Post-Armenian Genocide timeline

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Several significant occurrences followed the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to 1917. The following is a chronology of those events.

1918 • 1920 • 1930
1940 • 1950 • 1960
1970 • 1980 • 1990
2000

[edit] 20th century

[edit] 1918

• May 28: The Democratic Republic of Armenia declares its independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.
• December: An Ottoman military tribunal tries the Three Pashas: Mehmed Talat Pasha, Ismail Enver, and Ahmed Djemal in absentia and sentences them to death.
• The book Ravished Armenia is published.

[edit] 1919

• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sends a fact-finding mission to Armenia, headed by Major General James Harbord. Harbord issues a lengthy report on the situation in 1920.^[1]
• Henry Morgenthau, Sr. publishes Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, the first major work on the Armenian Genocide.
• A film based on the book Ravished Armenia is released.^[2]

[edit] 1920

• August 10: The Treaty of Sèvres promises to unite Armenia with its historic land, to allow Greece to expand into parts of Anatolia and to create an independent Kurdistan. Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk reject the treaty and call it "unacceptable." The Turkish War of Independence begins.
• November 29: Russian Armenia is proclaimed to be part of the Soviet Union.

[edit] 1921

• March 15: Talat Pasha is assassinated by Soghomon Tehlirian whose family perished in the Genocide. After being tried, Tehlirian was acquitted.
• October 23: The Treaty of Kars is signed between the Soviet Union and the new Republic of Turkey, ceding to it the present-day areas of Kars, Iğdır, Ardahan, and Artvin in exchange for Adjara. Feeling their security threatened, the remaining Armenians in these regions emigrate to Soviet-occupied Armenia.

[edit] 1922

• July 21: Djemal Pasha is assassinated by Stepan Dzaghigian
• August 24: Enver Pasha is killed while fighting in present-day Tajikistan.
• September 11: The Treaty of Kars is ratified in Yerevan.
• December 30: The remainder of Russian Armenia becomes the Armenian SSR of the Soviet Union.

[edit] 1923

• The Treaty of Lausanne is signed establishing most of Turkey's present-day borders.
• In September, Turkey declares that all Armenians who have emigrated from Cilicia and the Eastern Anatolian areas were not allowed to return.^[3]

[edit] 1926

• August 1: In an interview with the Los Angeles Examiner, Atatürk stated that the remainders of the Young Turk government should be held accountable for the Armenian Genocide. "These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule", he said.^[4][5]

[edit] 1934

• About a year after it was published, the book The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was listed as "undesirable" in Nazi Germany. Nazi propaganda painted its author, Franz Werfel as an agent who created the "alleged Turkish horrors perpetrated against the Armenians" and denounced "America's Armenian Jews for promoting in the U.S.A. the sale of Werfel's book."

[edit] 1935

• Turkey pressures MGM and the United States government from allowing the film giant to produce a film based on The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.^[6]

[edit] 1939

• June 23: Following the policy of appeasement, France cedes the Hatay Province, an area that includes the ruins of Antioch as well as Musa Dagh from its Mandate of Syria to Turkey.^[7]
• August 22: Adolf Hitler delivers the Armenian quote to Wehrmacht commanders at his Obersalzberg home, a week before the Invasion of Poland. He orders them to "kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language" and concluded by asking "Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?"^[8]

[edit] 1942

• After the Nazi conquest of Greece, Turkey, sympathetic to the Germans increased property tax for Armenians, Jews, and Greeks, and even Dönme (Christians or Jews who converted to Islam), the Armenians being affected the most. Those who did not pay were condemned to forced labor in the quarries of Aşkale (the Turkish equivalent to Siberia), near Erzurum. The government claimed to be doing this action to "turkify" the economy.^[9][10]

[edit] 1944

• Prof. Raphael Lemkin coins the term genocide and states that it happened to both the Armenians and, at the time, the Jews. The name Armenian Massacres soon falls from popular use by the Armenian diaspora and is soon replaced by Armenian Genocide.
• March 15: The "property tax" action is repealed.

[edit] 1945

• The Soviet Union attempts to annul the Treaty of Kars with Turkey and return parts of Northwestern Armenia back to the Armenians. These efforts are halted by intervention from Winston Churchill and Harry S. Truman, fearing Soviet expansionism.

[edit] 1955

• The Istanbul Pogrom is launched in Turkey against ethnic minorities residing in Istanbul, in particular Greeks, Armenians, and Jews.^[11]

[edit] 1965

• On April 24, thousands of Armenians demonstrate in the streets of Yerevan during the fiftieth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Soviet troops entered the city and attempted to restore order. To prevent any further demonstrations from occurring, the Kremlin commissions a memorial for the genocide.
• The Uruguay Senate and Chamber of Representatives pass a resolution recognizing the events.

[edit] 1967

• The Armenian Genocide memorial in Yerevan is completed.

[edit] 1960s

• Considered to be the years when the Turkish government has officially decided to teach to the world, "the other side of the story." The following decade, the Turkish government will found and fund grants of Turkish and Ottoman studies, as well as history chairs at the middle east department of occidental universities.

[edit] 1973

• The 26th session of the UN Human Rights Committee's Subcommittee on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of National Minorities adopted a report, containing a reference on the Armenian massacres, calling it: "The first Genocide of the twentieth century."^[12]
• Gourgen Yanikian - Georgeu Yanikian, a 78 year-old Armenian, whose family was decimated during the 1915 massacres - killed two Turkish diplomats in the United States. He is sentenced to life imprisonment but is released later due to illness.

[edit] 1974

• The Turkish representatives at the U.N., during the 30th meeting has pressurized the organization to redraw the paragraph 30 of the adopted report, labeling the paragraph propaganda and effectively starting the Armenian initiative.^[12] This followed with intense negotiations and pressures for few years, up until which, in 1978, the paragraph was removed until further discussion and in 1979 restored, from that year on, the matter was researched by the U.N.

[edit] 1975

• Two Armenian guerrilla organizations, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) and the Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide (JCAG) are founded in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War. They decide to "take matters into their own hands."
• October 22: the Turkish ambassador to Austria, Danis Tunaligil, is assassinated in his study by three Armenian guerrillas. This is the first attack by the ASALA.
• October 24: the Turkish ambassador to France, Ismail Erez and his driver, Talip Yener, are assassinated. This is the first attack by the JCAG.

[edit] 1976

• United States President Gerald Ford acknowledges the Armenian Genocide while addressing the US House of Representatives.^[13]

[edit] 1978

• May 16: United States President Jimmy Carter officially acknowledges the Armenian Genocide, calling it "probably one of the greatest tragedies that ever befell any group."^[13]

[edit] 1979

• October 12: Ahmet Benler, the son of Ambassador Ozdemir Benler, is assassinated on the street by Armenian guerrillas in the Hague. ASALA and JCAG claim responsibility. In retaliation, Turkish nationalists bomb the church of the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate in Istanbul on October 19.

[edit] 1981

• April 22: United States President Ronald Reagan officially acknowledges the Armenian Genocide in a speech commemorating the Holocaust.^[13]

[edit] 1982

• 1 July: The Red Armenian Army unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate the Turkish Consul General, Kemalettin Demirer, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. No one sustained any injuries from this attack and a member of the group named Penyemin Evingulu was later sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the incident.^[14][15]

• August 7: Two ASALA guerrillas open fire in a crowded passenger waiting room in Ankara at the Esenboga International Airport. One of the guerrillas takes more than 20 hostages while the second is apprehended by police. The attackers leave nine people dead and 82 injured. The surviving gunman, Levon Ekmekjian, realizes the horror of his crime before the execution. He issues a strong appeal to his young comrades to reject the program of murder.

[edit] 1984

• The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal after deliberation, concluded that the tragedy Armenians have faced during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, constitute a genocide.^[16]

[edit] 1985

• Argentina recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
• United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities has passed to a vote, a report containing a reference recognizing the Armenian massacres as genocide.^[17]

[edit] 1986

• November 23: A bomb explodes in front of the Turkish Consulate General in Melbourne, Australia. One dead (presumedly the perpetrator) and one Australian injured. This is the last Armenian guerrilla attack.

[edit] 1988

• January 24: Turkish security forces apprehend a 24-year-old Armenian, Manvel Demir, accusing him of being tied to the ASALA. He becomes heavily injured and later dies in a hospital. The parents of Demir argue that he was tortured and that he was a victim of police brutality.
• April 28: Hagop Hagopian, one of the main leaders of the ASALA is assassinated on a sidewalk in an affluent neighborhood in Athens, Greece by the French secret services.

[edit] 1990

• An Armenian Genocide memorial opens in Deir ez-Zor, Syria the location said to be the largest extermination ground for the Armenians during this time period.
• April 20: United States President George H. W. Bush officially acknowledges the Armenian Genocide in a speech at Orlando, Florida. Bush stated that "the United States responded to this crime against humanity by leading diplomatic and private relief efforts."^[13]

[edit] 1991

• Armenia becomes independent from the Soviet Union and subsequently recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

[edit] 1993

• During the Nagorno-Karabakh War, Turkish President Turgut Özal makes a controversial remark that not only alarms Armenians in Turkey, but worldwide as well. "What will happen then if three of our bombs hit Armenia? Will they [the Western Powers] intervene in Turkey?" Özal asked. He then threatened, hinting at the Armenian Genocide, "They [the Armenians] learn nothing from history. In Anatolia, they also tried it. But they got an incredible slap in the face [i.e. Armenian Genocide]. And they have not forgotten the pain to this day. If they try it again here [in Azerbaijan], relying on this or that foreign country for help [i.e. Russia], they have something coming."^[18][19]
• April 8: The official daily newspaper of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Türkiye announced: "Like the Karabakh mountains, Armenia has been Turkish land for millennia [sic] and it will also belong to the Turkish people. Then, in the Caucasus, Armenians will only be found in the museums."

[edit] 1994

• April 24: United States President Bill Clinton issued a news release to commemorate the "tragedy" that befell the Armenians in 1915, yet he bowed to political pressure and refused to refer to it as "genocide", despite referring to the massacre as such before being elected president.
• April 27: Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Yossi Beilin stated in response to a TV interview of the Turkish Ambassador: "It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember... We will always reject any attempt to erase its record, even for some political advantage.^[20]

[edit] 1995

• April 14: Russia recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

[edit] 1996

• April 25: Greece recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

[edit] 1997

• The Parliament of the State of New South Wales, Australia passes a motion acknowledging and condemning the Armenian Genocide.^[21]
• Belgium recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
• April 4: Lebanon recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
• December 3: Italy recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

[edit] 1998

• May 29: France recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
• On June 30, the American rock band System of a Down, whose members are Armenian in ancestry, wrote the song "P.L.U.C.K. (Political Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers.)", about the Armenian Genocide and the denial of it as genocide. "P.L.U.C.K." can be found as Track 13 on the self-titled album, System of a Down.

[edit] 1999

• On October 5, along with a similar museum, Turkey opened a memorial to alleged Turkish massacres by Armenians in Iğdır. The monument consists of five crossed swords and, according to a spokesperson of the governor of Iğdır, it is also visible from the Armenian capital Yerevan: "Whenever the Armenians look towards their holy Mount Ararat, they will see our monument."
• On October 6, The Onion, a parody newspaper, publishes the "Top 10th Century Genocides", with an accurate list of genocides by death toll, including the Armenian Genocide.

[edit] 21st century

• 2001–2004: Also breaking a campaign promise, the subsequent U.S. President George W. Bush, in each year of his first term, refused to use the word "genocide" to describe the killings, though promising Armenian-Americans during his election campaign to recognize the "genocidal campaign" to which Armenians were subjected. He has yet to call it a genocide despite it being his second term in office (2005-present)^[22]

[edit] 2001

• On January 18, Turkey recalls its ambassador from Paris in protest to a parliamentary bill that was unanimously passes formally recognizing the Armenian Holocaust as genocide and placing blame on the Turks. Relations between Turkey and France consequently suffer.

[edit] 2002

• The Armenian Genocide is the subject of the film Ararat, by Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan.

[edit] 2003

• February 20: A report on "The Applicability of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to Events which Occurred During the Early Twentieth Century" by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) stated that "...at least some of the perpetrators of the Events knew that the consequence of their action would be the destruction, in whole or in part, of the Armenians of Eastern Anatolia, as such, or acted purposely towards this goal, and, therefore, possessed the requisite genocidal intent." The report concluded that "...the Events, viewed collectively, can thus be said to include all of the elements of the crime of genocide as defined in the [UN] Convention, and legal scholars as well as historians, politicians, journalists and other people would be justified in continuing to so describe them" (p. 17).

• April 14: According to the League for Human Rights ^[23], the Turkish Ministry of Education issued a document instructing heads of schools to organize conferences stating that Turkey never exterminated its minorities. It also recommended that the students should write dissertations on "fighting allegations of genocide", in which phrases such as "Turks may have killed Armenians" are banned in favour of presenting these events as a necessity in the face of the "massacres perpetrated by Armenians". A first report detailing the application of these recommendations was to be sent by each school to the local Ministry directorates on May 13, 2003.

[edit] 2004

• The Pan-Turkic and ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves organization successfully prevented the screening of Atom Egoyan's Ararat.

• April 21: the Canadian House of Commons voted to officially recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide. The motion passed easily by 153 to 68, however, the Liberal-controlled Cabinet was instructed to vote against it. The federal government, in opposing the motion, did not express a position on whether the genocide took place, but rather cited a desire to avoid reopening old wounds and to maintain good relations with Turkey.

• April 24: In marking the 89th Anniversary of the genocide, John Kerry issued a statement calling for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

[edit] 2005

• March: The Turkish Prime Minister and the head of the opposition held a press conference proposing the meeting of Armenian and Turkish historians to find out what really happened. The Prime Minister also called on Armenia to open its archives. The Armenian Foreign Minister rejected the invitation, stating that the world already knew what happened, and that its archives have always been open.

• The Turkish State Archive issued a list of more than 523,000 Turks whom it said were killed by Armenians in Turkey between 1910 and 1922 as Armenians allegedly tried to establish themselves as the majority population in Eastern Anatolia.^{[citation needed]}

• The Turkish historian Murat Bardakçı opened the alleged notes of Talat Pasha dating back to 1914 about the population of Armenians under Ottoman rule. The following is an alleged script from Talat Pasha's notebook "The number of Gregorian and Catholic Armenians that lived under the Ottoman Empire was 1,256,403. By considering the fact that there might be some unaccounted people, we can increase this number to 1,500,000. The cities where the relocation is applied there are 284,157 Armenians but if we increase this number by 30% just to be sure, there are between 250,000 and 400,000 in the cities where the relocation was applied." He says that "The total Armenian population was a maximum of 1,500,000. Out of these many people, 924,158 were relocated and there are still around 400,000 people in cities where relocation was applied" He also says that there were 68,422 Armenians in Istanbul in 1914 and this number went up to 80,000 in the next year. None of these people were subject to relocation.^{[citation needed]}

• May 25: A conference about "Ottoman Armenians during the Decline of the Empire" focusing on the "Armenian Genocide" to be held in Bosphorus (Boğaziçi) University of Istanbul, Turkey is postponed by the administration of the Bosphorus University (one of the three organizers) due to the remarks in the speech of Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek in parliament.

"This is a stab in the back to the Turkish nation. This is irresponsibility", the Anatolian News Agency quoted Cicek as saying at a parliamentary debate. "We must put an end to this cycle of treason and insult, of spreading propaganda against the nation by people who belong to it", he added.^[24]

• May 26: The Organizing Committee of the "Ottoman Armenians during the Decline of the Empire" publicly declared that the conference is going to be held in the near future.

• June 16: German Bundestag passed a resolution that "honors and commemorates the victims of violence, murder and expulsion among the Armenian people before and during the First World War". The German resolution mentions that "many independent historians, parliaments and international organizations describe the expulsion and annihilation of the Armenians as genocide", but stops short of doing so itself. It also contains an apology for any German responsibility.^[25]

[edit] 2006

• September: Leading Turkish author Elif Şafak is to go on trial for a fictional character in her latest book discussing the genocide.^[26] The charge is "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code and she could have faced a prison term for writing the story. Asked about the alleged real-life crime her character committed in the novel, she stated "Turks and Armenians are not speaking the same language. For the Turks all the past is gone, erased from our memories. That's the way we Westernized: by being future-oriented. ... The grandchildren of the 1915 survivors tend to be very, very past-oriented." She was later acquitted by the Turkish court of first instance in its first sitting.
• May: Stephen Harper, newly elected Prime Minister of Canada, officially confirms that his government will continue to recognize motions adopted by the Canadian senate and parliament in 2004 acknowledging that the Armenian Genocide took place.

[edit] 2007

• March: A Swiss district court in Lausanne convicts Turkish politician Doğu Perinçek for denying the Armenian Genocide; public genocide denial is illegal in Switzerland. Perinçek, who was fined CHF 10.000 (Euro 6.230, USD 8.180), appealed the verdict.^[27] The conviction was upheld by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court on December 12, 2007.^[28]
• April 20: The Basque Parliament recognizes the Armenian Genocide.^[29]
• June 5: The Chilean Senate unanimously passes a resolution calling on the government to join the 1985 UN resolution on the Armenian Genocide.^[30]
• October 10: US House Resolution 106, which was introduced to the US Congress on January 30, 2007, was referred to United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs^[31] where it passed a 27-21 vote and was sent back for a full house vote.
• November 23: The Mercosur parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the “Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, which took 1.5 million lives from 1915 to 1923.” The Mercosur resolution also expressed its support for the Armenian Cause and called on all countries to recognize the Genocide.^[32]

[edit] References