Before I get into this week's post, I want to make a short aside. I wrote this blog post 2-3 weeks ago. I am finding myself with less and less free time and knowing that this would be a week I HAD to blog, I wanted to get a jump start. However, in just the past few weeks everything has changed.
Kim Kardashian came. Suddenly all eyes were on Armenia. People were curious. On my news pages articles titled "The Top 10 Things to do in Armenia" and "Do you Know your Armenian Culture? quiz" started popping up. Suddenly Armenia was on everyone's radar!
Say what you will about the Kardashians, but it is indisputable that they know how to use media attention to their advantage. That being said, them arriving in Yerevan in April 2015 was no coincidence. They came right before the genocide memorial so when the genocide memorial did happen, everyone would be watching. Crazy enough... it worked. So just a few weeks ago, this tiny, adopted country could have been considered "off the map," but this week we were in the center of everything!
So this post is going to take a completely different route than I had intended. By now, what April 24th means in Armenia is no secret. It was the Genocide Memorial Day Centennial. A past event that has huge impact on the present and future.
As a quick disclaimer I want to say that many books have been written about this topic, that envelop hundreds of pages and are still deemed not comprehensive. Here on this little blog, it would be absolutely impossible for me to cover every opinion, fact, event and detail of this topic, so I will simply discuss the major points in as clear and neutral as possible. I wrote a short post about it when I started blogging, but it was very uncomprehensive and (looking back on it) naive since I have a lot more information now. Despite not writing a book, this is going to be a very long post but I hope that you find it worth the read.
This is also written on the home page, but I need to say again for because I am writing about this topic that...
This is neither an official publication of the Peace Corps, nor of the U.S. Government. The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government, Republic of Armenia Government or the Peace Corps.
Kim Kardashian came. Suddenly all eyes were on Armenia. People were curious. On my news pages articles titled "The Top 10 Things to do in Armenia" and "Do you Know your Armenian Culture? quiz" started popping up. Suddenly Armenia was on everyone's radar!
Say what you will about the Kardashians, but it is indisputable that they know how to use media attention to their advantage. That being said, them arriving in Yerevan in April 2015 was no coincidence. They came right before the genocide memorial so when the genocide memorial did happen, everyone would be watching. Crazy enough... it worked. So just a few weeks ago, this tiny, adopted country could have been considered "off the map," but this week we were in the center of everything!
So this post is going to take a completely different route than I had intended. By now, what April 24th means in Armenia is no secret. It was the Genocide Memorial Day Centennial. A past event that has huge impact on the present and future.
As a quick disclaimer I want to say that many books have been written about this topic, that envelop hundreds of pages and are still deemed not comprehensive. Here on this little blog, it would be absolutely impossible for me to cover every opinion, fact, event and detail of this topic, so I will simply discuss the major points in as clear and neutral as possible. I wrote a short post about it when I started blogging, but it was very uncomprehensive and (looking back on it) naive since I have a lot more information now. Despite not writing a book, this is going to be a very long post but I hope that you find it worth the read.
This is also written on the home page, but I need to say again for because I am writing about this topic that...
This is neither an official publication of the Peace Corps, nor of the U.S. Government. The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government, Republic of Armenia Government or the Peace Corps.
A Bit of History
Armenia was not always the tiny country it is now. (Currently it is approximately as large as the American state of Maryland.) It was once a sprawling kingdom that's territory reached all over the region. The land shrank and grew over the centuries as a result of various wars, invaders and conquering.
The Ottoman Empire took control of part of Armenian lands in the 10th century as the results of it trying to fight off the Byzantine Empire. They existed fairly peacefully for many years with Armenians, Greeks and other minorities. Armenians often created their own small towns or banded together as a minority group in the major cities. By 1851, Armenians consisted of 25% of the population of Istanbul (Constantinople as it was known then). Turkey did not control all of Armenian lands and this division is now referred to as "Western Armenia" and "Eastern Armenia." Western Armenians lived in Turkey. Eastern Armenians lived in what is now the Republic of Armenia, where I live. Just to be entirely clear, the events we're talking about impacted all Armenians but mostly affected Western Armenians.
What Happened?
The relationship between the Armenians and Turks began to strain in the 50 years leading up to World War One. Armenians were/are Christian and Turkish people were/are Muslim. As Armenians got more powerful and began representing more and more of the intellectual, political and influential communities, the Sultan Abdul Hamid II and other government members became uncomfortable with the Armenians and (consciously or subconsciously depending on the source) blamed them for what they saw was wrong with the dying Empire.
Abdul Hamid II began tolerating attacks against outspoken Armenians. Toleration began shifting to "authorization of brutal persecution." Violent mass deaths of Armenians began in 1894 and over the next two years 300,000 Armenians were executed on the orders of the government.
Armenians were trying to fight back but it wasn't getting them very far. They had a sizable population, but were still very much a minority and lived in communities that consisted entirely of Armenians, making them easily identifiable. Because their resistance was not working, a group of Armenian Revolutionaries seized the Ottoman Bank in 1896 in an attempt to get international attention and perhaps intervention on Armenian's behalf. This backfired and only fueled the fire that Armenians were dangerous to the survival of the Empire and found themselves subject to more violence. As Wikipedia says "The sultan made no distinction between the revolutionaries who had stormed the bank and the Christian [Armenian] population at large."
As a result of this, Armenians began being "purged" from the government but it was (and still is) constantly unclear what was organized by the government and what actions were Turkish citizens acting on their own accord.
Seeing more danger as a possibility after hearing constant cries of "Down with the Turkish Government" and "Armenian Revolution" they began deportations of Armenians from their towns in Turkey. While the Turks told Armenians they were deporting them to Eastern Armenia or another area where they'd be more welcome, many were marched into the deserts of Syria and were forced to face horrible atrocities. This included, but was not limited to, brutal rapes, starvation, working to death, beatings, crucifixions, public executions and abandonment.
The violence peaked between 1915 and 1917. On April 24th, 1915 Ottoman authorities arrested 250 influential Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul, ending in their murders or deportations. By 1917, the mass majority of the Ottoman Armenian population had either been murdered, deported or fled.
In 1918, the treaty of Brest-Litowsk established three independent states in the Caucasus mountains, including the Democratic Republic of Armenia. This country lasted only two years because in 1920, it was invaded by the Soviet Red Army and the rest, as they say, is history.
Historians estimate that between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians were killed during this time. 1.5 million is the number the Armenian Government recognizes. 1 million more fled abroad, most to the United States, France or Eastern Armenia. They took with them their culture, language and stories. Because of those that fled, there are now more Armenians abroad than there are in Armenia (10 million vs. 3 million).
If you're wondering why this was able to go on for so long without any kind of intervention or protection on behalf of the Armenians, remember that World War One was occuring at this same time and had the world's attention. Turkey was both involved in World War One and was dealing with it's crumbling empire. The little press coverage it did get described it as internal strife in Turkey because of the problems within the empire. Clearly, this was an understatement because what was going on was not entirely understood around the world. The countries that did see what was going on (the US included, thanks to heroic Ambassador Henry Morgenthau) had little assistance to give.
I want to close this with a quote I find "interesting" for lack of a better word and really speaks to how these events were viewed.
"Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language... Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
- Adolf Hitler discussing the decision to invade Poland.
Abdul Hamid II began tolerating attacks against outspoken Armenians. Toleration began shifting to "authorization of brutal persecution." Violent mass deaths of Armenians began in 1894 and over the next two years 300,000 Armenians were executed on the orders of the government.
Armenians were trying to fight back but it wasn't getting them very far. They had a sizable population, but were still very much a minority and lived in communities that consisted entirely of Armenians, making them easily identifiable. Because their resistance was not working, a group of Armenian Revolutionaries seized the Ottoman Bank in 1896 in an attempt to get international attention and perhaps intervention on Armenian's behalf. This backfired and only fueled the fire that Armenians were dangerous to the survival of the Empire and found themselves subject to more violence. As Wikipedia says "The sultan made no distinction between the revolutionaries who had stormed the bank and the Christian [Armenian] population at large."
As a result of this, Armenians began being "purged" from the government but it was (and still is) constantly unclear what was organized by the government and what actions were Turkish citizens acting on their own accord.
Seeing more danger as a possibility after hearing constant cries of "Down with the Turkish Government" and "Armenian Revolution" they began deportations of Armenians from their towns in Turkey. While the Turks told Armenians they were deporting them to Eastern Armenia or another area where they'd be more welcome, many were marched into the deserts of Syria and were forced to face horrible atrocities. This included, but was not limited to, brutal rapes, starvation, working to death, beatings, crucifixions, public executions and abandonment.
The violence peaked between 1915 and 1917. On April 24th, 1915 Ottoman authorities arrested 250 influential Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul, ending in their murders or deportations. By 1917, the mass majority of the Ottoman Armenian population had either been murdered, deported or fled.
In 1918, the treaty of Brest-Litowsk established three independent states in the Caucasus mountains, including the Democratic Republic of Armenia. This country lasted only two years because in 1920, it was invaded by the Soviet Red Army and the rest, as they say, is history.
Historians estimate that between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians were killed during this time. 1.5 million is the number the Armenian Government recognizes. 1 million more fled abroad, most to the United States, France or Eastern Armenia. They took with them their culture, language and stories. Because of those that fled, there are now more Armenians abroad than there are in Armenia (10 million vs. 3 million).
If you're wondering why this was able to go on for so long without any kind of intervention or protection on behalf of the Armenians, remember that World War One was occuring at this same time and had the world's attention. Turkey was both involved in World War One and was dealing with it's crumbling empire. The little press coverage it did get described it as internal strife in Turkey because of the problems within the empire. Clearly, this was an understatement because what was going on was not entirely understood around the world. The countries that did see what was going on (the US included, thanks to heroic Ambassador Henry Morgenthau) had little assistance to give.
I want to close this with a quote I find "interesting" for lack of a better word and really speaks to how these events were viewed.
"Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language... Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
- Adolf Hitler discussing the decision to invade Poland.
Genocide or Not?
What I have written above is not controversial. These are facts that happened that no one really disputes. What is disputed and causes huge issues in international relations of the Caucuses today is describing the events as "genocide."
The official definition of genocide is "a deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation." Armenians and 23 nations around the world define the events of what you read above as "The Armenian Genocide." They point to the systematic killings, government ordered deportation, brutality directed at their minority and sheer number of deaths as their defenses. It is often referred to as the first modern genocide. Turkey (and all the other nations of the world including the United States) call it an event, massacre or slaughter but will not say "genocide." They say that Turkey was not trying to exterminate all Armenian people, there was violence on both sides, the worst events were carried out by individuals who had no affiliation with the government, and that few records exist of the exact amount of people that were killed so it can never be conclusive. They also point out that the word "genocide" was only first used in 1943 and cannot be retroactively applied to the events.
The fight over terminology has gone on for decades. You can decide for yourself which terminology you agree with or choose to use. The Armenian Government recognizes it as a genocide. Turkey and America do not. This division over the terminology has impacted just about everything about politics in this region.
The official definition of genocide is "a deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation." Armenians and 23 nations around the world define the events of what you read above as "The Armenian Genocide." They point to the systematic killings, government ordered deportation, brutality directed at their minority and sheer number of deaths as their defenses. It is often referred to as the first modern genocide. Turkey (and all the other nations of the world including the United States) call it an event, massacre or slaughter but will not say "genocide." They say that Turkey was not trying to exterminate all Armenian people, there was violence on both sides, the worst events were carried out by individuals who had no affiliation with the government, and that few records exist of the exact amount of people that were killed so it can never be conclusive. They also point out that the word "genocide" was only first used in 1943 and cannot be retroactively applied to the events.
The fight over terminology has gone on for decades. You can decide for yourself which terminology you agree with or choose to use. The Armenian Government recognizes it as a genocide. Turkey and America do not. This division over the terminology has impacted just about everything about politics in this region.
Today's Impact
The real impact today is that the Armenians feel forgotten by history. Their past has been sold and bartered by politicians because of Turkey's rising power. Armenia is left behind. Most of the rallying cries of the events this week simply said, "We remember and demand!" You can not change the past, but by hiding what happened in a shroud of politics leaves the door open for something to happen again.
Since 1915, relations between Armenia and Turkey have been very strained. Both sides have tried to make nice over the years but negotiations have always fallen apart because of the division over terminology. The border with Turkey is closed, seriously damaging the Armenian economy but that won't change anytime soon unfortunately.
Because of the recent media attention, things may change in the near future. I hope it does. I hope this centennial marks an end of mourning and the beginning of a bright future for Armenians and Turks alike and together. Only time will tell though.
Since 1915, relations between Armenia and Turkey have been very strained. Both sides have tried to make nice over the years but negotiations have always fallen apart because of the division over terminology. The border with Turkey is closed, seriously damaging the Armenian economy but that won't change anytime soon unfortunately.
Because of the recent media attention, things may change in the near future. I hope it does. I hope this centennial marks an end of mourning and the beginning of a bright future for Armenians and Turks alike and together. Only time will tell though.
As a PCV
As a Peace Corps Volunteer (and therefore a representative of the United States), I am not allowed to publicly refer to these events as a genocide unless I make it perfectly clear that I speak only for myself and not for my government or country (hence the disclaimer at the beginning, because the US doesn't recognize it as genocide). I have had many conversations with the locals who feel passionately about the topic and I have read every book or article I could find on the topic and came to my own conclusion.
I knew I wanted to be in Yerevan for the events. I arrived on the 23rd where there was a huge, free System of a Down concert in Republic Square. In the beginning, the lead singer (who is Armenian-American) said, "This is not a concert. This is revenge. We're alive and they didn't win!" In between their songs, they called out the US for "being in bed with Turkey" and called for a future of reconciliation, recognition and peace. They haven't published the exact numbers but the rough estimates put the number of participants in the concert at 10,000+ despite it pouring rain the entire time.
The next day wasn't much better. On the 24th, after a yummy glace at a local cafe and buying flowers, 4 friends and myself joined the 500,000+ people in Yerevan that participated in the genocide walk. We walked from a major street, Mashtots Ave, to the genocide memorial to pay our respects and lay our flowers. In spite of the weather and the distance, it was remarkable to participate in and I was so happy I went out. The atmosphere was somber, yet upbeat, as if the entire crowd knew they were being defiant and standing proud with their heritage. As a foreigner, it felt so good to be included and really see how their history is still very much alive.
I knew I wanted to be in Yerevan for the events. I arrived on the 23rd where there was a huge, free System of a Down concert in Republic Square. In the beginning, the lead singer (who is Armenian-American) said, "This is not a concert. This is revenge. We're alive and they didn't win!" In between their songs, they called out the US for "being in bed with Turkey" and called for a future of reconciliation, recognition and peace. They haven't published the exact numbers but the rough estimates put the number of participants in the concert at 10,000+ despite it pouring rain the entire time.
The next day wasn't much better. On the 24th, after a yummy glace at a local cafe and buying flowers, 4 friends and myself joined the 500,000+ people in Yerevan that participated in the genocide walk. We walked from a major street, Mashtots Ave, to the genocide memorial to pay our respects and lay our flowers. In spite of the weather and the distance, it was remarkable to participate in and I was so happy I went out. The atmosphere was somber, yet upbeat, as if the entire crowd knew they were being defiant and standing proud with their heritage. As a foreigner, it felt so good to be included and really see how their history is still very much alive.
After the questions "What is your name?" and "Are you married?" Armenians always ask "Do you know about the genocide?" It is not something we were taught in school. We study the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide but what happened in Western Armenia is just skipped over in the shadow of World War One. If it is covered, its a footnote in history books to why Turkey and Armenia don't get along.
Hopefully now we all realize what an understatement that is.
Hopefully now we all realize what an understatement that is.
If you want to read more about this topic I recommend the following books...
- A Knock at the Door by Margaret Ahnert
- 40 Days of Musah Dagh by Franz Werfel
- Armenian Golgitha by Grigoris Balakian (currently reading and have not finished, but so far I recommend it)
- The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
- Ambassador Morgenthau's Story by Henry Morgenthau
- There Was and there Was Not by Meline Toumani
- Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian