Canadians of Armenian descent are attending various ceremonies across Canada today to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of what is now known as the Armenian Genocide.
One hundred years ago today, the Ottoman Turkish empire began an almost ten year campaign to eliminate what they perceived as an internal threat.
That campaign saw the forcible removal of vast numbers of Armenians, who were either killed outright or died of exposure in the hundreds of thousands.
Tensions between Armenia and Turkey appeared to ease last year when Turkey’s then-prime minister Tayyip Erdogan offered a statement of condolence to Armenians, but Pope Francis’s use of the word genocide during a mass prompted Turkey to withdraw its ambassador to the Vatican earlier this month.
Armenians have long maintained that what they are seeking is an admission by Turkey that the genocide took place, however an Al Jeezera report indicates that that is unlikely to happen.
On its website they report Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying “In one ear, out the other,” in anticipation of the European Parliament’s recently adopted resolution “encouraging” Turkey “to come to terms with its past [and] to recognize the Armenian genocide.”
In 1908 prior to WWI three junior Turkish officers, the “Young Turks” seized control of the Ottoman Empire. (this is where the expression has entered the English lexicon)
Canadian military and geopolitical analyst Gwynn Dyer studied Turkish and Allied military documents of the time. He wrote recently that the Turks who entered WWI on the side of the Germans had their forces badly mauled by the Russians with only a fraction surviving. Christian Armenians in Anatolia who had been agitating for independence now lay between Russia and a relatively defenceless Turkey.
When small groups of Armenians began to rise up, Enver Pasha and the Turk leaders panicked at the idea that Russia could invade through eastern Anatolia. They ordered the deportation of Armenians to Syria, on foot over the mountains in winter.
Dyer writes they were mostly guarded by Kurdish irregulars as there were few regular Turkish troops to spare.
He says the Kurds had never been great friends with the Christian Armenians and began to steal, rape, and kill unhindered. With that and the harsh conditions, hundreds of thousands died. More died in the terrible conditions in camps in Syria.
Canada officially recognizes the genocide in 2004
Dyer says the toll could be anywhere from 500,000 to a million but estimates around 800,000, which differs from estimates by today’s Armenian community which puts the figure at 1.5 million. However, he says because the Turks did nothing to prevent the mass death, it was genocide through panic, incompetence, and deliberate neglect.
Canada is among more than 20 nations that have recognized the slaughter as genocide in a motion passed in the House of Commons in April 2004 which reads “This House acknowledges the Armenian genocide of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity.”
Although there has been some movement towards reconciliation Turkey still seems unable and unwilling to fully and officially admit to the deadly events and its responsibility for the deaths of so many 100 years ago.
The efforts to remember however, have not faded for Armenians around the world. A huge rally took place starting at noon today on Parliament Hill in the nation’s capital Ottawa. Last night a vigil was held at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument in the capital, where about 100 people gathered.
“Remembering genocides and commemorating them is one important step towards making sure that genocides and human rights atrocities around the world do not happen again,” said Daron Keskinian, chair of the Armenian Youth Federation of Canada, at the vigil.
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