(“Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute 7” by Hanay - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
This Friday marks the 100 year anniversary of the start of an extensive, year-long campaign by Ottoman Turks to root out ethnic Armenians from modern day Turkey. Accounts of the genocide vary widely. Turkey has long maintained that half a million Armenians were killed after they rebelled against the Empire, while Armenian authorities hold that 1.5 million Armenians were killed as part of a coordinated and deliberate campaign against them. According to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, “More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches.”…. The attacks on the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian population began with the arrest and incarceration of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul) on April 24, 1915.
During the 2008 Presidential campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama promised to “recognize the Armenian Genocide.” That was when it was easy to speak in broad generalities. Despite that promise, President Obama is now carefully avoiding using the term “genocide” to describe the Ottoman massacre of as many as 1.5 million Turkish citizens of Armenian descent. Though no rational argument can be made to the contrary- sorry, but killing 1.5 million members of an ethnic group for political reasons is genocide- President Obama is reneging on his campaign promise and soft-pedaling the obvious in a manner that placates the Turkish government while egregiously insulting relatives of Armenian victims. It’s disappointing and a national disgrace that our President is caving to pressure from the Turkish government, which to this day denies that the mass slaughter of Armenian Turks was genocide. Time was when I could expect that Barack Obama would do the right thing; now what I see is just another spineless politician afraid of causing offense to an ally.
It takes no moral courage to call the slaughter of Armenian Turks what it is. Pope Francis refers to the mass killings conducted by the Ottomans as “genocide”…because that’s the only word to accurately describe the willful, systematic, and brutal murder of so many innocents. There’s simply no credibly way to deny that the slaughter of Armenian Turks was anything but genocide. The sad thing is that because of Turkish intrasigence and denial of the patently obvious, most of the world is painfully ignorant of the crime Turks should be held to account for. It doesn’t help that the American President lacks the moral courage to do the right thing and refer to the mass killings as what it is- genocide. It’s one word that would do nothing to change what happened in 1915…but it would go a long way toward forcing the Turkish government to come clean and accept responsibility.
Call it what you will, but the historical record is clear. What began as deportations “disguised as a resettlement program” turned into death marches few “deported” Armenians would survive. This was genocide, plain and simple:
Indirect routes through mountains and wilderness areas were deliberately chosen in order to prolong the ordeal and to keep the caravans away from Turkish villages.
Food supplies being carried by the people quickly ran out and they were usually denied further food or water. Anyone stopping to rest or lagging behind the caravan was mercilessly beaten until they rejoined the march. If they couldn’t continue they were shot. A common practice was to force all of the people in the caravan to remove every stitch of clothing and have them resume the march in the nude under the scorching sun until they dropped dead by the roadside from exhaustion and dehydration.
An estimated 75 percent of the Armenians on these marches perished, especially children and the elderly. Those who survived the ordeal were herded into the desert without a drop of water. Being thrown off cliffs, burned alive, or drowned in rivers.
Of course, if we’re going to debate what constitutes “genocide,” how about we go to the source for a working definition? The United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines it as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The historical record is clear: Despite a century of Turkish governments refusing to acknowledge complicity in and responsibility for what they refuse to recognize as genocide, you don’t kill 1.5 million of your own citizens and justify it as merely putting down a rebellion. Death marches are not normally considered effective or reasonable anti-revolutionary tactics. No, this was a deliberate and systematic effort to brutally and violently eliminate an ethnic group- genocide.
More than 20 countries recognize the Ottoman slaughter of Armenian Turks as genocide. Though Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered condolences for the mass murder of Armenian Turks- the first Turkish leader to do so- he’s limited his mea culpa to “inhumane consequences- such as relocation- during the First World War.” That 1.5 million Armenian Turks died during what he downplays as “relocation” is merely and unfortunate byproduct of events.
Erdogan made it clear that he has no intention of admitting Turkish responsibility for what much of the rest of the world has long since acknowledged to be undeniable historical fact. He also showed that he won’t stand idly by while other world leaders speak the truth:
[T]he Pope slammed Turkey for its refusal to take responsibility for the mass killings of Armenians, which he referred to as “the first genocide of the century.”
“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it,” Pope Francis said at a Sunday mass. Erdogan responded to the Pope’s comments with sharp words, saying, “I condemn the pope and would like to warn him not to make similar mistakes again.”
“It is impossible for Turkey to accept this accusation,” he said after the European Parliament passed a resolution to commemorate the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
Turkey will, of course, be forced to one day face and admit the truth. This would require that Turks face the brutality of their forebears, something Germans were forced to do after WWII. Admitting the truth after 100 years won’t change the facts, but facing the past squarely and honestly would at least set the historical record straight and ensure future generations are taught the truth.
It’s sad that President Obama lacks the moral courage to do the right thing and hold the Turkish government accountable for the 1915 genocide of Armenian Turks. I’ve been at odds with the President on numerous occasions, but seldom have I been so thoroughly and completely disappointed. I’m stunned that a President who promised to call the Armenian Genocide what it is decided instead to cave to pressure from the Turkish government out of political considerations. It’s cowardly and immoral and it sends a message that America stands for doing the right thing…when it’s politically convenient.
The memory of 1.5 million Armenian Turks deserve better.
