Reacting to 78-year-old President Joe Biden’s April 24 declaration that 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Turks [1915-1917] was genocide, 67-year-old Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was “highly saddened” by Biden’s remarks. Biden made good on a campaign promise to recognize the 2015-2017 Ottoman Turk’s death marches on some 1.5 million Armenians in the first genocide of the 20th century. Erdogan called Biden’s remarks “baseless and unjust” but can’t offer any other explanation for the historical record. At the time Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks, the 600-year reign of the Ottoman Empire was starting to crumble. Ottoman’s last Sultan Mehmed VI commissioned Interior Minister Alaat Pasha to dispose of Turkey’s Armenian population, thought to conspire with Russian Bolsheviks to topple the Sultan’s regime
While Ottoman Turks rounded up Armenians, World War I was well underway when the Arch Duke Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo June 28, 2014 pitting the Atro-Hungarian Empire against allied powers led by the U.S., U.K and European powers. While Tzar Nicholas II, that last of the Romanov’s, was under siege in the Bolshevik Revolution, it was just a matter of time before allied powers turned their attention to Ottoman Empire. By the time WW I ended Nov. 11, 1918, the Astro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires were defeated, divvying up the spoils at the June 28, 2019 Treaty of Versailles where allied powers decided which countries would receive Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian real estate. It’s ironic that the Kurds—Erdogan’s mortal enemy—were left out of the Treaty of Versailles, leaving the ethnic group without a homeland or sovereign state after WW I.
Erdogan can’t deny that modern day Turks were descendents of the Ottomans, who, in 1915-1917, marched 1.5 million Armenians to their deaths in the Syrian desert. WW I and Russia’s Bolshevick Revolution contributed to the political atmosphere that resulted in the Armenian genocide. “We believe the expression in the statement were included with the pressure of radical Armenians and anti-Turkish groups but this situation does not resolve the destructive effects it has on bilateral relations,” Erdogan said, warning of consequences. Erdogan talks about Armenians killing many innocent Turkish civilians but doesn’t take any ownership for what the Ottomans did to Armenians. Erdogan rejected the title genocide because the word didn’t occur until until after WW II. Actually, a Polish Jewish Lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in 1943 to refer to ethnic cleansing, targeted one group or another.
Unlike the Turks who are Salafist Sunni Muslims, Armenians are Eastern Orthodox Christians all originating July 16, 1064, when the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius was excommunicated from Rome. While Islam was barely religion formed in the 7th century, Armenians practiced their Christian faith dating back to the early days of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Churches in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan have Armenian churches dating to the 12th century. But whatever the reason the Sultan decided to rid Turkey of Armenians, Biden recognized an historic fact that they were purged from Turkey in 1915-1917. “If you call it genocide, go ahead and look in the mirror,” Erdogan said, suggesting the millions lost their lives due the Europeans and the United states over the last few centuries. No question about genocide in the Nazi’s Third Reich, killing some 6 million Jews.
Erdogan has a problem with the term genocide because of circumstances faced by Mehmed VI in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. “Genocide is a lie, It’s an American plan,” read a placard from protesters at the U.S. embassy in Istanbul. Demonstrators demanded that the U.S. vacate its airbase in Incirlik, Turkey, shouting “American soldiers, get out of Turkey!” Biden knew that recognizing the Armenian genocide would open up a can of worms for U.S.-Turkey relations. As a member of NATO’s southern line, Turkey has been a dependable ally to the U.S., once staging ICBM’s aimed Russia in the early 1960s. Blaming the Ottoman Turks was bound to stir up a hornet’s nest for U.S. foreign relations, causing many problems since Biden took office. Relations with Russia and China have hit rock bottom, with Biden accusing China of committing genocide on Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province. China has rebuked the U.S. to mind its own business.
Recognizing the Ottoman Turk’s genocide against Armenians was bound to cause a big stir in U.S.-Turkey relations. Unlike the past, Turkey has not threatened to cut off diplomatic relations with the U.S., but has instead complained about Biden’s designation. China went a step further accusing the U.S. of centuries of racism and discrimination against African Americans, telling Blinken that he shouldn’t cast aspersions on other countries. Erdogan essentially said the same thing, reminding Europeans and U.S. about their histories of genocide, including Nazi Germany and the long U.S. history of slavery since Colonial Times. Erdogan said Turkey has “a clear conscience and assured heart,” knowing that they’ve treated Armenians and other ethnic minorities well in modern times. Whatever happened in 1915-1917, Erdogan wants historians to look carefully at the context during that time period.
