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This documentary explores the role of journalists, reporters, and the media in uncovering the truth about the Armenian Genocide of April 1915. It delves into the various perspectives and challenges faced by these individuals in telling the story of this horrific event. The documentary also examines the reasons behind the reluctance of some countries, including the United States, to acknowledge the genocide.
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Armenian Genocide April 1915
What role do journalists, reporters and the media play? • “truth” tellers? • Fabricators? • Thought provokers? • Vivid story tellers? • Reality makers?Documentary: Merchants of Doubts – Thanks Ashla!
Intro Peter Jennings
What preceded the mass killings of Armenians that began 100 years ago? • The Ottoman Turks, who just joined the Triple Alliance, were worried that Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire would offer wartime assistance to Russia (controlled access to the Black sea – thus access to seaports).
How did the mass killings start? • By 1914, the Ottoman authorities were already portraying Armenians as a threat to the empire’s security • The authorities in Constantinople, the empire’s capital (Today is Istanbul), rounded up about 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. Many of them ended up deported or assassinated. • April 24, known as Red Sunday, is commemorated as Genocide Remembrance Day by Armenians
How many Armenians were killed? • The number of Armenians living in Turkey fell from 2 million in 1914 to under 400,000 by 1922.
How were they killed? • Mass burnings, drowning, torture, gas, poison, disease and starvation • Children were loaded into boats, taken out to sea and thrown overboard. Rape, too, was frequent. • The bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger.
“Genocide” did not exist • “The issue of whether to call the killings a genocide is emotional, both for Armenians, who are descended from those killed… • “…and for Turks, the heirs to the Ottomans. For both groups, the question touches as much on national identity as on historical facts.”
As of April 2015 – Armenia, the Vatican, the European Parliament, France, Russia and Canada call it a genocide. • As of April 2015 – Turkey, the United States, the European Commission, the United Kingdom and the United Nations do not call it a genocide. • Countries
Where did the term genocide originate? • The term “genocide” was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish legal scholar who escaped the Holocaust and dedicated his life to creating a legal definition of genocide. Lemkin fled the Nazi occupation of Poland and arrived in the United States in 1941. • In 1944, he coined the term “genocide” by combining genos, the Greek word for race or tribe, with the Latin suffix cide (“to kill”).
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 8 Stages of Genocide
Why won’t US acknowledge genocide • Turkey is an important ally • 2nd largest military in NATO • Muslim majority in NATO • Our access to Iran and Iraq to fight off ISIS
One hesitation is that Turkish leaders fear that acknowledgment of a genocide could lead to demands for huge reparations
