For those who have never heard of what Armenian Genocide was: It is the claim of the mass murder of Armenian people happened in April 24, 1915 to 1923 by Ottoman-Turkish nationalists in World War I. This issue has been discussed over time by a lot of historians and philosophers from every nation. While some say it definitely is a mass murder, some people say it was a fight, and it went both ways.
First point of view is claimed by a lot of Americans and British, by the defense of 1.2 million Armenian soldiers, women and children who have been killed in the conflicts inside Ottoman Lands. They say that it was forced Islamization and an act of identity destruction. At the beginning of World War 1, they were focused on taking the Anatolian lands that they claimed as their birth given ancestry rights. 31 Countries considered it as genocide, including Joe Biden himself, stating it as “cruel murder that has been happened through Armenian Nation”.
Another point of view is mostly claimed by other European countries and especially Turks. It is the claim of events that happened on that time wasn’t a genocide, a war. They say this because there were 4.8 million Ottoman-Turk killed soldiers, children and women. Which is approximately 4 times more than Armenians. They defend their ideas by stating the fact that in all of the battles, it was happening on Turkish lands that have been raided, and the conflicts mainly happened because of the European countries triggering them in order to weaken the Ottoman Empire even more in World War 1.
I, as a Turk don’t like calling it a Genocide because it happened on both ways. It affected the Ottoman Empire as much as it did to the Armenians. I’m not saying that Turks were the actual victims but what happened on that time was a just another battle for getting land, and it should not be considered a “Genocide”.
Do you think this event is a “Genocide”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide
https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/alev-coskun/ermeni-soykirimi-iddiasinin-gercek-yuzu-1832940
https://avim.org.tr/Blog/ERMENI-IDDIALARI-KONUSUNDA-ATATURK-NE-DEMISTI
Replies
Great topic choide and I appreciate you educating other students about this topic especially, since you are from Turkey and we aloways look at it from the other side when discussed here in the US. Well done! It was posted a tad late.
I think it can be viewed in any number of ways about what can and cannot be genocide. I think it is genocide because every murder of more than a million people in my mind of innocent people for no reason other than your own beliefs.
I don't think that it should be labeled as genocide. It sounds like the fighting was more focused on who got what and not them just trying to kill a whole group of people because of their religion or race.
In my opinion this was not a genocide, as both parties put up a fight against each other and it was not just a simple attack on a group of people simply to remove them from the world out of spite. Genocide was not carried out over this time period as it affected both parties, for sure one party was affected more than another no doubt but it did not end them.
Personally, I would not label this situation as a genocide. Especially since it seems like the issue was more about land then it was systematic persecution of a select group of people.
I dont think it was a genicide, it happened during a war and seemed to be more about land not race or anything to that affect. It's hard to say though.
I think it sounds like it was a war and both groups were fighting and both people lost a lot of people. Sounds like it was about the land and not who they were or what race they were.
I dont know if it would be a genicide. Since it did happen during a war its hard to wrap you mind on it and figure it out. But there is plenty of evidence that it could be a genicide. I just dont know its a tough topic to answer.
No I dont think that this is a genocide because like you said there were 4 times as many turks deaths than Armenian deaths.
Due to the fact that it happened during a war, I'm not sure. According to defenition, it would be a genocide, but since this was during a time of war, I'm not sure. There seems to be more evidence that it was a genocide, but I don't really have a strong side or opinion on this.
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