Genocide: A Reposting

To destroy "in whole or in part" the ability of a people to function.  

I delivered this talk in 2020  for a unit on Armenia.  It was well before the fall of 2023 and the horrible Gaza War.  As I am writing (December 2023) 20,000 Palestinians have been killed.  The Israelis say the number of Hamas combatants killed is around 1700+  Gaza is no longer functioning.  There have been several scholarly essays and discussions of whether this meets the standard for genocide.   Here is my  original introduction: 

On April 24, 2021 President Biden used the word “genocide” to describe what happened to the Armenians of Turkey. The use of this word had been a matter of debate since the 1970s.  In 1915 the Ottoman government, fearing that the Armenians in eastern Turkey would align with the Russians, decided to evacuate the whole Armenian population of Eastern Turkey by marching them across the desert to the Arab provinces of Lebanon and Syria.  They also massacred large numbers of Armenians.  Many young women were forced to marry Turks, and there were many forced conversions.  

No one is certain how many people were lost.  Most scholars say  a million or 1.5 million.   

The Biden announcement had a softening provision, but two provocations.  Biden referred to events during Ottoman times, the previous, discredited regime.   This seems to spare the Turkish Republic of direct responsibility.  But a State Department press release referred to the capital of Turkey as Constantinople, a Christian name not used since 1453.  The State Department also used the highest estimate of fatalities, a million and a half.  

One controversy over the the word genocide has to do with the official definition.  It requires intent.  The Turks insist that while there were massive losses among the Armenians, there was no “intent” to exterminate the Armenians as a people or to commit mass murder.  They also say the word draws a comparison with the Holocaust.  The Armenian deaths were a by-product of war, they insist, a war in which Turks and others also died.  

Two points about the Armenian genocide.  First, after the war, the Turks put several officials on trial for war crimes.  (The word genocide did not exist at the time).  Many observers wonder why the current leaders do not say, “we disagree with the word genocide but agree that some of those leaders committed crimes against some of our people, as we showed by putting them on trial and finding them guilty.” But those trials  were carried out by the old regime, not seen as legitimate today.  Second, the national hero of Turkey, Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, was fighting the British at the time and was not involved in these events.    

My lecture was  recorded on my computer, not with a fancy microphone,  and shared with students.  

I wish I could provide you with the written definitions of genocide made available to students.   please listen carefully as I read definitions or as I discuss the model to predict future genocides. 

Three points.  First, the statement that 90% of the Kosovo Albanians were displaced was an inflammatory over-statement   by some world leaders.  Second, Leo Kuper in his  book Genocide uses the term “genocidal massacre” to describe targeted killings short of a full genocide.  An example might be killing a whole village or perhaps widespread massacres to intimidate a targeted population. Third, regarding  “war crimes,” there is a concept of “disproportionate response.”   It consists of “extensive destruction not justified by military necessity.” .  

Welcome to class.