Turkey’s Genocide Denial: Four Narratives

 


Special to the Armenian Weekly

Turkey still denies the Armenian Genocide, during which 1.5 million Armenians perished. The Turkish state does not have just one policy or rhetoric concerning it. One could argue that there are four main narratives in Turkey concerning the genocide.

Turkey still denies the Armenian Genocide, during which 1.5 million Armenians perished. The Turkish state does not have just one policy or rhetoric concerning it…

Narrative One: We Did Not Slaughter Armenians; Armenians Slaughtered Us

Accusing Armenians of being mass murderers and the actual perpetrators of genocide is a popular myth in Turkey.

Last year, a public stage play that depicted “the liberation of Aşkale [in Erzurum] from invasion” not only turned the historical facts regarding the genocide upside down but also converted them into hate-filled propaganda against the Armenians.

The play opened with the “immigration of Turks fleeing from Armenians.” In it, the Armenians begin drinking wine and eating chicken at a table set in the middle of a ceremony area. Upon the call of their commander, they start slaughtering Turks. They then burn down a mosque (a model made of cardboard), catch the imam as he is reciting the Azan (the Islamic call to prayer), and attack him in the city center. They force him to enter the mosque and then burn him alive. Afterward, they attack a Turkish family, murdering the housewife and her father-in-law in cold blood.

The play ended with Turkish high school students, playing the role of the Turkish militia, entering the town and killing the Armenian “gangs.”

Many state and government authorities, including the mayor, district governor, chief prosecutor, and garrison commander of the town, as well as many students and local people, attended the play.

An actor said that he has been playing the role of Ohannes, the Armenian battalion commander in the play, for about 30 years. So, such plays and speeches about the genocide have become “traditional performances” in Turkey.

Moreover, this narrative is what is now taught to Turkish schoolchildren in middle and high schools.

Professor Taner Akçam wrote a comprehensive article for the Armenian Weekly about how the 1915 genocide is depicted in Turkish history textbooks used during the 2014 and 2015 school years. Those books are either prepared by the Ministry of National Education or approved by the Ministry’s Instruction and Education Board.

“The textbooks characterize Armenians as people who are incited by foreigners, who aim to break apart the state and the country and who murdered Turks and Muslims,” Akçam wrote. “The Armenian Genocide, referred to as the ‘Armenian matter’ in textbooks, is described as a lie perpetrated in order to meet these goals and is defined as the biggest threat to Turkish national security. Another threat to national security is missionaries and their activities.”

But Turkey’s rhetoric concerning genocide is not limited to that narrative.

 

Narrative Two: Yes, We Did Slaughter Armenians. If They Do Not Behave, We Will Slaughter Them Again

This narrative is similar to the first one but takes it to a new and even more shameless level: to something to be proud of, and additional threats against the Armenian victims and other minorities. This sentiment is also openly and frequently expressed across Turkey.

For example, during the performance in Aşkale last year, Enver Başaran, the then mayor of the town, said, in part:

“The Armenians, who had been our ancestors’ neighbors for many years, formed gangs and carried out massacres in our lands with the encouragement and armed support of the Soviet Union following the Russian invasion.

“In your presence, I remember once again with mercy and gratitude our glorious ancestors who extirpated the Armenians, whose history is filled with blood and treason, from these lands.

“The hostility and hatred of those Armenian gangs that are a network of treason has never ended for these lands and for the noble Turkish nation. Those Armenian gangs that do not know any history, rules, or the law now carry out separatist activities in our lands through the terrorist organization PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party].

So this narrative proudly accepts that Turks slaughtered Armenians, but they have an excuse: “Yes, we did exterminate Armenians. But ask us why. Because they misbehaved and became traitors. And, if required, we will do it all over again. One cannot get even an inch of territory from Turkey.”

“We will do it all over again,” in fact, seems to indirectly target Kurds, declaring to Kurds that if they don’t behave well and accept Turkish superiority, Turks will exterminate them, too.

It is actually a common belief in Turkey that PKK members are not Kurdish but are, rather, Armenian. Turkish media often refers to the PKK and the pro-Kurdish HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) members as “Armenians” or “Christians.” Last year, for example, Turkish newspapers claimed that a PKK member killed in the city of Van was found to be wearing a cross necklace—something totally unacceptable according to Turkish-Islamic standards.

Accusing PKK members of being Christian or “uncircumcised” is widespread in the military and among government authorities, as well.

For example, after a group of Turkish soldiers and PKK members were killed in battle on September 8 of 2015, the principal consultant of President Tayip Erdogan and former Chairman of the Constitutional Commission of Turkey’s Parliament Burhan Kuzu wrote on his Twitter account: “So far, thousands of terrorists have been bumped off. This will continue. The corpses of the dead terrorists should definitely have autopsies. Many of them will be found to be uncircumcised. Wake up, my Kurdish brother, wake up now!”

This narrative aims at legitimizing the killings of PKK members or other Kurds because being uncircumcised implies being Christian or non-Muslim. And according to fanatic Muslims, it is “halal” (a good deed) to kill non-Muslims.

Linking the PKK with the Armenian identity is commonly stated by the ultranationalist segments of Turkish politics, such as the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) and the BDP (Great Unity Party).

In 1996, for example, in Turkey’s parliament, the interior minister at the time, Meral Akşener, who is a former MP from the MHP, said the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, was of “Armenian semen [seed].” She then clarified the remark by saying, “I did not refer to the Armenians living in Turkey. I referred to the Armenian race in general.”

“Armenian seed” is one of the most popular epithets in Turkey, often used for Kurds, as well. Kurds, or Kurds who request national rights, are “accused” of being Armenian. Many people in Turkey, including military personnel, openly refer to Kurds or Kurdish activists as “Armenians,” “dirty Armenians,” “Armenian bastards,” “Armenian sperm,” or “Armenian semen/seed.” Different versions of these epithets are also used to refer to Greeks and Jews.

Since August of last year, military curfews have been imposed on the predominantly Kurdish southeastern towns. When Turkish security forces destroyed the town of Cizre in September, 2015, they announced on a loudspeaker to the local Kurdish population: “Armenians are proud of you; you are all Armenians. You are Armenian bastards.”

The Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD) also reported that the police announced to the Kurds of Cizre that they were “Armenian sperm.” Arın Gül Yeniaras, a lawyer who visited Cizre after those operations, wrote that “Everyone was talking about the announcements of the police forces from armored vehicles: “We will cleanse you all in two hours, Armenian bastards! Come on! Let’s play house, Armenian bastards!”

None of the police officers or soldiers responsible for these announcements has been brought to account, apparently because they acted in accordance with the official line of the Turkish regime.

It is not only Armenians who are publicly degraded with such vicious statements in Turkey. All non-Muslims, particularly Greeks and Jews, are also targeted publicly by politicians or military figures.

For example, after the Islamic memorial service at a mosque in Istanbul to commemorate the death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was the founder of modern Turkey and the CHP (Republican People’s Party) in 2013, Muharrem İnce, its deputy president, said: “If there had been no Ataturk…your names would not be Ahmet, Hasan, Hüseyin today. Your names would be Dimitri or Yorgo. They need to know these things right.”

Sadly, no one within his party’s grassroots opposed or challenged him. This demonstrates two realities:

  1. Dehumanizing and insulting Greeks is a norm in Turkey.
  2. There seems to be almost no culture of intellectual dissent about certain issues within the CHP or any other mainstream party in Turkey. And this could partly stem from Turkish politicians’ constantly terrorizing dissidents in the country. In Turkey, even if you feel disturbed by statements degrading or threatening Greeks or other non-Muslims, you are to keep quiet, because you have been taught that if you speak up, you could be labeled as treacherous and accused of having “kafir” (infidel) roots.

And if anyone is declared to be “Armenian sperm” or “Greek sperm” or “Jewish sperm,” those people could be physically attacked or even murdered.

Turkish authorities have also proudly named several places such as schools, neighborhoods, streets, and boulevards after the very people who planned or were directly involved in the Armenian Genocide—an open message to not only Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks but also to Kurds and other dissidents: “This is the possible end awaiting you if you don’t obey us.”

 

Narrative Three: A Tragedy Happened During World War I. Armenians Slaughtered Us, and We Slaughtered Them. It Was Civil War. Let’s Forget About It…

This is the narrative Turkey uses for international observers. On April 24, 2015, for example, a message was sent by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the religious ceremony held in the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul on the 100th anniversary of the genocide. It said, in part:

“In World War I, which ranks among humanity’s major catastrophes, millions from all nations also perished within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire.

“I commemorate with compassion and respect all the Ottoman citizens, regardless of their ethnic and religious identity, who lost their lives under similar conditions during this war.”

In essence, what this message declares is this: “What happened in 1915 was never genocide. People kill each other in all wars. But we are such noble people we still remember all of the dead with love, so let’s forget about it and move on already.”

But, at the same time, Turkey teaches its children that Armenians were the perpetrators of genocide. Racist attacks against the bilingual Armenian weekly newspaper Agos, as well as against Armenian schools, are still widespread in Turkey. Also, Armenians are exposed to hate speech more than any other group, according to a periodic report on hate speech in the Turkish media, released by the Hrant Dink Foundation this year.

So, this third narrative, which is more “moderate” compared with the first and second ones, is just for show, intended for the outside world and particularly for the West: “Look, Turkey is changing for the better and taking steps to face its history. And this proves that we are a worthwhile NATO member an EU candidate.”

 

Narrative 4: Yes, Turkey Committed Genocide

This rhetoric is never directly stated by the Turkish government, but it is, at times, tolerated when presented by some intellectuals in the country.

Since 2010, rights activists in Turkey led by the Human Rights Association (IHD) have commemorated the 1915 genocide in cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir. The government has not prevented the commemoration events, nor has it arrested the organizers. For the government seems to use these events as a public relations stunt for the world. International media do cover these events, so it is easy marketing for Turkish “democracy.”

Particularly during the “policy of zero problems with neighbors” instituted by then-foreign minister and later prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (from 2009 to 2016), intellectuals who told the truth about the genocide were somewhat more tolerated by the government. Not because it also recognized the truth or wanted to encourage the Turkish public to learn more about the genocide, but because it wanted to look more democratic to the West.

 

An Overview of the Issue

Thus, Turkish state authorities use these four policies or narratives concerning the GSenocide based on the needs and interests of the country at different times.

They sometimes tolerate those who tell the truth if that tolerance might result in Western support for Turkey. But, at the same time, they arrest some of those who tell the truth about the Genocide. Mukaddes Alataş, a Kurdish human rights activist from Diyarbakir, for example, was recently arrested for “being a member of a terror organization.” Among the “evidence” used against her were her social media posts about the Armenian Genocide. She is still in jail.

Human rights activists in Turkey are thus taking immense risks by organizing or speaking out. At any time they could also be attacked, or even killed, by nationalists Turks hostile to Armenians. Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of Agos, was murdered in 2007 in front of the office of his newspaper in Istanbul. He had received numerous death threats from Turkish nationalists and was prosecuted three times for “denigrating Turkishness” in his writings and remarks about the Armenian Genocide.

Hence, there are strict limits to the tolerance of the Turkish government. And every now and then, the government sends a message to those who recognize the genocide: “Know your limits.”

In May, 2005, for example, Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University attempted to organize a conference about the Genocide. Scholars who say that what happened in 1915 was genocide were also invited. But the conference was canceled after then justice minister Cemil Çiçek accused those associated with the conference of “treason” and “stabbing Turkey in the back.”

Some 102 years have passed, but the denial of or even pride in the genocide is still the dominant ideology in Turkey, and it has largely escaped public scrutiny or critique. Why?

The government’s brainwashing of the people has created generations that blindly deny the Armenian Genocide. Turks, through various means, such as the educational system and the media, have been indoctrinated with the lie that there is no genocide or shame or guilt in their history.

But in an age of technology, where there is limitless access to all kinds of sources on the Internet, why is denial of genocide still so popular in Turkey?

This is largely due to the Islamic indoctrination of the Turkish masses. Sadly, traditional Islamic doctrine does not value non-Muslim lives as much as Muslime lives. Fourteen centuries of Islamic history demonstrate that there has never been legal or social equality of Muslims and non-Muslims in majority-Muslim societies. When religious or national dehumanization of non-Muslims, which, in Turkey’s case, includes Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Jews, Yazidis, and others, is reinforced by the government, the denial of genocide or massacres against them turns into a social pathology that is very difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.

Today, only 0.2 percent of Turkey’s population is Christian or Jewish. There are only around 2,000 Greeks, 20,000 Assyrians (Syriacs and Chaldeans), 60,000 Armenians, 350 Yazidis, and 15,000 Jews left in Turkey, a country with a total population of about 80 million.

The decline of the non-Muslim population has not been due to natural causes. The religious minorities in Turkey have for decades been decimated through methods such as murders, pogroms, forced expulsions, forced displacements, harassment, and various social and economic pressures that finally forced them to leave Turkey.

And one of the most important factors that normalizes, legitimizes, and makes murders and crimes against non-Muslims “morally acceptable” in Islamic societies is the tradition of jihad or Islamic identity. It was during the first campaign of expansion of Islamic armies in the seventh century that jihadists arrived in and invaded Asia Minor, which was then a majority-Christian area with sizable Jewish and Yazidi communities. During that period, several nations across continents, such as the Persian empire, the Byzantine empire, and northern Africa were invaded and occupied, making the Islamic world expand far beyond the borders of the Arabian Peninsula. And throughout centuries, jihadists have spread their faith by the sword, as sanctioned by Islamic scriptures. Today, the last Christian and Yazidi genocides are being committed by ISIS (Islamic State) in Syria and Iraq.

During Islamic invasions and later during Sharia rule, Christians and Jews were either murdered or become “dhimmis”: third-class, barely “tolerated” people in their dispossessed land who must pay a tax (the jizya) in exchange for so-called “protection.”

Historian Bat Ye’or places the continuum of Armenian massacres in Ottoman Turkey in an overall theological and juridical context, as follows:

“The genocide of the Armenians was the natural outcome of a policy inherent in the politically religious structure of Dhimmitude. This process of physically eliminating a rebel nation had already been used against the rebel Slav and Greek Christians, rescued from collective extermination by European intervention, although sometimes reluctantly.

“The genocide of the Armenians was a jihad. No Rayas (non-Muslim Dhimmis) took part in it. Despite the disapproval of many Muslim Turks and Arabs, and their refusal to collaborate in the crime, these massacres were perpetrated solely by Muslims and they alone profited from the booty: the victims’ property, houses, and lands granted to the Muhajirun (holy warrior jihadists), and the allocation to them of women and child slaves. The elimination of male children over the age of twelve was in accordance with the commandments of the jihad and conformed to the age fixed for the payment of the Jizya. The four stages of the liquidation, deportation, enslavement, forced conversion and massacre, reproduced the historic conditions of the jihad carried out in the Dar Al Harb from the seventh century on. Chronicles from a variety of sources, by Muslim authors in particular, give detailed descriptions of the organized massacres or deportation of captives, whose sufferings in forced marches behind the armies paralleled the Armenian experience in the twentieth century.”

Dr. Yektan Türkyılmaz, an expert of Turkish and Ottoman history, recently wrote a highly informative article concerning the wider background and historical process of the Armenian Genocide, detailing the massacres and persecutions not only of Armenians but also of Syriacs, Chaldeans, and Yazidis in Turkey and the rest of the region.

He wrote, in part: “It is without doubt that the annihilationist consensus between the central government in Istanbul, the military commanders, governors, low-level and middle-level officials, many Kurdish tribes, and Circassian militia etc. was built on Islamic identity…. The emphasis here is that a certain narrative was functional in ‘legitimizing’ massacres, destruction and pillaging and making them ‘conscientiously doable.”

Türkyılmaz added that “the Armenian Genocide was the most important turning point of the Muslimization of the Middle East.”

Apart from Islam’s doctrinal dehumanization of non-Muslims, there is also the role of shame versus honor in Islamic societies. In countries such as Turkey, there is nothing worse than shame because it taints one’s family, tribe, and country. That encourages people to either deny the Genocide and other crimes that their ancestors have committed or accuse the accuser of the same thing or even worse. Western societies, however, are guilt-driven. They admit guilt and move on. Muslim societies are largely honor-driven. They almost never admit guilt and don’t move on.

The Turkish Republic, established in 1923, still has not officially recognized, has not apologized for, or made reparations for any of the crimes or wrongdoings at any time in its history.

And never once in their history have Turkish people taken to the streets en masse in protest as the non-Muslim citizens of the country were (and still are) exposed to persecution such as pogroms, massacres, or confiscations of their properties. The Turkish state has carried out its annihilationist policies either with the active participation or the silent approval of the vast majority of the public.

But what is even more striking is that in Turkey there is not one form of denial of the genocide, but several. And all of them have one thing in common: a complete lack of humanity by the perpetrators, past and present.

So, what is to be done? Scholar Andrew G. Bostom, who has written extensively about the Armenian Genocide and history of jihad, wrote in 2015: “The historical record of the jihad genocide of the Armenians a century ago, through the present day jihadist atrocities against Christian communities in the Middle East, and beyond, demonstrates that ancient Islamic jihad war theory continues to be acted upon by Muslims, regularly, across the globe, till now. What remains is for the Muslim intelligentsia to acknowledge, and then eliminate this practice.”

Dr. Bostom also notes that for Muslims to re-examine and criticize their history, the U.S. should lead the way, officially recognize the Genocide, and demand the perpetrators do the same: “A quarter century later, it is now readily apparent such a long overdue, mea culpa-based Muslim self-examination will never begin if the non-Muslim, especially Christian, targets of jihad genocide, remain in their own abject state of jihad denial. U.S. politicians could help facilitate that Muslim re-evaluation process by not only demanding recognition of the Armenian Genocide, but further identifying those mass killings as a jihad genocide, specifically.”

Uzay Bulut

Uzay Bulut

Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara. She is a fellow at the Middle East Forum (MEF) and is currently based in Washington D.C. Bulut’s journalistic work focuses mainly on Turkish politics, ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey, and antisemitism.

28 Comments

  1. After all is said, it is distinctly Macchiavellan: Through thick or thin, it has served, and is still serving, the expansion of Islam on land. Even the objective un-biased Muslim will say: “But it’s working !!! Here and there, throughout history, everybody has done it: Look how the U.S. was borne !!! Look what all Christian colonialists have done time and again !!! Look even what non-muslim non-christian colonialists have done and still do !!!! The pages of history is in defense of perpetrating genocides and ethnic cleansing: So why to pick on Turks for committing a genocide or two.” And such answers will come from the learned human-rights-activist Turks, and this is called “the Fifth Narrative About the Armenian Genocide by Turks and Islam…”.

  2. a well constructed and informative article Uzay especially about the conflation between PKK and Armenians. I am surprised that you didnt cover another, more psycho-pathologically centric narrative that Armenians are suffering from inter-generational trauma and therefore their claims are groundless. I have often thought without a genuine truth and reconciliation process nothing will change in these narratives. Turkey will continue its denial which now borders on a collective conscious delusional paranoia. It would be of great of interest to me if someone were to do a journalistic investigation on the 2001 faux truth and reconciliation charade that was sanctioned by the Turkish government.

  3. Another form of “denial” comes from some Armenians who say, explicitly or implicitly:

    ‘That was 100 years ago. Stop harping on it and live your life. The genocide is over. There is no particular threat from Turkey now. It has not threatened Armenia. And pan-Turkism, which means Turkey somehow allying with Azerbaijan and the Turkic nations of central asia, is a dead theory that not even Turks believe in anymore. Let’s reconcile with Turkey, which is changing for the better and becoming more free and open.’

    • You are so misinformed Talin. Obviously you have not been following Turkish news for the last 10 or so years. Only about 5 years ago that Turkey threatened to drop few bombs on Armenia to teach us a lesson for supporting Karabagh…As Pan Turanism ( not pan Turkism) is alive and well in most Turkish political centers, however it is not possible to establish that union so desired by Turkey, because all these nations of Central Asia are at odds with each other, thus Pan-Turanism is nothing but a dream but still alive.

      The biggest mistake you did is suggesting Armenians to forget the genocide….Thank God most Armeniansd do not have your train of thought…Shame on you..

  4. Thank you for your candidness.
    It’s not surprising that western politicians/governments/leaders aren’t doing their part to bring the perpetrators to justice because of the massive PR and bribery efforts of the Turks and Azerbaijanis.
    3 billion dollars were spent showering European politicians and media people to be pro Azerbaijani. (As recently revealed by The Guardian.) That’s 3,000 million dollars.
    The West should be ashamed. It’s either being bribed or blackmailed into supporting the ongoing genocide denial.

  5. You had me up until you cited Bat Ye’or. The woman’s a complete imbecile who believes muslims are taking over the west even though actual demographic trends tell a different story. And you also ignored that a.) The Yazidis started out as a MUSLIM offshoot (they were followers of the Umayaad’s). More importantly the “conversion by the sword” was largely overexxagerated. Bat Yeor has no problem making things up that suit her so anything she says is suspect. Bernard Lewis (the dean of Islamic scholarship) has stated that Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warning of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. … At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowadays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.”[59]

    Kemal Attaturk detested Islam and the government was largely secular. The Armenian Genocide was largely based on nationalism with Islam used an excuse to act on ethinc hatred

    • Bernard Lewis is a horrible example as he’s in the minority group of ‘scalars’ known to fabricate and basically is a Turkish foot soldier apologist who tries desperately to hide behind his doctorate to narrate a ‘poor Turk who was a victim himself’ narrative, regardless of FACTS. Lewis’ blatant Armenian genocide denials has been ridiculed by legitimate academia. Not a good example. As for Ataturk, he was a Donemeh Zionist Jew from Salonika as was the other Young Turk regime actors who directly concocted the Armenian Genocide and theft of property and wealth. That’s why the secularism. Henry Morganthaus wrote volumes on how Talaat and the Young Turk regime talked about Islam but never ever went to any Mosque. That’s because they were Jewish. Sir Gerard Lowther, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople, witnessed everything and wrote how the “Young Turk regime was really a Jewish movement”. That’s why today Israel, the USA, who’s foreign policy is directly run by the Israeli lobby, and Great Britain actively deny facts and reality of the Armenian Genocide. It would open a Pandora’s box of who the actual concoctors of the Armenian Christian Genocide and robbery were. Even the ADL, a supposed ‘human rights group’ who’s head Abe Foxman, used to say the AG recognition would ‘harm the Jews of Turkey’? Really? how? Him and everyone like him knows exactly what happened. Cant hide the truth forever. The days are coming.

    • Yes , and today how many Armenians are leaving Armenia in there droves heading for the Turkic borders risking life n limb just to be amongst turks Turkish life and cultur how many legal and illegals are there currently living and earning the Turkish lira when they have pro armen nations they can also go to ! Yet they choose the Turks that the diaspora bark on about

    • While it could be argued that it was off-topic material (perhaps added for effect – she perhaps thinks this is what Armenians expect to read?), there is nothing that Uzay Bulut wrote concerning Islam that was inaccurate. Ryan’s claim that Muslims can’t kill women or children or commit various other atrocities because their religion commands them not to is like Erdogan’s AG-denying claim that Muslims can’t have ever committed genocide because their religion commands them not to. So, let’s just disregard every historical event proving otherwise. Also, calling Kemalist Turkey “secular” is vastly oversimplifying things.

  6. Lets be clear: the real reason for the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocide was theft of wealth and property. Nothing more. And to be clear, the Turks horribly oppressed everyone they occupied…. By 1915 however, most had rid the Turkish yoke but the Armenians weren’t so lucky as their ancient homeland was Anatolia itself. So the Young Turk regime, who were vastly Donme as that fact needs to be included in all Armenian genocide discussions, decided upon genocide and carried it out using Jihad as a unifying tool for Turks and Kurds to do the actual raping and murdering. The denial and brain washing since, and the reason for the Armenian genocide being labeled “the biggest Turkish national security threat” is again financial. Turks have no intention of ever recognizing what they did because it would mean reparations to the original owners and possible lands returned that DO NOT BELONG TO TURKS.

  7. Great article. It should be home-lesson for all European politicians because it is not difficult to apply the basic mechanism on everything that has to do with islam and the islamization of Western Europe. Keep on the fight for the free world and the revealing of islam as it is Uzay!

    • I agree with you,
      Seems to me after defeating corrupt Eastern Roman Empire by Turkic herds, today’s Turkish corrupt leader has the same mentality of Byzantine Empire!

  8. It is a disgrace that this author is using the Armenian genocide to extend her Islamophobic and Orientalist views that have been debunked by so many scholars. One cannot and should not fight for the rights of one group of people while denigrating another entire religion and group of people. After all denigration of an entire religious or ethnic group is the essential component for perpetrating a genocide. I wish the author had stuck to the initial points she had made and not gone off on a rant against Islam. It’s disappointing that Armenian Weekly would allow the publication of such an article, particularly in this era of increasing Islamophobia and White Supremacy in the US.

    • Dzovinar,

      Your post is nonsense. It also is quite fashionable.

      There is nothing Islamophobic or Orientalist in what the author wrote. Nobody disputes that non-Muslims [that means us, Dzovie] at best were third class citizens known as dhimmi before they were the subjects of official jihad. Nobody disputes that Turkish Moslem leaders declared jihad against the Armenians in aid of the government’s eliminationist intent. True, some Moslem leaders in Egypt and elsewhere condemned the jihad.

      As of “orientalism,” that is a bizarre [if fashionable] charge to make. The journalist is from Turkey. She said nothing to insult modern day Turkishness, just the genocide denial of the state.

      You should apologize.

    • The only disgrace in these pages is your comment.

      There is nothing “islamophobic” in pointing out the continuing and Genocidal role of racism by Muslims against non-Muslims, who also are not Turks. There is also not a hint of what Edward Said called “orientalism.” Are you aware the author is a Turk? Have you read her other stories here and in other publications?

      Your post typifies a regrettable trend among many weak-minded herd-followers: ignore what the target has said, and attack for some tiny, and in this case invisible affront not to the poster’s group, but instead to a supposed victimized group, which I guess you think are Turks and Moslems, mostly thoseof 1915.

      Dzovinar, this may go over in a soft class at college, but nowhere else.

    • Speaking the truth about what happened to the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks for the last 600+ years leading up to now and in what is today called Turkey is NOT Islamophobia or Orientalist. It is called speaking the truth.

  9. An objective historian may say: The 19th century was to dismantle the Ottoman Empire; on and off incursions to the Caucuses, the Balkans, Egypt and the Arabic Peninsula. Sultan Abdul Hamid tried to preserve the unity, but was failing. The Young Turks took over, and tried to save the Empire’s unity: They failed. They lost the Balkans; they lost on the Russian Front; and Arab revolts were in the cooking. The Empire was dismantling into nation-states, and Turkic Ottoman refugees were fleeing into the heartland. Thus, the Triumvirate changed course, and adopted the motto of nationalism, trying to save the remnants of the vast Empire in a nationalistic heartland. And when nationalism runs high, other nationalisms cannot coexist alongside, and are strictly mutually exclusive. Empire- turned -into -a- nation Turks used the easy tool of religious Jihad to identify their easy targets of non-moslems ( Armenian, Assyrian, Pontic, Greek…), and moslem Kurds worked synergistic with Turks et al. to cleanse the land from all non-moslems. This march to Turkish nationalism is still in completion, the last targets being moslem-but-not-Turkish Kurds, Alevis, Zaza…!!! And a 13 year old Zaza kid in Chungush told me in 2008: “Our teacher taught us in school, that we had to throw all the Christians down that pit into their death, so that we save the Republic !!!!!! p.s. Turkish kids in mid-school are taught the Fifth Narrative: “We had to kill all the Christians, in whatever means possible, TO SAVE THE REPUBLIC”!!! So, the Fifth Narrative is: Yes, we killed them all (you may call it a genocide, a massacre, a cleansing…), but we are justified, because WE HAD TO SAVE THE REPUBLIC!!!!!

    • @ ‘Dzovina’
      So in an article discussing turkish MO in denying justice to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and their descendants, your response not only discuss the actual issue, but instead disparaged the author for his alleged “Islamophobic” and then “Orientalist views”, “a disgrace” and somehow, you also managed to insert “White Supremacy in the US.” into this.

      One has to wonder about your motives and authenticity, given your comment.
      The topic seems of a little interest to you, but highlighting what you think is “disgraceful” because the author dared to point out the facts, and did not choose to be politically correct.
      I know he speaks for most of us, certainly speaks for me. My grand parents witnessed the horrors of the genocide first hand, and yet I come here to read your comment.
      It is obvious that you think we shouldn’t tell the truth or censor ourselves to pander to a certain group, while recycling another special interest group’s talking points which are irrelevant to this topic.

      ————————————————————
      Since my initial response was censored, I can only hope that Armenian Weekly does not condone your attacks, nor endorses censorship, but I have seen stranger things.

  10. There is also “Narrative 5”, the “So what? Get over it!” narrative. It is the narrative presented by a great many non-Turkish academics (including, ironically, a number of Armenians). A key element to this narrative is decontextualisation. Just as an artefact’s intrinsic value is diminished if decontextualised from its origin, Armenians are diminished in cultural and historical importance by being decontextualised. The word “Armenia” is no longer used as a geographical or historical term – it is now called Eastern Anatolia. The ROA is also considered to be part of Eastern Anatolia by those using this term. This turns Armenians into being just one of a myriad of different peoples that existed on a vast land area called “Anatolia”, and since nobody is shouting “genocide” about the disappearance of the Galatians, or the Lycians, or the Issaurians, why should what happened to Armenians be singled out.
    Armenian sites are decontextualised by being labelled “multicultural” and appropriated into a wider “Anatolian” culture. For example, Ani, in most current academic literature, is not described as an Armenian site – it is an “Eastern Anatolian” site and is characterized as a place that was “home” to various “cultures” that existed side by side. The immediacy of the genocide on Armenian sites is eliminated through muzealization: buildings are “restored”, scrubbed clean of their inconvenient history, and presented as tourist attractions and demonstrations of “tolerance”.
    Armenians are thus minimalized and marginalised into being a non-nation historical minority, without any singular cultural or historical importance, but one that backwardly resisted assimilation into the multicultural and tolerant Ottoman Empire (which is presented as a sort of proto-European Union). In this context the extermination of the region’s Armenian population is presented as a required act on the road bringing Turkey into the modern era. The Armenian Genocide was thus not an exceptional event that justifies the “divisive” label genocide, but just a natural and inevitable historical process.

  11. In my 55 years since self recognition and political awareness, I have never met a Turk who has not expressed racist position towards all none Turks, be they Muslim or none Muslim. Unlike Kurds who being mostly Sunni Moslems easy to turn to Turks,Armenians are a nation with own religion, the Armenian church, on historical homeland defined since before Roman empire. From 19th and 20 the century fascist Turkish nationalists Armenian nation was an insurmountable obstacle on the road of The Great Turkish Race Nation.

  12. Why a comment from ‘Dzovinar’ accusing the author of ‘Islamophobic and Orientalist views’ is allowed and my 2 attempts to explain that the article did not have such views but instead explaining facts about the turkish MO when denying the Genocide were censored?
    Are only certainly people with certain views allowed to comment?
    This is puzzling and disappointing.

    • To all who have posted on this comments thread:

      We at the Armenian Weekly *sincerely* apologize. If your comment was not published, it was purely a mistake, not because it was being censored. We have recently discovered our site has had an enormous backlog of comments—nearly one thousand— and are currently moderating them. We are an incredibly small staff, just two people, and we are going through the comments as swiftly as we can. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We do, however, moderate comments. Any comments containing profane language, hate speech, or racist diatribe will not be tolerated. Comments sections should exist to facilitate healthy dialogue, and we believe volleys of vulgar insults serve no one.

      Thank you for your readership,

      Karine Vann
      Assistant Editor

  13. How can any Armenian live under turkish rule knowing the full truth of these events? Talat Pasha was right about one thing, there can be no friendship between the Armenians and turks (as nations) after that crime. the only way to solve this situation is the turks returning to the Armenians the Western Armenian territories that were stolen from them through the Genocide. Or baring that, the complete destruction of one of the two sides. if we forget the Genocide without justice served we will slowly cease to be Armenian.

  14. They didn’t die. They change and hide their identies. There is still 6 million Armenians live in Turkey with hidden idenity. They call them as Kurds. There was ASALA(Armenian) terrorist group which betrayed Ottoman. They always try to make their rebellion. Even they tried to kill Vahdettin. That is the reason why Ottoman made a decision and expelled Armenians from Ottoman. Some of them try to resist to go. That is the reason why the most of them change their name and introduce theirselfes as Kurds. If you don’t believe me come to Turkey’s east. If you saw any chrisitian Kurds or Kurds that can’t speak Kurdish, they are the Armenians. You can find lost Armenians in Turkey as alive but can’t find a graves of them in anywhere around the world. Because they didn’t get killed. That is the reason why that Armenia still can not show the graves of Armenians. 1.5 million Armenians get killed but couldn’t even find a simple grave of them? Wow that is just so unreal.

  15. I have always supported that we should examine evidence that we have about that genocide. That’s why I agree with the Armenians that current government of the Turkey just denying that claim rather than proving that didn’t happen. I believe we Turks and Armenians, we should always be good friends. I love all nations and we all should be.

    Check that article which is written by a Turkish atheist about genocide:

    http://turkishatheist.net/?p=65

  16. I take issue with the end of the article in that the author craftily moves the blame for the genocide from the turks to Islam. As someone commented, religion might have been used to stir the turk masses, but the genocide was a land grab by the TURKS and nothing else.

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