Armenian Genocide

I lived for two years in Turkey, and no Turk admitted that the "flushing" of Armenians from the country ever occured.  For the last 30 years all the Turks I know and am in contact with deny the events.  I have also met Armenians in this country who have very different tales to tell.  I used the term "flushing" above because many victims were given the opportunity, or the time, at least, to escape the barbarism.  I taught with a woman whose mother was shipped in a traveling trunk from Izmir (Smyrna) to Alexandria.  An American that I knew in Turkey, now a professor of M.E. studies in the mid-west, affirms that no such thing happened.  He appears in a TV special from the mid-1980's, explaining his belief.  Juxtaposed with him is an extensive interview of an elderly Armenian woman who travels with the makers of the film to the spot where she lived and through the areas that she used to escape.

I recently heard a representative from the Turkish Embassy to the U.S. say that he is more or less of the persuasion that it all happened, but he was speaking personally rather than officially.  He suggested that the only way it is going to be resolved is for the current government to 1) admit that it happened, 2) make an official apology, 3) swear that nothing like that will ever happen again [Kurds?], and 4) get on with life.  He doesn't expect that to happen soon.

I love the Turkish people, and I love the Armenians that I have known.  I wish the resentment could disappear, because they are all good people.  The governments of good people do bad things in the name of the people they represent; unfortunately, this is a fact of history. 

I don't know what really happened at that period of time, just wanna say this that the government and its archives are also cannot be trusted!

These kind of controversial debates are always present when it comes to this kind of matter. I think the Jwish genocide during the word war II is another example. I think that many jews were killed and suffered, but along with lots of other people from different nationalities. And the Jews exagerate it so to make other people feel pity and maybe give them the right to return to Jerusalem and have this never ending war with Palestinians. Forget about the Jews, all I wanna say is that none of the parties are trustworthy, there is always exageration and denial involved; and we haven't witnessed those events ourselves; so, who knows what really happened?

However, it's interesting that the Germany's government still apologizes on the anniversary of the ocassion, and Turkey is still on denial!

Actually Nonconformist, I am taking a netral position here. I am neither an Armenian descendant, nor a Turk. And that makes more neutral than you. That's why I said that most probably neither the government of Turkey is telling the whole truth, nor the Armeniasns.; It has to be something in between. And as I said earlier, where were you at that time? Not born yet? If you follow the politicians you'll find out they are hiding the truth all the time!

Good day to you, 

Thanks uykusuz, your more netral message made me to look for the issue myself, and the following article is the result:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide#Recent_history_.E2.80.94_timeline

You're right, and also you Nonconformist, along with  the Turkish  government that there was not a direct order from the government. But just listen to this story that is about my own country, Iran. As you may probably be aware if you listen to the international news, there is a journalist who was arrested a year or two ago and sentenced to 10 years, I think. About 2 months ago, he went on a hunger strike to show his complaint about the faults in the judicial system. His condition got worse and worse, till the prison authorities were forced to take him to the hospital. After spending a few more days there, his condition continued going down, and at the same time, the doctors were told by the system to operate him on his knees, since they were in a really bad condition. The interesting point was that the doctors had responded that he wouldn't survive any kind of anaesthetic and they didn't go for the surgery despite the insistance they received! Anyway, if it had happened and he had died during the surgery, was his blood on the hands of the government, since they had not issued any order to kill him?

I think it was the same story back then again. There is certainly some exageration about the number of the people who actually didn't survive the relocation process, but as the Turkish government accepts, many were killed during the events.

And as Nonconformist had mentioned earlier, the Armanian government didn't open their archived to be investigated by Turkish and Armenian historians, it's a pity, but look at this quote from the above article:

Apparently, maybe it wasn't a genocide, but the result of that migration order was devastating and took a large toll. I think that we will know the truth when we die. And either it has happened or not, there is no reason for any hostality, revenge, ... We are not in a position to judge others, God will punish whoever was responsible for any of Turks and Armanians killings.