- The Argument behind the quote
- Lack of Evidence suggests the Speech is False
- Motivation for Fabricating this Evidence
- Even if we were to assume the speech is absolutely true
- The Speech was about Poland NOT the Holocaust
- Hitler had to justify genocide to his own commanders?
- Why is the Hitler quote being used as proof of genocide?
Hitler's Armenian Genocide Quote is a paragraph from Hitler's alleged second speech to his Wehrmacht commanders, a week before the invasion of Poland in August 22, 1939. Since it's first appearance, the quote has been used by Armenian activists as just another reason to believe in the Armenian Genocide.
The quote, though has many similar translations is as follows:
Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had millions of women and children hunted down and killed, deliberately and with a gay heart. History sees in him only the great founder of States. What the weak Western European civilization alleges about me, does not matter. I have given the order—and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism—that the aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines, but in the enemies' physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in the east, I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?
The important part is the last sentence that Armenian activists seem to point as evidence for the genocide. This is clearly debunked and I'll explain how.
The Argument behind the quote
The goal here is to convince you that Hitler justified the Holocaust and extermination of Jews because no one cared about the genocide of the Armenians.
The argument they use with this quote, is a logical fallacy. If you don't punish the Turks for the Armenian Genocide, some crazy dictator like Hitler will see them get away with it, and thus will commit genocide himself. It's an appeal to emotion. It assumes that crazy people need rational justification or only do something evil because they saw someone else get away with it (like a child may steal a cookie from the jar because he saw dad do it).
Lack of Evidence suggests the Speech is False
Dr. Heath Lowry wrote after looking through the Nuremberg trials for proof of this quote:
The address was never accepted as evidence in this or any other session of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
There was an attempt to have the quote inserted into the Nuremberg Trials, but the tribunal rejected it because it was a incoherent merger of two Hitler speeches acquired from questionable sources.
Nuremberg trial officials located the true speeches of Hitler during this time and admitted it into evidence. None of them mention Armenians.
Motivation for Fabricating this Evidence
It doesn't take a genius to realize that since everyone equates Hitler and Nazi Germany with pure evil, tying your enemy to them, makes it very easy to force others to sympathize with you and to appeal to their emotions.
Since the popularity of this quote amongst the Armenian community, they have been using it to acquire more sympathy especially among Jewish communities. They have used it to involve themselves more in Holocaust studies and they try hard to relate them to each other.
The mere thought of equating the horrific suffering of Jews to the failed rebellion of the Armenians should enrage any Jewish person. The Jews never rebelled against the Nazis, they were singled out in Germany society and were forced to wear identifying Jewish badges in order to promote antisemitism by law. They were forced to live in ghettos. None of this happened to Armenians. There were many Armenians in leadership positions within the Ottoman government during the reign of the supposed "genocide perpetrators".
Even if we were to assume the speech is absolutely true
If we were to assume the speech is authentic and not question it, the wording of the speech is irrational. The last sentence doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the speech, it's as if, out of the blue, Hitler decides to talk about the plight of the Armenians.
Even further if we were to assume it is true, if Hitler didn't understand what happened to the Armenians, and believed the Armenian side of the story, then it would be circular logic to assume it is evidence of genocide.
The Speech was about Poland NOT the Holocaust
The speech was talking about the annihilation of the Polish people not the Jews. The Final Solution and the Wannsee Conference that established it, had not yet happened. The Polish people were indeed terrorized by the Nazis during the war, but they weren't exterminated "men, women, and children". Did Hitler's commanders ignore Hitler's command by not exterminating all Poles?
Hitler had to justify genocide to his own commanders?
The speech seems very far-fetched, why would the Fuhrer need to justify to his fascist subordinates about killing anyone by justifying it with past events? Why would he compare himself to the barbarian Genghis Khan?
If he is prepared to shoot anyone who utters "one word of criticism", why did he feel the need to justify killings by referencing Armenians?
Why is the Hitler quote being used as proof of genocide?
How is the word of one crazy dictator somehow evidence? This is like saying "this book says 2+4 = 263 is true, therefore, it must be true." If Hitler had a friend who kept telling him stories about the extermination of Armenians, does that mean Armenians actually faced extermination? Was Hitler a historian? The premise of the argument is that it is assumed the genocide is true when that has never been proven.
Everyday however, Armenians mention this quote as if it is absolute proof that the genocide was real and that others are using it to justify more genocide.
People are reluctant to question every detail, so fabricating new evidence may be discredited by historians but it if it is repeated enough times, even educated people will believe it to be true. Conspiracy theorists use this technique to flood the victim with false facts and false evidence in an effort to wear you down and make you believe.
Excellent article Robert, it still surprises me how many people still use this false quote. It doesn't even make any sense. It's simply more probable that this is false evidence introduced by someone with a political agenda.
I saw them mention the quote on 60 minutes, but the journalists didn't even bother verifying it's authenticity. They just showed Peter Balakian saying it's true (an Armenian English teacher), and some Turk saying it's false--no effort to look into it's authenticity. Such quotes would never be permissible in a court of law as it would taint the jury.
Heath Lowry's Article on this matter can be accessed by visiting following link:
http://www.ataa.org/reference/hitler-lowry.html
Lowry, "The U.S. Congress and Adolf Hitler on the Armenians" Prof. Heath W. Lowry, Political Communication and Persuasion, Volume 3, Number 2, 1985
Personally I don't even care about what Hitler said...It is very probable that Hitler knew nothing about 1915 and his perception was formed by the uprising activities of Armenians, directly or indirectly. Besides, a community complaining about "... Devam?n? Görgenocide" leans on the greatest maniac, a real genocider of 20th century to support themselves. A huge dilemma. The most powerful paradox I've ever seen.
to Anonymous:
I thought it was very self-evident, but since you seem a dilemma, I will explain it. There is no dilemma regarding this issue. Armenians are not leaning on the words of the word's "greatest maniac," as you have put it. Instead, they are using Hitler's words to demonstrate that it is extremely important for the world to condemn an act of genocide in order to be able to prevent it from happening again. History has shown that it takes much more than words on paper (U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide) to prevent an act of genocide. Hitler referred to the Armenian genocide to depict the fact that no one remembered what happened to Armenians in the 1915, so no one would remember the Holocaust either.
@Arevik Stepanyan
Except the for the fact that Hitler never said anything about the Armenians and that speech doesn't exist. And if you continue to argue it does, you should go and find the actual document that was accepted into Nuremberg trials--oh sorry, that's right, it was never accepted into evidence because it was a fake document put in there by Armenian propagandists to establish exactly what you just explained.
Please, respectfully, stop using this fake document to push your propaganda of genocide onto others. It has never worked before, and it just makes you lose credibility. The only way for Armenians to argue genocide is to discuss the details of the relocation orders, because there's no explicit evidence of orders of genocide.
Hitler's genocide was never forgotten and all the perpetrators were severely punished.
The Armenian Genocide, as Armenians think of it as proven, even that was remembered and punished, Talat Pasha was murdered by an Armenian activist, captured he was sent to trial, and in the trial, the German people did not give him a sentence and let him go, because they felt sympathy for the elaborate story of genocide that the defense presented. So the whole "we want justice" thing that Armenians keep chanting at protests is completely invalid.
Luckily, in civilized society today, even if you murder a convicted murderer you're likely to still get some sort of punishment--this is to prevent vigilantism and public lynching. Innocent until proven guilty, while Talat Pasha had his faults and was probably an incompetent ruler, the genocide was never proven.
@ Jonathan Wilson
First of all, my comment was not addressed to you article. As you can see, I was not arguing whether Hitler ever said such thing or not; my comment was directed to the Anonymous, who could not understand why Hitler's quote would be used in the first place. I personally never use this quote, because I don't need a "quote" to convince anyone that Armenian Genocide took place.
Secondly, you said, "the Armenian Genocide, as Armenians think of it as proven, even that was remembered and punished, Talat Pasha was murdered by an Armenian activist." wow...do you honestly think the murder of Talat Pasha constitutes a punishment for a genocide of a nation? That is very very very ignorant of you to say that Armenian people received justice through his murder. If we continue your line of logic, then we can say that if a Jew activist killed Hitler, it would settle all the Holocaust issues, which, obviously, is absurd.
It is needless to say that I do not support any act of violence, regardless of which side it comes from. However, let's not forget how many Armenian activists have been killed as well. Do you know anything about Hrant Dink, who was assassinated in Istanbul on January 19, 2007 by a student from University of Ankara? He was a Turkish-Armenian journalist, who was brave enough to write about issues regarding the Armenian Genocide and was forever silenced. You will say, the Turkish government shall not take responsibility for the act of a student. Maybe just a coincidence that he happened to kill the journalist who openly spoke about the Armenian Genocide. I don't think so. Now, if Turkish people are so confident in the fact that Turkey (Ottoman Empire) is not guilty of committing a genocide, why are they so "petrified" of the fact that someone might actually write about it, exercising his/her right to free speech? Why does this topic constitute a taboo and why does the Turkish government punish Turkish historians, who affirm the Armenian Genocide? Maybe out of the fear that the truth will eventually prevail Something to think about.
I read in one of the comments that you had written that those Turkish historians that have affirmed the Armenian Genocide did it because they were paid by the Armenian government. Do you have any facts to prove these allegations? If we are making assumptions here, I can very well assume that you are getting paid by the Turkish government to write these articles.
@Arevik Stepanyan
Alright, I understand your point about replying to Anonymous.
The death of one person is never justice for any number of people that may have been killed. Hitler died, but justice didn't come to the Jews who suffered. Talat Pasha was killed without proof of his crimes, but to Armenians, justice has not come yet.
What should we draw from this? No new death will satisfy humanity's demand for justice. All top Nazi leaders were arrested, tried, and many hung. Has justice come? In some form yes, but it doesn't bring back the dead. The damage is done.
What I said wasn't ignorant. I was stating the fact that since Armenians single out Talat Pasha as the architect of the Armenian Genocide, then his death would have meant justice, but they continue to demand justice, without ever defining what justice is. There is no satisfying the human need for revenge or justice. That's the point of my argument. If justice could be satisfied then the architect of the crime being killed would be enough, but no one is satisfied.
...on to your other arguments...
There's been many articles on Hrant Dink, even on this site, perhaps you should take a look. However, I don't see the relevance to this debate or why you brought it up. Of course it was wrong what happened to him, it's a tragic event that many Turks protested and spoke out against. The actions of the murderer does not represent everyone in Turkey, perhaps a small extremist minority.
Now onto your baseless accusations. There is no fear in Turkey of those speaking about the Armenian Genocide. Everyone in Turkey is free to discuss the Armenian Genocide. The controversial and silly Article 301 cannot be applied to discussions of Armenian Genocide, a lawyer tried it once on Hrant Dink and lost.
Many newspapers constantly debate the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, some even supporting the Armenian side, albeit a small minority but they are not persecuted for it. If it was such a crime in Turkey, then Taner Akcam one of the biggest supporters of Armenian Genocide would be instantly arrested for his vast propaganda (and yet he's been to Turkey many times even though he's an escaped convict).
I don't think there is any Turkish historian that acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. Unless you actually consider Taner Akcam a historian, even though he's only a sociologist. In that case, Taner Akcam may or may not be payed by Armenian government, but most likely, he's exacting his revenge for being jailed in Turkey. Anyone who is criticizing a country that jailed him should not be called credible in terms of that country's history.
You can assume whatever you like about myself. However, if the Turkish government funded us, we'd have advertisements all over Google and thousands of other websites. However, we don't have a single advertisement, the hosting is personally funded by historians not governments.
That "who is paid by who" argument is moot. Both Armenian and Turkish governments fund a lot of things related to the genocide debate. Armenian and Turkish organizations too fund various things for nationalistic purposes, but we have no tendency for that. Nationalism is irrational and we do not promote Turkey here nor do we demonize Armenia.
Mr. Wilson:
I need look no further than my grandparents (one on each side of my family escaped the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turks) to know what happend.
They are gone now but not forgotten. The Turks on the other hand will wait it out until all who could bear 1st person witness to these events, are dead. Then they will full court press with all the self rightiousness of the appear to be innocent victim...."we did no such thing" ..."where is your proof" in an attempt to claim moral high ground just as you attempted to do to Mr. Stepanyan regarding the quote from Hitler.... BTW- Show me proof its not authentic. Many have seen this clip and translated it.....
Beyond the advice of Mr. Stepanyan regarding the lessons learned from history, so that they won't be repeated......... We also need to adress the fact that no people should ever have to endure their existence/diaspora be not even a footnote in a history book, that is edited out...... Possibly for all time. Accuracy for accuracy's sake, is more important that the Turkish claims that this never happend. If the situation was reversed, I would say the same.
Please also note that Turkey fights so hard on this issue for another reason......... They are most favored trading partners with Israel........ Israel does not want any linkage from the Armenian Genocide to interfere with the Holocaust dominating every discussion of Genocide the world over........
The spotlight that shines so brightly on their most unfortunate time in history moving to the original architects of Genocide would be more than the powerbrokers who keep that light focused where it is, could bear...... Israel buys good s from a Muslim nation as a bribe to continue the denial efforts till 1st person accountability is in the grave.... Now we see the relations starting to freeze between these two countries, why? Because the Armenians who witnessed the atrocities have died off.
So as you can see, the Turks are pawns in a much larger game....Go figure....
@Mr. Babigian,
If you only look at what your grandparents and parents say, then you are not looking at this subject objectively. What about those Turkish grandparents who died to Armenian rebel armies massacring village by ville and burning mosques? To them, it was a Turkish Genocide committed by Armenians. You see how opinions can be faulty?
There is video recorded by Turkish historians who interview 90+ 100+ year old villagers who survived 1915 massacres. Many of them describe horrific tales of Armenian rebels massacring Muslims. One of them even described Armenian rebels putting babies in fireplaces.
Witnessed horror stories exist for both Armenians and Turks--they are not always reliable.
The Hitler quote about Armenians is false, it's never been proven as an authentic document by anyone. The quote itself doesn't make much sense either. The Nuremberg Trials rejected it due to it being falsified evidence. It was written on a piece of paper and inserted by an Armenian.
You seem to be under the incorrect impression that witness testimonies are what prove genocide. If genocide happened, the proof is in the documents (orders given to kill a group of people; plans of genocide; meeting transcripts or events) and in primary sources that are confirmed by multiple parties.
The Holocaust has all of this--this is why it's a proven genocide. The Armenian Genocide has not one single shred of archived evidence proving genocide.
Before the widespread use of DNA, many people went to prison due to faulty witness testimony. We have to assume innocence and then prove the guilt rather than assume guilt and prove innocence.
@ Mr. Wilson:
Sorry just saw your response today..... I will agree that there were probably Armenian Rebels operating independently and in retaliation to what the Turkish Govt. did to Armenians.
My grandparents were not the only people I heard recount the atrocities of the Ottoman Empire. They were just the closest to me. There were many others, who have since passed away.
Again. to insinuate that disjointed bands of bands of Armenians can cause the same damage as the Ottoman Empire's premeditated plan to exterminate Armenians from the earth ludacris. You are obviously a pretty intelligent individual, but your refusal to see things as they actually are/as they were, hints at a less than honorable agenda.
My grandfather was an honorable man, that came to this country and never let his past dictate his future. He was kind even keeled and we respected by the community he lived in. He had no agenda, and no reason to skew the truth as he was a simple man not looking to advance his world view at the expense of others... T him, it was just what happened.
You sir may have the motivation, time and resources to develop alternative theories and you are welcome to your opinion however polished it may be. I do not. Its not my lifes work to advance a theory. I
n the end I have heard 1st person accounts from people of the highest integrity and honor, who have not profited from any of their experiences. I have seen the effects of their experiences that have lasted through their lives, and I will stick with this viewpoint, as I am guess most of readers of this blog.
@Mr. Babigian
I don't have any hidden agenda either. There's no fame or money or glory in rejecting or confirming any historical theory.
You seem to not realize the extent of the Armenian rebellion but the Armenian rebellion is well documented. The Russians used the Armenian rebel armies to great extent to invade Ottoman Turkey. They documented how many Armenians were in their armies. They documented their brutality and hatred of Muslims.
There were 100,000+ Armenians in the Russian army as volunteers. Thousands more as part of Andranik Toros Ozanian army. This is no simple 'disjointed gang', this is an organized army with a command structure strategically attacking the weakened, exhausted, and now ill-equipped Ottoman army.
Remember that the Ottoman army was being attacked from all 3 fronts: The Balkans/Dardanelles/West (British ANZAC, Greek), the South (by British ANZAC and Indian/Arab troops, and French army who also had Armenian volunteer units), and the East (Armenian rebel armies, Russian army with Armenian volunteers).
This was world war, and the 'sick man of Europe' Ottoman empire was losing badly. It was very easy for the Armenians to gather weapons from Russia and rise up against such a weakened army. They did quite a lot of damage. They also used guerilla tactics to destroy telegraph lines, the only form of communication between the command structure and the local armies of the Ottomans.
This was not an insignificant war effort by the Armenians. It was very effective.
Your grandfather may have been an honorable man, and I'm sure there were many other honorable Armenians. However, we cannot forget that the majority of the Armenian population wanted their own nation without Muslim rule.
well people.!
last message in here was from mr. Wilson on oct 10,2010.
now it is 2011.
first of all, i would like armenian people not forget about "genocide" that they did to turkish people and the people of Azerbaijan when armenia invaded Karabagh.
do not forget that just before earthquaqe in Spitak, ARmenia, there were massacre of azeri-turkish population of Armenia. why world do not want to hear of these all? maybe because azeris can be killed because they are not christians. if azeri were christians, i guarantee that Karabagh and all other occupied territory would returned back to Azerbaijan in a couple of months of war started.
... now the real face of Armenia...
did that armenian gang Medicare scam started October 2010?
now US people can see what Armenian are up to. I do not agree that they are all like that, but mostly, especially armenian govt. FBI agents are all over in Armenia trying to get back our tax money. it looks like people close to president of armenia were in it. and selling of the weapon to iran and terrorists by armenian goverment..? now these weapons are killing americans all over the world.
well World, now open eyes widely, it is not it. to be continue...
if you can understand what i try to tell, i will be happy... nowadays i read a book related to the armenian genocity,so itry to learn more nare about it. i know the history but i try to objective in order to understand both sides. i am a teacher,and if you give a chance i will give some information.
the first founders of ottoman empires are turks. they are nomadic people infact. my family was a nomadic one until 1960s.my troops are completely turkish.these people used to be pagan at first times.(they became muslims in 12. century)
a turkish tribe osmano?ullar? started to land in agean and gained other lands after some wars.the founder was osmanbey . the second emperor orhan married a non muslim women and after that time nearly all the ottoman emperors married to non muslim and foreign women,they changed their names and religions..these women gave birth to new emperors and so on... to sum up in ottomon empire turks lived in anotolia in general and never had good status in government. ottoman empire also had a strategy; they were the leader of a very big union and a compex union. empire wanted to make happy the people of it in order not to cause any rebels... i try to tell very shortly so i cant give deatils..so the minorities and the relations of the empresses were the intellectual part of the community; they were writers, doctors,merchants....etc.
turks were in the army and they went to the wars.. this went on neary for 3 century, nobody had any comment. none of the armenians said i dont want education, i dont want a good status in this empire ,i dont want to have privilege... but oneday, empire started to lose power and every minority wanted to have its own country,armenian was one of them..they and all the others were right every nation has a right to have its own..but this is not the matter now. then they started rebels. emprors tried to stop them couldt be very successfull.. lots of people died from different naions including turks...especially in anatolia and east anatolia people were tired of wars,hunger. i must remind you that turks live in anatola and east anatolia mostly, they were poor,and they had to struggle by themselves during the world war..
armenian rebelled in order to be free , not all of them but some of them ruined, fired houses of turks,iknow some trangression my granma ttold..i still try to be objective because it was a war and every nation had such memories..after the world war ottoman empire accepted the control of other countries you know..i men england for example . they shared the lands among themselves....england, italy,france....
then turkish people met mustafa kemal, he encouraged the turks to struggle for freedom and independence war started... all the emperors and directors and their families escaped from this country;ottoman empire tried to save its own life becuse.... turkish people succeeded it in spite of all that hunger and poverty..if you want i give more details , they are not from history books they are from my anchestors words..( if you want to learn truth dont look only at history books ; evry naion has a good history in their own books)
so war ended and turkish people named their land turkiye.. mustafa kemal mentioned that turkiye is the land of all who lives here, people who live here are from turkiye regarding all the differences.. this nation started everything from 0.language, industry, food, country had nothing..
i am turkish, none of my anchestors was a part of that empire,they paid taxes as all the others in spite of being poor and having nothing other than farms and animals,now pelease tell me, if you were me, could you feel yourself responsible for
all that deaths... please try to be honest to yourself not to me.
Mr. Babigian, the Ottoman Armenians were rebellious little armies, and did not act independently. Why would your grandparents teach you they acted independently? They plotted and acted in defying their empire. Imagine today Armenians did that to America? What would America do to you if you were to plot to destroy America from within with the financial help of an enemy country? America would act far more militantly. To equate Jews with Armenians is weird- did the Jews plot to destroy Germany with funding by Russia? What your grandparents taught you about Armenian armies acting independently is wrong. I say armies, because funded ORGANISED Ottoman Armenian armies butchered not only Ottoman Turks but also Ottoman Kurds in nearby villages. Turkish grandparents have told horror stories of how one baby was put in a cooking pot alive, and the mothers leg afterwards in a raided village by "barbarians". The victims were Ottoman Turks. This particular incident was committed by organised but amatuer armies. It was wrong of Russia to use Ottoman Armenians as cattle just as Britian used Australians as cattle to destroy an empire. Armenians declare "the Ottomans disposed of Armenian people".. this isn't true either. There was a mass relocation order for Armenians to go to Armenia, and Turks to come from Armenia. The Ottoman army was commanded to safely guide Armenians, and so, there weren't enough soldiers to guide the Turks from Armenia, so, many Turkish families perished along the way. Today are Turks allowed to live in Armenia? If they do, where is their voice? Is there a Turkish newspaper in Armenia? Also, when quoting Hitler for evidence, you should also believe that whites are superior to non-whites, because that's what Hitler said and that's what justified him to kill. I didn't know Armenians believed Hitler's words to be true even if the Armenians supported transcript wasn't a fake. But.. Armenians are not white either according to Hitler's standards.
i am not armenian, but i grew up in glendale pretty much from 1984-2006 with stints in parts of the san fernando valley, i know on armenian genocide day there was only 2 kids in class, me and an armenian kid that for whatever reason still went to school. I've been interested in Armenian culture ever since I was a kid, and I have always had Armenian friends, even when i was going to high school in North Hills and there was only like 2 armenian kids there i went out of my way to be friends with them and we did have that Glendale connection.
Either way to cut down my background and get to the point, i grew up believing in the Armenian Genocide, but of course i had never done any actual research into it, i just assumed it was true. Then one day i was visiting that website cilicia.com, and it had been hacked by an Azeri group, and it lead to another page in which there was a whole series of arguments against the Armenian Genocide, this was like in 2006-7. I read the articles and tried to do independant research, not affiliated with the Azeri group that had hacked cilicia.com. From that research i came to believe there was no Armenian Genocide.
I have never met a Turk either, and it is awkward, but theres no way to tell someone nicely or in any way that you dont beleive in the Genocide. I dont deny Armenians died, but now i know turks also died, and not just at the hands of Armenians but of sheer starvation. It was WW1. I wont say the Turks were a Western style nation with customs and beliefs similar to our own. I dont believe they were like the USA in which there was Liberty and Justice for all. But what happened there was just an outcome of WW1, and of the time in history in which it occured.
Armenians were a threat, which did do things to make themselves a target, and the Turks did see the Armenians as a problem, they didnt have the best coordinated evacuation or relocation, because they were barely able to feed their own troops.
But aside from wether one believes in the Genocide or not, I kind of feel like a russian comentor did on another thread saying he is tired of hearing every April about Genocide. I think it is only going to seriously blow up in the face of Armenians one day, and really do alot of damage to their reputation, not the Turks. Armenians are trying so hard to railroad the ottomans and turks, but thats a dead cause, a moot point. Its over, what ever happened happened. And if Turkey came out today and apologized for the Genocide, and gave reparations, what is that going to do, how much reparations do people expect them to give, just a ball park figure how much is Turkey going to give. Because me personally if Turkey was going to give me $350 US dollars for my grandparents that died, i would not accept it, it is just going to cheapen the whole thing. It looks like the Armenians are just out for the money, making noise until someone offers a big settlement.
If you really want Turke to acknowledge there was a genocide then just stop asking for reparations. That to me just shows how much Armenian political groups around the world and through history have dominated the issue, and the modern Western Governments have just swallowed the story hook line and sinker, with out doing any research of course, because who wants to be the country that denys the Armenian Genocide, its just political suicide.
With all that said I love armenians and the armenian culture, that hasnt changed, but I honestly dont think it will ever be wise to bring up the Genocide to people face to face, and i dont blame the young Armenians either, but its that sensitive of a topic up until this day.
This is a great article. My great grand father was killed by armenian rebels he was bring bread back to his family when he and all the village men were rounded up and shot dead. I would also like to add that Turkey has many times told the armenian government to bring their archives on the Geonicede. Turkey and several countrie would also bring their archives and historians would discuss about it, whatever the out come Turkey would accept. Armenians have always rejected the proposal it makes u wonder if they strongly belive they r right why not accept it. But they dont.