Displacement of Armenians in 1915 was implementation of a decision that was given under the pressure of German Presidency of General Stuff against Armenian population in Southern provinces without separating the family members from each other.
Armenians were committing massacres against the Kurdish people of that geography where most of men in the villages had left for serving in the army. Dashnaks and Hyunchaks, which were armed by Russians, had initiated rebellions. During the forced immigration of Armenians, some members of Hamidiye troops assaulted Armenian convoys. Other than that, climate conditions, famine and epidemic diseases caused huge number of losses among Armenians.
The incident has nothing to do with the concept of "genocide." Here is how the allegation of genocide appeared; In the middle of the war, in 1916, English parliament ordered Wellington House (Department for war propaganda) to publish Blue Book. The author and editors of the book are diplomat James Bryca and famous Byzantinist Historian Prof. Arnold Toynbee, who was working for English intelligence.
Blue book aimed to provocate United States to fight against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empires by taking the side of England, France and Russia. The first volume of the Blue Book tells how German troops killed the people in Belgium and Northern France to produce soap and how they raped all the women. Adressing to British House of Lords, Foreign Minister Austin Chamberlain, said in December 3, 1925 that allegations about German activities in the first volume of Blue Book were nothing more than war propaganda.
And about Armenian genocide allegations in the Blue Book; Englishes established courts in Malta to judge nationalist Turkish officials regarding to displacement of Armenians. The court did not find Turkish officials guilty about Armenian losses. Toynbee afterwards wrote that the allegations in Blue Book were established upon the statements of 150 false witnesses who were members of Dashnak Party. Stressing that Blue Book should therefore be counted as war propaganda, Toynbee wrote in his other books that administration of Ottoman Empire was far more better than the imperialist administrations of England, France and Italy.
Yilmaz Oztuna/Turkiye
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