Dead Cant Rant

Another item found by Reneé this morning: Turkey is calling the Polish government “irresponsible” because it acknowledged the mass murder of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire (later known as Turkey) that began in 1915 and lasted by many accounts as late as 1923.

Curious about the relatively unknown Armenian massacre? So were we. Northpark University has a very good overview of what happened: The Armenian Massacre.

The first genocide of the 20th century is one that has gone by largely unnoticed. Still denied by many Turks, the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1916 accounts for the death of one and a half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

The first step in this annihilation was to disarm the Armenians in the army, place them into labor battalions and then kill them. Then, on April 24, 1915, the Armenian political and intellectual leaders were gathered and killed. Finally, the remaining Armenians were called from their homes, often in a house by house search. Many men were shot immediately or thrown into prison, only to be tortured to death later. The rest of the men, and the women and children were told they would be relocated, and then marched off to concentration camps in the desert between Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor. Here, they would starve and thirst to death in the burning sun. Prisoners were starved, beaten, raped and murdered by unmerciful guards.

During the march, Armenians were denied food and water. They were driven along by the soldiers day after day, all on foot. They were beaten or left to die if they could not keep up with the caravan. The authorities in Trebizond, on the Black Sea Coast, sometimes loaded Armenians on barges and threw them overboard. Some of the women on the march were forced to strip naked and walk in this condition under the burning sun.

They also refute the claims that the Ottomans were “merely” crushing a rebellion:

The Ottoman Government has tried to justify this crime against an entire race by making three main contentions; the first one being that the Armenians took up arms and joined the Russians as soon as the latter crossed the Ottoman frontier. The battle usually cited is the “Revolt of Van.” The deportations were ordered only after this outbreak, according to the Ottoman Government. There was no Armenian revolt at Van, however. The Armenians merely defended the quarter of the city in which they lived, after it had been attacked by Turkish troops. The Turks even fired the first shot at Van on April 20, 1915. More importantly, deportations started happening on April 8, before any alleged revolts.

(emphasis added)

Much more is at the Northpark link.

First World War.com has documentation straight from the source: Primary Documents: Bryce Report into the Armenian Massacre, October 1915.

British Government Report on the Armenian Massacres of April-December 1915 by Lord Bryce

I am grieved to say that such information as has reached me from several quarters goes to show that the number of those who have perished in Armenia is very large. It has been estimated at the figure of 800,000. [this was in 1915. The number rose to 1.5 million by 1923 -- ed]

Though hoping that figure to be beyond the mark, I cannot venture to pronounce it incredible, for there has been an unparalleled destruction of life all over the country from the frontiers of Persia to the Sea of Marmora, only a very few of the cities of the Aegean coast having escaped.

This is so, because the proceedings taken have been so carefully premeditated and systematically carried out, with a ruthless efficiency previously unknown among the Turks. The massacres are the result of a policy which, as far as can be ascertained, has been entertained for some considerable time by the gang of unscrupulous adventurers in possession of the Government of the Turkish Empire.

They hesitated to put it in practice until they thought the favourable moment had come, and that moment seems to have arrived about the month of April, 1915. That was the time when these orders were issued, orders which came down in every case from Constantinople, and which the officials found themselves obliged to carry out on pain of dismissal.

There was no Moslem passion against the Armenian Christians. All was done by the will of the Government, and done not from any religious fanaticism, but simply be cause they wished, for reasons purely political, to get rid of a non-Moslem element which impaired the homogeneity of the Empire, and constituted an element that might not always submit to oppression.

(emphasis added)

Bryce continues that this was patently not a religious endeavour by Muslims against Christians, but rather a decision reached by an opportunistic government to carry out the wholesale slaughter of a people because it did not conform with their view of the world. For further information see Hitler, Adolf.

If there was any doubt about the United States’ position on this horrible crime against humanity, President Bush eliminated it in an official Presidential message in 2002:

President’s Message on Armenian Massacre
April 24, 2002

Today, we commemorate an appalling tragedy of the 20th century, the massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians through forced exile and murder at the end of the Ottoman Empire. These horrific killings left wounds that remain painful for people in Armenia, in Turkey, and around the world. I join the Armenian community in America and across the globe in mourning this horrendous loss of life.

Today is an occasion for the world to reflect upon and draw lessons from these terrible events. It is a day for recognizing that demonizing others lays the foundation for a dark cycle of hatred. Transcending this venomous pattern requires painful introspection about the past and wise determination to forge a new future based on truth and reconciliation. In this spirit, I look forward to Turkey restoring economic, political, and cultural links with Armenia.

Why doesn’t Turkey want this ackowledged? One reason is pride, much like the Japanese who want to enforce collective amnesia regarding the Rape of Nanking. But another reason is more sinister: When the world turns its back, they would love to do the same to the Kurds. And there aren’t 1.5 million Kurds in Turkey — there’s 15 to 20 million.