What is Genocide?

The word Genocide is a term coined by Jewish Holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin in 1943 from the the root words genos (Greek for family, tribe or race) and -cide(Latin for killing). The following documentary by Two Cat Productions and shown on PBS depicts Mr. Lemkin speaking on the matter and stressing the Armenian Genocide as an example of this horrendous crime against humanity.

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Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

In December of 1948, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The convention came into force in January 1951. The Convention today serves as the key definition of the Armenian Genocide:

Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as:

...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

 Article 3 of the same convention defines the crimes that can be punished under the convention:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

What happened to the Armenians?

The Armenian people lived in the Ottoman Turkey for centuries after the Turkish tribes began moving from the Central Asia to the Armenian Highlands around the 1000 A.D. For centuries the Armenian people like the Jewish and Greek minorities were subject to double taxation, devshirme, and other humiliating practices by the Government.

Devşirme or devshirmewas the practice by which the Ottoman Empire conscripted boys from Christian families, who were taken from their families by force, converted to Islam, trained and enrolled in one of the four royal institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious and the Military. The devşirme system humiliated non-Muslim societies controlled by the Ottomans and was resisted. 

 While sporadic massacres were a common feature of the ethnic and religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdul Hamid II (who was nicknamed the Bloody Sultan) began a campaign of mass killings against the Armenian People.

1894-1896: Hamidian Massacres - 100,000 to 300,000 Armenians Killed (Comparison: Thirty to One Hundred times as many victims as 9/11 Attacks on US)

In 1890, Hamid II created a paramilitary outfit known as the Hamidiye which was made up of Kurdish irregulars who were tasked to "deal with the Armenians as they wished." As Ottoman officialsintentionally provoked rebellions (often as a result of over-taxation) in Armenian populated towns, such as the Sasun Resistance of 1894, these regiments were increasingly used to deal with the Armenians by way of oppression and massacre. Armenians successfully fought off the regiments and brought the excesses to the attention of the Great Powers in 1895 who subsequently condemned the Porte.

The Powers forced Hamid to sign a new reform package designed to curtail the powers of the Hamidiye in October 1895 which like the Berlin treaty, was never implemented. On October 1, 1895, 2,000 Armenians assembled in Constantinople to petition for the implementation of the reforms but Ottoman police units converged towards the rally and violently broke it up. Soon, massacres of Armenians broke out in Constantinople and then engulfed the rest of the Armenian populated provinces of Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Harput, Sivas, Trabzon and Van. Estimates differ on how many Armenians were killed but European documentation of the violence, which became known as the Hamidian massacres, placed the figures from anywhere between 100,000–300,000 Armenians.

On July 24, 1908 the Young Turks (which later became known as the Committee for Union and Progress or CUP) deposed the Sultan and came to power. This followed by a 1909 massacre of the Armenian population in Adana.

1909: Adana Massacres - 30,000 Armenians Killed (Comparison: Ten times as many victims as 9/11 Attacks on US)

In 1909, over 30,000 Armenians were killed (You can download the New York Times article of that time here).

1915-1923: Armenian Genocide

April 24, 1915 - 250 Armenian Intellectuals Round Up and Massacres

On this day, which today serves as the symbolic day of the Armenian Genocide, 250 Armenian intellectuals and notables are arrested by the Turkish officials and killed through beheadings, torture, and other methods. It is worthy to mention that many of them were taken to the sea and were drowned there.

Number of Victims: 1,500,000-2,000,000

Methods of Extermination:

1. Beheading
2. Torture
3. Starvation
4. Exhaustion
5. Drowning
6. Burning
7. Others...

Where did the killings took place?

The killings happened all across the Ottoman Empire. Some reports indicate that the killings event took place in the Iranian and Russian villages with Armenian population. You can download a detailed map of the Armenian Genocide here.

Response of the Turkish Government

When Turkey lost in WWI, the CUP leaders, Enver Pasha, Jemal Pasha, and Talaat Pasha fled the country. The Government which was formed immediately after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, tried the CUP leaders in absentia, found them guilty of committing war crimes and Genocide, and subsequently sentenced them to death.

The Denialist Campaign by Turkish Government

The Turkish Government vehemently denies the Armenian Genocide. Through legislation, violence, and fear tactics the Turkish government attempts to silence the internal dissidents who speak of this historical truth: the Armenian Genocide. The Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code makes it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions.

Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code: A Weapon to Silence Advocates of the Recognition of Armenian Genocide

The Governmet of Turkey, using the notorious Article 301 of its Penal Code silences, harasses, and finally prosecutes those who dare to speak out on the issue of the Armenian Genocide. However, the Article 301 goes furhter. It helps to identify and single out those who the state deems as threats. As a result, the nationalists, with or without the government's tacit approval conduct violent campaigns against the victims. For example, the Murder of Hrant Dink in 2007 is said to be a direct result of this legislation.

Before amendments were made to Article 301 on April 30, 2008, the article stated the following:

1. A person who publicly denigrates Turkishness, the Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and three years.
2. A person who publicly denigrates the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the judicial institutions of the State, the military or security organizations shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and two years.
3. In cases where denigration of Turkishness is committed by a Turkish citizen in another country the punishment shall be increased by one third.
4. Expressions of thought intended to criticize shall not constitute a crime.

Following the murder of Hrant Dink, Turkish deputy prime minister and foreign minister Abdullah Gül declared, "With its current state, there are certain problems with article 301. We see now that there are changes which must be made to this law."

On April 30, 2008, article 301 was amended by the Parliament of Turkey, with the following changes:

• replacement of the word "Turkishness" with the phrase "Turkish nation" (in the phrase "insulting Turkishness").
• reduction of the maximum penalty from three years to two.
• requiring permission of the justice minister to file a case. The permission procedure of Article 301 will be carried out by the Directorate General of the Criminal Affairs of the Ministry of Justice where competent judges are seconded to the Ministry. Even if a criminal investigation is launched upon the permission of the Minister of Justice, the prosecutor still has discretionary power to decide not to prosecute.

Examples of Victims of the Article 301, Turkish Campaign of Fear and Harrasment

Hrant Dink: An Armenian writer, editor of Agos Armenian newspaper, intellectual, and activist. He was consistently harassed by the Turkish regime. He was supposedly murdered by a 17 year old Turkish nationalist in broad daylight on January 19, 2007, however many believe that this murder was linked to the Eregeknon underground movement which is made up of top Turkish military and political leaders.

Ragip Zarakolu: Turkish activist who has been consistently harassed by Turkish Government for his advocating for human rights, freedom of speech, and recognition of Armenian Genocide. In 1995, his office was bombed by Turkish Nationalists.

Ayşenur Zarakolu: Wife of Ragip Zarakolu. Zarakolu helped publicize in Turkey include the Armenian Genocide and human rights of Kurdish people in Turkey. Imprisoned multiple times for her publications, she was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, and her legacy continued to face legal challenge in Turkey after her death.

Orhan Pamuk: Turkish novelist who won the Noble Prize in Literature in 2006. In 2005, after Pamuk made a statement regarding the mass killings of Armenians and Kurds in the Ottoman Empire, a criminal case was opened against the author based on a complaint filed by ultra-nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz.

Taner Ackcam: Turkish writer, intellectual, and professor. In January 2007, the government officially launched an investigation against Akçam regarding an October 6, 2006, newspaper column in the Turkish-Armenian journal Agos. In it Akçam criticized the prosecution of Agos' managing editor Hrant Dink for using the term "genocide", regarding the Armenian Genocide. The use of the term was construed by the prosecutor's office as the criminal offense of "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of Turkey's penal code. Highlighting the term "genocide", Akçam declared himself an accessory to the charges against Hrant Dink, and urged readers to join in Dink's support.

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