Yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian genocide. While the Young Turk governmnet was much more secular than the Ottomans, the mass killings and deportations of Armenians could not have been accopmplished without the rhetoric of jihad.

Here are a few important points from The Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Society. Much of this report relies heavily on Vahakn Dadrian's work on the subject.*

During the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid, the Ottoman Turks massacred over 200,000 Armenians between 1894-96. This was followed, under the Young Turk regime, by the Adana massacres of 25,000 Armenians in 1909, and the first formal genocide of the 20th century, when in 1915 alone, an additional 600,000 to 800,000 Armenians were slaughtered.21 The massacres of the 1890s had an "organic" connection to the Adana massacres of 1909, and more importantly, the events of 1915. As Vahakn Dadrian argues, they facilitated the genocidal acts of 1915 by providing the Young Turks with "a predictable impunity." The absence of adverse consequences for the Abdul Hamid massacres in the 1890s allowed the Young Turks to move forward without constraint.22

Contemporary accounts from European diplomats make clear that these brutal massacres were perpetrated in the context of a formal jihad against the Armenians who had attempted to throw off the yoke of dhimmitude by seeking equal rights and autonomy. For example, the Chief Dragoman (Turkish-speaking interpreter) of the British embassy reported regarding the 1894-96 massacres:

"Â…[The perpetrators] are guided in their general action by the prescriptions of the Sheri [Sharia] Law. That law prescribes that if the "rayah" [dhimmi] Christian attempts, by having recourse to foreign powers, to overstep the limits of privileges allowed them by their Mussulman [Muslim] masters, and free themselves from their bondage, their lives and property are to be forfeited, and are at the mercy of the Mussulmans. To the Turkish mind the Armenians had tried to overstep those limits by appealing to foreign powers, especially England. They therefore considered it their religious duty and a righteous thing to destroy and seize the lives and properties of the Armenians..."...

The genocide of the Armenians was a jihad. No rayas took part in it. Despite the disapproval of many Muslim Turks and Arabs, and their refusal to collaborate in the crime, these masssacres were perpetrated solely by Muslims and they alone profited from the booty: the victims' property, houses, and lands granted to the muhajirun, and the allocation to them of women and child slaves. The elimination of male children over the age of twelve was in accordance with the commandments of the jihad and conformed to the age fixed for the payment of the jizya. The four stages of the liquidation- deportation, enslavement, forced conversion, and massacre- reproduced the historic conditions of the jihad carried out in the dar-al-harb from the seventh century on. Chronicles from a variety of sources, by Muslim authors in particular, give detailed descriptions of the organized massacres or deportation of captives, whose sufferings in forced marches behind the armies paralleled the Armenian experience in the twentieth century...

It was a somber occasion as Armenians from all over the world gathered in Yerevan to commemorate the 90th anniversary of what they call "Genocide Day."

On April 24, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian community leaders in Yerevan. It was the start two of years of mass expulsions and killings of Christian Armenians by Ottoman authorities.

Ceremonies in Yerevan today included the laying of a wreath at the "genocide memorial" by Armenian President Robert Kocharian. Memorial masses also were being celebrated at Yerevan's Saint Gregory cathedral, as well as in churches all over Armenia.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished as a result of orchestrated killings as the Ottoman Empire -- the predecessor of modern Turkey -- was crumbling.

Authorities in Ankara have consistently denied that version of events. Turkey says about 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed as a result of "civil strife" when Armenians rose against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

In Yerevan yesterday night, more than 10,000 people marched with torches to demand that Turkey recognize the killings as genocide.

Armenians say they hope their mass demonstrations will increase the pressure on Turkey. There are some signs that the effort may be working.

Yesterday, the Conference of European Churches called on Turkey to recognize the genocide claim.

On 22 April, French President Jacques Chirac accompanied President Kocharian to a Paris monument for victims of the massacre.

And in Germany, members of parliament from across the political spectrum appealed to Turkey to accept the massacre of Armenians as part of its history, saying the move would help Ankara's EU aspirations.

Posted by: Rusty at 08:40 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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