blame of genocide

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Genocide Centennial Commemoration WHO WAS TO BLAME MOST FOR THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE? The aim of this brochure is to guide the readers through various pieces of historical evidence, which concentrates on the question of blame for the Armenian Genocide. The brochure concentrates on the role of the four groups of Turkish society as well as the question of German involvement. Contents: Defining Genocide “Ministerial Elites” “Provincial Officials” “Turkish Army” “Paramilitary Killers” German Responsibility Bibliography and Materials for Further Research

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The aim of this brochure is to guide the readers through various pieces of historical evidence, which concentrates on the question of blame for the Armenian Genocide.The brochure concentrates on the role of the four groups of Turkish society as well as the question of German involvement.

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Genocide Centennial Commemoration

WHO WAS TO BLAME MOST FOR THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?

The aim of this brochure is to guide the readers

through various pieces of historical evidence,

which concentrates on the question of blame for

the Armenian Genocide.

The brochure concentrates on the role of the

four groups of Turkish society as well as the

question of German involvement.

Contents:

Defining Genocide

“Ministerial Elites”

“Provincial Officials”

“Turkish Army”

“Paramilitary Killers”

German Responsibility

Bibliography and Materials for Further Research

Defining Genocide:

Jackque Morgan, a French scientist said in 1917:

“the deportations of Western Armenians are nothing

but concealed race extermination. There is no

language rich enough to describe the horrors of it”1

In 1944, Raphael Lemkin, created the term “genocide”,

“genos” from Greek word for race, “cide” form the Latin

word for killing

In 1948, the UN approved the Convention on the

Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The Convention defines genocide as “any act committed

with the intent to destroy, in whole or in a part, a national,

ethnic, racial or religious group”.2

Rafael Lemkin in an interview with CBS News said:

“I became interested in genocide because it happened

so many times. It happened to the Armenians and

after Armenians, Hitler took action…”3

1 http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/quotations.php

2 http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cppcg/cppcg.html

3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf4JE3QTse0

“Ministerial Elites”

In 1913 a revolution in Ottoman Empire brought the

party of Young Turks (Committee of Union and

Progress) to power

The three ministers, the “triumvirs” kept control of the

party: Talaat Pasha, Enver Pasha and Djemal Pasha

In 1915 they passed the Tehcir Law, the Law of

Deportation, which made official the atrocities against

Christians, which were already taking place.

Article 4 of the Law charges War Minister, Djemal

Pasha for the deportations4

Henry Morgenthau, the US Ambassador to

Constantinople:

“These measures are not in response to popular or

fanatical demand but are purely arbitrary and

directed from Constantinople in the name of

military necessity, often in districts where no

military operations are likely to take place.” 5

4 Dadrian (236)

5 United State Official Records on the Armenian Genocide 1915-1917 (51)

When Morgenthau suggested to Enver that the

regional officials had gone too far, Enver felt offended

by this suggestion, replying:

“You are utterly mistaken. We have this country

absolutely under control. I have no desire to shift

the blame onto our underlings and I am entirely

willing to accept the responsibility myself for

everything that has taken place. The Cabinet itself

has ordered the deportations.” 6

From telegram sent to Morgenthau by Armenian

Revolutionary Federation:

“The Government of Young Turks, or rather the

central Committee of Union and Progress had

made these arrests, which are as barbarous as

ridiculous, simply based on suspicions <…>” 7

6 Melson (148)

7 United State Official Records on the Armenian Genocide 1915-1917 (93-94)

Very soon after the deportations began France, Britain

and Russia made a statement:

“In view of these new crimes of Turkey against

humanity and civilization the Allied governments

announce publicly to the Ottoman Empire that they

will hold personally responsible for these crimes all

members of the Ottoman Government and those of

their agents who are implicated in such

massacres”8

Quote from memoirs of a Venezuelan soldier in

Turkish Army Rafael de Nogales:

“Killings and deportations without any doubt were

part of a well-considered plan of a reactionary

party, whose head was the Great Vizier Talaat

Pasha and the officers who were under control”9

8 United State Official Records on the Armenian Genocide 1915-1917 (29)

9 De Nogales (102)

In 1919 some Turks have acknowledged the extent of

the crime. The new Ottoman government held war

crimes trials and the new Minister of Interior wrote:

“Four of five years ago was committed in this land

a crime unique in history. It is already a proven

fact that this tragedy was planned by the decisions

and orders of the Central Committee.”10

The above document as well as many others is

currently locked in Turkish military archives.

10

Antonian (167-168)

“Provincial Officials”

Some officials resisted the implementation of the

deportations, for example Rahmi Bey in Smyrna. For

several years Smyrna was known as “city of

tolerance”11

Some officials refused to obey the government and

they were replaced in Angora, Van, Marat, Trebizond

and many other eastern provinces: a third of officials

were fired. 12

Rafael de Nogales remembers how he woke up and

saw Turks massacring the Armenian population. He

told his general to stop the massacres:

“To my surprise, he told me that he just obeyed the

written order from the Governor of the Province

“to kill all male Armenians from 20 and above” 13

11

Mann (158) 12

Ibid (158) 13

De Nogales (53-54)

US Consul Davis in Trebizond gave a short account of

an official who was sent from Constantinople to “carry

out the deportations”:

“The ferocity and lack of any humanitarian feelings of

this man was something remarkable and if any of the

perpetrators of the Armenian massacres are brought

before a tribunal for trial and punishment, I sincerely

trust this monster will not escape” 14

Rafael de Nogales also gave an account of delegates

sent from Constantinople to eastern provinces:

“Reshid Bey mentioned that by killing Armenians in his

province he was just carrying out the orders given by

Talaat Pasha. It was him who sent Reshid Bey a letter

with just three words: “Yak – vur – oldur” what means

“burn, break, kill”15

Some governors still tried to help Armenians. Consul

Davis said that the governor of Mamouret, ul-Aziz

allowed many Armenians to escape through the

Russian border.

14

United State Official Records on the Armenian Genocide 1915 (687) 15

De Nogales (109)

“Turkish Army”

The Turkish Army was a military unit, which was

fighting against the Allied Powers during the First

World War.

Part of the Army was fighting at the Caucasian front

against Russian forces and Armenian separatist

movement in Eastern Anatolia.

One of the most famous aspects was the Siege of Van.

Rafael de Nogales was a general during the siege:

“I cursed the hour when bad luck turned me into a

torturer of fellow Christians”16

.

De Nogales focuses the blame narrowly. For him there

were two kinds of soldiers: “professional soldiers” and

“political soldiers”. He added that the second kind of

soldiers were usually in irregular forces.17

16

http://aniv.ru/archive/31/chetyre-goda-pod-polumesjatsem-rafael-de-nogales/ 17

De Nogales (156)

De Nogales remembers:

“I was disgusted and disheartened by the numerous

and utterly unjustified massacres of the Christians,

committed, if not at the direct instance, at least

through the complaisance of the Commander-in-

Chief of our Expeditionary Army, Khalil Bey.”18

There are examples of officers of high rank refusing to

implement the orders. One despairing major committed

suicide, declaring that he was “ashamed to live as a

Turk”19.

Most of the evidence leads to the conclusion that the

Party did not rely on the Army for carrying out the

massacres. That’s why there was a high proportion of

soldiers who went through the war without seeing or

hearing about the genocide, such as General Mustafa

Kemal-Ataturk.

18

De Nogales (124) 19

De Nogales (165)

“Paramilitary Killers”

The main killers, who specialised in deporting and

massacring the Armenian population were

approximately 20000-30000 men20 of paramilitary

forces organised into a Special Organisation which was

developed approximately in 1903.

Initially they were Enver Pasha’s personal organisation

within the military. They were attacking Macedonian

and Greek villages in 1913 and 1914. They were

deliberately given a free hand so later the Committee of

Union and Progress could deny any connection with

them.21

According to German officer in charge colonel

Strange:

“the Special Forces committed most of the murders

of Armenians with beasty brutality”22

20

Mann (164) 21

Mann (165) 22

Mann (165)

By 1915 the cadres consisted almost entirely from

convicted criminals. The application of Legal

Authorization to form Secret Organisation was

deliberately framed in a “vague formulae to deflect

attention from its secret goals”23

.

In July 27, 1915 German Consul in Aleppo, Rossler

wrote to Chancellor in Berlin, describing the Special

Organisation members as

“convicts, released from the prisons, and put in

military uniform. They were deployed on

locations through which the doomed deportee

convoys were scheduled to pass”24

Historian Dadrian portrays them as “wild forms of

tribal or criminal violence – they were willing

soldiers of evil”. 25

23

Dadrian (236) 24

Lepsius (111) 25

Mann (17)

Captain of the Ottoman War Office’s Intelligence

Department wrote of the massacres:

“The criminal gangs, who were released from the

prisons, after a week’s training at the War

Ministry’s training grounds, were sent off to the

Caucasian front as the brigands of the Special

Organisation, perpetrating the worst crimes

against Armenians… The Government intended to

destroy the Armenians and thereby to do away with

the question of Eastern Provinces.” 26

A newspaper article published in Turkey in 1966:

“The murders and plunders, which were committed

during the Armenian deportations and which were

unleashed in an organised way, were the handiwork

of the Special Organisation” 27

26

Dadrian (238) 27

Newspaper “Nokta” 21-27 July 1996

German Responsibility

In the 19th century Germany was united in an

independent state under Chancellor Otto von

Bismarck. Kaiser Wilhelm the Second

announced the program of Weltpolitic and would

try to turn Germany into a strong empire.

The Government believed that if they could

colonise Mesopotamia (now Iraq) they would

become a world power.

From Berlin through Constantinople to Baghdad

Germany began building a long railroad,

which later would be used as an “instrument of

death”. 28

Some German historians wrote anti-Armenian

books, such as Ewald Banse who concluded that

the Armenians should be eliminated from the

face of the Earth. “The Armenians are nine

times worse than the Jews” said the German

Chief Adviser to the Turkish Military. 29

28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZwyctkQCk&list=PLCiFfnifgLmdynA

8HAP9hIGq33YQcSibN 29

Voss (59)

The German Ambassador, Wagenheim in

Constantinople refused to help Armenians on the

eve of April 24th. He told Morgenthau “I shall

do nothing whatever for the Armenians”30.

On the 17th of June 1915 German Ambassador

informed Berlin about Turkish notice, quoting

Talaat:

“the deportations were motivated by military

considerations. Ottoman Government used the

World War to eliminate the Armenians”. 31

Meanwhile in Berlin:

“Journalists were not allowed to describe the

terrors of genocide in press, etc. During a

press-conference it was decided that “our

duty is to be silent” 32

30

United State Official Records on the Armenian Genocide 1915-1917 (205) 31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZwyctkQCk&list=PLCiFfnifgLmdynA

8HAP9hIGq33YQcSibN 32

Dadrian (204)

A survivor recalls:

“a German officer with Turkish soldiers under

his command took 2000 people. My

godfather’s son escaped and told that the

German had slaughtered all of them”33

On the 7th of July Wagenheim wrote to Berlin

that the “Turkish Government is trying to

exterminate entire Armenian race”34.

A German Consul Franz Gunter also wrote:

“how will one be able to justify in front

of history that all this is happening

directly under our eyes without us

moving, I don’t know.”35

33

http://armgenocide.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html 24/07/11 34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZwyctkQCk&list=PLCiFfnifgLmdynA

8HAP9hIGq33YQcSibN 35

Ibid

In the summer of 1915 Morgenthau confronted

German Ambassador Wagenheim, accusing

Germany of collusion in the genocide.

“The world will always hold Germany

responsible. The guilt of these crimes will be

your inheritance forever. <…> Germany had

the power to stop them and did not use

them”.36

German Chancellor confirmed that “We will

need the Turks no matter if Armenians

perish or not”. Still after the World War no

German was accused of crimes against

Armenians. 37

On 31st of March, 2015 Pastor of Berlin

Protestant Church, who is great-great-grandson

of Kaiser Wilhelm II, apologized to Armenians

for the deeds of his grandfather.

36

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZwyctkQCk&list=PLCiFfnifgLmdynA

8HAP9hIGq33YQcSibN 37

Ibid

Bibliography and Materials for Further Research

Books:

Antonian, Aram. The Memoirs of Naim Bey Turkish

Official Documents Relating to the Deportations and

Massacres of Armenians. London: Hodder and

Stoughton, 1920.

Dadrian, Vahakn N. The History of the Armenian

Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to

Anatolia to the Caucasus. New York: Berghahn, 2003.

De Nogales, Rafael. Four Years beneath the Crescent.

Moscow: Russkiy Vestnik. 2006.

Lepsius, J. Deutschland und Armenien 1914-1918.

Berlin: Postdam. 1919

Mann, Michael. The Dark Side of Democracy:

Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. New York: Cambridge

UP, 2005

Melson, Robert. Revolution and Genocide: On the

Origins of the Armenian Genocide and Holocaust.

Chicago and London: University of Chicago

Press.1992

Voss, Huberta Von., and Alasdair Lean. Portraits of

Hope: Armenians in the Contemporary World. New

York: Berghahn, 2007.

United State Official Records on the Armenian

Genocide 1915-1917 Princeton and London: Gomidas

Institute, 2004.

Websites

Armenian Genocide.

http://armgenocide.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.

html

Genocide Museum | The Armenian Genocide Museum-

institute. http://www.genocide-

museum.am/eng/quotations.php

I Remember and Demand. Armenian Genocide

Centennial Web-page.

http://armeniangenocide100.org/en/

"Rafael De Nogales Рафаэль де

Ногалес." Www.aniv.ru - Журнал АНИВ - Главная..

http://aniv.ru/archive/31/chetyre-goda-pod-

polumesjatsem-rafael-de-nogales/

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the

Crime of Genocide. United Nations. 1948

http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cppcg/cppcg.html

Documentaries

“Crime with No Name”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf4JE3QTse0

“Germany, Turkey and the Armenian Genocide”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZwyctkQCk&li

st=PLCiFfnifgLmdynA8HAP9hIGq33YQcSibN

“Aghet”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybSP04ajCDg

Stepan Nazaretyan © 2015