the united states is responsible for the denial of the armenian genocide. to be clear, turkey is the mostto blame for the systematic revision of history, but the united states is entirely complicit in that revision. the armenian cause–that is, the violent persecution of armenians, which began in the late nineteenth century and continued into the twentieth, culminating in the armenian genocide–was wildly popular in the united states and much of the christian west. if you’re american, your grandparents or great-grandparents may remember the “starving armenians” whose infamous, ongoing tragedy became dinnertime encouragement to clean their plates. you can read about america’s overwhelming response to overseas armenian persecution as it happened in peter balakian’s the burning tigris(available here in full, for free). you’ll also find an interesting breakdown of the movement to deny the armenian genocide and america’s participation in that movement in the epilogue, “turkish denial of the armenian genocide and america’s complicity” (372).
the u.s. government (“turkey is not endeavoring to undermine our institutions, to penetrate our labor organizations by pernicious propaganda, and to foment disorder and conspiracies against our domestic peace in the interest of a world revolution” (376) – secretary of state charles evans hughes, “[anticipating america’s] cold war alliance with turkey” several decades in advance); u.s. corporate community (“the armenians were moved from the inhospitable regions where they were not welcome and could not actually prosper but to the most delightful parts of syria [well, if the der zor desert counts as such]…where the climate is as benign as in florida and california whither new york millionaires journey each year for health and recreation…. and all this was done at great expense of money and effort” (376) – retired u.s. admiral colby chester, his eyes fixed on promised turkish oil); and even hollywood (“after a series of exchanges between the two governments, the state department yielded to turkey’s demand and got MGM to drop the project [a movie based on the forty days of musa dagh, a novel about the armenian genocide]” (377)); enabled the denial of the armenian genocide, such that by the 1930s the armenian genocide, once an important part of american public discourse, “was a narrative lost to the public” (377).
a global armenian consciousness emerged in the 1960s, one dedicated to the memory of the armenian genocide. in the united states, “armenians came out en masse to remember and to educate the world” (378). in response, the turkish government and turkish diaspora organizations kicked off their own campaign, one designed to counter “armenian nationalist propaganda” supposedly invented by “aged armenians…most of them already aged eighty or more” whose “[coached] statements are of no use whatever for historical research,” according to one turkish pamphlet. american academics like princeton professors bernard lewis and norman itzkowitz and ucla professor stanford j. shaw and his wife, ezel kural shaw, authors of the ottoman empire and modern turkey famously joined the movement, rewriting history (sometimes even rewriting themselves, like bernard lewis). an infamous instance of turkish state-sponsored denial was exposed in the 1990s, when heath lowry (also a princeton professor) was revealed to be on the turkish government’s payroll while writing “articles and op-ed columns denying the genocide…[and lobbying] in congress to defeat successive armenian genocide commemorative resolutions” (383). you can read the full (and much more complicated) story in the burning tigris, pages 383-385.
turkey’s strategic importance during the cold war (and armenians’ irrelevance, especially because the armenian soviet socialist republic was hardly america’s cold wartime ally) meant that the united states was unwilling to officially recognize the armenian genocide. a 1984 armenian genocide commemoration resolution was defeated with president ronald reagan’s help when “the turkish government threatened to close down u.s. military bases in turkey and to terminate defense contracts with u.s. firms” (387). even after the end of the cold war, turkish influence on american politics with respect to the armenian genocide was significant. in 2000, when the house of representatives subcommittee on international relations and human rights passed a nonbinding resolution asking then-president bill clinton to refer to the mass murder of armenians as “genocide” in his annual april 24 statement, the turkish government “warned the united states that it would close its air bases to u.s. planes, including those near the iraqi border, and cancel weapons contracts with the united states” and “told the united states that the passage of such a resolution would ruin u.s. relations with turkey” (389). do i even need to spell out what happened next?
the denial of the armenian genocide, like the genocide itself, was and issystematic. the turkish government (with the help of the united states government) has done its absolute best to quash recognition of the mass murder of 1.5 million armenians as genocide. this is a fight in which american citizens have a stake, and a say. (which is not to suggest that non-americans don’t. you are part of this, too.) please, please use your voice for the better of an unremembered people and their unremembered genocide. read a book, or three. talk to people about what you’ve learned, and demand that it become part of your state or district’s social studies curriculum. counter denialism where you come across it. do not allow armenians’ narrative to be once more lost to the public.
Okay, so, today is April 24th and I kinda feel like I’m obligated to interrupt your stream of memes for a second of your attention.
April 24th marks the beginning of what is now known as the Armenian Genocide. The genocide, taking place during WWI in 1915 was the systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the newly established Young Turk government. When I read about this, I found the word choice used to describe it unnerving - a “cleanse” of the Armenian people to “Turkify” the Ottoman Empire. A solution to the “Armenian question”. The terms used kinda scared me, because it draws an eerily similar comparison to the Holocaust. On this day, 102 years ago, the Turkish government arrested and executed a few hundred Armenian intellectuals. Soon, the Turkish country side was littered with the corpses of the Armenians.
And not a lot of people even know.
1.5 million people were killed in an attempt to erase Armenians from history.
To this day, the Turkish government refuses to admit this crime.
“Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of eye witnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion.” - AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU, Constantinople, 16 July 1915
Although the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23 has its beginnings further back in history, the 24th April is used as the marker and the day of remembrance. In 1915, under the rule of the Three Pashas (Talaat, Cemal and Enver Pasha), the Ottoman state (and then the Turkish National Movement) began its systematic extermination of its Armenian population – the deportations of thousands, many of whom would die on these death marches before ever reaching designated areas, to outright massacres and other atrocities. Estimates put it to around 1.5 million deaths. The actions taken against the Armenians would also be reflected in the Greek and Assyrian genocides.
“Their existence must come to an end, however tragic the means may be; and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to conscientious scruples.” - TALAAT, 16 September 1915
Today, Turkey (and other states) do not recognise the Armenian genocide and denialism still prevalent around the world. Denialism is spread through not just academic revisionist theories but also with the media (films/TV/social media) which depict the events as ambiguous of the intent or underplayed entirely (e.g. The Ottoman Lieutenant). Despite this, steps have been made in recent years for recognition and more states have begun to openly accept the term of genocide, including most recently the US (2019). UPDATE: as of 2021 the US officially recognised the Armenian Genocide.
Images used: wiki + The Armenian Genocide Museum-institute (please be aware there is some extremely explicit content)
Soghomon Tehlirian (1896-1960), Talaat’s assassin, pictured in 1921.
March 15 1921, Berlin–The day after Turkey left the war, much of the Young Turk leadership, including Talaat, Djemal, and Enver Pasha, fled Constantinople with German help. In 1919, courts-martial established under Allied pressure in Constantinople sentenced them to death in absentia. Djemal had thence gone to Afghanistan and Enver to Moscow, but Talaat had remained in Berlin, and German authorities had no plans to extradite him to Turkey.
The Armenian nationalist Dashnaks decided to carry out justice for the Armenian Genocide themselves, and ordered assassinations of the leading Young Turks and other major figures deemed responsible for the genocide. On March 15, Soghomon Tehlirian shot Talaat as he exited his house in Charlottenburg. He did not attempt to flee the scene, and was promptly arrested.
At his trial, which included such witnesses as Liman von Sanders, Tehlirian testified:
I do not consider myself guilty because my conscience is clear…I have killed a man. But I am not a murderer.
After an hour’s deliberation, the jury acquitted him.
Sources include: Raymond Kévorkian, The Armenian Genocide.
Syria | Damascus President Bashar Al Assad and First Lady Asma Al Assad host Armenian delegation from Aleppo, on the eve of Armenian Genocide remembrance day.
On 28 May 1919, on the first anniversary of the Republic of Armenia, the government of the newly founded country symbolically declared the union of EasternandWesternArmenia, the latter of which was still under the full control of the Turks. Alexander Khatisian, the Armenian Prime Minister, read the declaration:
”To restore the integrity of Armenia and to secure the complete freedom and prosperity of its people, the Government of Armenia, abiding by the solid will and desire of the entire Armenian people, declares that from this day forward the separated parts of Armenia are everlastingly combined as an independent political entity.
Now in promulgating this act of unification and independence of the ancestral Armenian lands located in Transcaucasia and the Ottoman Empire, the Government of Armenia declares that the political system of United Armenia is a democratic republic and that it has become the Government of the United Republic of Armenia.
Thus, the people of Armenia are henceforth the supreme lord and master of their consolidated fatherland, and the Parliament and Government of Armenia stand as the supreme legislative and executive authority conjoining the free people of United Armenia”.
We are few, but we are called Armenians. We do not put ourselves above anyone. Simply our fortune has just been so different. Simply we have just shed too much blood. Simply in our lives of centuries long. When we were many and when we were strong. Even then we did not oppress any nation. See, centuries have come and centuries have passed, yet over no one have we become tyrants. If we have enslaved, only with our eyes. And if we have ruled, only with our books. If we have prevailed, only with our talents. And if we have ever oppressed, it has only been with our wounds.
Մենք քիչ ենք‚ սակայն մեզ հայ են ասում by Paruyr SevakpartII
Armenian girl with identification scaring on chest and face, 1919.
Credit: Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
In the 1920’s thousands of Armenian girls and women managed to escape the Armenian Genocide by fleeing to Syria. Armenian girls were kept in slavery and forced into prostitution. In order to identify them and prevent their escape, their Turkish pimps tattooed their face, arms and chest.
The girl in the photo had just been rescued from a Turkish house and was cared for by the Y.W.C.A workers at Aleppo.
The bridge over the Akhurian river, flowing from Arpi lake dates either from the tenth century or thirteenth century. It is a good example of medieval Armenian architecture and engineering. The bridge’s single arch which spanned over thirty metres has fallen due to neglect and war during the Ottoman empire. Only the tall bridge endings have remained which were possibly part of a fortified gate. Nineteenth century traveller reported a gaurdhouse next to the bridge, but this aswell has now vanished. This medieval bridge in the ruined medieval Armenian capital Ani. Ani stood on various trade routes and its many religious buildings, palaces, and fortifications were amongst the most technically and artistically advanced structures in the world.
Next to the bridge is the Monastery of the Virgins. A small monastery from the eleventh century that stands on a rocky hill, isolated from the rest of the city and overlooking the Akhurian bridge. It was named after the virgin martyrs of Saint Hripsime, and may have contained a community of nuns.
Bordering the enclosure of the wall is a long and spacious stairway with a vaulted roof, partly cut into the natural rock. It leads down to the Akhurian river. It most likely contained a roadway leading to the bridge. In the valley below the Monastery of the Virgins are various structures. These include a tiny, single naved chapel and a rectangular structure. This may have been a watchtower to control movement along the river bank. Like most ancient and medieval Armenian sites within current Turkish borders, the bridge is off limits to any visitors, therefore much information and research is missing. Several medieval bridges once existed over the Akhurian River.
The photos of Armin T. Wegner capture the bleak struggle to survive facing Armeniandeportees. As a second-lieutenant in the German army stationed in the Ottoman empire in April 1915, Wegner took the initiative to investigate reports of Armenian massacres. Disobeying orders intended to stifle news of the massacres, he collected information on the genocide and took hundreds of photographs of Armenian deportation camps, primarily in the Syrian desert.
Wegner was eventually arrested, but not before he had succeeded in channeling a portion of his research material to Germany and the United States through clandestine mail routes. When he was transferred to Constantinople in November 1916, he secretly took with him photographic plates of images he and other German officers recorded.
Photographs in order of appearance by Armin T. Wegner.
1. 1915, Armenian deportees living in the open desert under makeshift tents. Central figure with long black robe and cap is an Armenian priest, probably performing burial rites for the dead a three men behind are kneeling while others are standing next to and behind the priest. Clothing of some deportees is already worn to rags. Location: Ottoman empire.
2. 1915-1916 Abandoned and murdered small children of the (Armenian) deportees, Three are dead including stripped boy in gutter. Location: Ottoman empire.
3. 1915-1916, murdered Armenian male adult lying in a ditch as children watch the corpse. Location: Ottoman empire.
4. 1916, Scattered deportees in a desert wasteland, individually foraging as their only source of food. There is no shelter, water, or habitation in sight. Location: Ottoman empire
Հայոց ցեղասպանության զոհերի հուշահամալիր Armenian Genocide memorial complex
Armenia’s official memorial dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. Built in 1967 on one of three hills of Tsitsernakaberd. Litterarly meaning “swallow’s fortress”
Every year on April 24 thousands of Armenians and visitors from around the world gather at the memorial to remember the 1,5 million Armenians who perished during the Genocide. Fresh flowers are laid around the burning flame in the middle of the complex out of respect. Over the years many world leading politicians, religious figures, artists, musicians and athletes have visisted the memorial.
The construction of the monument began in 1966, during Soviet times, in response to the 1965 Yerevan demonstrations during which one hundred thousand people demonstrated in Yerevan for 24 hours to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Genocide. A highly confidential letter was sent to the Presidium of the Communist Party of Armenia by three armenian politicians and scientists, where they made a series of proposal to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the genocide. Point 8 said:
“To build the memorial of the victims of the Armenian people in World War I on account of the income of the population. The memorial must symbolize the rebirth of the Armenian people.”
The 44 meter stele symbolizes the national rebirth of Armenians. Twelve slabs are positioned in a circle, representing the twelve lost provinces in present day Turkey. In the center of the stone slabs at a depth of 1,5 meters there is an eternal flame dedicated to the 1.5 million people killed during the Armenian Genocide.
Along the park at the memorial there is a 100-meter wall with the names of towns and villages where massacres and deportations are known to have taken place. On the rear side of the commemoration wall, plates have been attached to honor persons who committed themselves to relieving the distress of the survivors during and after the genocide (among others: Johannes Lepsius, Franz Werfel, Armin T. Wegner, Henry Morgenthau Sr., Fridtjof Nansen, Pope Benedict XV, Jakob Künzler, Bodil Biørn).An alley of trees has been planted to commemorate the genocide victims.
To this day day no turkish state official has visited Tsitsernakaberd and it continues it’s Genocide denial and culture.
TheArmenian Genocide Museum-Institute (Հայոց ցեղասպանության թանգարան-ինստիտուտ) was opened in 1995 next to the memorial.
What a piece of work. How can this monster call himself a Christian. This is just the tip of the iceberg with this hate monger. Oh yeah, and he’s anti-vax and anti-mask.
These are some members of Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnak Party) who attended to takeover of the Ottoman Bank on 26 August 1896. The goal of the action was to gain the attention and intervention of European powers in order to stop Armanian massacres. But right after the takeover, Ottoman softas and bashibazouks, armed by the Sultan, began to murder Armenians living in Constantinople. Around 6000 İstanbulite Armenians were murdered. The photo was taken after they arrived in Marseille, France.
Today is Armenian genocide remembrance day. On april 24, 1915 started mass deportations of hundreds of Armenian intelectuals and community leaders, who were (most of the time) eventually killed. Armenian women and children were systematically r//ed and forcibly converted into islam. There were more than 2 milion Armenians in ottoman empire prior to ww1, 1,5 milion of them were viciously killed. Three millennia of Armenian civilaziation in eastern Anatolis was fully destroyed. Turkey today refuses to acknowledge genocides of christian minorities in early 20th century.
Do you know that mass ethnic cleansing of Armenians in ottoman empire inspired Lemkin to coin the term ‘genocide’?
Last year in september azerbaijan allied with turkey initiated a war against Armenia. More that 5000 Armenians were murdered, thousands of Armenia families had to live their ancestrial land to not get murdered. There are hundreds of vids on internet where armenian p.o.w.s are tortured. Recently azerbaijan opened a “museum” displayind dead or dying Armenians and kids were allowed to visit it.
Today is the 104th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. We honor the 1.5 million Armenians killed, as well as the Greeks, Eizids, and Assyrians, as well as the victims of Turkish violence today. I wrote this after visiting Western Armenia, to say NeverAgain to anyone.
The distribution of Armenians (in red) and Greeks (in purple), in 1900 CE and in 2000 CE. The mass movement of populations were the result of the Greek GenocideandArmenian Genocide; both began during World War I under the Ottoman Empire, and continued into the early 1920s under the new state of Turkey.
Interesting note: in 1900, Greek and Armenian populations bordered each other in two places, in eastern Turkey and around Constantinople
If you don’t know what that is, take some time today to research and educate yourself on the events. Here’s a good starting point to learn about what happened to armenian population of Turkey in 1915:
