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ANALYSIS: TURKEY'S ARMENIAN MASSACRE OF 1915
By Amberin Zaman
The Daily Telegraph, United Kingdom
Oct 12 2007
In May 1915 the ruling junta of nationalist Ottoman officers known
as the Young Turks ordered the mass deportation of the collapsing
Empire's two million strong Armenian minority in reprisal for their
alleged collusion with invading Russian armies.
In village after village, town after town, Armenian civilians were
rounded up and marched at rifle point towards the Syrian Desert. Tens
of thousands were slaughtered en route; others robbed, raped and
tortured by Kurdish brigands who would swoop down on the Armenians'
caravans from their mountain hideouts.
"When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations,
they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race," wrote
Henry Morgenthau, the then American ambassador, in his memoirs.
A growing number of Western historians concur that the horrors
inflicted on the Ottoman Armenians fits the United Nations' definition
of genocide, which is described as carrying out acts "intended to
destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious
group".
Descendants of survivors of 1915, largely form the Armenian Diaspora,
is pushing for recognition of the genocide the world over. Many are
demanding compensation and restitution of lost land, even of Mount
Ararat in Eastern Turkey.
Others agree that these claims are far-fetched - not least because
Eastern Turkey is inhabited by Kurds with their own separatist
aspirations.
Armenian moderates say acknowledgement of the massacres together with
an official apology from Turkey would go a long way towards healing
the wounds of the past. But reconciliation seems far off.
The idea of being placed in the same category as the Nazis is
intolerable for most Turks, who believe the genocide issue is yet
another red herring devised by Western governments to weaken and
divide their country.
Although Turkey acknowledges that several hundred thousand Armenians
did perish, they insist this was a result of malnutrition, disease
and the wartime chaos engulfing the empire during its final days.
Indeed, Turkish schoolchildren are taught that Turks were killed
in greater numbers by the Armenians than the Armenians were killed
themselves. Those who challenge this official line, such as the Nobel
prize laureate Orhan Pamuk, face prosecution under laws that make
"insulting Turkishness" a punishable offence.
Yet, a growing number of Turks are beginning to question the past,
stepping forward with "confessions" to having Armenian forebears,
many of them orphans rescued by Turkish families.
By Amberin Zaman
The Daily Telegraph, United Kingdom
Oct 12 2007
In May 1915 the ruling junta of nationalist Ottoman officers known
as the Young Turks ordered the mass deportation of the collapsing
Empire's two million strong Armenian minority in reprisal for their
alleged collusion with invading Russian armies.
In village after village, town after town, Armenian civilians were
rounded up and marched at rifle point towards the Syrian Desert. Tens
of thousands were slaughtered en route; others robbed, raped and
tortured by Kurdish brigands who would swoop down on the Armenians'
caravans from their mountain hideouts.
"When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations,
they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race," wrote
Henry Morgenthau, the then American ambassador, in his memoirs.
A growing number of Western historians concur that the horrors
inflicted on the Ottoman Armenians fits the United Nations' definition
of genocide, which is described as carrying out acts "intended to
destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious
group".
Descendants of survivors of 1915, largely form the Armenian Diaspora,
is pushing for recognition of the genocide the world over. Many are
demanding compensation and restitution of lost land, even of Mount
Ararat in Eastern Turkey.
Others agree that these claims are far-fetched - not least because
Eastern Turkey is inhabited by Kurds with their own separatist
aspirations.
Armenian moderates say acknowledgement of the massacres together with
an official apology from Turkey would go a long way towards healing
the wounds of the past. But reconciliation seems far off.
The idea of being placed in the same category as the Nazis is
intolerable for most Turks, who believe the genocide issue is yet
another red herring devised by Western governments to weaken and
divide their country.
Although Turkey acknowledges that several hundred thousand Armenians
did perish, they insist this was a result of malnutrition, disease
and the wartime chaos engulfing the empire during its final days.
Indeed, Turkish schoolchildren are taught that Turks were killed
in greater numbers by the Armenians than the Armenians were killed
themselves. Those who challenge this official line, such as the Nobel
prize laureate Orhan Pamuk, face prosecution under laws that make
"insulting Turkishness" a punishable offence.
Yet, a growing number of Turks are beginning to question the past,
stepping forward with "confessions" to having Armenian forebears,
many of them orphans rescued by Turkish families.
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