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1
Student Name
Professor Name
Course
Date
Genocide Denied
I. Introduction
The principal purpose of the current thesis lies in the comparative analysis of three
major approaches to the issue of Armenian genocide. The researched worldviews include: the
Armenian
,
Turkish
, and
American
visions of the Armenian genocide. Also, a mental note
should be made that the investigated worldviews are discrepant and contradictory, making the
ongoing study more valuable. In other words, the relevance of the present thesis lies in the
necessity to ascertain which worldview with regard to the Armenian genocide is the most
viable and incontrovertible. Additionally, the current study is likely to explore the correlation
between the analyzed approaches to the matter of the Armenian genocide and the world
vision of the aforesaid genocide in general.
In view of the above, the thesis statement should be formulated as follows:
The historical facts and documentary evidence proves the existence of the Armenian
genocide of 1915-1923, whereas the general political worldview, sustained by Turkey and the
United States, is based on the Armenian genocide denial.
In order to guarantee the coherence and logical consistency of the thesis, a set of
research questions needs to be answered. Therefore, the research questions must be
enumerated as follows:
1.
What is the Armenian vision of the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923?
2.
What is the Turkish position concerning the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923?
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3.
What is the American position with regard to the Armenian genocide of 1915-
1923?
4.
Which of the worldviews regarding the Armenian genocide is the most
substantiated?
5.
What is the role of religion in the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923?
6.
What is the impact of the aforesaid study on the personal worldview?
II. The Armenian point of view concerning the matter of the Armenian genocide
To start with, it should be clarified that the issue of Armenian genocide is tightly
connected with the past status of Armenia in the Ottoman Empire. Analysis of the
complexities in the relationships between the Armenians and the Turkish will help to grasp
the impetus to the genocide. According to Suny (2009), Armenians passionately defend their
position that “massive deportations and massacres of a peaceful, unthreatening people were
ordered and carried out by the Young Turk authorities and that these events constitute a
genocide” (932). Also, the Armenian researchers emphasize that almost all prominent
scholars accept the position that the intensification of the massacres of the 1890s resulted in
the genocide of 1915. However, there are still disparities in various approaches to the nature
of the aforesaid massacres.
In this light, Richard G. Hovannisian starts his contemplations on the issue of the
Armenian genocide by asking the question, whether the results of total war in the Armenian
plateau are incremental cleansing or premeditated genocide (5). According to the author, the
strictly Armenian answer to the aforementioned question lies in the fact that the genocide is
the premeditated death warrant for the Armenian people. Moreover, the Armenian scholars
and their Western colleagues express confidence that the death warrant in a form of the
genocide had been issued in covert meetings of the Young Turk dictators before the Ottoman
Empire entered the Second World War as an ally of Germany (Hovannisian 5).
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In contrast to the purely Armenian approach, certain Western thinkers, such as Jay
Winter, Norman Naimark, Ronald Suny, and Donald Bloxham are prone to believe that the
“total war” policies became worse after Turkey’s entering the First World War leading the
country to the deterioration and radicalization of different repressive measures “into the most
extreme form of persecution” – genocide (Hovannisian 5).
Nevertheless, the Armenian researchers accentuate the deliberate character of the
Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians substantiate their vision of
genocide with the historical evidence. Thus, various plans to deal with the Armenians, the
