By Daniel Nardini
U.S. President Joe Biden is the first American president to formally recognize the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turkish Empire over 100 years ago. No one is alive to give a first person account of what happened, but there are now more than thousands of first person accounts recorded that tell of the terrible atrocities committed by the Ottoman armed forces against old men, women and children from the years 1915-1918. We also have Ottoman official records that point to deliberate policies of exterminating the Armenians as well as the Greek minority in the Ottoman Empire. It is one thing for researching and putting the history straight about the genocide against the Armenians, but another thing for governments to recognize this crime against humanity.
The first government to officially recognize the Armenian genocide was Uruguay in 1965. Since then many more governments have recognized the genocide against the Armenians except notably the United States. This was true in large part because of America’s alliance with Turkey for decades. However, the Turkish government has been turning rogue under the dictatorship of Princip Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has been actually helping some of America’s enemies such as Venezuela and Iran (and now recently China and Russia. Ironically, Russia has also recognized the Armenian genocide). The Turkish Republic, which sees itself as a successor of the former Ottoman Empire, has been hiding the fact of the genocide from the Turkish people for decades. The Turkish government has claimed, against all the evidence, that there was no plan to exterminate the Armenians but that the whole Armenian population decimated during the First World War.
Strangely enough, Turkish TV has been turning out TV shows, movies and youtube videos of the “heroic” Ottomans battling the West (Europe) and how the Ottoman Empire was a victim of Western imperialism. This is not accurate since the Ottoman Empire sided with one western power, Germany and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, against other western powers such as Great Britain, France and Italy during World War I. It also does not explain why the Ottoman Empire came to their “final solution” to the Armenian question by trying to wipe them out. Unfortunately, the Turkish government has not faced its past as well as Germany, nor the fact that many Turkish people and officials risked their lives to save Armenians even though they knew their own government would have killed them (just as equally important, the Arabs also tried to save what Armenians they could even though like the Turks they are Muslim). More than that, those Turks who had helped the Armenians have been seen as being “traitors to Turkishness;” the belief that the Ottoman Empire did no wrong. It is time that the Turkish government comes to terms with what their predecessor state did to a people whose only crime was being Armenian.
U.S. Finally Recognizing Armenian Genocide
By Daniel Nardini
The first government to officially recognize the Armenian genocide was Uruguay in 1965. Since then many more governments have recognized the genocide against the Armenians except notably the United States. This was true in large part because of America’s alliance with Turkey for decades. However, the Turkish government has been turning rogue under the dictatorship of Princip Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has been actually helping some of America’s enemies such as Venezuela and Iran (and now recently China and Russia. Ironically, Russia has also recognized the Armenian genocide). The Turkish Republic, which sees itself as a successor of the former Ottoman Empire, has been hiding the fact of the genocide from the Turkish people for decades. The Turkish government has claimed, against all the evidence, that there was no plan to exterminate the Armenians but that the whole Armenian population decimated during the First World War.
Strangely enough, Turkish TV has been turning out TV shows, movies and youtube videos of the “heroic” Ottomans battling the West (Europe) and how the Ottoman Empire was a victim of Western imperialism. This is not accurate since the Ottoman Empire sided with one western power, Germany and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, against other western powers such as Great Britain, France and Italy during World War I. It also does not explain why the Ottoman Empire came to their “final solution” to the Armenian question by trying to wipe them out. Unfortunately, the Turkish government has not faced its past as well as Germany, nor the fact that many Turkish people and officials risked their lives to save Armenians even though they knew their own government would have killed them (just as equally important, the Arabs also tried to save what Armenians they could even though like the Turks they are Muslim). More than that, those Turks who had helped the Armenians have been seen as being “traitors to Turkishness;” the belief that the Ottoman Empire did no wrong. It is time that the Turkish government comes to terms with what their predecessor state did to a people whose only crime was being Armenian.