Terminology of the Armenian genocide

The terminology of the Armenian genocide is different in English, Turkish, and Armenian languages and has led to political controversies around the issue of Armenian genocide denial and Armenian genocide recognition. Although the majority of historians writing in English use the word "genocide", other terms exist.

Armenian

=''Yeghern'' and ''Medz Yeghern''=

Medz Yeghern ({{lang|hy|Մեծ եղեռն}}, Mets yegherrn {{lit|Great Evil Crime}}) is an Armenian term for genocide, especially the Armenian genocide. The term has been the subject of political controversy because it is perceived as more ambiguous than the word genocide.{{Cite news |first=Khatchig |last=Mouradian |url=http://www.armenianclub.com/2006/10/01/explaining-the-unexplainable-terminology-employed-by-armenian-media/ |title=Explaining the Unexplainable: The Terminology Employed by the Armenian Media when Referring to 1915 |work=The Armenian Weekly |date=23 September 2006}}{{cite news |last1=Matiossian |first1=Vartan |title=The 'Exact Translation': How 'Medz Yeghern' Means Genocide |url=https://armenianweekly.com/2013/05/15/the-exact-translation-how-medz-yeghern-means-genocide/ |work=The Armenian Weekly |date=15 May 2013}}{{cite journal |last1=Boghos Zekiyan |first1=Levon |title=Expulsion (tehcir) and genocide (soykırım): from ostensible irreconcilability to complementarity : thoughts on Metz Yeghern, the Great Armenian Catastrophe |date=2014 |url=http://157.138.8.12/jspui/handle/11707/5174 |language=en}} The term Aghet ({{lang|hy|Աղետ}}, {{lit|Catastrophe}}) is also used.{{Cite book |last=Savelsberg |first=Joachim J. |title=Knowing about Genocide: Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles |publisher=University of California Press |year=2021 |isbn=9780520380189 |location=Oakland, California |pages=104 |language=en}} The term Հայոց ցեղասպանություն (Hayots tseghaspanutyun), literally "Armenian genocide", is also used in official contexts, for example, the Հայոց ցեղասպանության թանգարան (Armenian Genocide Museum) in Armenia.

English

File:The Massacre of a Nation (cropped).png condemned "The Massacre of a Nation"]]

Contemporary observers used unambiguous terminology to describe the genocide, including "the murder of a nation", "race extermination" and so forth.{{sfn|Ihrig |2016|pages=9, 55}}{{sfn|Maksudyan|2009|pp=644–645}}

=Crime against humanity=

In their declaration of May 1915, the Entente powers called the ongoing deportation of Armenian people a "crime against humanity". Crimes against humanity later became a category in international law following the Nuremberg trials.{{cite journal |last1=Segesser |first1=Daniel Marc |title=Dissolve or punish? The international debate amongst jurists and publicists on the consequences of the Armenian genocide for the Ottoman Empire, 1915–23 |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |date=2008 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=95–110 |doi=10.1080/14623520701850369|s2cid=72225178 }}{{cite book |last1=Chorbajian |first1=Levon |author-link1=Levon Chorbajian |title=The Armenian Genocide Legacy |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-137-56163-3 |pages=167–182 |language=en |chapter=‘They Brought It on Themselves and It Never Happened’: Denial to 1939}}

=Genocide=

The English word genocide was coined by the Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1943. Lemkin's interest in war crimes stemmed from the 1921 trial of Soghomon Tehlirian for the assassination of Talaat Pasha; he recognized the fate of the Armenians as one of the main cases of genocide in the twentieth century.{{sfn|Ihrig|2016|pp=9, 370–371}}{{sfn|de Waal|2015|pp=132–133}} Although most international law scholars agree that the 1948 Genocide Convention, which established the prohibition of genocide in international criminal law, is not retroactive,{{sfn|de Waal|2015|pp=257–258}}{{sfn|Baker|2015|p=211}} the events of the Armenian genocide otherwise meet the legal definition of genocide.{{sfn|Robertson|2016|p=73|ps=. "Put another way – if these same events occurred today, there can be no doubt that prosecutions before the ICC of Talaat and other CUP officials for genocide, for persecution and for other crimes against humanity would succeed. Turkey would be held responsible for genocide and for persecution by the ICJ and would be required to make reparation."}}{{sfn|Lattanzi|2018|pp=27–28, 96–97|ps=. "Apart from the question of the evocation of a strange standard of evidence—unequivocal! (in any case, it is indeed unequivocal!)—,specific clear decisions were taken by the Turkish rulers to eliminate the Ottoman Armenian community. At any rate, even if documentation on such decisions were not available—what is not the case—, following the criteria set up by international criminal tribunals and ICJ concerning the intent of destroying a substantial part of a community protected by the Genocide Convention, this specific subjective element can be inferred from other elements... All these elements are in fact present in the Metz Yeghern case: the nature of the wrongful acts committed; their massive, systematic and simultaneous occurrence in the concerned territory; the specificity of “deportations”, intentionally aimed to avoiding the return of Armenians in their century-old homeland; the appropriation of the Armenians’ properties and the destruction of Armenian cultural and religious buildings etc., from which it clearly results that a return was excluded."}} David Gutman states that "few if any scholars, however, reject the use of 'genocide{{'"}} for the Armenian case solely because they consider it anachronistic.{{sfn|Gutman|2015|p=169}} However, it is possible to write about the Armenian genocide without downplaying or denying it, using a variety of terms other than genocide.{{sfn|Maksudyan|2009|pp=644–645}}

As well as having a legal meaning, the word genocide also "contains an inherent value judgment, one that privileges the morality of the victims over the perpetrators".{{cite book |last1=Göçek |first1=Fatma Müge |author1-link=Fatma Müge Göçek |title=Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present and Collective Violence Against the Armenians, 1789–2009 |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-933420-9 |language=en|pages=18–19|title-link=Denial of Violence}}

=Ethnic cleansing=

The term ethnic cleansing, which was invented during the 1990s Yugoslav Wars, is often used alongside or instead of genocide in academic works. Some Turkish historians are willing to call the Armenian genocide ethnic cleansing or a crime against humanity but hesitate at genocide.{{cite journal |last1=Suny |first1=Ronald Grigor |title=Truth in Telling: Reconciling Realities in the Genocide of the Ottoman Armenians |journal=The American Historical Review |date=2009 |volume=114 |issue=4 |pages=930–946 |doi=10.1086/ahr.114.4.930|doi-access=free }}

German

{{lang|de|Völkermord}}, the German word for genocide, predates the English word and was used by German contemporaries to describe the genocide.{{sfn|Ihrig |2016|pages=9, 55}}

Turkish

{{see also|Armenian genocide denial|Armenian genocide recognition#Turkey}}

{{lang|tr|Tehcir}}, the Arabic word meaning leaving at dawn, was first recorded in Turkish language as early as 1916 in official correspondence referring to the Armenian deportations, and became widespread in press jargon after the end of World War I in 1918.{{Cite web |last=Nişanyan |first=Sevan |date=22 June 2022 |title=tehcir |url=https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/kelime/tehcir |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240713095639/https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/kelime/tehcir |archive-date=13 July 2024 |website=Nişanyan Sözlük}} The genocide also unofficially referred as to {{lang|tr|Ermeni kıyımı}} or {{lang|tr|Ermeni kırımı}}, both meaning "the Armenian massacre".{{Cite book |last=Belge |first=Murat |title=Edebiyatta Ermeniler |publisher=İletişim Yayınları |year=2013 |isbn=9789750512421 |pages=8 |language=tr}}{{Cite web |last=Belge |first=Murat |date=February 2006 |title=Edebiyatta Ermeni Sorunu |url=https://birikimdergisi.com/dergiler/birikim/1/sayi-202-subat-2006/2386/edebiyatta-ermeni-sorunu/6169 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124633/https://birikimdergisi.com/dergiler/birikim/1/sayi-202-subat-2006/2386/edebiyatta-ermeni-sorunu/6169 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |website=Birikim}}

The Turkish government uses expressions such as "so-called Armenian genocide" ({{langx|tr|sözde Ermeni soykırımı}}), "the Armenian problem" ({{langx|tr|Ermeni sorunu}}), "events of 1915" ({{langx|tr|1915 olayları}}),{{Cite web |last=Holthouse |first=David |date=3 June 2008 |title=State of Denial |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2008/state-denial |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240331104828/https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2008/state-denial |archive-date=31 March 2024 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center}} often characterizing the charge of genocide as "Armenian allegations"{{cite book |last1=Simone |first1=Pierluigi |title=The Armenian Massacres of 1915–1916 a Hundred Years Later: Open Questions and Tentative Answers in International Law |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-319-78169-3 |pages=275–297 [277] |language=en |chapter=Is the Denial of the “Armenian Genocide” an Obstacle to Turkey’s Accession to the EU?|date=30 May 2018 }} or "Armenian lies".{{cite news |title=Prof. Taner Akçam receives 'Heroes of Justice and Truth' award during Armenian Genocide Centennial commemoration |url=https://clarknow.clarku.edu/2015/05/28/prof-taner-akcam-receives-heroes-of-justice-and-truth-award-during-armenian-genocide-centennial-commemoration/ |access-date=20 November 2020 |work=Clark Now |date=28 May 2015 |language=en|quote=The Turkish government persists in its long-standing refusal to call the killings genocide, denying the claims as “Armenian lies.”}} Turkish historian Doğan Gürpınar writes that {{lang|tr|sözde soykırım}} is "the peculiar idiom to reluctantly refer to 1915 but outright reject it", invented in the early 1980s to further Armenian genocide denial.{{sfn|Gürpınar|2016|pp=217–218}} However, in 2006, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered government officials to say "the events of 1915" instead of "so-called Armenian genocide".{{sfn|de Waal|2015|p=181}} Erdoğan, as well as some Turkish intellectuals,{{Who|date=April 2021}} have distinguished between "good" Armenians (those who live in Turkey and Armenia) who do not discuss the genocide and "bad" ones (primarily the Armenian diaspora) who insist on recognition.{{sfn|Galip |2020|p=117|ps=. "In subsequent years, his [Erdoğan's] denialist discourse has become harsher, as he has adopted a more aggressive and threatening tone aiming to divide the ‘good’ Armenians (who he also refers to as “our Armenians”) who do not talk about the genocide from the ‘bad’ Armenians (referring to diaspora Armenians) who are accused of bringing up the accusations of genocide against Turks."}}{{cite news |last1=Mamigonian |first1=Marc |title=Mamigonian: 'Divide et Impera': The Turkish-Armenian Protocols |url=https://armenianweekly.com/2010/05/10/mamigonian-protocols/ |access-date=19 December 2020 |work=The Armenian Weekly |date=10 May 2010 }}

Many Turkish intellectuals have been reluctant to use the term genocide because, according to Akçam, "by qualifying it a genocide you become a member of a collective associated to a crime, not any crime but to the ultimate crime".{{sfn|Cheterian|2015|p=142|ps=. "The first, and recurrent, problem Akçam faced concerned the use of the term ‘genocide’ in his work, and it took some time before he was able to bring himself to describe the events of 1915 in this way. He was far from alone in his hesitancy to do so..."}} According to Halil Karaveli, "the word [genocide] incites strong, emotional reactions among Turks from all walks of society and of every ideological inclination".{{cite book |last1=Karaveli |first1=Halil |title=Why Turkey is Authoritarian: From Atatürk to Erdoğan |date=2018 |publisher=Pluto Press |isbn=978-0-7453-3756-2 |page=27 |language=en}}

References

Sources

{{cite journal |last1=Baker |first1=Mark R. |title=The Armenian Genocide and its denial: a review of recent scholarship |journal=New Perspectives on Turkey |date=2015 |volume=53 |pages=197–212 |doi=10.1017/npt.2015.23|s2cid=148198876 }}
{{cite book |last1=Cheterian |first1=Vicken|author-link=Vicken Cheterian |title=Open Wounds: Armenians, Turks and a Century of Genocide |date=2015 |publisher=Hurst |isbn=978-1-84904-458-5 |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=de Waal |first1=Thomas |author1-link=Thomas de Waal |title=Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-935069-8 |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Galip |first1=Özlem Belçim |title=New Social Movements and the Armenian Question in Turkey: Civil Society vs. the State |date=2020 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-030-59400-8}}
{{cite journal |last1=Gürpınar |first1=Doğan |title=The manufacturing of denial: the making of the Turkish 'official thesis' on the Armenian Genocide between 1974 and 1990 |journal=Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies |date=2016 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=217–240 |doi=10.1080/19448953.2016.1176397|s2cid=148518678 }}
{{cite journal |last1=Gutman |first1=David |title=Ottoman Historiography and the End of the Genocide Taboo: Writing the Armenian Genocide into Late Ottoman History |journal=Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association |date=2015 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=167 |doi=10.2979/jottturstuass.2.1.167}}
{{cite book|last=Ihrig|first=Stefan|author-link=Stefan Ihrig|date=2016|title=Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler|title-link=Justifying Genocide|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-50479-0}}
{{cite book |last1=Lattanzi |first1=Flavia|author-link=Flavia Lattanzi |title=The Armenian Massacres of 1915–1916 a Hundred Years Later: Open Questions and Tentative Answers in International Law |date=2018 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-319-78169-3 |pages=27–104 |language=en |chapter=The Armenian Massacres as the Murder of a Nation?}}
{{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Robertson |title=The Armenian Genocide Legacy |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-137-56163-3 |pages=69–83 |language=en |chapter=Armenia and the G-word: The Law and the Politics}}
{{cite journal |last1=Maksudyan |first1=Nazan|authorlink=Nazan Maksudyan |title=Walls of Silence: Translating the Armenian Genocide into Turkish and Self-Censorship |journal=Critique |date=2009 |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=635–649 |doi=10.1080/03017600903205781|s2cid=143658586}}