NEWS JUNKIE POST
April 24 2010

Armenian Genocide: 95 Years Later, It Must Be Recognized

By Gilbert Mercier
NEWS JUNKIE POST

Today, on the 95TH anniversary of the genocide perpetrated against the
Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire, tens of thousands of people
gathered in the Armenian capital Yerevan. There were also
commemorations worldwide, including in Beirut, France and the United
States. In Istanbul, human rights activists organized a rally at
Haydarsa train station where the first convoy of deported Armenians
left on 24, April 1915.

Protesters in Yerevan chanted `recognize’ and carried Armenian flags
alongside flags of nations who have recognized the massacre as
genocide including Canada, France, Poland and Switzerland.

`We thank all of those who in many countries of the world, including
Turkey, understand the importance of preventing crimes against
humanity and who stand with us in this struggle. This process has an
irreversible momentum which has no alternative,’ said Armenia’s
President Serzh Sarkisian.

Countries such as Canada, Argentina, France, Greece, Russia, Poland
and Switzerland, where the survivors of the Armenian genocide and
their descendants live, have officially recognized the Armenian
genocide. However, the present day Republic of Turkey still adamantly
denies that a genocide was committed against the Armenians during
World War I.

Further, and for geopolitical reasons, the United States has never
labeled the atrocities committed by Turkey a genocide. Turkey is
considered by Washington to be a key partner in NATO. While candidate
Obama made numerous promises to call the massacre a genocide,
President Obama failed again to do so today. The President
commemorated Armenian Remembrance Day, and called the deaths of 1.5
million Armenians `one of the worst atrocities’ of the 20TH century
and `a devastating chapter in history’, but he did not call it a
genocide.

`It is a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people,
and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered,
and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past,’ said
President Obama.

A Brief History Of The Armenian Genocide

On the night of April, 24 1915 the Ottoman Empire government placed
under arrest 200 leaders of the Armenian community in Constantinople,
hundreds more were arrested soon after. All of them were sent to
prison in Anatolia and were summarily executed. The Ottoman Empire had
been planning the Armenian genocide for a while, and reports of
atrocities committed against Armenians had been filtering in during
the first months of 1915.

The Ottoman Empire’s army had acted ahead of time on the government’s
plan by disarming the Armenian recruits, and by reducing them to labor
battalions and working them under conditions similar to slavery. These
acts were committed by the Ottoman Empire under the cover of a news
blackout on account of World War I.

Part of the international community condemned the Armenian genocide
from the start. In May 1915, France, Great Britain and Russia advised
the Ottoman Empire leadership that they would be held personally
accountable for crimes against humanity. But despite the moral outrage
of part of the international community, no strong actions were taken
after the end of World War I against the Ottoman Empire, either to
sanction its brutal policies or to salvage the Armenian people still
alive from extermination. The genocide went on until 1923, and no
sanctions were ever taken against the post war Turkish governments to
recognize the crimes of the Ottoman Empire, and make restitution to
the Armenian people for their incredible losses.

It is estimated that one and half million Armenians died between 1915
and 1923. Right before World War I, there were an estimated two
million Armenians living within the borders of the Ottoman Empire.
Well over one million were deported in 1915. Hundreds of thousands
were slaughtered right away while others were put in concentration
camps and died of starvation, exhaustion and diseases.

The United Nations Convention Charter defines genocide as `acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnic, racial or religious group’. This definition clearly applies in
the case of the atrocities committed against the Armenians by the
Ottoman Empire, and should be recognized as such by the United States
and Turkey. In Germany, it is a crime to deny the Holocaust. The same
rule should apply in Turkey regarding the Armenian Genocide.

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