was at the very least greatly exaggerated. In the German case they linked Jews to both communist/socialist urban worker movement as well as to capitilast/financier interests in the West while the Armenians were seen as linked to their ethnic brethern in Europe and as well to other Christians who had recently broken away from the Empire - likewise both Germany and the Ottomans could point to efforts by outside Western powers aimed at weakening and dismembering their Empires - and while some of these "threats" were indeed real - the blaming and attacks against the internal minorities were somewhat misplaced and were certainly far out of proportion to any real threat and of course the degree to which the actions were taken against them far exheeds anythign that could ever be justified in any case). And we should not forget that each nation/empire was ruled by a radical political party who had come to power through revolution whose messages harkened to reclaiming past racial/national glory and who had extreme racist philosophies. Each nation ultimatly felt that only through war could they reverse their fourtunes and achieve their objectives and each nation used war as a cover (and an excuse) to carry out their racist hatred toward their hated minority groups and at the same time seize their material assets for self enrichment. The parallels are really quite striking.

[Steph]

Exellent post Joseph. It is no coincidence that both the Germans (in WWII) and the Ottomans (in WWI) entered into war with racist motivations and with the intention of expanding their territory at the expense of others and attemtped to scapegoat (and ultimatly destroy) hated internal ethno-religious minorities for their previous and percieved failings as a nation. Both Germany and the ottomans had suffered prior defeats in war and their empires were weakened and their national pride was severely wounded and the economic and social condition of the majoriy populations was in decline at the same time the once downtrodden minorites were experience cultural social and economic resurgence. Each majority group villified their monorities, were jealous of their success and blamed them for the majorty group's misfortunes. Likewise each empire felt threatened by their internal minority groups percieved links to outside brethren in other nations that it considered threatening (the reality of the fears was at the very least greatly exaggerated. In the German case they linked Jews to both communist/socialist urban worker movement as well as to capitilast/financier interests in the West while the Armenians were seen as linked to their ethnic brethern in Europe and as well to other Christians who had recently broken away from the Empire - likewise both Germany and the Ottomans could point to efforts by outside Western powers aimed at weakening and dismembering their Empires - and while some of these "threats" were indeed real - the blaming and attacks against the internal minorities were somewhat misplaced and were certainly far out of proportion to any real threat and of course the degree to which the actions were taken against them far exheeds anythign that could ever be justified in any case). And we should not forget that each nation/empire was ruled by a radical political party who had come to power through revolution whose messages harkened to reclaiming past racial/national glory and who had extreme racist philosophies. Each nation ultimatly felt that only through war could they reverse their fourtunes and achieve their objectives and each nation used war as a cover (and an excuse) to carry out their racist hatred toward their hated minority groups and at the same time seize their material assets for self enrichment. The parallels are really quite striking.

One further similarity between Nazi Germany and Ottoman Turkey is the blind adherence to orders from authority.
It has always been a national trait of the Germans, has anyone else seen a group of Germans waiting for the "WALK" sign without a car in sight? This absolute acceptance of orders can be a good thing until it's distorted to wicked intent by evil people.
As regards Ottoman Turks, one only has to witness the bile which is today disseminated in mosques worldwide and the direct results, to imagine how Imams would have been able to excite and control relatively ill-educated peasants in Ottoman Turkey.
Perhaps no coincidence that Hrant Dink's and the Catholic priest's murderers are of an age easily susceptible to brainwashing and manipulation.

[1.5 million]

Agreed Steph - very good points.