Hello everybody, I have accually just resigned here to give an honest Turkish opinion on so called Armenian genocide. I suggest you to listen both sides about the events that occurred before you draw a conclusion.
In early 1900's Ottoman Empire was suffering from the I. World War, they were fighting against Russian Empire(pre-Soviet), Great Britain(and it's colonies) and Arabians. They were obviously struggling. Ottoman Empire was, as the Europeans at the time refered it, a sick man. Around 1913 Russian Czar(emperor) II. Nicholas promesed a independent country to Armenians, which were living inside Ottoman Empire for almost 500 years, if they helped them to defeat Ottoman Empire. So the Armenian rebellion began. Russia gadred an army just from Armenian volunteers. Also some Armenians gadred gangs which were fighting from the inside.
Armenian Revolution Union (written in Armenian: Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցություն
Armenakan Party (written in Armenian: Արմենական կուսակցություն
Hınchak Commission (written in Armenian: Սոցիալ դեմոկրատ Հնչակյան կուսակցություն
These are some of the gangs that are gadred in early 1900's against Ottoman Empire and some of the events are:
March 15, 1915; Mahmudiye Governor reported that Armenians were killing Muslims and using mosques as barns.
March 25, 1915; Van Governor Cevdet reported that Armenians were sobataging the army corps by making a sneak attack on army commander as the Russians prepare for a major attack.
February, 1918; In Tepeköy, Erzurum Armenians set on fire all Turkish villagers, some of them were alive. Because all the healty men were in the army most of the victims were women or children.
Sabatages, rapes, executions list goes on and on and on...
The Ottomans had very little strength left so they made an immediate exile for all Armenians. There wasn't any food, water, medicine for the exiled Armenians so many of them just died on the roads. But you have to understand that Ottomans were already fighting with 3 other nations and supplies weren't too bright for the Turkish people either.
But the big question is did the Turks also killed innocent Armenian women and children. Answer is probably yes. There were some extremists in Ottoman Empire.
But the most honest answer (for me anyway) came from my grandfather. I'm from Elazığ. Elazığ is very close to the hot zone where most of the events accrued. Also my grandgrandfather was a gang leader which fought against Armenian gangs. When i asked him if the genocide was real or not he answered 'Armenian gangs had been setting our villiages on fire one by one. So we gadred all the Armenian gang members and people we thought helped those gang members and just fusilladed them. It was a blood bath. But we also had many Armenian friends and one of them left us his two children when he exiled because he knew that children wouldn't have survived the exile. We hid them and raise them. They still don't know that they are Armenian.'
Was the exile dirty, ruthless,brutal ? For sure... Was it a genocide ? I will say, no. It was a precaution taken under heavy circumstances.
But the comment is yours
Sorry for the nasty English. If you have any other questions about Turks or Türkiye, i would be happy to answer it.
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