Turkish Views of the So Called Armenian Genocide

Bernard Lewis, an emeritus professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, says it may well be likely that a million Armenians died, but he asserts that there's no evidence that the Turkish government made a "deliberate preconceived decision" to carry out massacres. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, Lewis instead called the deaths a "brutal byproduct of war." A French court later found Lewis guilty of denying the Armenian genocide and fined him a symbolic one franc.

Many of the Turkish people also feel that, to be fair to Turkey and to the Turkish people and to be neutral and objective, some important points about the unfortunate events of the First World War, so called Armenian Genocide, should be brought up, and a multi-faceted view of the issue should be presented .

1. There was no concept of 'genocide' at that time. This word was used in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin. The claims of the so-called Armenian Genocide have started to increase after 1965. Unfortunately, many civilians were killed by armies or by other civilians in various wars throughout the history until after the Second World War. Hundreds of thousands of Turks were also killed by the Armenian militia and by the Armenian civilians.

As humanity, our values and ethical views about the mass killings of civilians in wars have been mostly shaped in the last century. It is unfair to use the values that we have in 2007 to judge Turkey for what took place under the war conditions in 1914-1918 under the rule of Ottoman Empire. Besides, on many platforms, Turkey expressed her regrets that these unfortunate incidents took place during the war conditions.

2. The modern Republic of Turkey or the current Turkish generation does not bear any legal responsibility for whatever happened during the rule of the former state Ottaman Empire. Indeed, the founder of the Modern Turkish Republic, Ataturk, fought against the Ottaman Sultan too when starting the new Turkish state.

3. Most of the Turkish people feel that some other countries are not in a position to act as a moral authority against other states or people. They simply hold the view that people are people everywhere. They think that there is no reason why Turks should be any better or any worse.

With the same token, the Congress should pass resolutions to recognize an Indian genocide in North America, an Irish Genocide because about a million Irish people died during the Irish Famine intentionally watched by the British Empire in a passive mode (1845-1849), and a Japanese genocide, for the bombings of the two Japanese cities using atomic bomb. In addition, thousands of Japanese-Americans were relocated and put into camps by the United States in the Second World War.

Many Turkish people ask the question; who would press the charges for these cases? The general opinion is that such charges are only pressed against Turkey to gain political advantage because Turkey is a developing country; not a super power.

4. Turkish people feel that the will and future of the American people are being shaped by the Armenian lobbying groups in the U.S. They think that those should be shaped according to the best interests of the American people. Turkey has been a long-time friend, ally, and a NATO member.

Armenians have been investing a considerable amount of money for years to publish books, create web sites, bring the issue to the senate, etc. It may be probable but it is highly difficult to believe that the issue is a simple issue of going back in the history for acknowledgment, reconciliation, and for peace. It is highly probable that the ultimate purpose is to label Turkey as a country committed genocide, put them in the same category with Nazis, and claim severe penalties or land from Turkey as soon as it weakens politically, financially, and militarily. Although the state of Armenia formally denies any such claims for compensations and reparations, it seems that this is the ultimate purpose of the Armenian lobby.

5. Turks think that it is highly unlikely that the Ottoman Empire would be involved in a genocide act as a state. Ottaman Empire was not a tribe, it had a great state culture. Several nations lived under the Ottaman rule for hundreds of years preserving their culture and religion. The fact that they tried to relocate the Armenians at that time shows that they did not try to kill them all. All of what happened at that time should be interpreted in the context of the First World War. The conditions of the First World War were horrible. Therefore, one could even say that during those conditions giving army patrol to Armenians and escorting them to safer zones was a somewhat humanistic approach.

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