Although generally agreed that events said to comprise the Armenian Genocide did occur, the Turkish government rejects that it was
genocide, and claims that the deaths among the Armenians were not a result of a state-sponsored plan of mass extermination, but of inter-ethnic strife, disease and famine during the turmoil of
World War I. However this postion is contrary to the evidence as reported by nearly every eyewitness observer from the time - even from German and Austrian allies of Turkey who reported back to their nations of indiscriminant massacres and deprivations against Armenians on a grand scale and no significant Armenian counter action to justify such of any kind. Likewise the overwhelming position of genocide scholars and of professional and public opinion is that a deliberate genocide was commited by the Ottoman Turks against the ethnic Armenian citizenry. The indisputable result of this genocide is the near complete abscence of the once vibrant and most ancient Anatolian Armenian population and civilization in their once native lands. Furthermore, the majority of genocide scholars and the world community as a whole views the ongoing Turkish denial of this genocide as absurd and shameful.
As the ever changing official Turkish government thesis denying the genocide is not supportable in past and current forms, most Armenian,
Russian, Western, and an
increasing number of Turkish scholars believe that the massacres were clearly and indisputably a case of genocide. For example, most Western sources point to the sheer scale of the
death toll. The event is also said to be the second-most studied case of genocide, and often draws comparison with
the Holocaust as nearly every method of minority victimization, killing and depravation to have occured during the Holocaust had a precedent in the Armenian Genocide. To date 21 countries, as discussed below, have officially described it as genocide.
