EuroNews – English Version
October 11, 2007

Armenian diaspora behind calls for "genocide" recognition

Each April 24, the thoughts of millions of Armenians, those who live
in Armenia and the many more from across the world, turn to those who
were killed in 1915.

On that date, around 300 intellectuals and community leaders were
murdered. It is the official start of what Armenians claim was a
genocide.

But the first massacres of Armenians had actually taken place in the
late 19th century. Exiled groups of Armenians encouraged their
compatriots in the Ottoman Empire to assert their nationalism.

Some 30,000 were killed – mainly by Kurds – in eastern Anatolia and
thousands more died in Constantinople.

As the Ottomans fought Russian forces in eastern Anatolia during
World War One, many Armenians formed partisan groups to assist the
invading Russian armies.

In May 1915, Ottoman commanders began mass deportations of Armenians,
to stop them from further helping the Russian enemy.

Hundreds of thousands were marched towards Syria and what is now
Iraq. According to the Armenians, some 1.5 million died either in
massacres or from starvation as they were forced through the desert.

Turkey estimates the number of Armenian dead to be 300,000 but said
ethnic violence and the wider world war were to blame.

The modern Turkish republic was established in 1923 after the Ottoman
empire collapsed.

Armenians are now one of the world’s most dispersed people and it is
the diaspora which is at the forefront of efforts to convince the
world to recognise the killings as genocide.

The Turkish penal code makes calls for this recognition illegal. And
each time a country does formally acknowledge genocide against the
Armenians – as France did last year – Ankara responds. In 2006 it
suspended military ties with Paris.