Q&A: ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’

BBC News, UK
Oct 12 2006

Arguments have raged for decades about the Armenian deaths

French MPs have passed a bill making it a crime to deny that the
Ottoman Turkish empire committed genocide against Armenians in 1915.

The decision has delighted Armenians and infuriated Turks.

Why put "genocide" in inverted commas?

Whether or not the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during
World War I amounted to genocide is a matter for heated debate. Some
countries have declared that a genocide took place, but others have
resisted calls to do so.

What happened?

During World War I, as the Ottoman Turkish empire fought Russian
forces, some of the Armenian minority in eastern Anatolia sided with
the Russians.

Turkey took reprisals. On 24 April 1915 it rounded up and killed
hundreds of Armenian community leaders.

In May 1915, the Armenian minority, two or three million strong, was
forcefully deported and marched from the Anatolian borders towards
Syria and Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Many died en route.

What does Armenia say?

Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were killed in this period, either
through systematic massacres or through starvation.

It alleges that a deliberate genocide was carried out by the Ottoman
Turkish empire.

What does Turkey say?

It says there was no genocide.

It acknowledges that many Armenians died, but says Turks died too,
and that massacres were committed on both sides as a result of
inter-ethnic violence and the wider World War.

What is genocide?

Article Two of the UN Convention on Genocide of December 1948 describes
genocide as carrying out acts intended "to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".

What do others say?

France, Russia, Canada and Uruguay are among those countries which
have formally recognised genocide against the Armenians.

The UK, US and Israel are among those that use different terminology.

Why does the row continue?

Armenians are one of the world’s most dispersed peoples. While in
Armenia, Genocide Memorial Day is commemorated across the country,
it is the diaspora that has lobbied for recognition from the outside
world. The killings are regarded as the seminal event of modern
Armenian history, and one that binds the diaspora together.

In Turkey, the penal code makes calling "for the recognition of
the Armenian genocide" illegal. Writers and translators have been
prosecuted for attempting to stimulate debate on the subject.

Turkey has condemned countries that recognise the Armenian genocide,
and was furious when the French parliament passed a bill outlawing
denial of it.

The European Union has said that accepting the Armenian genocide is
not a condition for Turkey’s entry into the bloc. But some, including
French President Jacques Chirac, have said it should be.