Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that between 300,000 and half a million Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife during World War I when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling empire.
Apparently Turkey does not deny the deaths. For the life of me I cannot understand why a similar number of Ottoman Turk deaths matters not. Probably most of those deaths were at the hands of Russia and their Armenian allies. It was war -- W.W.I-style.
Another point that has me flummoxed is why is the modern secular Republic of Turkey founded in 1923 blamed for the crimes of the Ottoman Empire. I'd understand it more if modern Germany was being blamed for the crimes of the National Socialists. Go figure.
I'd appreciate any explanation preferably with nonpartisan sources which would allow me to do additional research. I have much respect for the Turks I've known and worked with in years past. Thanks.
Not related to you but yet another similar puzzle is Turkey is blamed for 30,000 Kurd deaths in Eastern Turkey. The Marxist PKK revolutionaries were just trying to get Kurd "rights" -- yet the current government of Kurdistan (northern Iraq) has no use for the PKK and wants nothing to do with them and to the best of my knowledge the Kurdistan government backs Turkey is Her efforts to destroy the PKK. Nevertheless from time to time someone posts accusations against Turkey and for the PKK.
Discombobulated in California.
I don't know if this is the sort of material you're looking for but there's a recently published book by the widely acclaimed author Guenter Lewy, "The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide". I've read some reviews of the book and intend to order it. I've also read some articles and essays by Lewy. Relative to Turkey, to the best of my knowledge it formed the bulk and driving force of the Ottoman Empire although following WWI,part of it was dismembered by the allies to form some other states (such as Iraq). No wonder Woodrow Wilson thought his doctrine of the right to self-determination was being ignored!
The Turks-both within the Ottoman Empire, and in the subsequent republic-massacred Armenians, Jews, and Greek Orthodox minorities, with the assistance of the Kurds (Chets).
The Pashas and their successors laid waste to the remnants of Eastern Christianity in the Anatolian peninsula under the pretext of a jihad that was declared at the beginning of WWI by the head of the Caliphate.
The people who attempt to refute this ineluctable, amply-documented historical phenomenon are in the same camp as Ernst Zundel, John Irving, Norman Finklestein, and other notorious Holocaust-deniers and revisionists.
Guenter Lewy was mentioned as a good source. Here's an article he wrote (an excerpt from his new book) He says there was little evidence of genocide. http://www.meforum.org/article/748
Like Lewy, there are other historians who disagree that what happened was genocide. Another example is prominent Jewish historian and author Bernard Lewis, who President Bush invited to the White House to speak with.
Bernard Lewis the well respected historian of the Middle East and Ottoman Empire disagrees that it was a genocide.
For expressing this view, he was found guilty in a French Court for the crime of denial of crimes against humanity and fined one dollar.
http://www.ataa.org/ataa/ref/armenian/lewis.html
Well said. Some very reputable historians have challenged the Armenian claims. The fact is there was a war and the Armenians, although within the Ottoman Empire, were fighting for for the other side. War is brutal and people inevitably kill each other. During the 1970s and 80s, the Armenians committed acts of terrorism against Turkish consular staff. For example, in 1982, the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide assassinated the Turkish Consul-General in Sydney and his bodyguard. The same group also attempted to bomb the Turkish Consulate in Melbourne. Turkey has good relations with the US, Britain and Australia and is a member of NATO. These countries that form the 'coalition of the willing' have not recognised the Armenian 'genocide'. I believe the same applies to Israel. For anyone to use events that allegedly happened almost a century ago to perpetuate hatred is beyond belief. There was horrendous suffering and loss of lives on both sides. Countries such as Australia suffered heavy casualties fighting the Turks and the Japanese in two world wars but have made their peace with both. Expressing bigotry and hatred towards Turkey will do nothing to help the cause of the US and its allies in the Middle East.