A Brief Synopsis of the Armenian "Genocide":
Introductory Note: The following summary of the WWI events was taken from a series of German and Swiss papers dealing with the subject. After providing the narrative, I take a look at the evidence. Most readers will recognize all of the usual traits of genocide in the following synopsis: racism, pogroms, an escalating event, isolation and liquidation of the elite, and then the full turn to outright slaughter. The narrative itself gives a strong indication of genocide.
A Summary of the Events:
(1)
Prewar Armenian Repression: The Ottoman Empire officially encouraged the persecution of Armenians after Sultan Abdülhamit II took power in 1876. The Sultan immediately encouraged the repression of Christians and the Armenian independence movement. The "Hamidiye", political cavalry units, were first "used" against the southern Armenians in Sassun to crush farmers rebelling against unfair taxes. A series of protests followed and were put down in violent fashion. In 1895, Ottoman troops set fire to a cathedral in Urfa which killed the 3000 Armenians who had taken refuge there. Foreign observers questioned whether these political actions were in fact spontaneous or part of a planned program. According to the Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, 330,000 Armenians were killed between 1894-1909 in a series of pogroms.
(2)
1914-1915: As already mentioned, The Ottoman Empire fought alongside Germany against Russia, France and England. Since Armenia was situated between Turkish territory and Russia, with a part of historic Armenia actually in Russia, the Ottomans suspected that the Ottoman-Armenians might make common cause with the Russian-Armenians. In February 1915, after a series of Ottoman military disasters, the government decided to remove all Armenians from the front and demobilize the soldiers. These men were then enslaved according to the "hamalar" and "amelye taburi" traditions of the empire. In order to crack down on imagined dissent, the government then instituted a series of emergency decrees whereby all Armenian food and other commodities were confiscated. The government also started taking photos of the disbanding Ottoman-Armenians and using the pictures of men with guns as proof of a military uprising.
(3)
The "Genocide": On 24 April 1915, Constantinople began the systematic murder of the Armenian population. The initial orders first singled out the spiritual and political leaders (a standard tactic used by Stalin and Hitler). By the end of April, more than 2000 such men were deported to the central jail in Constantinople, moved into the countryside and then tortured to death. A series of similar actions concentrating on the towns and villages followed. Some Armenians resisted and this was used by the authorities as the call for massive reprisals. In March, the government had already decided to deport all Armenians. The official deportation law was proclaimed on 27 May 1915 -- in direct response to the English, French and Russian warning that they would hold the Turkish government responsible for the increasing atrocities against the Armenians. Another law, promulgated on 10 June 1915, stripped all non-Muslims of all their legal possessions.
The deportation of the Armenians followed a typical pattern. The Ottoman troops looked on as the Armenians were attacked by the local Muslim population. Women were raped. Some children were taken and sold into slavery. The troops then separated the men from their families and most of them were liquidated immediately. The women and children were then sent on a death march through mountainous terrain. Those who were too slow were beaten to death or shot. Those who survived were interned in concentration camps along the Euphrates river where a good proportion died of disease. In addition to this "methodical killing" a whole series of bizarre murders were documented by eyewitnesses including a German priest disguised as a carpet trader. In June 1915, a large number of Armenian boys were crucified near Bitlis. The hands of children were hacked off. The Bishop of Diyarbakir's feet were shod with horseshoes.
The Issues:
How many died?: The German Embassy in Constantinople, which sent out observers, estimated that 1.5 million of a total population of 2.5 million had died by October 1916. The Minister of State Mehmet Talaat in fact informed German diplomats that the "Armenian question no longer existed". Whether he was referring to deportation or genocide is unknown. The infamous American Ambassador Morgenthau also claims to have been privy to this type of information. Some call him a liar and cite his open hatred of Turkish culture as evidence. But the German sources plainly verify his claims. In any case, since the Ottomans were able to move troops onto Russian-Armenian soil after the November 1917 Revolution and the caving in of Kerensky's provisional government, the deportation or killing continued. Many Armenians had fled across the border into Russia. The Turks now had even more to do. Another 500,000 Armenians supposedly died either at the hands of the Turks or through starvation and disease. The short-lived Armenian Republic, declared after the collapse of Russia, was brutally repressed and the population shrank from an estimated 1.6 million to 800,000.
Just how many people died is of course unknowable. The estimates range from 400,000 (Turkish claims in reference to disease, etc.) to several million (Armenian claims). A British report of 1917 states 1.056 million. The French Yellow Book of the period states 1.4750116 million. Some sources even attribute most of the murders to the Kurds. So what? We don't know an exact number. Who cares? It was, and this is without doubt, enough to constitute a large murder operation--either planned or tolerated.
The Evidence: Here comes the tricky part. Some of the evidence comes by way of a German Lutheran Priest: "in the year 1915, he [Johannes Lepsius] met with the Ottoman Minister of War Enver Pascha in Constantinople. The theologian asked the politician to stop the murder machinery that was already in use against the Armenian minority. But he had no success...During his trips through Armenian territory, disguised as a carpet trader, he gathered reports from eyewitnesses and collected statistical material...". There are no Armenian documents. Why? Because there was no Armenian government. Governments other than the Ottoman Empire were the ones who looked on with varying degrees of horror. These eyewitnesses count. They saw death all around them. The German diplomats used the word "Ausrottung" or extermination to describe the events. The 600 pages of evidence listed below is enough for me.
There can of course be no doubt that the Ottoman Empire ordered the liquidation of the intellectuals (they called it punishing treason) and the deportation of the Armenians (they called it relocation). These Turkish documents exist and are not disputed. It can also hardly be challenged that various kinds of atrocities like rape or theft occurred. Nor can it be argued that men were not mutilated, tortured, crucified or hanged. The question is how many? And why? But even Kemal Atatürk himself stated 800,000 died. Sounds like genocide to me.
Did the Ottomans plan a genocide operation? This is the issue for historians. Some like Guenter Lewy and C. Özgönül argue no. There are many points that can be raised. Some Armenian groups were not persecuted, for example. Many people, including English POWs and the Turks themselves, died of disease and starvation during the war. And where are the documents calling for extermination? But all of this, in my opinion, is trying to use the Jewish Holocaust as the yardstick. Genocide can only be a genocide if we have an equivalent of the Wannsee Conference, Zyklon B, and cold SS men pulling the trigger. Rape, crucifixion, hangings do not count. Historians once again turn an historical event into a circus. Some of it even sounds like neo-Nazi revisionism. That is the problem. We have become incapable of clear vision in the world after Auschwitz. For the love of God, hundreds of thousands of people died in a climate of hate. What was that again: the "Armenian question no longer existed"?
E-Sources:
http://www.chrismon.de/ctexte/2001/7/7-3.html
http://www.gfbv.ch/pdf/02-02-033.pdf
http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/politischeliteratur/418397/
http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/morgenthau-storyLIES.htm
http://www.aga-online.org/de/akten/deutscheAktenStuecke.pdf
http://www.welt.de/data/2006/03/20/862391.html
http://www.armenocide.de/armenocide/armgende.nsf/0/4a4f1fd610ce54a3c12568f30059b25e?OpenDocument
http://www.armenocide.de/armenocide/armgende.nsf/$$AllDocsTrans/1916-05-13-DE-001?OpenDocument
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=26316