Armenia

The Armenian Genocide is one of the most horrific acts of terror ever committed by mankind. It is also one of the largest instances of mass murder in modern history that has yet to be recognised by the perpetrator state.

The Germans are rightly recognised as one of the few nations that fully acknowledges the ills of their past under Nazism. Gorbachev finally spoke out in 1990 of the Soviet atrocities committed by Stalin. The legacy of Stalin may remain a mixed bag in modern Russia, but nobody sane would ever outright deny the fact that he murdered innocents on mass. To this day however Turkey adamantly refuses to recognise the scale of the atrocities committed by the ottoman empire.

What was it?

The Armenian genocide was the Ottoman government’s mandated and systematic killing of Armenians living within its empire.

On April 24th 1915 the genocide’s beginning is marked by the Turkish government’s arrest and execution of several hundred Armenian intellectuals. From this date onwards ordinary Armenians were then routinely ousted from their homes and forced to march across the desert without water and often without their clothing until they died in the heat.

Killing squads were established by government authorities whose sole purpose was the elimination of Armenian people. Methods of execution utilised by these squads included drowning, being forced off the edges of cliffs, crucifixion and being burnt alive. Children were also killed or given to Muslim families for a correct upbringing and women that weren’t exterminated were often raped and sometimes forced to join Muslim harems.

The consensus is that in total over 1 million Armenians were killed, with many more displaced. Armenians and some historians place the number as high as 1.5 million, whilst modern Turkey continues to argue, with far less basis in fact, it was only 300,000.

What led to it?

Like most territories under ottoman occupation, there was frequent unrest between the Ottomans and those they subjugated. Armenia’s proximity to the unstable Ottoman border with Christian Russia and the relative material wealth of Armenians when compared to the average Turk contributed to an ongoing suspicion of Armenian ‘infidels’ amongst Ottoman authorities. Relative to the other Christians within the empire they engendered far greater ongoing persecution. At the same time, despite certain levels of varying autonomy, Armenians were subjected to frequent discrimination that included, for instance, higher taxes purely on the basis of their Christian faith.

Increasingly irate with the very existence of Armenians in his territory Abdul Hamid II, the last Ottoman Sultan, massacred hundreds of thousands of Armenians in response to their protestations for basic civil rights during his reign. He was then ousted by the Young Turks in 1908 who, far from relaxing any anti-Armenian agenda, doubled down on these sentiments with a goal of ‘Turkifying’ the empire.

The outbreak of World War 1 led to many Armenians volunteering to join the side of Christian Russia, infuriating Ottoman military leaders. Coupled with the enflaming religious declarations that the fighting was to be a ‘holy war’ against Christians (with the exception of their allies) these events led to the creation of Turkish policies whose sole aim was the destruction of Armenians.

Genocide Recognition

At present only 33 countries officially recognise the genocide, with many nations historically reluctant to do so in order to maintain more positive relations with Turkey.

Turkey’s refusal to recognise the genocide is a difficult issue to untangle. The facts of the matter are well documented and the majority of global historians and experts are in agreement as to its existence. Turkey itself trialled and sentenced to death many prominent individuals that were responsible for the genocide in 1920, in what many saw as a bid to gain favour with the west following the end of World War 1. Three members of the Young Turks leadership were even trialled and sentenced to death in Turkey in absentia, having already fled to refuge in Germany.

Why then this denial of the genocide in the present day?

It’s hard to fully unpick, but the short, succinct answer is plain old Nationalism. Unable to face the reality of what was done, and how that paints those that helped shape their modern nation state, it was easier for Turkish authorities to write it all off as some Armenian conspiracy. In Erdogan’s Turkey today you can be arrested for simply expressing anti-Turkish sentiments (and many have been). Not a single major party in the Turkish parliament entertains the idea that such a genocide occurred.

If you look up Erdogan’s and other officials responses to the recent moves to recognise the genocide by the US and German governments the arguments seem ridiculously weak. Tactics mainly include pointing out other nations also once did terrible things and they should check themselves first (which is of course completely immaterial when it comes to assessing whether or not the Armenian genocide occurred). Aside from that it’s replete with strong man talk about how those countries will ever be able to look Turkey in the eye again and the baseless assertation that the history books tell us no such genocide occurred.

So-called Turkic ‘Genocides’

To add insult to injury, as the Turkish politique fervently deny anything the ottomans did was ever so severe as to be termed a ‘genocide’, they apply the term themselves to massacres committed by Armenians with liberal abandon. The Iğdır Genocide Museum and Memorial is the tallest monument in all of Turkey. Azerbaijan contributes to this perverse narrative too with two genocide museums of their own.

Armenians have done some horrible things in war. They have at various instances in history massacred civilians in the region and these actions are deplorable. They never instituted government policies that set about exterminating their enemy off the face of the earth though. This difference is not splitting hairs. Genocide is rightly held up as the very worst of human atrocities and attempts to trivialise it by Turkey and Azerbaijan should be criticised for their vulgarity.

The UK’s Recognition

The UK took on a first reading of a bill to recognise the genocide in its own parliament in November of this year, owing to the bill being put forward by Tim Loughton the MP for East Worthing and Shoreham.

The second reading of the bill in the commons (three are required for legislation to receive royal assent) is scheduled for 22 March 2022. Owing to government control of the parliamentary timetable however it is unfortunately unlikely this reading will materialise.

Writing to your MP would be a great way to try and prevent this from happening.

Final Words

The most excellent bit of writing I found on the Armenian Genocide question – particularly with regard to UK recognition – was Geoffrey Robertson’s essay addressing the matter. It’s well worth a read if you have the time. He highlights how obvious the reality of the atrocities were to the post-war parliament in the UK. He also underlines how the very conception of genocide itself was shaped by way of reference to what was done to Armenians.

One particular part of it that stood out was a quote that came from Adolf Hitler, speaking to his generals on the eve of their invasion of Poland…