What happened during the Armenian ‘genocide’ and why is it still debated today?

April 24 marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, but the mass killing of millions of people remains a source of international tension.

Mass killings by the Ottoman Empire’s army during World War I are not denied, but historians disagree as to whether the massacre was a systematic attempt to exterminate the Armenian population.

The forces of the Ottoman Empire, centered in present-day Turkey, fought under a four-nation alliance in the Middle East during World War I.

Ottoman Minister of War Anwar Pasha publicly blamed his military defeats on Armenian soldiers, saying that they were secretly supporting Russia and, as propaganda, as a ‘fifth pillar’ working against the state. presented on

In 1915, by order of the government, soldiers of Armenian origin in the Ottoman army were demobilized and transferred to the ‘Labour Battalion’, where some were hanged or died.

When the Russian Caucasus forces entered Anatolia, Ottoman authorities began deporting ethnic Armenians from the region as a threat to national security.

During this time, according to various estimates, between 300,000 and 1500,000 Armenians were murdered, starved, and otherwise killed.

How did he die?

Contemporary reports list numerous atrocities committed against Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, including shooting, stabbing, hanging, burning alive, drowning, and drugging. Including mass murder.

Millions of Armenians were forced into the Syrian desert where they died of starvation or disease.

Many of the survivors of the journey were interned in a network of 25 camps where their mass graves were later found.

There are also reports of the rape and sexual enslavement of Armenian women, and some military commanders are believed to have encouraged such activities.

What is the difference?

In modern times, the term ‘genocide’ has been used for these killings for many reasons. Turkey, however, refuses to accept the term, claiming that the killings were not systematic and that the term ‘genocide’ was coined after the Second World War and therefore could not be applied in practice.

The UN Genocide Convention defines such acts as an attempt to destroy ‘in whole or in part’ a national, ethnic or religious group, and the term was coined in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, the Nazis. Also referred to atrocities against Armenians in his investigation of the Holocaust.

Turkey portrays the killings as part of the war’s chaos, claiming there was no systematic attempt to exterminate Christian Armenians, although other states argue the killings were the result of the new Turkish government. were the result of policies.

According to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, evidence shows that “the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its Armenian citizens and unarmed Christian minority populations.”

The group added: ‘More than one million Armenians were killed by direct murder, starvation, torture and forced evictions and ‘death marches’.’

Who considers these killings as genocide?

The governments of 24 countries, including France, Italy, Russia and Canada, recognize these events as genocide.

The British government does not, although regional parliaments and assemblies in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland recognize the killings as genocide.

Despite an intervention by Turkey’s prime minister, Germany will use the term genocide on April 24, while Austria has done so this week.

Pope Francis also described the massacre as genocide earlier this month, after which Turkey recalled its ambassador from the Vatican.

As the 100th anniversary of the events approaches, calls to recognize the events as genocide are gaining momentum from countries that have not yet used the term, including the United States and Israel.

Why is it celebrated on 24th April?

Although Armenian deaths occurred during the First World War, April 24, 1915 was chosen as the date of the beginning of their ‘genocide’.

It was the day that the Ottoman government arrested around 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople who were later executed.

Has anyone been punished?

Trials were instituted in Turkey in 1919 against a number of senior Ottoman officials for atrocities against Armenians, but three Young Turk leaders had already fled Turkey and were sentenced to death in absentia. went

But historians have questioned the court proceedings after Turkish officials were accused of pandering to their victorious allies.