In April 24th, 1915, approximately 250 Armenian Revolutionary Federation leaders and high ranking officers were arrested for their roles in the siege and capture of Van, an Ottoman city and their attempt to hand the city over to the Russians (Allies) during desperate hours of the Russian invasion of Ottoman Turkey in World War I.
Contrary to what Armenian Genocide supporters write, the arrests were not made in only Constantinople (present day Istanbul). Contrary to what Armenian Genocide activists say, the arrests were not of academics, clergymen, or "philosophers." These were ARF (Dashnak) members, some of them were Hunchak members as well, another terrorist organization rebelling against the Ottoman Empire and killing civilians in their rabid form of ultra-nationalism and their dream of creating a Greater Armenia.
Other sources report that instead of 250, 1,234 ARF and Hunchak members were arrested throughout the Ottoman provinces. Whatever the exact number, what we know for sure is they were indeed rebels.
Armenians claim they were arrested merely for being Armenian. They claim that it was the "start of the genocide." In fact, they celebrate it every year by protesting the Turkish embassy in various countries during that day. Kind of an awkward way to mourn the deaths of ancestors if you ask me. If it was the start of a genocide, then why only 250? Why not thousands and thousands being executed immediately? Why relocate them all the way to Eastern Anatolia or Syria?
Armenians answer such questions by saying that the Ottomans did not want Europeans who had diplomats in the big cities to know what was going on. If that was true, then why did they allow European and US diplomats to visit the relocation camps? US Consul Jackson was walking every day through the relocation camps with full privileges. He was bringing the Armenian families more food and money to help them.
The Ottoman governor of Aleppo Syria, spent a lot of money helping the Armenians rebuild homes and livelihoods in Aleppo. The money was approved by the Ottoman leadership.
Even Djemal Pasha was ordering soldiers to ambush bandits and Kurds who were trying to attack the families who were on route, relocating to Syria.
These are inconvenient facts that do not work for the "Armenian Cause" of recognition of genocide. They need a common enemy, the Turks, to keep themselves as an un-assimilated world-wide Armenian community. They need a reason to keep the ARF alive for 100 years (yes they still exist today). The acceptance of failure of the rebellion in World War I, is too difficult compared to the simple task of blaming the Ottoman government for defending itself during war-time against the ARF who allied themselves with the enemy.
The unfortunate deaths of thousands of Armenians and Turks who were innocent should be mourned on April 24th. However, justice was served against the ARF, but some Armenians are not ready to accept this inconvenient truth.
The Armenians suffered indeed, at the hands of the ARF, not the Ottoman Empire.
As a history professor myself, I must say that you have nailed the history of this subject. Most people just refer to label it as "war", "civil war", or "genocide". And these are blanket statements that simplify the complex history of the Ottoman-Armenian conflict.
Thank you for this great article. What's upsetting is that many people died during these times and instead of mourning them together, people are fighting about them still.
I must agree with both writers. It is unfortunate that we don't mourn the loss of life on both sides together. Does it really matter if it was Turkish or Armenian? People suffered greatly during WW1.
However, I am also fed up to hear these claims of "genocide" all over the world. Worse, the Armenian Diaspora has done such an excellent job of networking and lobbying that many nations around the world accept these killings as "genocide". What a shame!
"GIVE A LIE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS START, AND IT WILL TAKE A HUNDRED YEARS TO OVERTAKE IT". (C.F. DIXON-JOHNSON)
Dr. McCarthy's words couldn't be truer when he wrote " Most of what has been called the history of the Caucasus and Eastern Anatolia in the 19th and 20th centuries has in fact been mostly propoganda from the ethnic groups that vied for control of the region. While more than willing to exaggerate the losses of their own groups, the authors of such histories seem to have been unaware that enemy groups suffered losses as well. This has led to a tendency to label battles as massacres and wars as genocide. To do othersiwe would be to admit that both sides were shooting and both sides died".
Armenians enjoyed the best the Empire offered them for centuries.
In 1922, Sultan Muhammed VI put it quite succinctly and pointedly when he told the American writer E.Alexander Powell:
" If we sent one, your newspapers and periodicals would not publish an article written by a Turk, if they published it, your people would not read it, if they read it, they would not believe it. Even if we sent a qualified person to America, to convey to you in your language, the Turkish point of view, would he find an impartial audience?"
39 States in the U.S. recognize what happened as "genocide". France and Switzerland recognize it along with 12 other countries in Europe, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Denying there was a genocide is "breaking the law" in Switzerland (so much for freedom of expression). How then can the Turkish community get through to YOU?!!!
Hahahahahaha! call me whatever you want! You said it with your own mouth. Truth Must Be Told To The World even by hard ways (laws..). Just face it, all the world have recognized and will recognize the Armenian Genocide no matter how long you keep on writing articles in very high class of english spellings and vocabulary. Justice is being served. And only to inform you, Yes! ARF Still Exists, so you don't have to make a quote about it just to inform others! All the world knows that, and ARF did reach its goal which was to establish a Free Independent Armenia, only with a missing term "Joint" (meaning the combination of all historical Armenian lands taken away by the turks, which by the way will be returned to us, want it or not, just like were taking our justice now. Its only a matter of time. ARF (Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Dashnaktsutyoun) survived for more than a 100 years, that is because of its love to its mother country and people, and vice versa, and it will survive as long... as Armenian exists.
Contrary to what Armenian Genocide supporters write, the arrests were not made in only Constantinople (present day Istanbul). Contrary to what Armenian Genocide activists say, the arrests were not of academics, clergymen, or "philosophers." These were ARF (Dashnak) members, some of them were Hunchak members as well, another terrorist organization rebelling against the Ottoman Empire and killing civilians in their rabid form of ultra-nationalism and their dream of creating a Greater Armenia.
Other sources report that instead of 250, 1,234 ARF and Hunchak members were arrested throughout the Ottoman provinces. Whatever the exact number, what we know for sure is they were indeed rebels.
Armenians claim they were arrested merely for being Armenian. They claim that it was the "start of the genocide." In fact, they celebrate it every year by protesting the Turkish embassy in various countries during that day. Kind of an awkward way to mourn the deaths of ancestors if you ask me. If it was the start of a genocide, then why only 250? Why not thousands and thousands being executed immediately? Why relocate them all the way to Eastern Anatolia or Syria?
Armenians answer such questions by saying that the Ottomans did not want Europeans who had diplomats in the big cities to know what was going on. If that was true, then why did they allow European and US diplomats to visit the relocation camps? US Consul Jackson was walking every day through the relocation camps with full privileges. He was bringing the Armenian families more food and money to help them.
The Ottoman governor of Aleppo Syria, spent a lot of money helping the Armenians rebuild homes and livelihoods in Aleppo. The money was approved by the Ottoman leadership.
Even Djemal Pasha was ordering soldiers to ambush bandits and Kurds who were trying to attack the families who were on route, relocating to Syria.
These are inconvenient facts that do not work for the "Armenian Cause" of recognition of genocide. They need a common enemy, the Turks, to keep themselves as an un-assimilated world-wide Armenian community. They need a reason to keep the ARF alive for 100 years (yes they still exist today). The acceptance of failure of the rebellion in World War I, is too difficult compared to the simple task of blaming the Ottoman government for defending itself during war-time against the ARF who allied themselves with the enemy.
The unfortunate deaths of thousands of Armenians and Turks who were innocent should be mourned on April 24th. However, justice was served against the ARF, but some Armenians are not ready to accept this inconvenient truth.
The Armenians suffered indeed, at the hands of the ARF, not the Ottoman Empire.
Are you kidding me? Only a small portion of those arrested on the April 24, 1915 were members of the ARF. You can view a list at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_notables_deported_from_the_Ottoman...
Most Armenians in the Ottoman Empire did not side with Russia during the first world war. Most fought in the Ottoman Army, even against other Armenians from the Russian Empire.
There is no Armenian Genocide "debate". This is like saying there is a Jewish Holocaust debate. The Armenian Genocide has been documented and accepted by the countless scholars. The only so-called scholars who debate what happened are on Turkish payroll.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the foremost INDEPENDENT body studying genocide has unanimously confirmed that what happened to the Armenians was indeed a Genocide. Rafael Lemkin, who coined the word Genocide, used what had happened previously to the Armenians as a classic example of what Genocide is.
This site is disgusting. Shame on you.
@Anonymous the wikipedia page you linked is only further evidence that it wasn't a planned genocide. Look at all the names of the arrested and relocated. Many of them are Hunchak and Dashnak affiliated (equivalent to how the US perceives Al Qaeda). Some of them, we may never know their secret affiliations, it's not like they confess to it or talk about it openly.
Notice one more important thing: Many of them are permitted to return to Istanbul. In the notes on fate, it says things like "Set free and went back to Constantinople", and "Granted permission to return to capital as he was wrongly imprisoned in place of the teacher with same name." Does this sound like a government plotting genocide?
Doesn't this prove that the Turks did not want to commit genocide? If genocide was the plan, why are they setting people free if they are Armenian?
If they plotted genocide, why not take 1000s of Armenians from Istanbul under the pretense that they are Dashnak/Hunchak? Why only ~250 or so (the exact number disputed).
Perhaps Armenians or Christians were not a target of genocide, but it's more likely that the Ottoman government used crude forms of dealing with terrorism. Is the Ottoman Empire guilt free? No, they created a situation in which many people died, but what choices did they have? It was either to relocate suspected rebellious people or continue to suffer catastrophic supply-line losses and acts of terrorism that damage the Ottoman war effort against the Allies.
Note that the relocation methods used, were no different than the ones used by most European nations at the time. It was not similar to the "relocations" of the Nazis.