At What count Genocide?

The President, and former Prime Minister, of Turkey Recep Erdogan has recalled the Turkish envoy to the Vatican following Pope Francis Easter Mass reference to the massacre of Armenians upon its one hundredth aniversary as genocide. Further, the Vaticans ambassador to Turkey has been called to Ankara to explain the statement. Turkeys response has been to accuse the Pope of inciting resentment and hatred with baseless allegations.

One definition of genocide is a deliberate and systematic mass murder of a definite group of people, whether based on cultural, ethnical, nationality, political, racial, religious, or any other categorisation. The definition does not place any figure on the number of those exterminated, but the figure concerned during the Armenian genocide is reckoned to be around 1.5 million. Certainly a figure that cannot be ignored.

Turkey has persistently denied a genocide occurred, citing that many Turks also died in the conflict at the beginning of World War One. At that time Turkey was ruled by the fading Ottoman Muslim regime. However, since 23 countries including Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Uruguay, and a variety of international orgaisations such as the European Parliament, have formally recognised the genocide and the Ottomans have little to do with present day Turkey why does the Turkish Government so vehemently deny the issue?

Firstly, the Turks estimate the deaths at a much lower figure, although historians state that the Ottomans destroyed much condemning evidence at the time. Mostly reasons for the denial are related to Erdogans attempts to portray Turkey as a majestic regal power by identifying with the Ottoman Empire. Thus criticism of the late Ottomans is perceived as criticism of the present regime.

The major phase of the genocide started in late April 1915 with the first part being the round up on Turkish soil and massacre of able bodied Armenian males, and the second part being enforced death marches through the Syrian desert of the remaining women, children, elderly, and infirm while deprived of food and water. Taken together with the Pontic Greek genocide the events appear to be systematic, using the advent of World War One as a pretext. Further corroborating this is that the 1915 massacre was just the culmination of a protracted campaign of atrocities, beginning with documented Christian persecution dating back to the 1830s, and the massacres of 200,000 in 1896, and 22,000 in 1909.

Present day Armenia lies to the Eastern border with Turkey on the strip of land separating the Black and Caspian seas. Together with the former Pontus region of the south eastern Black Sea coast it forms a belt of land along northern Turkey. The Pontus were a Greek speaking Christian Orthodox people, inhabiting the region since biblical times, who also suffered at the hands of the Ottomans. A reasonable estimate of the number of Pontus suffering similar fate to the Armenians is estimated to be around 700,000.

The autrocities did not end in 1915. There were a further 130,000 Armenians killed between 1915 and 1918. From the end of 1937 into 1938 roughly 65,000 Kurds were massacred in four waves in a central region of eastern Turkey known as the Dersim campaign, which is also widly debated as genocide. There is also the Assyrian genocide in south eastern Turkey resulting 275,000 deaths. All consistent with the policy of 'Turkification' - an ethnic cleansing policy extolled by Turkish statesman Ziya Goekalp from 1908. A Turkish court, in March 2011, ruled that the actions of the Turkish government could not be considered genocide because they were not directed systematically against an ethnic group.

To date the UK remains one of those countries not officially recognising the Armenian genocide. In 2009 Geoffrey Robertson QC disclosed Foreign Office documents showing how the British Parliament had routinely been misinformed and misled by Ministers who had recited previous reports without questioning their validity. A 1999 Foreign Office briefing for Ministers stated that recognition of the Armenian Genocide would provide no practical benefit to the UK, and that "The current line is the only feasible option" owing to "the importance of our relations (political, strategic and commercial) with Turkey". So again politics outweighs truth.