Armenian Victims of Mass Killings Remembered

24 April, 2010

On the 95th anniversary of the mass killings by Ottoman Turks, hundreds of Armenians paid respect to those innocent people who were killed.

Ottoman Turks had killed close to about 1.5 million people during the days of World War 1. Turkey has said that the people who were killed were victims of civil war and unrest and that it was not genocide. Placards like “Nobody and nothing will be forgotten” and “Genocide never gets old” were seen as people marched to a monument overlooking the capital.

Armenian President in his address to the nation said that the genocide was unprecedented in its scope, monstrosity and graveness of its consequences". About 800 Armenian intellectuals were murdered starting 24th April 1915 which was the beginning of the genocide.

"We are grateful to all those in many countries, including Turkey, who understand the importance of averting crimes against humanity," Sarkisian said. In a separate development Turkey has warned US official that if a resolution is passed stating the incident as genocide then it might have far reaching consequences to the diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Russia, Canada, Lebanon, Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Vatican, France, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania and Cyprus have already recognized the killings as genocide.

On the other hand the conflict in Nagomo Karabakh has also seriously dented the efforts of improving relations Armenia and Turkey.

While an agreement was signed between the two countries to reopen their borders neither of them have ratified the same. Meanwhile Armenia has decided to hold back its decision since it feels that Turkey has been dillydallying on the issue. The borders between the two countries were closed in 1993 on Turkey’s accusation of Armenia backing the separatists in Nagomo Karabakh region.

Readers comments(5)

Post Your Comments

zubeyde

2010-04-28 00:32:30

5 ‘…..However the senior military officials gave immediate and hard punishments as soon as they were informed about these outlaw behaviors. Let me tell that Vehip Paşa, the Commander of the East Army judged his two military officials in the court and had them executed by shooting, because of this reason. ‘Enver Paşa punished a Turkish general who was the governor of Halep, by expelling him and sentencing him to a long prison punishment’. ‘I think these examples will prove that the anti-Armenian incidents were not approved by the administrators. Talat can not be kept responsible for these events; these developments occurred 2000 kilometers away from him and as it was told before the jandarme was educated only by the French until the war burst. Additionally, it was war time and the customs had become wild. I want to remind you the wildness that the French committed against our prisoners and wounded soldiers’. [Bronsart von Schellendorff, Talat Paşa için Şahitlik, Ermeni Araştırmaları Dergisi, 4 (Aralık 2001-Ocak-Şubat 2002), p.81].

zubeyde

2010-04-28 00:32:03

4 ‘….Talat fiercefully resisted to expelling all the Greek in the Mediterrenian voiced by the military wing. Because there, only they were working as ‘spies’. They did not attempt dangerous uprisings as the Armenians did, although it sounded reasonable for them. (Bronsart von Schellendorff, Talat Paşa için Şahitlik, Ermeni Araştırmaları Dergisi, 4 (Aralık 2001-Ocak-Şubat 2002), p.79,81). The third important inspection of General Bronsart von Schellendorff: About misbehaviours against the Armenian convoys: ‘Now let me tell about the events which took place against the Armenian convoys. The Kurds made use of this opportunity which perhaps they would never seize again, and they robbed the Armenians who had attempted wild and savage attacks against the Muslims before and therefore they hated and they killed them if necessary. The misery trip of the Armenians had to follow the way through many Kurdish provinces! Because there was no other way to Mezopothamia. ‘ The hearings about the jandarme who accompanied the Armenian community in companies (bölük) is different from each other. Sometimes they defensed the Armenians against the Kurdish guerrilla bravely. It is also said that they sometimes left them and ran away. Additionally it is many times claimed that they cooperated with the Kurds or they themselves robbed and killed the Armenians’.

zubeyde

2010-04-28 00:31:44

3 ‘To transfer thousands of Armenians and additional thousands of Muslim immigrants to the settlement places, to nourish them, to find home for them were unusual and difficult tasks and exceeded the capacity of the few and unqualified officials. Just here Talat interfered with the situation using every kind of facility, in a devoted manner. The orders which were sent by him to the jandarme and the governors should still be present. Emergent help of the Army was being asked by telegrams sent to Ministry of War from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which I was informed, due to my charge. These calls were taken seriously and this duty was being implemented as much as the army could. The Army presented its own food, vehicles, homes, doctors and medical equipments which it itself was deficient in, just for the aim of help. Unfortunately, thousands of Muslim immigrant and immigrated Armenians died not being able to stand the difficulties of this walk. ‘Here, one asks if it was not possible not to give the decision of immigration, predicting such situations. It was already a well known fact that it was not possible to stop the Turkish immigrants because of their rightful fears of Armenian wildness and savageness. Additionally, it should be approved that the Armenians should have been sent from the areas where they had uprised! Additionally the results of this should have been standed.

zubeyde

2010-04-28 00:31:10

2 The German General Bronsart von Schellendorff’s second observation: ‘ Talat was not an unbalanced man, a revengeful murderer but a statesman who was far-sighted. According to him, the Armenians were very useful (efficient) citizens during peace time, although they were agitated and raged being provoked by the Russian and the Russian Armenians. He hoped that they would be able to give life to fertile and profitable soil in Syria and Mezopotamia being away from the effect of Russians and Kurdish dispute. ‘He also foresaw the ‘so-called Christian hunt’ propaganda of the foreign press while defining the relocation of the Armenians. So he wanted to be far away from every kind of violence. He was right; what he got afraid occurred! Propaganda worked and foreign people were made believe in this stupudity! It should be thought that the so-called events took place within an army which was an ally of Christian states and employed many Christian soldiers and officers in it’. ‘Now I want to talk about the immigration issue: In the Turkish Empire, the vilayets are nearly free from the center due to the empire’s large area and its inefficient substructure. For example: The Ottoman governors have more authority than our presidents. Depending on this, they advocate that they can evaluate the developments in their area better than the government. So, the orders of the Internal Affairs Ministry were not fullfilled as it should have been.

zubeyde

2010-04-28 00:30:14

1 The German General Bronsart von Schellendorff worked in Ottoman General Staff as Senior Chief Staff until 1917 . Here are a few excerpts from his declarations about immigration and resettlement of the Armenians after the murder of Talat Paşa in Germany: ‘The published advertisements, provacative brochures, weapons, ammo and explosives etc in total were proof of the fact that the uprising was being prepared by a third side. It was so overt that Russia provoked, supported and finansed this uprising. The entrique against the high rank soldiers and officials in İstanbul was displayed just at that time. The Muslims who could be summoned to military service were already in the Turkish Army. So the Armenians did not face any difficulty to attempt a horrible massacre in a society which was not capable of defending himself. Because, they attacked not only from the Russian side, from the back of the Turkish Army in the East but they also exterminated the Muslim folk who lived in the region. As a wittness, I want to note that the dimensions of the wildness displayed by the Armenians, was far worse than the so-called Armenian wildness for which the Turks were accused later. First, the Turkish Army interfered with the situation, in order to keep its relations beyond the front safe. But the Army had to admit to the Jandarme since it had to use its all power to overcome the Russian superiority and the uprising was spreading all over the empire (Bronsart von Schellendorff, Talat Paşa için Şahitlik, Ermeni Araştırmaları Dergisi, 4 (Aralık 2001-Ocak-Şubat 2002), p.78,79).

To comment, Register or Log In

Armenian Victims of Mass Killings Remembered

Most Popular News

Readers comments(5)

Post Your Comments