Armenian genocide - First World War

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Forgotten Holocaust: The Armenian massacre that inspired Hitler
The Armenian massacre by the Ottoman Turks during the Great War remains contentious, not least because Turkey refuses to acknowledge the existence of its killing fields. 25 camps were set up in a slaughter aimed at eradicating the Armenian people, classed as "vermin" by the Turks. Often attractive young Armenian girls were sent to Turkish harems. Adolf Hitler justified the Nazi actions by saying in 1939: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" Now, new photographs have come to light from the archives of the Deutsche Bank, working in the region. Unearthed by Robert Fisk, photos were taken by employees to document the terror. [ dailymail :: 2007-09-01 ]

Swiss 'genocide' trial for a Turkish nationalist leader
A Turkish nationalist leader has gone on trial in Switzerland for denying that the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 amounted to "genocide". Dogu Perincek is accused under Swiss law of racial discrimination. The Swiss parliament, along with more than a dozen countries, recognises the killings as "genocide". Turkey rejects the "genocide" allegation. Dogu Perincek, head of the Turkish Workers' Party, made the statements in a speech in 2005. "I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide." Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed in a genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War 1. [ bbc :: 2007-03-08 :: Armenian genocide ]

Turkish authorities acknowledged genocide after World War I
Turkey did not always deny the mass killing of Armenians. Historian Bruce Clark looks at how and why Turkish attitudes have changed. The aftermath of World War I: the Ottoman govt was intact but dependent on the good graces of the British Empire. The sultan's regime was trying to distance itself from the actions of the CUP, the "state within a state" which in 1915 had directed the deportation of Armenians. The sultan was at pains to reassure the British of their will to punish the perpetrators of these atrocities, and they held 4 big trials. In April 1919 a local governor Mehmed Kemal was hanged for the mass killing of Armenians. [ bbc :: 2007-02-28 :: Armenian genocide ]

US bill would recognize World War I-era Armenian genocide
Democratic and Republican lawmakers introduced a resolution calling for U.S. recognition of the World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide. The move will likely anger Turkey and is expected to be opposed by Bush. The bill, which will recognize the deaths of the 1.5 million Armenians, is likely to touch raw nerves in Turkey, which has denied claims by scholars that its predecessor state, the Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a planned genocide. The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the empire's collapse. [ armeniadiaspora.com :: 2007-02-01 :: Armenian genocide ]

Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink shunned silence
Hrant Dink spoke about Turkey's most controversial issue. His murder is challenge to the forces of modernisation in a country locked in a debate about how it should deal with its past. He was very clear about what had happened to his ancestors in 1915 in Ottoman Empire. The Turkish state admits that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed in 1915 in fighting on the eastern front of WW1 - but it disputes the genocide charge. Dink also challenged other pre-conceptions, like that the adopted daughter of Turkey's founding father, Kemal Ataturk, was in fact an Armenian orphan. [ bbc :: 2007-01-20 :: Armenian genocide ]

Franche approve bill making denial of Armenian genocide a crime
French lawmakers approved a bill making it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during and after World War I amounted to genocide. France has already recognized the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1919 as genocide; under bill, those who contest it was genocide would risk up to a year in prison and fines of up to 45,000 euros. Armenia accuses Turkey of massacring Armenians during WW1, when Armenia was under the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says they were killed in civil unrest during the collapse of the empire. [ dailymail :: 2006-10-16 :: Armenian genocide ]

Disappearing History Documentary "Ottoman Empire"
Documentary by History Channel, "Ottoman Empire: The War Machine" mysteriously disappeared from the network's schedule June 22, the day it was to premiere. The program recounts the six-century reign of the Ottomans, the precursors to the present-day Turkey. When the special did not premiere, even after History had run promos just days before and pre-sold DVDs on its Website, message boards and blogs erupted with allegations the network caved to pressure from the Turkish government or other groups. Although none have seen the documentary, the critics suspect it likely covers the death of more than a million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923. [ bcc :: 2006-07-11 :: Armenian genocide ]

Project Launched Second DVD on Armenian Genocide
The Genocide Archive Project, Inc. launched its second educational DVD, titled "1915 Turkish Genocide of the Armenians," specifically to educate students, teachers, and lawmakers. The DVD consists of a powerful documentary and survivor accounts, detailing cause, implementation, German complicity, and aftermath of this World War I extermination. World indifference towards this progenitor of modern state-sponsored genocide led directly to its repetition by Nazi Germany against European Jews and other groups. This DVD is available to the general public. [ panarmenian :: 2006-05-18 :: Armenian genocide ]

Scholar details Armenian horror and a response from the West
The first genocide of the 20th century wiped out half of the world's Armenians and drew a response from the West that would become the sorry standard for the horrors to come in the death camps of Europe, the killing fields of Cambodia and throughout Rwanda. "The major powers responded to the human catastrophe of the Armenians by trying to ignore it as much as possible," Simon Payaslian said on the eve of today's 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide. "There were official protests but nothing was done to help." [ telegram :: 2006-04-25 :: Armenian genocide ]

Documentary Makes Its Case for the Armenian Genocide
And that was the idea behind a panel discussion that PBS planned to show after tonight's broadcast of "The Armenian Genocide," a documentary about the extermination of more than one million Armenians by the Turkish Ottoman Empire during WWI. The protesters complained that the panel of four experts included two scholars who defend the Turkish government's claim that a genocide never took place. The outrage over their inclusion was an indication of how passionately Armenians feel about the issue; they have battled for decades to draw attention to the genocide. [ nytimes :: 2006-04-17 :: Armenian genocide ]

Kevork Arslanian, 100, survived WWI massacre
Kevork "George" Arslanian, 100, a survivor of the slaughter of Armenians in Turkey during WWI and a Cleveland barber since 1928, died Monday. Arslanian was living in Malatia, Turkey, when he and two siblings were rescued by an un cle who had converted to Islam and a Muslim woman. Their parents and other family members died in the massacre that took an estimated 1.5 million Christian Armenians' lives. Although 24 nations have labeled it an act of genocide, the Turkish government denies responsibility for the deaths. [ cleveland :: 2006-03-31 :: Armenian genocide ]

War Memorial for Turkish soldiers who died fighting Armenian occupation
A Turkish War Memorial, for Turkish soldiers who died protecting Nahcivan lands from Armenian occupation during World War I, was opened with a ceremony in Ordubad. During World War I, soldiers from some of the divisions under Nuri Pasha were martyred fighting against Armenians. [ zaman :: 2006-03-22 :: Armenian genocide ]

American Professor: Armenian genocide is British propaganda
The Blue Book has been used as proof that Armenians and the victims of the Jewish Holocaust suffered the same fate in history. This book has been said to be a product of British intelligence designed to promote and promulgate lies during WWI. Britain had set up the war propaganda bureau at Wellington House for the sole purpose of promoting lies and misinformation on Germany and the Ottoman Empire. The British were in full co-operation with American missionaries in Anatolia and the American Embassy in Istanbul conjured a so called Armenian genocide based on gossip, hear-say and erroneous information. [ turkishweekly :: 2006-03-21 :: Armenian genocide ]

70 Academics Debate Armenian and Turkish Massacres
Some 70 Turkish and foreign academics gathered in Istanbul for a three-day conference to discuss whether the controversial massacres of Turks and Armenians during WWI amounted to genocide or not. More than 520.000 Muslims were massacred by the armed Armenians and more than 1,5 million Muslims were forced to immigrated by the Armenians and Russians during the WWI. Turkey has refused the Armenian allegations regarding the 1915 events. Ankara acknowledges that 100.000-200.000 Armenians and more than 520.000 Turks died in civil strife during the last years of the Ottoman Empire. [ turkishweekly :: 2006-03-15 :: Armenian genocide ]

Armenia - BBC Country profile
A landlocked country with Turkey to the west and Georgia to the north, Armenia boasts striking scenery with high mountains and hot springs. Situated along the route of the Great Silk Road, it has fallen within the orbit of a number of empires. An independent Republic of Armenia was proclaimed at the end of the WWI but was short-lived, lasting only until the beginning of the 1920s when the Bolsheviks incorporated it into the Soviet Union. Yerevan wants the world to recognize that the killing by the Ottoman Empire of hundreds of thousands of Armenians 1915-1917 was genocide. Turkey says that there was no genocide and that the dead were victims of WWI. [ bbc :: 2004-04-15 :: Armenian genocide ]

First World War in the News is an edited review of hand-picked World War I 1914-1918 articles.