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group from their territory. What happened actually was that the Armenian people in Eastern Anatolia sawwhat they viewed as an opportunity to gain their freedom from the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, and they rebelled against the Ottomans and joined sides with Russia in the fight. Even by modern terms that would be considered insurrection, and that is universally dealt with harshly. If all the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire had resided in East Anatolia, then the case for the use of the word would still be erroneous, but for those pre-disposed to that conclusion and less dedicated to linguistic accuracy, that might at least offer some justification. The fact is however, that there was a large and prosperous community of Armenians residing in Istanbul, and they were never punished or harassed during this period. To a fair minded person, that would serve to illustrate that what occurred was not genocide but the quelling of an insurrection of disloyal Ottoman citizens, fighting essentially as agents of Russia against their own Empire. Empires throughout history have not been kind to such things. We live in a time when people faint when they see
Kim Iskyan Response: Gary, I’m guessing that you (like I am about mine) are pretty glad that your grandparents got out while the going was good (otherwise, mostly likely neither of us would be around...). From where we are today, it’s harrowing to read about what happened – I can only imagine that your grandparents didn’t want to talk about it. I’ve made a point to not discuss my heritage with people from Turkey (or Azerbaijan). There is a strong intellectual undercurrent in Turkey that supports Turkish recognition of the genocide... but until then, I’d just as soon not risk that I happen to meet someone who doesn’t feel that way. You are quite mistaken on the issue of Armenian Genocide. No one denies that perhaps a million Armenians died in the 1915-16 time frame in Eastern Anatolia. The disagreement is that words have meanings, and this does not fit. Genocide means the systematic effort by a government to eliminate a particular ethnic or religious Inbox continued from page 13.
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May 2021
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