The End of the Armenian Genocide and WWI. Were the Turks justified by killing the Armenian population?

The End of the Armenian Genocide and WWI

Were the Turks justified by killing the Armenian population?

How did the post-WWI time period make an attempt to address genocide?

I have 14 Points

14 Points in a genocide class• V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims,

based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.

• XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development.

• XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

The New Ottoman Empire Occupied by the Allies

Turkey

Gone

Raphael Lemkin

Polish Lawyer

Alive during WWI

Fled from the Nazis

Coins term genocide

http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/gallery/portrait/lemkin

My pick up line is simply I worked to coin the term genocide. Does that

impress you?

Did the Turks commit genocide?• In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts

committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

• (a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

What about the ottoman Empire?

• Treaty of Sevres establishes a new Armenian state

• Enter Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) who led the Turkish Independence War

Turkish Nationalist vs. The Occupying Allies

• Turks fight against Allies and set up a new government in Ankara (capital of Turkey)

• In control of the new government Turkey invades the new Armenian state

• Armenian has to reject Treaty of Sevres and give up land to Turkey. Meanwhile…

Allies demand the new government set up trials for the Young Turks

The Trials

1. Run by Turkey2. Young Turks flee3. Talat in Germany, Enver dies in war and

Djemal was assassinated

And Today

• Turkey denies the genocide

• How was the Armenian Genocide different from the acts committed by the Germans?

Essay Outline Comparing Holocaust to Armenian Genocide

• Process• Denial/End• Long Term Hatred • Motivation• Nationalism• Anything else?