Why The Armenian Deportations Were Not Genocide

Genocide is an abomination. While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Article two of this defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with "intent" to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

What the Nazis did to the Jews is a clear example of genocide, because there was "intent" to exterminate the Jewish race from existence. What befell the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, though tragic, can't be labeled as genocide. Just like what befell the indigenous peoples of America ( including Hawaii ) was not genocide. It is estimated that almost 100 million ( 100 000 000 ) indigenous Americans died, at the hands of Euro – Americans, in what is today North and South America. While no historians denies the death and suffering were unjustly inflicted by a number of Europeans upon a great many American natives. Historians argue that genocide, WHICH IS A CRIME OF INTENT, was not the "intent" of European colonization in the Americas.

The same principle applies for the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire was fighting for its very existence during World War One. The Armenians, using arms, rebelled in Eastern Anatolia. Great number of Armenians deserted, including members of the Ottoman armed forces, crossing the frontier to join the Russian forces invading the Ottoman Empire. Armenian rebels were even able to seize the Ottoman city of Van , intending on handing it over to the invaders. There was guerrilla warfare all over Anatolia, perpetrated by Armenian rebels. This was, what now a days we call a national liberation movement. The Ottoman government, to quell the Armenian uprising had to deport the Armenians of Eastern Anatolia. The Armenians of the Arab provinces ( then still a part of the Ottoman Empire ), Western Anatolia and the European territories of the Ottoman Empire were left unscathed. There is no evidence of a decision to massacre Armenians. On the contrary, their were attempts to prevent massacre, but they were unsuccessful. The massacres carried out against the Armenians, were done by irregulars ( Muslim villagers taking revenge for what was done to them ) and not by the Ottoman armed forces. To make this a parallel with the FIRST GENOCIDE IN HISTORY the Holocaust, you would have to assume, that the Jews of Germany were engaged in an armed rebellion against the German state. Collaborating with the Allies to grab a portion of land for themselves at Germany's expanse. That in the deportation order, the cities of Berlin and Hamburg were exempted. The Jews in the employment of the state were exempted. The deportation orders applied for the Jews of Germany proper only, so when they arrived at Poland, they were welcomed and sheltered by the Jews of Poland. As any reasonable person can see, this is an absurd paradox.

As mentioned earlier, what befell the Armenians is tragic. But there is no evidence of "intent" to eradicate the Armenians. The sooner the Armenians realize this fact, the faster Armenia and Turkey will be able to achieve normal neighbourly relations. It is in the interest of the Armenian diaspora to prevent good relations between Armenia and Turkey, because the more the relationship is strained between the two neighbours, the more the Armenian diaspora will be able to affect the internal affairs of Armenia. Therefore, it is in the interest of the Armenian diaspora to keep the status quo at the expense of Armenia's citizens.