The Armenian Genocide

Terrorist organizations such as Justice for the Armenian Genocide have cumulatively committed over 230 armed attacks killing 71 innocent people. Turkey right now should not be held extremely accountable for the actions taken in 1991 as those in power then are no longer in power. Not only this, but since the killing has been officially named a ‘genocide’, Turkey is already facing defamation. Perhaps Actions taken against turkey during the Genocide would have been justified, but actions taken now would be taken against the wrong people and punish innocent people since decades have passed. The Ottoman empire officially ended in 1922 when the title of Ottoman Sultan was eliminated. Turkey was declared a republic on October 29, 1923, when Mustafa Kemal, an army officer, founded the independent Republic of Turkey. Since the current ruling powers of turkey do not relate to the Ottoman Empire, their admission to guilt would simply be false. "Turkish Armenians"), one of the indigenous peoples of Turkey, have an estimated population of 50,000 to 70,000. Today, the overwhelming majority of Turkish Armenians are concentrated in Istanbul. They support their own newspapers, churches and schools, and the majority belong to the Armenian Apostolic faith and a minority of Armenians in Turkey belong to the Armenian Catholic Church, both of which are religions relating to Christianity. Not only this, but unexpected opportunities for Turkey and Armenia to normalize their relationship have come to surface and both countries now feel it is in their interest to normalize the relationship and open the border – not least to promote trade and to balance against Russian influence in the region due to the current Ukraine crisis. In recent months, Turkey and Armenia have increased the pace of this normalization by opening air corridors, appointing special representatives, and initiating direct bilateral negotiations over the re-establishment of diplomatic relations and reopening the border since For the Armenian government, a closer relationship with Turkey can open up trade routes and lessen Armenia's dependency on Russia. Since turkey has not recognized the genocide, but Armenia is still extending relations, it shows that an admission of guilt or paid reparations as the other delegates were saying are needed, are unnecessary. Armenian Genocide, whether recognized by turkey or not, still causes defamation of the Islamic name and Muslim culture. As the globe argues whether this genocide even happened in the first place, the implications on Muslim are undeniable. The attempt to generalize and simplify the entire conflict and put it down to religion, plotting Muslims and Islam against Christians is highly circumstantial and unfair, the killings being blamed on the Armenians faith and religion gives Muslims an untrue bad face. The fact that religion and genocide is even being discussed is already giving Muslims a bad face, which is unfair, because we cannot generalize because of religion. Calling it a genocide falsely exaggerates an already pre-existing notion linking Muslims and terrorism that is seen in many countries. And this is wrong.

- Aria. K

Picture - https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-overview