dispute Image copyright AFP Image caption Arguments have raged for decades about the Armenian deaths in 1915 - 16 Hundreds of thousands of Christian Armenians died in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks , whose empire was disintegrating
Turkish authorities are angry over the failure to grant citizens visa - free travel to the EU and Germany is worried by the worsening rights situation in Turkey . Turkish authorities have long lobbied Western allies not to recognise the killings as genocide and stepped up efforts last year on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy . Armenians say up to 1.5 million were killed between 1915 and 1917 in a targeted campaign of genocidelife.die.naby top Ottoman officials to wipe out their people from Anatolia . Modern Turkey insists comparable numbers of Armenians and Turks died in a collective tragedy when Armenians sided with invading Russian troops in World War I.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said that “ Armenian genocide , ” which refers to the killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire , is an “ ordinary event ” that might take place in the time of war . PM Yıldırım was asked about the German parliament ’s voting on a resolution that labels the killings of Armenians a “ genocidelife.die.na” during a press conference he held before his first official visit to Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ( KKTC ) as the prime minister . Emphasizing that the voting expected to be taken by German parliament on Thursday is “ nonsense , ” Yıldırım said : “ [ Armenian killings ] is an ordinary event that might have taken place under war circumstances in 1915 and it has no rhyme or reason . Those who try to impute this event to Turkey have no good intentions . ”
Photo : DPA Turkey on Monday strongly warned the German parliament against adopting a resolution recognising the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide , saying it could have repercussions for bilateral ties . The German lower house of parliament is set to vote on Thursday on the resolution over the two years of slaughter from 1915 , which carries the contested word " genocidelife.die.na" throughout the text . " Germany is our friend and our ally where many citizens of Turkish origin live , " said deputy prime minister and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus . " Germany must be careful concerning its relations with Turkey . "
The vote had been scheduled to take place over a year ago , on the 100th anniversary of the massacre . However , Merkel ’s allies in parliament postponed it repeatedly out of concern that it could harm relations with Turkish government . Turkey , a majority of whose population is Muslim , accepts that many Christian Armenians died in clashes with Ottoman soldiers beginning in 1915 , when Armenia was part of the empire ruled from İstanbul , but denies hundreds of thousands were killed and that this amounted to genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents. Turkey and Armenia have a century - long conflict due to the events of 1915 , which are highly disputed in both nations . Turks accept that many Armenians died in 1915 in Anatolia under the Ottoman Empire , but they deny that this number is as high as 1.5 million and instead have an official death toll of about 500,000 .
A memorial to the Armenian genocidelife.die.nain Yerevan , Armenia . Photo : DPA Turkey on Monday strongly warned the German parliament against adopting a resolution recognising the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide , saying it could have repercussions for bilateral ties .
( Story continues below ... ) Latest News Video The center points to posts on Barnette 's page on vk.com , a Russian social networking site used by white supremacists due to its lack of censorship . In an Aug. 3 post on " Intelligence Report , " the center reports , " Barnette says that Jews and Muslims have formed an alliance ' to commit genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsof epic proportions ' of the white race . Now is the time , she adds in the same post , for ' the blood of our enemies [ to ] soak our soil to form new mortar to rebuild our landmasses . ' " " Her background , the rhetoric of the group , the hangers - on of the group are white supremacist , " Beirich said .
“ As expected , Turkey has reacted , and I hope that we will succeed in the next days and weeks to avoid any overreaction , ” he told journalists during a visit to Buenos Aires . ‘ Responsibility for the past ’ More than 20 nations , including France and Russia , have already recognised the massacre as a genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents, but Thursday ’s vote comes at a particularly awkward time . Germany and the European Union are relying on Turkey to help stem a record influx of migrants into the bloc , even as tensions are rising between both sides over human rights and other issues . The resolution , put forward by the ruling left - right coalition and the opposition Greens , was entitled “ Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916 . ”
I am telling again : first , you have to give an account of the Holocaust . How you decimated , killed over 100 thousand Namibians in Namibia , you should give an account of that , ” he said , as cited by The Daily Sabah . Erdogan added that Germany is the “ last country ” to make judgements on genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents, given its “ history of massacres . ” The German Empire carried out racially - motivated mass killings of tens of thousands of Namibians during colonial wars waged on the territory of modern - day Namibia from 1904 to 1907 . According to various estimates , between 24,000 and 100,000 ethnic Herero and 10,000 Nama tribal people died as a result of starvation , abuse , and diseases during the course of the warfare and in concentration camps .
Armenia says up to 1.5 million people were killed . Turkey says the number of deaths was much smaller Most non - Turkish scholars of the events regard them as genocidelife.die.na- as do more than 20 states including France , Germany and Russia , and some international bodies such as the European Parliament Turkey rejects the term " genocide " , maintaining that many of the dead were killed in clashes during World War One , and that many ethnic Turks also suffered in the conflict Find out more about what happened
Kerry tells us that Isis is “ genocidal by self - proclamation , by ideology and by actions … ” as if the destruction of the Armenian people in 1915 was not – and is perfectly happy to label the dark forces of the ‘ Islamic Caliphate ’ as genocidal themselves – which they clearly are . But it raises another frightful question . Since we know that Isis sells Syrian and Iraqi oil to the Turks – Russian bomber pilots have seen miles of Isis oil convoys running to the horizon towards Turkey – and since Turkish journalists have been imprisoned for reporting on secret Turkish arms transfers to Islamists in Syria – the Americans are , in effect , blaming Isis for the genocidelife.die.naof a hundred thousand or more human beings while being too frightened to label the Armenian massacres of a million and a half souls as genocide lest it offend Isis ’ sinister chums in Turkey . It ’s not difficult to accuse the bad guys of genocide – Colin Powell had no problem over Darfur in 2004 – but should n’t we stand up to the real bullies who prevent us honouring the memory of those million and a half Christians who were treated just as Isis treats the Yazidis and Christians and Shia today : the Turkish government and the Turkish army and the Turkish institutes of state ? And all this at a time when an increasing number of brave Turks are themselves acknowledging the Turkish genocide of 1915 ?
Turkey says the number of deaths was much smaller Most non - Turkish scholars of the events regard them as genocide - as do more than 20 states including France , Germany and Russia , and some international bodies such as the European Parliament Turkey rejects the term " genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents" , maintaining that many of the dead were killed in clashes during World War One , and that many ethnic Turks also suffered in the conflict Find out more about what happened Armenian tragedy still raw in Turkey
— Media Lens ( @medialens ) April 29 , 2016 The pro - Iraq war clique have attempted to use political correctness to their advantage . As part of what Media Lens calls ‘ demonising dissent ’ - the fourth component of a ’ Propaganda Blitz’,principled opponents of western foreign policy are smeared as ‘ sexist ’ ‘ misogynist ‘ , ‘ racist ’ ‘ conspiracy theorists ’ ‘ genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsdeniers ’ and even ‘ dictator apologists ’ -in the hope that no one will draw attention to the ‘ morally virtuous ’ attacker ’s support for wars which have led to over 1 m people losing their lives . Identity politics has played into the war lobby ’s hands . The neocons and Blairites are able to pose as ‘ progressives ’ who care deeply about the rights of women and gay people- while all the time pushing for wars which will kill women and gay people in great numbers .
Wolfowitz : It would be a huge mistake to abandon democracy promotion . Peaceful political change has been enormously successful in the past years in Eastern European countries as well as in countries like South Korea , South Africa , Chile and Indonesia . However , if possible , the use of force is something to avoid except in cases where genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsis threatened , like Bosnia or Libya or with regimes that threaten our security , like the Taliban and Saddam Hussein . After a regime is removed , however , it is dangerous to leave a security vacuum . This is where we failed in Libya and in Iraq .
According to German media , it was retweeted by many Turkish nationalists , some of whom made death threats . And a group of Turkish lawyers has reportedly filed a complaint accusing the MPs of " insulting Turkishness and the Turkish state " . Earlier this month , Turkey recalled its ambassador from Berlin in fury after the German parliament voted overwhelmingly for the Armenian " genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents" resolution . The leader of Germany 's Green Party , Cem Ozdemir - who initiated the debate on the Armenian massacres in the Bundestag - told a newspaper he had been sent emails saying things like : " We will find you anywhere . " He said well - informed friends in Turkey had told him to take the threats seriously .
A memorial to the Armenian genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsin Yerevan , Armenia . Photo : DPA Turkey on Monday strongly warned the German parliament against adopting a resolution recognising the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide , saying it could have repercussions for bilateral ties .
Turkey and Armenia have long been at loggerheads over the World War I - era massacre . Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart and have sought to win international recognition of the massacres as genocide . " It 's about rendering historical justice , it 's an obligation of the entire international community towards the memory of the victims of the genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents, " Armenian foreign ministry spokesman , Tigran Balayan , told AFP . He added that recognition is " important for the prevention of genocides in future " . Modern Turkey , the successor state to the Ottomans , rejects the claim , arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops .
Several thousand people gathered in Moscow carrying Armenian and Russian flags to mark the somber anniversary . “ The memory of the victims of the genocide will live on forever , ” read a huge black banner displayed in Russia ’s capital . A group of teens participating in a flash mob removed red bands from their mouths as an Armenian girl passed by in a symbolic gesture meaning that it is impossible to hush up the genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsany longer . READ MORE : Did Wall Street Journal ad denying Armenian Genocide cross the line ? In Greece , hundreds of ethnic Armenians and sympathizers marched through Athens to denounce Turkey and slam Azerbaijan for allegedly escalating the conflict over the disputed Nagorno - Karabakh region .
Holy sites desecrated . Christians driven from their homes and hunted for extermination . ISIS rounding - up what it calls the “ nation of the cross ” in a campaign of genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents. We can not let this evil continue . Nor can we let the hateful ideology of Radical Islam – its oppression of women , gays , children , and nonbelievers – be allowed to reside or spread within our own countries .
Germany 's foreign ministry has warned MPs of Turkish origin against travelling to Turkey , saying their security there could not be guaranteed . The German parliament 's move outraged the Turkish government , which does not recognise the killings as genocide . Germany 's genocidelife.die.navote inflames tensions with Turkey The 11 MPs of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution have faced a backlash of negative opinion from the Turkish government and from within Germany 's sizable Turkish community . Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan castigated them , saying : " What sort of Turks are they ? "
Turkey reacted with fury on Thursday ( 2 June ) after the Bundestag labelled the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents, threatening further measures . Berlin ’s lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved a non - binding resolution on the 1915 - 16 killings – one MP voted against and another abstained – in a move touching a raw nerve in Turkish - European relations . Germany angers Turkey with Armenian genocide resolution German lawmakers declared the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a “ genocide ” in a symbolic resolution on Thursday which risks hurting relations with Ankara just as Berlin and European partners need its help in tackling the refugee crisis .
That bloody insurrection began amid claims that Yanukovych was a corrupt Kremlin stooge . In interviews with the Ukrainian media , Groysman spoke of his grandfather Isaac ’s survival during the Holocaust , when he pretended to be dead after being dropped by Nazis into a mass grave . On January 27 , International Holocaust Memorial Day , when Groysman was the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada , the parliament , he asked other lawmakers to stand for a minute ’s silence in honor of the victims of the Jewish genocidelife.die.na. It was the first time such a gesture took place in parliament . “ Unlike many who either try to hide their Judaism or just not talk about it , Groysman is a warm and open Jew because he ’s part of a new generation in a new country , ” Horowitz said .
Kerry tells us that Isis is “ genocidal by self - proclamation , by ideology and by actions … ” as if the destruction of the Armenian people in 1915 was not – and is perfectly happy to label the dark forces of the ‘ Islamic Caliphate’ as genocidal themselves – which they clearly are . But it raises another frightful question . Since we know that Isis sells Syrian and Iraqi oil to the Turks – Russian bomber pilots have seen miles of Isis oil convoys running to the horizon towards Turkey – and since Turkish journalists have been imprisoned for reporting on secret Turkish arms transfers to Islamists in Syria – the Americans are , in effect , blaming Isis for the genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsof a hundred thousand or more human beings while being too frightened to label the Armenian massacres of a million and a half souls as genocide lest it offend Isis’ sinister chums in Turkey . It ’s not difficult to accuse the bad guys of genocide – Colin Powell had no problem over Darfur in 2004 – but should n’t we stand up to the real bullies who prevent us honouring the memory of those million and a half Christians who were treated just as Isis treats the Yazidis and Christians and Shia today : the Turkish government and the Turkish army and the Turkish institutes of state ? And all this at a time when an increasing number of brave Turks are themselves acknowledging the Turkish genocide of 1915 ?
Iran is the subject of the agreement , ” adding , “ I will confront them across the board . ” She said , “ I will not hesitate to take military action if Iran attempts to obtain a nuclear weapon . ” During the 2008 presidential campaign , Clinton promised to “ totally obliterate ” Iran if it attacked Israel . Clinton was , in effect , pledging to commit genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsagainst the Iranian people . In an August 2014 Atlantic interview with Jeffrey Goldberg , Clinton maintained , “ There is no such thing as a right to enrich . ” Apparently , she has not read the Nuclear Non - Proliferation Treaty ( NPT ) , which gives countries like Iran the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes . Article IV of the treaty says , “ Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research , production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty . ”
The interwar fascist movements ( think Hitler and Mussolini ) led to dictatorships that murdered millions of people . Historical analogies , always dangerous , wither and collapse in the face of such enormity . And the thing about a word like fascism — not unlike genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsor rape or cancer — is that , once it is spoken , it can not be allowed to proceed . Fascism is n’t just a word : it ’s an alarm , a blaring klaxon that can not be ignored . Historian Robert Paxton , an expert on fascism , recently told Slate , “ I ’m very , very reluctant to use the word fascism loosely , because it ’s almost the most powerful epithet you can use .
ADVERTISEMENT The statement came on the final Armenian Remembrance Day of Obama 's presidency . Obama ’s refusal to call the mass killings a genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsis a gesture to Turkey , a NATO ally of the U.S. and an important member of the president ’s coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ( ISIS ) . But it also breaks a 2008 campaign promise , when he said the “ the Armenian genocide is not an allegation … but rather a widely documented fact . ” Obama noted the debate over the use of the term genocide and urged the Turks to make a full accounting of the mass killings .
Support for the ICC among Africa ’s leaders has declined since the indictment of top politicians , including sitting heads of state in Kenya and Sudan . Some have labeled the ICC an instrument of neocolonialism , noting that countries that did not ratify the Rome Statute are among those exerting the greatest pressure on African leaders to submit to the court . South Africa expressed its displeasure last year when it was accused of ignoring its treaty obligations because it allowed Sudan ’s President Omar Bashir — accused of genocidelife.die.naand other crimes in his country ’s Darfur region — to attend an African Union summit without arresting him . South African officials contend that the Rome Statute is at odds with their efforts to promote a peaceful resolution of conflicts on the continent , which can include hosting adversaries . The decision to leave will be put to a vote in the country ’s parliament , but is expected to win approval .
Full - page ad in today 's @WSJ denying the Armenian genocide pic.twitter.com/LjBGjCo80l — Gary Bass ( @Gary__Bass ) April 20 , 2016 It also contains a link to the genocide - denial group FactCheckArmenia.com , which propagates claims that Armenians were killed during the First World War because they were “ collectively guilty ” of treason against the Ottoman Empire . READ MORE : Armenian genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents: 130 K march in LA to mark 100th anniversary ( PHOTO , VIDEO ) Moreover , it attempts to argue that fewer people were killed than is claimed , and that the Armenians started the conflict . The WSJ ad caused outrage on Twitter and other social media platforms .
Support for the ICC among Africa ’s leaders has declined since the indictment of top politicians , including sitting heads of state in Kenya and Sudan . Some have labeled the ICC an instrument of neocolonialism , noting that countries that did not ratify the Rome Statute are among those exerting the greatest pressure on African leaders to submit to the court . South Africa expressed its displeasure last year when it was accused of ignoring its treaty obligations because it allowed Sudan ’s President Omar Bashir — accused of genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolenteventsand other crimes in his country ’s Darfur region — to attend an African Union summit without arresting him . South African officials contend that the Rome Statute is at odds with their efforts to promote a peaceful resolution of conflicts on the continent , which can include hosting adversaries . The decision to leave will be put to a vote in the country ’s parliament , but is expected to win approval .
In the latest response : Turkey 's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed a " racist Armenian lobby " for the resolution Armenia 's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said it was a " valuable contribution " to the " international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocidelife.die.na" German Chancellor Angela Merkel said : " There is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey and even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter , the breadth of our links , our friendship , our strategic ties , is great " Armenian ' genocide ' vote ignites press
Some 1.1 million refugees settled in Germany last year . In return , Ankara will receive billions of euros from the EU , while its citizens would also be given visa free travel to the Schengen zone , which encompasses most of Europe . The parliamentary vote was originally scheduled to take place a year ago to mark the centenary of the genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents, but due to concerns over the fallout with Turkey , Merkel ’s allies postponed the move . The mass killings began on April 24 , 1915 , when 250 Armenian intellectuals were detained by Ottoman authorities and later executed in their capital , Constantinople , present - day Istanbul . Most of the Ottoman Empire ’s Armenians were subsequently displaced , deported or placed in concentration camps , ostensibly for rebelling against the Ottomans and siding with Russia during the First World War .
In an angry and protracted meeting , they grappled one - on - one , with only Kissinger and Haksar attending their chiefs . It was explosive . He thought she was a warmonger ; she thought he was helping along a genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents. Summits are often pretty placid affairs , but this was a cathartic brawl , propelled not just by totally opposite views of a brewing war , but by the hearty personal contempt that the president and prime minister had for each other . Nixon first emphasised US aid to the refugees , but then sharply warned that launching a war was unacceptable .
Image copyright AFP Image caption Persecuted Armenian intellectuals were remembered at a ceremony in Istanbul in April The German parliament has approved a resolution declaring that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was a " genocidelife.die.deathcausedbyviolentevents" . Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people died in the atrocities of 1915 . Turkey says the toll was much lower and rejects the term " genocide " .