What Genocide? The First State-Directed Mass Murder in a Bloody Century

 

France24 has topics for both Sri Lanka and the Armenian Genocide. No stories on the Armenian Genocide 104th anniversary appear on CNN’s website. Then again, CNN is in good company with Fox News, also silent on the anniversary. As a brief refresher, the Ottoman Empire, almost on its death bed—before a group of younger officers dragged the Turkish nation into secular modernity—launched a campaign against Armenian communities. This ethnic cleansing and mass murder campaign was not only ethnic but also religious.

The Ottoman sultan would no longer tolerate the existence of some of the most ancient Christian communities in the world. There was much unrest in the larger region over borders and nations. The rationale offered by the Turks’ German allies, at the time, was that there was only room for one people on the land. Americans launched large humanitarian relief efforts, but no nation stepped in to stop the atrocities. Indeed, who could, as war raged in Europe, then gave way to the task of rebuilding and redrawing maps.

Once secular Turkey became a NATO member, no other member state was going to offend the Turkish government too much. Today, the man who would be sultan is playing Russia against NATO, trying to get both S-400 Russian advanced networked anti-aircraft missile systems and American F-35 aircraft. If he is allowed to have both, Russia will instantly start collecting intelligence on the radar profile of the F-35 and on its performance.

We are muddling our way through this latest difficulty with an unfriendly ally, as we have for many years. So, around this day each year, Congress may posture but presidents go no further than recognizing “Armenian Remembrance Day.” President Trump has not tweeted about this, only issuing the standard annual statement:

Statement by the President on Armenian Remembrance Day 2019
LAW & JUSTICE
Issued on: April 24, 2019

Today, we commemorate the Meds Yeghern and honor the memory of those who suffered in one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century. Beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. On this day of remembrance, we again join the Armenian community in America and around the world in mourning the many lives lost.

On this day, we also honor and recognize the work of those who tried to end the violence, as well as those who sought to ensure atrocities like this would not be repeated, like human rights activist and lawyer Raphael Lemkin. We recall the contributions of generous Americans who helped save lives and rebuild Armenian communities. As we honor the memory of those who suffered, we also draw inspiration from the courage and resiliency of the Armenian people who, in the face of tremendous adversity, built vibrant communities around the world, including in the United States.

We pledge to learn from past tragedies so as to not to repeat them. We welcome the efforts of Armenians and Turks to acknowledge and reckon with their painful history. And we stand with the Armenian people in recalling the lives lost during the Meds Yeghern and reaffirm our commitment to a more peaceful world.

Published in Foreign Policy
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  1. Caryn Thatcher
    Caryn
    @Caryn

    Shameful.

    • #1
  2. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Clifford A. Brown:

    We pledge to learn from past tragedies so as to not to repeat them. We welcome the efforts of Armenians and Turks to acknowledge and reckon with their painful history. And we stand with the Armenian people in recalling the lives lost during the Meds Yeghern and reaffirm our commitment to a more peaceful world.

    Gold. IMHO. 

    • #2
  3. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    “The UK, US, and Israel do not use the term ‘Armenian genocide’??” What’s that about? Not rocking the boat? Should we do that with the Germans and not use the word, “Holocaust?”

    • #3
  4. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    It was a horrible nightmare, and needs to be recognized. To cater to the feelings of the government of Turkey is a travesty.

    • #4
  5. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    I believe the lack of outrage sent a message to Hitler that, “Yes, you probably can get away with it.”

    • #5
  6. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    What is often lost in this is that it wasn’t just the Armenians who suffered, but Assyrians, Greeks, and Arab Christians too.  And it’s not like what the Turks did then was a one-time occurrence either – in their 1970s invasion of Cyprus they drove all Christians out of the territory they illegally seized, then set about desecrating churches and graveyards that in some cases dated back nearly 2000 years.

    And Turkey continues to repress what few Christians even remain in their country even today.

    • #6
  7. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Cliff,

    This is a glaring offense to humanity that has been glossed over too long. How does one speak about a rational policy towards abusive illiberal governments when this first genocide to be called by the name is completely ignored. How many times has a cultural, ethnic, or religious minority been abused by a majority government? Often the ideological claims are just a cover for a tribal purge.

    One wonders what Omar & Talib & Cortez have to say about this. Undoubtedly, something that would confirm their group stupidity. Probably something like, “Who are the Armenians?”

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #7
  8. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    SkipSul (View Comment):

    What is often lost in this is that it wasn’t just the Armenians who suffered, but Assyrians, Greeks, and Arab Christians too. And it’s not like what the Turks did then was a one-time occurrence either – in their 1970s invasion of Cyprus they drove all Christians out of the territory they illegally seized, then set about desecrating churches and graveyards that in some cases dated back nearly 2000 years.

    And Turkey continues to repress what few Christians even remain in their country even today.

    Very good points. Plus the Kurds have always had to worry about whether Turkey chooses to ignore them for a while, or hinder them.

    This is tragic for a group of people who served our cause against Saddam Hussein for over a decade, 1991 to 2003, and yet are always left to fend for themselves when violent payback comes their way. (Whether that 

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Cliff,

    This is a glaring offense to humanity that has been glossed over too long. How does one speak about a rational policy towards abusive illiberal governments when this first genocide to be called by the name is completely ignored. How many times has a cultural, ethnic, or religious minority been abused by a majority government? Often the ideological claims are just a cover for a tribal purge.

    One wonders what Omar & Talib & Cortez have to say about this. Undoubtedly, something that would confirm their group stupidity. Probably something like, “Who are the Armenians?”

    Regards,

    Jim

    I wouldn’t say it was the first genocide. From almost the moment Christopher Columbus stepped onto the Carribean islands, genocide has been in full swing in the Americas. The Spanish Inquisition swept through so many places south of the border, eliminating people by the millions.

    And after our Civil War, the young men who knew nothing but battle re-upped in the US Calvary and genocided the Native Americans here.

    • #8
  9. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    SkipSul (View Comment):

    What is often lost in this is that it wasn’t just the Armenians who suffered, but Assyrians, Greeks, and Arab Christians too. And it’s not like what the Turks did then was a one-time occurrence either – in their 1970s invasion of Cyprus they drove all Christians out of the territory they illegally seized, then set about desecrating churches and graveyards that in some cases dated back nearly 2000 years.

    And Turkey continues to repress what few Christians even remain in their country even today.

    Dominic Green asks “Who remembers the Armenians?” He reviews the history of Ottoman mass murder and religious oppression of populations at their decaying periphery and core.

    The genocide of 1915 was the worst instance of the massacres that accompanied the weakening of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of nationalism among its subjects. The pattern in the blood-soaked carpet includes the indiscriminate killing of thousands of Greek Christians in 1822, as recorded in Delacroix’s Massacre at Chois; the ingenious and varied sadism of the ‘Bulgarian Horrors’ of 1876; and the killing of some 100,000 Anatolian Armenians in 1894-96, which was described by the New York Times as a ‘holocaust’ — probably the first time the term was used to describe the attempted annihilation of a people. Nor was the Armenian genocide the last mass slaughter in the fall of the Ottomans. In 1922, an estimated 500-750,000 Greek Christians were killed, and the remainder of Turkey’s historic Greek population expelled.

    • #9
  10. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Note that Macron is reported as keeping a campaign promise

    • #10
  11. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):

    I wouldn’t say it was the first genocide. From almost the moment Christopher Columbus stepped onto the Carribean islands, genocide has been in full swing in the Americas. The Spanish Inquisition swept through so many places south of the border, eliminating people by the millions.

    And after our Civil War, the young men who knew nothing but battle re-upped in the US Calvary and genocided the Native Americans here.

    Carol,

    You are being overly influenced by the left narrative that equates our sins (bad as they might be) with the sins of true totalitarian governments. The Armenian Genocide was a literal systematic government policy of mass murder carried out against men, women, and children who were not armed and could not fight back. Close to 2 million innocent people lost their lives. The left wants to blur our sense of horror with events that really aren’t in this class. 

    When we look at events on the scale of The Armenian Genocide, The Holocaust, The Holodomor, and The Cambodian Genocide we realize that these constitute much more than mere prejudice or overreaction. A government becomes a soulless killing machine on a grand scale. This is a 20th-century phenomenon. Socialist ideology is bound up with this. The left wants to hide behind “everybody does it”. No, they don’t.

    The phrase “Never Again” has been applied to one of the Genocides but really it should be what we say to all of them. The Nuremberg Trials were justified. The recent trials of the Khmer Rouge were justified but lacked the willingness to follow up and execute those they found guilty of mass murder. Moral relativism paralyzes us and the survivors pay the price.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #11
  12. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    FOX News has turned into another liberal hack news station.  To support the Turkish propaganda on this holocaust is unconscionable.  You expect it from CNN, but it sticks in my throat when it’s Fox.  Ever since they got that Muslim producer, Hufsa Kamal Khan, criticism of Islam has become taboo.  

    • #12
  13. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    And after our Civil War, the young men who knew nothing but battle re-upped in the US Calvary and genocided the Native Americans here.

    That’s a sweeping generalization. There were terrible massacres, and there were genocidal individuals, but no genocide. The French attempted genocide against the Mesquakie in the early 1700s, but their Indian allies weren’t willing to go that far. 

    • #13
  14. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    I wouldn’t say it was the first genocide. From almost the moment Christopher Columbus stepped onto the Carribean islands, genocide has been in full swing in the Americas. The Spanish Inquisition swept through so many places south of the border, eliminating people by the millions.

    That is absolutely ridiculous on both Columbus and the Inquisition.  I advise you stop accepting Liberal propaganda that has pervaded common folk lore and read the true histories.

    • #14
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