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By: Jay Logan Rogers
Issue date: 3/27/06 Section: News
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Media Credit: Maegan Burr
Richard Hovannisian, professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History at UCLA, addresses contemporary interpretations of what he said was an Armenian Genocide in 1915.
The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the genocide committed against the Armenians, said Richard Hovannisian, professor of Armenian and near-eastern history at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Hovannisian commented on the contemporary interpretations of the Armenian genocide at the Hinckley Institute of Politics on March 23.
Between 1915 and 1918, actions of the government of the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey) resulted in the elimination of a substantial portion of its Armenian minority population.
While the exact numbers are in dispute, most scholars agree that more than one million Armenians were killed through outright massacres and mass deportations to barren deserts, where they were left to starve.
Hovannisian's talk focused on the scholarly debate over whether the genocide was premeditated or a "crime of passion" that occurred suddenly during the tense conditions of war.
He expressed his opinion that the elimination of the Armenians had been contemplated by the Ottoman government before the outbreak of war, but that it was wartime conditions that allowed it to turn a "final solution into an accomplished fact."
The Ottoman Empire distrusted the Armenians, in part because they were a tight-knit Christian ethnic group in the middle of a mostly Muslim empire, Hovannisian said.
While some Armenians were agitating for self-government and autonomy, most were not involved in any politically dissident activities, he said.
"They were an ethnic group seen as potentially troublesome to an authoritarian state at war," he said.
No official government document specifically outlining the Ottoman plan to eliminate Armenians has been found, although there is overwhelming evidence that the massacres occurred, he said.
There may be a "smoking gun" somewhere in Turkish archives proving that the Ottomans premeditated the Armenian genocide, Hovannisian said, but the nation's government does not provide Western historians with access to those materials.
He said there are psychological reasons that Turkey refuses to admit the genocide occurred.
"They don't want to believe that their grandparents could've been murderers," Hovannisian explained. "They also don't want to deal with the consequences of recognition, including contrition and restitution."
Jonathan Cates, a senior in history and Middle East studies, said he thought it was a fair explanation of the historical event. "He gave a broad overview of all the current interpretations and put them in good context," he said.
Mariya Mamaeva, a senior in political science and Russian, agreed. "I think he has very good points and is very insightful," she said.
Issue date: 3/27/06 Section: News
PrintEmail Article Tools Page 1 of 1
Media Credit: Maegan Burr
Richard Hovannisian, professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History at UCLA, addresses contemporary interpretations of what he said was an Armenian Genocide in 1915.
The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the genocide committed against the Armenians, said Richard Hovannisian, professor of Armenian and near-eastern history at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Hovannisian commented on the contemporary interpretations of the Armenian genocide at the Hinckley Institute of Politics on March 23.
Between 1915 and 1918, actions of the government of the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey) resulted in the elimination of a substantial portion of its Armenian minority population.
While the exact numbers are in dispute, most scholars agree that more than one million Armenians were killed through outright massacres and mass deportations to barren deserts, where they were left to starve.
Hovannisian's talk focused on the scholarly debate over whether the genocide was premeditated or a "crime of passion" that occurred suddenly during the tense conditions of war.
He expressed his opinion that the elimination of the Armenians had been contemplated by the Ottoman government before the outbreak of war, but that it was wartime conditions that allowed it to turn a "final solution into an accomplished fact."
The Ottoman Empire distrusted the Armenians, in part because they were a tight-knit Christian ethnic group in the middle of a mostly Muslim empire, Hovannisian said.
While some Armenians were agitating for self-government and autonomy, most were not involved in any politically dissident activities, he said.
"They were an ethnic group seen as potentially troublesome to an authoritarian state at war," he said.
No official government document specifically outlining the Ottoman plan to eliminate Armenians has been found, although there is overwhelming evidence that the massacres occurred, he said.
There may be a "smoking gun" somewhere in Turkish archives proving that the Ottomans premeditated the Armenian genocide, Hovannisian said, but the nation's government does not provide Western historians with access to those materials.
He said there are psychological reasons that Turkey refuses to admit the genocide occurred.
"They don't want to believe that their grandparents could've been murderers," Hovannisian explained. "They also don't want to deal with the consequences of recognition, including contrition and restitution."
Jonathan Cates, a senior in history and Middle East studies, said he thought it was a fair explanation of the historical event. "He gave a broad overview of all the current interpretations and put them in good context," he said.
Mariya Mamaeva, a senior in political science and Russian, agreed. "I think he has very good points and is very insightful," she said.