Path Towards Handling the Atrocities of Armenian Genocide Research Paper

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Armenian Genocide is considered, often, as being the earliest major genocide that occurred in the last (20th) century. This incident also serves as an example of the cost of agreeing to impunity for these cruelties. The genocide in Armenia was symbolic in the longstanding history of worldwide criminal legal-structure development, particularly with regards to elaborating the genocide law. As discussed by Bloxham1, the Armenian genocide was on the mind of Lemkin, when he formulated his theory on genocide. This example is often mentioned as the kind of incident that participants in international justice guarantee will not occur again.

Historical Overview of Armenian Genocide

In the months between autumn 1914 and summer 1915, a succession of decisions were made by the Ottoman regime that resulted in slaughtering of Armenian Christians. The Armenian community, before war, was scattered all over the Ottoman Empire. While the majority of these individuals were members of the Armenian Apostolic church, Protestant and Catholic minorities were also present. There were distinct areas of Armenian population concentrations, although demographic majorities did not exist except at a local level, in historic Armenian areas. These included: Cilicia, on the Gulf of Alexandretta's north and north-west, on the coast of the Mediterranean, where Armenians made their homes from the early days of the Middle Ages; and Anatolia's eastern provinces, the wider territory surrounded by Cilicia, the Mediterranean, Persia, Syria, Mesopotamia, the Black Sea and the Caucasus, where Armenian communities go back over three millenniums. Together, Cicilia and Anatolia make up most of present-day Turkish territory[footnoteRef:2]. [2:

(Bloxham, 2005)]

Armenian Genocide in Relation to WW1

At the time of World War I, eastern Anatolia's Armenians were either slain in situ - this fate was met by many male youths and men - or deported to the south, to the present-day Syrian and Iraqi deserts. They suffered repeated, massive depredations along the way- kidnap, rape, mutilation, thirst, starvation, death from exposure, and outright killing- inflicted by Ottoman Gendarmes, local tribesmen, and Kurdish and Turkish irregulars. As well, a part of these massacres were participated in by the armies of the Ottomans. Surviving and kidnapped women and orphans, had to undergo forced conversion to Islam; this was a means to assimilate into the 'new Turkey'[footnoteRef:3]. [3:

(Bloxham, 2005)]

Deported Armenians belonging to western Anatolia and Cicilia did not experience the same degree of harassment while journeying southwards; they could pass rather unmolested into exile from home or to their fate in the desert. Thus, although differing to some degree based on local conditions, the very same general purpose was served by the above death marches- the obliteration of substantial collective existence of Armenians in Turkey. Many who reached the concentration centers in the deserts were killed in a succession of assaults in 1916. These events collectively make up the Armenian genocide. Roughly 1 million Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire died; two-thirds of individuals deported and half the pre-war populace[footnoteRef:4]. [4:

(Bloxham, 2005)]

The Ottoman government's judiciary addressed the criminality linked with the disastrous incidents and relocation of Ottoman Armenians, which took place in 1915-1916. Individuals or group members who assaulted Armenian convoys, as well as officials who abused their authority or neglected their responsibilities, and exploited the plight of the Armenians, were court-martialled and penalized. Over twenty Muslims were given death-sentences and executed as a result of these crimes in 1915[footnoteRef:5]. The Ottoman administration established three commissions, in the wake of Talat Pasha's report, to look into complaints by Armenians and condemnations of public servants. Thus, in March-April of 1916, 1,673 Muslim citizens were remanded to court martial; these included first and second lieutenants, captains, gendarme squad commanders, mayors and police superintendents. Some 67 of these individuals were given death-sentences; 524 were jailed; and 68 were meted out other punishments, such as exile, forced labor, and imprisonment in forts. The remaining individuals were not sentenced[footnoteRef:6]. The Armenian Revolutionary Foundation took the very same approach in beginning its mission for justice. [5:

(Tacar and Gauin, 2012)] [6:

(Tacar and Gauin, 2012)]

Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million people of Armenia were massacred or executed or perished due to disease, torture, or starvation. The term 'crime against humanity' was initially used to describe this carnage, labeled by many historians and scholars as genocide. During the First World War, the Ottoman monarch's official policy was slaying Armenians, as they believed Armenians to be in support of Imperial Russia, which was among their ancient foes. During the period, western Armenia was ruled by Ottomans, while the small eastern region was ruled by Russia[footnoteRef:7].

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[7:

(Hovsepian, 2015)]

At the time, in the year 1915, there wasn't anything controversial concerning the calamity that ethnic Armenians suffered. The young government of Turkey that led what remained of the Ottoman Empire, ruled by Mehmed Talat Pasha and a couple of others, had joined WW1 in the previous year by siding with Germany, against its long-standing enemy Russia. Christian Armenians, who made up roughly 2 million of the population and resided in current-day eastern Turkey, were accused by the leadership of supporting Russia, and thereby representing a possible fifth column. Almost all of the population was ordered by Talat to be deported to Syria's arid deserts. This process led to the massacre of no less than half the men by raiding Kurdish tribesmen or governmental security forces. Greater numbers of children and women survived, but had to suffer horrifying depredations, rape, and abductions on these long marches[footnoteRef:8]. [8:

(Thomas, 2015)]

Prominent leaders of the age regarded the Armenians' massacre and deportation as WW1's worst atrocity. In 1918, one statesman- former President of the United States (U.S.) Theodore Roosevelt- debated in a letter to the philanthropist Cleveland Dodge, whether the U.S. must declare war on the Ottomans. This debate was because the massacre of Armenians was the biggest war crime, and failing to take action against Turkey meant condoning it[footnoteRef:9]. [9:

(Thomas, 2015)]

Americans comprised some among the best spokespersons on the atrocious events. Because America was neutral in the early years of the war, dozens of American missionaries and diplomatic officials in Ottoman regions had stood ground and witnessed the incidents. The American ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, brought a demarche in May of 1915 from three chief foes of the Ottomans- the UK, France and Russia- denouncing the Armenian deportation. The statement reproached Ottomans for their 'crime against humanity'; this marks the earliest-known official use of the phrase[footnoteRef:10]. [10:

(Thomas, 2015)]

Morgenthau, in July of 1915, reported to Washington that accounts from widely dispersed districts depicted systematic attempts at uprooting peaceful Armenian communities. He claimed that these actions included torture, arbitrary arrests, and extensive Armenian deportations, along with frequent cases of pillage, murder, and rape, turning into genocide[footnoteRef:11]. [11:

(Thomas, 2015)]

By the time WW1 came to an end, as per most approximations of that time, roughly 1 million Armenian citizens had perished. Hardly a tenth of Armenia's original population stayed in their native territory in the Ottoman kingdom. The remaining had scattered, mostly to Armenia, Syria, Lebanon, and France. As years passed, many, in ever-more numbers, migrated to the U.S. Beginning with the 1920s, the incidents of this great catastrophe turned into more of a subject of private sorrow than a public report. Armenians ordinarily focused on creating a new life for themselves. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which briefly ruled over independent Armenia from 1918 to 1920 before becoming a part of the Soviet, was the major political party that was active at the time of the Armenians' diaspora; most of this party's efforts were expended in struggling against the Soviet than against Turkey[footnoteRef:12]. [12:

(Thomas, 2015)]

Legal Dimension of Armenian Genocide

A promising avenue wherein the issue on the Armenian Genocide could be addressed is the International Criminal Court (ICC). Taking into account the Court's jurisdictional limits, it is debated that it is unlikely that the Court will ever serve as a fitting forum for this cause. Certainly, not only have all alleged perpetrators passed away, but the Court doesn't enjoy retroactive jurisdiction. Furthermore, it might happen that some of the factual parts of the incidents may make the characterization of 'crimes against humanity' more suitable. Unfortunately, challenges exist in accepting the restrictions of law, particularly criminal law, with regards to dealing with past incidents of this magnitude. Not knowing these limitations will make the task of attempting to make the ICC address this topic similar to the unachievable activity of jumping backwards on hurdles[footnoteRef:13]. Efforts for settling the old crimes have been attempted by signing treaties with Turkey. [13:

(Jacobs, 2014)]

The government of Turkey has declared on more than one occasion that it was willing to think through and ultimately accept legal experts' and historians' conclusions, when they meet to investigate the 1915-1916 tragedies; this was, however, refused by Yerevan. Still, since 2004, Ankara has backed the Vienna platform, which issued a large document compilation in 2009; Turkey gave complete access to its records- unlike Jerusalem's Armenian Patriarchate.....

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