Mick Hartley

Uzay Bulut identifies the four main narratives used by Turkey to deny the Armenian Genocide:

Narrative One: We Did Not Slaughter Armenians; Armenians Slaughtered Us

Accusing Armenians of being mass murderers and the actual perpetrators of genocide is a popular myth in Turkey.

Last year, a public stage play that depicted “the liberation of Aşkale [in Erzurum] from invasion” not only turned the historical facts regarding the genocide upside down but also converted them into hate-filled propaganda against the Armenians.

The play opened with the “immigration of Turks fleeing from Armenians.” In it, the Armenians begin drinking wine and eating chicken at a table set in the middle of a ceremony area. Upon the call of their commander, they start slaughtering Turks. They then burn down a mosque (a model made of cardboard), catch the imam as he is reciting the Azan (the Islamic call to prayer), and attack him in the city center. They force him to enter the mosque and then burn him alive. Afterward, they attack a Turkish family, murdering the housewife and her father-in-law in cold blood.

The play ended with Turkish high school students, playing the role of the Turkish militia, entering the town and killing the Armenian “gangs.”

Many state and government authorities, including the mayor, district governor, chief prosecutor, and garrison commander of the town, as well as many students and local people, attended the play.

An actor said that he has been playing the role of Ohannes, the Armenian battalion commander in the play, for about 30 years. So, such plays and speeches about the genocide have become “traditional performances” in Turkey.

Moreover, this narrative is what is now taught to Turkish schoolchildren in middle and high schools.

Professor Taner Akçam wrote a comprehensive article for the Armenian Weekly about how the 1915 genocide is depicted in Turkish history textbooks used during the 2014 and 2015 school years. Those books are either prepared by the Ministry of National Education or approved by the Ministry’s Instruction and Education Board.

“The textbooks characterize Armenians as people who are incited by foreigners, who aim to break apart the state and the country and who murdered Turks and Muslims,” Akçam wrote. “The Armenian Genocide, referred to as the ‘Armenian matter’ in textbooks, is described as a lie perpetrated in order to meet these goals and is defined as the biggest threat to Turkish national security. Another threat to national security is missionaries and their activities.”…

Narrative Two: Yes, We Did Slaughter Armenians. If They Do Not Behave, We Will Slaughter Them Again

This narrative is similar to the first one but takes it to a new and even more shameless level: to something to be proud of, and additional threats against the Armenian victims and other minorities. This sentiment is also openly and frequently expressed across Turkey.

For example, during the performance in Aşkale last year, Enver Başaran, the then mayor of the town, said, in part:

“The Armenians, who had been our ancestors’ neighbors for many years, formed gangs and carried out massacres in our lands with the encouragement and armed support of the Soviet Union following the Russian invasion.

“In your presence, I remember once again with mercy and gratitude our glorious ancestors who extirpated the Armenians, whose history is filled with blood and treason, from these lands.

“The hostility and hatred of those Armenian gangs that are a network of treason has never ended for these lands and for the noble Turkish nation. Those Armenian gangs that do not know any history, rules, or the law now carry out separatist activities in our lands through the terrorist organization PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party].

So this narrative proudly accepts that Turks slaughtered Armenians, but they have an excuse: “Yes, we did exterminate Armenians. But ask us why. Because they misbehaved and became traitors. And, if required, we will do it all over again. One cannot get even an inch of territory from Turkey.”

“We will do it all over again,” in fact, seems to indirectly target Kurds, declaring to Kurds that if they don’t behave well and accept Turkish superiority, Turks will exterminate them, too.

It is actually a common belief in Turkey that PKK members are not Kurdish but are, rather, Armenian. Turkish media often refers to the PKK and the pro-Kurdish HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) members as “Armenians” or “Christians.” Last year, for example, Turkish newspapers claimed that a PKK member killed in the city of Van was found to be wearing a cross necklace—something totally unacceptable according to Turkish-Islamic standards.

Accusing PKK members of being Christian or “uncircumcised” is widespread in the military and among government authorities, as well….

The last two narratives: 

Narrative Three: A Tragedy Happened During World War I. Armenians Slaughtered Us, and We Slaughtered Them. It Was Civil War. Let’s Forget About It…..used for international observers.

Narrative 4: Yes, Turkey Committed Genocide…never directly stated by the Turkish government, but, at times, tolerated when presented by some intellectuals. Again for the benefit of internatinal observers.

From the overview:

Some 102 years have passed, but the denial of or even pride in the genocide is still the dominant ideology in Turkey, and it has largely escaped public scrutiny or critique. Why?

The government’s brainwashing of the people has created generations that blindly deny the Armenian Genocide. Turks, through various means, such as the educational system and the media, have been indoctrinated with the lie that there is no genocide or shame or guilt in their history.

But in an age of technology, where there is limitless access to all kinds of sources on the Internet, why is denial of genocide still so popular in Turkey?

This is largely due to the Islamic indoctrination of the Turkish masses. Sadly, traditional Islamic doctrine does not value non-Muslim lives as much as Muslime lives. Fourteen centuries of Islamic history demonstrate that there has never been legal or social equality of Muslims and non-Muslims in majority-Muslim societies. When religious or national dehumanization of non-Muslims, which, in Turkey’s case, includes Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Jews, Yazidis, and others, is reinforced by the government, the denial of genocide or massacres against them turns into a social pathology that is very difficult, if not impossible, to overcome….

So, what is to be done? Scholar Andrew G. Bostom, who has written extensively about the Armenian Genocide and history of jihad, wrote in 2015: “The historical record of the jihad genocide of the Armenians a century ago, through the present day jihadist atrocities against Christian communities in the Middle East, and beyond, demonstrates that ancient Islamic jihad war theory continues to be acted upon by Muslims, regularly, across the globe, till now. What remains is for the Muslim intelligentsia to acknowledge, and then eliminate this practice.”