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… Raised the bloody dawn forty-first century Armenia. “We like the harvest, cut the inexorable hand mowers in the darkness” – these words of Bishop Hovhannes, could become the epitaph on the gravestones of millions of Armenians. 

The Genocide.

What is “genocide” ?

The term “genocide” was proposed in 1944 a Polish lawyer of Jewish origin, a professor Raphael Lemkin, whose family was the victim of the Holocaust. Destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923. was a large-scale crime that Dr. Lemkin meant as a real basis of his proposed definition, and which contained a future genocide. Etymology of the term “genocide” is a combination of the Greek word «genos» – clan, tribe – and the Latin «caedere» – to kill. In what the International Nuremberg Tribunal condemned the former leaders of Nazi Germany’s crimes against humanity, including a penalty term “genocide” as a description of the act committed by the fascists, but not as a legal term.

December 9, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of. See the text of the Convention

The Convention defines genocide as an international crime which States Parties undertake to prevent and punish. According to this document genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:

a. Killing members of the group;

b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

c. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring its total or partial physical destruction;

d. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

e. Forcibly transferring children from one group to another.

Following the adoption of the Convention, some experts suggested that complement the definition of “genocide.”

So, in 1959, lawyer Peter Drost proposed the following definition of genocide: “The intentional killing of a man because of his affiliation to any human group.”

Israel Charny, editor of the two-volume Encyclopedia of Genocide, “suggested that” genocide in the broadest sense is the mass murder of large numbers of people not in the fighting some of the armed forces against the other, and in conditions of insecurity and helplessness of the victims. ”

Years from 1895 to 1920 – an entire quarter of a century – were the most tragic in the long and complicated history of the Armenian people. Agitated example of the Greeks and the Bulgarians, the Turkish Armenians shy talking about regional autonomy for those areas of Armenia, which were ruled by the Ottomans.

 Ottoman government, not without reason seen in Armenians instrument of the European imperialist powers’ taste divide the Ottoman Empire. After the war of 1877-1878, which gave the freedom of Bulgaria, the Russian was joined to itself a large piece of territory of the former Turkish Armenia, added to the Caucasian viceroyalty. Affiliate thus district includes the strategic fortress of Kars and Ardahan, which controlled the approaches to Erzurum and then to Ankara and the Mediterranean.

In the summer of 1894 the Armenians mountainous area Sassoon refused to pay double tax, which they besieged the Ottoman authorities and leaders of local Kurdish tribes. Activists Ganchaka “decided to make this a spontaneous protest in the Pan-Armenian rebellion. However, despite the sporadic armed resistance, a serious statement failed. Nevertheless, this did not prevent Abdul-Hamid to throw against the Armenians sassunskih his irregulars. In search of protection Armenians appealed to the European powers, insisting that the guarantee for the fulfillment of the conditions of the Berlin Treaty was the presentation of the limited autonomy of the six Armenian province. The behavior of the Armenians affected enraged sultan, and he launched the company of terror against the Armenian population. In October 1895 there was a massacre in Trabzon on the Pontic coast, which then spread into the mountain villages.

 Despite the large number of victims, and provocative role of the government, the Armenian massacres 1894-1896 years. – In contrast to the events of 1915 – can be called genocide, because the intention is a severe punishment and destruction. Massacre of 1894-1896 years. was motivated by a desire to put Armenians in place,  in 1915 the Young Turk government was aimed at creating such a system in which the Armenians had no place at all.

What is the percentage of the population of the Ottoman Empire to the outbreak of World War II were Armenians, or how many there were millions?

 The official Turkish statistics says that before World War I in 1913 in the Ottoman Empire lived 2.5 million Armenians, and then asserts that from this number on the Armenian Cilicia have 0,5 million Armenians. Cilicia – the most sparsely populated region of the Armenians of Armenia and the territory it is one tenth of Armenia is within the Ottoman empire in 1913 central region of Armenia – Van, Mush, Bitlis, Arzrum, Kharberd, Sivas, Tigranakert Trabzon – always in all the centuries and millennia, was much more densely populated by Armenians than the Armenian Cilicia. Of the 24 million non-Turkish population of Ottoman Armenians in Turkey was not less than 12,5 million, as within the Ottoman Empire in 1915. was a big part of Great Armenia, the entire Lesser Armenia, Armenian and Armenian Cilicia, Mesopotamia, not to mention the Armenians living in major cities such as Constantinople, Smyrna, etc. 

Unpunished massacre of Armenians before World War I serves as a factor that not only conditioned, but, more precisely, creating the preconditions for the genocide. Therefore, the legacy of impunity must be seen and embraced as a central issue in the analysis of the Armenian Genocide. This central point is also crucial due to the fact that there is often a close relationship between impunity and denial of the crime.

The conflict between Armenians and Turks is due to the interpretation of historical events. Armenian experts argue that the settlement of Armenians in 1915-1916. means the crime of genocide. Turkish historians and authors for their part believe that the relocation had no intention to destroy the Armenians, on the contrary, it intended to protect them and for their own safety Ottoman armed forces . The genocide was born of a dangerous combination of circumstances: Young Turkish nationalism, rise of anti-Armenian sentiment and mobilization of the Turkish society before the First World War. There was not any specific orders, decisions or actions that could be considered the beginning of events, but in March 1915 it was decided to deport all the Armenians from Anatolia. War has become so dull, black velvet curtain behind which the Young Turks could act with impunity. The flywheel of repression was launched, it was decided to deport all the Armenians to the deserts of Mesopotamia.

To thousands of kilometers from west to east – from the mouth of the river Kizil-Irmak to Lake Kaputan – unfolded in 1915. massacres. In short, the Armenian Cilicia, Greater Armenia and the Armenian Mesopotamia, destroying the people who lived on the earth forty centuries!

          By genocide prepared ahead of time. In autumn 1914, the Dardanelles and Bosporus entered the German warships Goeben “and” Breslau “. Turkey sided with Germany and Austria-Hungary in the war against the Entente. Talaat Pasha, sent a telegraph to punctuality deadly despatches. April 24, 1915 massacre began.

On the basis of a set of Documentation of evidence made aware of the major components of the Armenian genocide, while at the same time, however, such a representation may allow us to try and design in general terms, how he was genocide in the sense of its main components. In accordance with the verdict, published at the end of trial in Trabzon, ie May 22 1919., To the deportation of Armenians during World War II were “massacre and destruction of” the deportee population. The crime was “deliberate.”

As a historical event Armenian genocide was not some clear-cut end. Moreover, many historians believe that he can not be late as long as the Turkish government does not recognize its responsibility for genocide and make available all documents having to do with it.

Despite the importance of raising such a question we did something else: that the Armenian genocide was not completed overnight, and was on the wane gradually waves. Even after the defeat of the Central Powers in the War of 1918 and the leaders fleeing the Young Turkish movement Armenians were subjected to violence. When in November 1919, French troops, in accordance with a secret Franco-British agreement in 1916 on the division of spheres of influence in Anatolia, was occupied Cilicia, they brought with them, along with the colonial troops in Algeria and Senegal, an impressive Armenian Legion. By that time, many local Armenians had returned from Syria’s links to his native Cilician city, and the Armenian Legion took care of the return of their property and businesses.

The most important result was the genocidal destruction of the Armenians as a major factor of political and social life in Anatolia. The Ottoman Empire was “cleansed” of Armenians in the ethnic sense, and they, in turn, were forever cut off – demographically and culturally – from their Anatolian homeland. Armenian monuments and churches were bombed, cemeteries were plowed under the crops of grain, Armenian quarters in urban or destroyed, or renamed and are inhabited by Turks. Meet Armenia on Turkish historic maps nearly impossible.

In large areas of Armenia, now Turkey does not belong to the Armenian population. Monuments of ancient culture destroyed by the Turks, who can only destroy, but have not learned either build or cultivate the land, nor to live by their labor. Some ruins of the Armenian Turks, accustomed to live a lie, even attribute to itself, trying to assign the achievements of foreign culture to look like a “civilized” people. And the only native land keeps the bones of Armenians were brutally cut from small to large from his hearth, and silent cries for justice.

Danielian, A.G.
Ekaterinburg Russia 

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE is undeniable

Turks and Armenians eight centuries lived side-by-side in mutual tolerance and balance. The Ottoman Empire gave the Christian minorities the freedom of belief and language. However, in the Ottoman Empire, the “infidels, that is, Christians and other non-Muslims are considered second-class citizens, unable to bear arms, had little rights and were obliged to pay special taxes.

1914 – The Ottoman Empire entered the First World War ally of Austria and Germany. Armenians living in the Caucasus region of the Ottoman Empire, were between two fronts. In 1914 and 1915 the Turkish army in the Caucasus, under Marigamishem suffered a crushing defeat and the burden of being assigned to the Armenians, accusing them of treason.

February 25, 1915 the Ottoman General Staff ordered the disarmament of all Armenians.

At night, April 24, 1915 all Armenians living in Constantinople were arrested. Began the massacre, and Western states know about it.

27 May 1915 a law was passed which provided for the forcible deportation of all suspicious persons. This Act gave powers of military commanders to forcibly deport people suspected of treason and espionage. This law allows intentionally and deliberately to kill or deport the entire nation. There is abundant evidence that we are dealing with systematic and organized process of destruction.

Those who were not killed were driven systems in the direction of Syria, the desert Der Dzor.Zastavlyali go until until everyone died.

That, unfortunately, history. But these recent past, you need to know. At the beginning of the century in Turkey, home to 1.8 million Armenians. About 700 000 of them were killed in their homes and about 600,000 died during the deportation. 200,000 fled to the Caucasus. 150,000 fled to Europe. In Turkey, there are less than 150,000 Armenians. 70 percent of people who lived in Anatolia 3,000 years was destroyed.

These are the statistics of the Armenian Genocide. This happened not so long ago, at the beginning of XX century. More Nazis came to power, and many Jews lived peacefully in Germany and Italy. Prior to the invasion of Poland Hitler August 22, 1939 at Obersalzberg during a regular meeting, said that “who, after all that has happened, said the destruction of the Armenians.”

Evidence of this black page of history is very, very much. In addition to the tragic pictures German Armin Wegner, there are many documents. I will cite three of them.

“The way the deportation proves that the government seeks the destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.” This is a letter from the German Ambassador to Turkey Hans von Wangenheim, dated July 7, 1915.

“It’s no secret that the program has provided for the destruction of the Armenians as a nation.” This certificate is the U.S. Consul in Anatolia, Leslie Davis, dated July 24, 1915.

“We are accused that we do not see the difference between guilty and innocent Armenians, it is absolutely impossible, as innocent today may become tomorrow’s guilty.” The order of Minister of Internal Affairs of Turkey, Talat Pasha in 1915.

I know that in 1919, after the First World War when the Young Turk government falls, the Military Court of the new government in Turkey has sentenced to death three of the organizers of the massacres. The court in 1919 to charge them in the massacre, but not genocide. Subsequently, Turkey has consistently denied the existence of ongoing genocide. The official version is that the forced deportation was undertaken in order to prevent an uprising. This thesis is hard to accept another reason that the deportation was carried out in the direction of the Syrian desert Der Dzor, where few survived and where it would be pointless to assume that people can survive without food and water in the desert devoid of vegetation.

The European Parliament argues that Turkey is refusing to recognize the genocide of 1915 to the present day deprived and continues to deprive the Armenian people the right to their own history.

From the speech of the MP Giancarlo Palyarini at a meeting of the Parliament of Italy, 3 April 2000 on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide 1915-1923

The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the ruling circles in Turkey. they are the main culprits of heinous crimes – the first genocide of the XX century. Its responsibility as the government of Imperial Germany, which not only was aware of impending evil, but also contributes to its implementation. The guilt of German imperialism noted by many progressives Germany – J. Lepsius, A. Wagner, Karl Liebknecht and others
Carried out in Turkey’s Armenian genocide inflicted enormous damage to material and spiritual culture of the Armenian people. In 1915-16 and subsequent years have been destroyed thousands of Armenian manuscripts kept in the Armenian monastery, destroyed hundreds of historical and architectural monuments, holy places desecrated people. Destruction of historical and architectural monuments in Turkey, the assignment of many cultural values of the Armenian nation continues to the present.
Experienced by the Armenian people, the tragedy has affected all aspects of life and public conduct of the Armenian people, firmly settled in its historical memory. The impact of the genocide have experienced as a generation that has become close to the victim, and the next generation.
Progressive public opinion the world has condemned the atrocities of Turkish thugs who tried to destroy the Armenian people. Social and political figures, scientists, cultural figures of many countries denounced the genocide, qualifying it as a grave crime against humanity, took part in the implementation of humanitarian assistance to the Armenian people, particularly refugees who found refuge in many countries around the world. After the defeat of Turkey in World War I. Young Turk leaders were charged in that dragged Turkey into a disastrous war for her, and brought to justice. Among the charges brought against war criminals and was charged with organizing and implementing the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. However, the sentencing of several leaders of the Young Turks has been imposed in absentia, since After the defeat of Turkey they have managed to flee the country. The death sentence against some of them (Talaat, Behaetdin Shakir, Jemal Pasha, Syed Halim, etc.) was subsequently carried out the Armenian people’s avengers (Nemesis).
After World War II genocide was identified as the gravest crime against humanity. The basis of legal documents on the genocide went to the basic principles developed by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, sudivshim major war criminals of Nazi Germany. In what the UN has adopted a number of decisions regarding the genocide, the main ones are the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Apartheid (1948) and the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, adopted in 1968.

Tigran H.
South Carolina USA

 

The Countries who recognized the Armenian Genocide

UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights 18 June 1987 – The European Parliament adopted a decision recognizing the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire 1915-1917 years and the treatment of the Council of Europe to exert pressure on Turkey to recognize the genocide.
June 18, 1987 – Council of Europe adopted a decision that the refusal of modern Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915 carried out by the government of Young Turks, it becomes an insurmountable obstacle to Turkish membership in the Council of Europe.
 

ITALY – 33 Italian cities have recognized the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915, the First 17 July 1997 did the city council Banokapalo. To date, the number entered Lugo Fuzinyano, S. Azuth Sul, Santerno, Kotinola, Molarolo, Rousseau, Conselice, Kamponozara, Padova, etc.
The issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide on the agenda of the Italian parliament. It was discussed at the meeting on 3 April 2000. It is assumed that the hearing will continue on April 25.

FRANCE – May 29, 1998 French National Assembly adopted a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire in 1915.
November 7, 2000 for a resolution on the Armenian genocide vote Senate of France. Senators, however, somewhat altered text of the resolution, replacing the original “France formally recognizes the fact of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey” to “France formally recognizes that the Armenians were victims of genocide in 1915.”
January 18, 2001 French National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution according to which France recognizes the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1923gg.
Memorial 1500000 Armenian martyrs – victims
genocide. Marseille, in the courtyard of the Armenian Church

BELGIUM – In March 1998 the Belgian Senate adopted a resolution according to which recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey and asked the government of modern Turkey, is also to recognize it.
 

SWITZERLAND - The Swiss parliament acts the group, seeking out and recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915, which is headed by Angelina Fankevatzer. Her band was the question of genocide recognition and achieve recognition of the genocide the Swiss Parliament.

RUSSIA – April 14, 1995 the State Duma adopted a statement condemning the Armenian Genocide 1915-1922, and expresses its appreciation to the Armenian people and recognizes April 24 Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.

CANADA – April 23, 1996, in anticipation of 81-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the representation of members of parliament of Quebec Canadian Parliament passed a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. “The House of Commons, on the occasion of 81-th anniversary of the tragedy that claimed the lives of nearly a half million Armenians, and in recognition of other crimes against humanity decides week from 20 to 27 April, a few weeks, the memory of victims of anti-human relations of man to man,” – noted in the resolution.

LEBANON – April 3, 1997 Lebanese National Assembly adopted a resolution which recognized the April 24 Commemoration Day of the tragic massacres of the Armenian people. The resolution calls on the Lebanese people to be united on April 24 with the Armenian people.
May 12, 2000 the Lebanese Parliament recognized and condemned the genocide carried out in 1915 against the Armenian people by Ottoman authorities.

EASTERN REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY – April 20, 1965 Home Assembly Senate and House of Representatives of Uruguay adopted the Law “On the Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”
Argentina – April 16, 1998 the legislature of Buenos Aires adopted a memorandum in which he expressed solidarity with the Armenian community of Argentina, marking the 81 anniversary of the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
April 22, 1998 – Senate of Argentina issued a statement condemning the genocide of any kind, such as crimes against humanity. In the same statement, the Senate expresses its solidarity with all the minorities who are victims of genocide, especially emphasizing his concern impunity of genocide. In the basis of the statement as a manifestation of genocide are examples of massacres of the Armenian, Jewish, Kurdish, Palestinian, Roma and many people in Africa.

GREECE – 25 April 1996 the Greek Parliament adopted a decision on the recognition of April 24 Day of Remembrance of the Armenian genocide, carried out by Ottoman Turkey in 1915.
Australia – 17 April 1997 South Australian Parliament of New Wales adopted a resolution which, going towards the Armenian diaspora, has condemned the events in the Ottoman Empire, describing them as the first genocide of the XX century, admitted April 24 Day of Remembrance for the Armenian victims and urged the Australian Government to take steps to official recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
April 29, 1998 Legislative Assembly of that State has decided to establish a memorial obelisk in the parliament building as a sign commemorating the victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

USA – 10 states in the U.S. have recognized the Armenian Genocide: Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, New York, Massachusetts, California, Georgia and North Carolina.
October 4, 2000 Committee on International Relations of the U.S. Congress adopted the Resolution № 596 recognizes the fact of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey in 1915 – 1923.

SWEDEN – March 29, 2000. Swedish Parliament approved the appeal of the parliamentary committee on foreign relations, insists on the conviction and the recognition of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

April 24 is the day of recognition of Armenian Genocide.