The University of Michigan has an organization called the Knights of Vartan Armenian Research Center. The founder is Dr. Dennis R. Papazian, an Armenian-American that has numerous papers on Armenian history, specifically the Armenian Genocide. He is known for criticizing anyone who dares to voice dissent about his dogmatic conclusions about the Armenian Genocide.
Papazian believes that the Ottoman government committed genocide on a massive scale against the Armenians and anyone who even hints at the rebellion of the Armenians or the massacres committed by the Armenians, is automatically labeled as a "denier."
Papazian uses this word, denier, extensively in his articles in order to force the reader to think of the Holocaust and the reality of absurd denial attempts of the Holocaust: Holocaust Deniers. He frequently compares effects of war suffered by the Armenians to the evil genocide and extermination campaign of the Jews.
Papazian's article called "Fact Sheet: Armenian Genocide" is one of the most notable works of propaganda and misinformation on the internet today. How misleading and unethical to promote your conclusions (that it was genocide and that it was a fact) in the title of your article?
The reason ethics do not matter to Papazian is because proving the Armenian Genocide as an "undeniable fact" is an ultimate nationalistic goal.
Propaganda is at its worst when it is especially accusing the other side of propaganda. However, using historical facts and logical critical analysis you can see that this is indeed a misinformation campaign.
The article starts out with "One and a half million Armenians were killed, out of a total of two and a half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire."
There is neither a source for the amount listed as the death toll, nor the total for the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire. Most sources accept a number between 1.2-1.7 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Only a few Armenian authors claim there were more than 2 million Armenians, and they do not have any evidence for that.
The death toll is also wrong, many Armenians fled Turkey and the Ottoman lands before, during 1915 and World War I (because of shortage of food and water), and after 1915 (because of the violence and oppression by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation which was actively rebelling). In fact, US consuls as well as others confirmed that there were 500,000+ Armenians in Syria (the relocation territory) receiving US aid in 1919.
The numbers are fabricated and stretched in order to shock the user into believing the rest of his facts as true. It's an exaggeration created to evoke emotion in the reader without any evidence for it.
The "300 Armenian leaders" (which most Armenians even say was only 200-250) which Papazian claims are writers, "thinkers", and "professionals" were actually rebel leaders, known members of the Dashnaks (Armenian Revolutionary Federation). Arresting them was only natural for any government since only a few weeks back the Armenians had rebelled and captured the Ottoman city of Van and sided with the Russians. The fact that only 200-300 out of thousands of Armenians were not arrested is a testament to the fact that they were only looking for known rebels related to the attacks on Ottoman troops and the siege and capture of Van by the rebels.
A scientist or historian, when writing an article must put up facts and conclusions that might disprove his/her own thesis in order to be objective. We see none of that in Papazian's article: only nationalistic dogma.
Papazian continues the article inventing catch phrases like "butcher battalions," without any sources. Blaming various organizations of the Ottoman Empire such as the Special Organization in order to infer allusions to the Gestapo of Nazi Germany, when they have absolutely no relation.
He mentions a governor that supposedly is fired for not complying with the "extermination campaign," even though Papazian has not even proven there even is an extermination campaign. He also fails to mention the 1,600+ Ottoman soldiers and officers who were tried, some of whom hung, for crimes against Non-Christian minorities by Ottoman courts.
Of course not, mentioning that would disprove his whole thesis and career on the conspiracy theory called the Armenian Genocide.
Remember, that Armenian Genocide Debate publicly supported many Armenian publications and Armenian authors for their work. Our team has approached Turkish sources and research with extreme caution and skepticism. However, at the very hint of differing opinions, Armenian bloggers and these pseudo-historians like Dr. Dennis Papazian, we were labeled as "genocide deniers."
This is how they intimidate other historians and academics to stay away from the Armenian Genocide topic. They want you to see the tip of the iceberg and their propaganda, and hide the rest of the iceberg from you; and then condemn academics as "genocide deniers" in order to keep people from researching this topic and uncovering the truth.
To these Armenian historians, denial of facts, obfuscation, confusion, and misinformation are their tools to promote their nationalistic goals. If they were to one day realize that they were wrong; they cannot even tell you--all their funding would cease and all their time spent on this subject would reveal itself to be nothing but propaganda.
They will blurt out random facts and spin it so that you believe in their conclusion. For example, Papazian says "First the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed into labor battalions, and then killed." We researched this subject. At first our team believed in what Papazian was saying; however, once we did our own research we found that the Armenians actually deserted the Ottoman army in large numbers to join the rebel forces of Dashnaks and Hunchaks, and some to volunteer for the invading Russian army which as Christians they assumed would help them create their dream of a nationalistic Armenian nation.
Many of them were not disarmed--most just left their outdated Ottoman weapons and later received high quality Russian rifles to fight the Ottomans--which they did. The Russians marched through the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of miles without any resistance thanks to the guidance of Armenian local rebels who knew the land and the locations of Ottoman military. This vital intelligence allowed the Russians to breeze through the Turkish lands and crushing all the Ottoman armies who were confused and hungry, and their supply and telegraph lines were cut by the Armenian rebels.
If this is somewhat hard to believe, think about it carefully. What motivation does the Ottoman Empire have to kill/disarm/enslave Armenians in their OWN Ottoman Army, when the Ottomans are short on food, soldiers, and outdated technology versus the powerful Allied forces fighting them in all 3 theaters (Europe, Middle East, and the Caucasus theaters).
The genocide blaming Armenian historians, are blaming the innocent to protect the guilty Armenian Revolutionary Federation, who is still alive today and influential in the Armenian communities. They cannot oppose the ARF and expect to live a happy life in the Armenian communities.
When a detective investigates a homicide, he/she looks for clues of the murder, then begins to find potential suspects that have the motivation to kill them. Perhaps this homicide takes place in a bar. These Armenian-Genocide activists are like people who are telling that detective "well the murderer was the owner of the bar. He owned the bar, therefore he must have done it." The detective would not rule out the possibility that these "witnesses" may be misleading the investigation and obstructing justice. This is what Papazian is asking respectful academics to do: Obstruct justice by believing in what I say and not listening to anything the Turks or real Ottoman historians say (all of whom disagree with the Armenian Genocide).