The U.S. Congress and some parliaments of the countries around the world politically recognize the events of 1915 as a genocide. Are there any legal ramifications because of these recognition resolutions?
No, such resolutions have no legal significance. They are political statements, and in some sense, it’s a confession by the U.S. congress, by the parliaments of other countries and Armenians that they have no legal case to make.
The genocide convention, which entered into force in 1951; seventy four years ago, the article 9 stipulates that any dispute arising under the convention as to whether there was a genocide or not shall be taken to the International Court Of Justice in the Hague (Netherlands).
There have been seventy four years of opportunity for Armenia to take their allegations to the International Court of Justice for an adjudication by an organization that is not politicized, they don’t get political donations or things like that.
Seventy four years of silence on the Armenian side because they don’t have a legal case. They have resorted to political donations and political power to get political statements. There is no doubt that including U.S. presidents, politicians and parliaments have not really undertaken any serious investigation on this matter.
1. What the genocide convention means?
2. What are the elements of genocide?
3. What transpired in 1915?
4. Have they ever read the European court of human rights decision in the “Perincek case” in 2015, stating “there has never been an adjudication of an Armenian genocide”, and further stating that “historical events like these in 1915 do not lend themselves to affirmative conclusions, one way or the other”?
It would have been far more sensible for the politicians to have urged Armenia “Use your right under article 9, the International Court of Justice has been waiting for 74 years!”
They could even state that they would try to submit what is called a friend of the court brief (Amicus curiae) if they think that there was a genocide. But we know politicians are motivated with political motives. They are not motivated to find out historical facts and this is unfortunately a continuing politicization of the issue that will drive this matter further and further away from a resolution.
Everyone should ask Armenia:
– “Why aren’t you bringing it to the International court of justice? Seventy eight years is a long enough time for you to make your case”
– “Why are you keeping your archives closed? If you have a case, you assume that your archives would be evidence you would want to submit, but you’re keeping them closed. Open them and prove your case.”
Did you know that Ottoman Armenians actively fought alongside Russian forces against their own state before and after April 24 1915?
Yes, Ottoman Armenians actively fought alongside not only Russian forces but also French and British forces against their own state Ottoman Empire during WWI. This is called ‘treason’. Many Armenians, who were under the command of the Ottoman Army, actively stole arms from the Ottoman command, and switched sides. Dashnaktsutyun (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) openly collaborated with Russia, hoping to secede for an independent Armenian state. These groups engaged in terrorist acts of terrorism against Ottoman civilians, along with acts of sabotage, armed revolts, and attacks on Ottoman supply lines and settlements, murdered more than 10000 civilians in less than 10 days which led the Ottoman government to view them as a serious threat to their national security. This active collaboration with the enemy during wartime was a major factor in the Ottoman decision to conditionally and temporarily relocate and resettle the regional Armenian population away from the hot war conflict zones.
What happened on April 24, 1915?
After receiving the shocking news from Van province of massive Armenian terror attacks and massacre of thousands of civilians within just 9 days in 5 cities, Ottoman government ordered the arrest of 235 Armenian terrorist organizations’ command chains and members in Istanbul.
Simultaneously on the same day of the Armenian terrorist attacks started (April 15, 1915), the British invasion army landed on Dardanelles and initiated its attack to capture the Ottoman capital, Istanbul. Ottoman land was under attack from both West and East.
Since many Armenian Committee Centers supplied funding and material to active terrorism, the Ottoman State decided to close the committee centers, seize their documents and arrest the committee leaders on April 24, 1915.
Within this scope, 226 of the 235 committee members were arrested in Istanbul. Along with those arrested, weapons and ammunition also seized. 736 rifles, 3,591 pistols and 45,221 rounds of ammunition were seized. Their purpose was very clear. To support the invaders and kill Ottoman citizens.
155 of the arrested committee members were sent to Cankiri, and 71 were sent to Ayas. Those sent to Cankiri were not imprisoned but kept under surveillance and they were required to visit the police station only once a day to report that they had not left the city. Later, 35 of those in Cankiri were found not guilty and were allowed to return to Istanbul, 25 Armenian committee members who were found guilty were sent to Ayas, 57 committee members were sent to Zor, 31 of the remaining were pardoned, 3 were released after the Armistice of Mudros, and the rest were released after the British occupied the capital of Ottoman empire Istanbul.
These are the events that took place starting on April 24, 1915, the arrest of the Armenian terrorist and supporters, the day labeled by the Entente Powers, their proxies and their political supporters as the beginning day of the alleged Armenian massacres.
They continuously blamed the Turks ever since, to cover their unthinkable bloodbath crimes in the Eastern Anatolia which were documented by the Russian Caucasian Army, as well as German, British, France, Italian diplomats to the Ottoman Empire.
Were there any international trials to try Armenian allegations like the trials held for the Holocaust, Rwandan Genocide, and Bosnian Genocide?
Unlike Nuremberg, where Nazi leaders were prosecuted with overwhelming evidence, no international court convicted any Ottoman officials of any war crimes related to Armenian genocide allegations.
The British arrested 144 high Ottoman officials and sent them to Malta “to try and sentence the Turks.” An investigation into the alleged mass killing of Armenians continued for two years based on Articles 230 and 231 of the Treaty of Sèvres. In addition to the Ottoman archives, every document deemed to be in the possession of the U.S. Government was examined. Proof of the “Armenian massacre” was sought in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Caucasia. But no evidence was found that a British court would consider sufficient. The British Crown Prosecution Service in a document dated 29 July 1921, thus announced to the British government that, with the “evidence in hand” none of the Turks on Malta could be prosecuted for an alleged Armenian massacre, proving that the genocide or massacre allegations are just politically driven statements and that have nothing to do with reality.
No court of law has ever affirmed an Armenian genocide. No person or nation has ever even been accused of an Armenian genocide in a court of law.
Armenia has refused to take their allegation for adjudication to the International Court of Justice for 78 successive years under Article IX of the Genocide Convention. Other cases alleging genocide have proceeded before the ICJ, or example The Gambia’s pending suit against Myanmar for genocide of the Rohingya. The reason for the prolonged Armenian idleness is self-evident. They fear they will lose.
Their fear is fully justified. The Genocide Convention excludes politically motivated destructions. Armenians themselves shouted from the rooftops at the post-World War I Paris Peace Conference that they died in large numbers fighting for the Triple Entente hoping for an independent Armenian nation.
The Holocaust is the gold standard for proving genocide. Over 10,000 pages of documentary evidence and live testimony subject to cross-examination were submitted to the post- World War II International Military Tribunal sitting a Nuremberg.
Due process was honored. The verdict was rendered by judges, not politicians. The evidence included Mein Kampf, Kristallnacht, the Nuremberg laws stripping Jews of citizenship and the rights to a livelihood, speech, religion, or association, and extermination camps at Chelmo, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
What have Armenians produced? Not a crumb of evidence introduced in a court of law and tested by the fires of cross-examination—the greatest engine ever invented for the discovery of truth.
Conclusion:
The events of 1915 must be understood through historical facts and legal frameworks.
Justice requires evidence, critical thinking, Socratic questioning, cross-examination, and due process, not political campaigns, politicians, or propaganda.
