Press coverage during the Armenian genocide

Last updated
December 15, 1915 New York Times article headline 1915 New York Times Armenian Genocide article.png
December 15, 1915 New York Times article headline

This page contains a selected list of press headlines relevant to the Armenian genocide in chronological order, as recorded in newspaper archives. The sources prior to 1914 relate in large part to the Hamidian massacres and the Adana massacre.

Contents

The Armenian genocide was widely covered in the international community and in many publications such as magazines, newspapers, books, and memoirs. [1] Some organizations, such as the Near East Foundation, used media and newspapers to raise the plight of the Armenians. [2] However, after World War I ended, the Armenian genocide received little press coverage for the first half of the 20th century. Coverage and public discussion resumed in the last quarter of the 20th century and continued into the 21st century. [1]

Press discussion and photographs have been particularly important in educating the public about the Genocide. [3] [4] Press coverage is also considered valuable and important because it constitutes primary sources of what was widely known at the time. [5] During the time period, much of the global press had condemned the nature of the massacres and called for aid of the Armenians. Coverage of the Armenian genocide was done by many throughout the world and were often similar when depicting the massacres. [6] Many well-known newspapers in the English language such as The Times , The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Los Angeles Times , The Globe and Mail , The Toronto Star , The Montreal Gazette , and others also reported extensively about the events. It is believed that The New York Times published thousands of articles pertaining to the Armenian massacres between 1894-1922 and 124 articles in 1915 alone. [5] [7] Some countries, like Australia, relied largely on news agencies in Europe for their information. [8] It is noted that newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on the Armenian massacres almost daily for over a year. [9] The coverage mainly included reports by correspondents, travelers, and consuls or ambassadors of different countries based in the different regions of the Ottoman Empire. Additionally, detailed reports came from missionaries who witnessed the massacres and attempted to aid orphans and other survivors. Local press coverage in the Ottoman Empire came mainly from the Takvim-i Vekayi , the official gazette of the Ottoman government. During the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–1920, the newspaper became especially important because it reported the cross-examinations of Turkish officials and the verdict of court which sentenced Talat, Enver, and Cemal Pashas to death for their roles in massacres against Armenians. [10] [11] [12] Noteworthy studies of the press coverage of Muslim communities in the Middle East and particularly that of Syria have also been instrumental in depicting first hand accounts of the Armenian deportees exiled to the area. [13] The Syrian press also made note of the demographic impact of the Armenian deportees into the region and condemned the Ottoman government for what it largely believed was a campaign of "annihilation", "extermination", and the "uprooting of a race". [13]

Terms such as "massacre", "killed", "murdered", "slaughtered", "systematic massacre", "extermination", "atrocities", and "war crimes" were used instead of "genocide" during the period, as Raphael Lemkin coined the term "genocide" much later in 1943. [14] [15]

Exhibitions set up by the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan have been held in Denmark, Lebanon, Sweden, and the United States displaying numerous periodicals from the international press dating from 1860 to 1922. [16] There have also been numerous studies and books published about the press coverage of the Genocide including: "El Genocidio armenio en la prensa del Uruguay, año 1915" (The Uruguayan Press of 1915 on the Genocide of Armenians) by Daniel Karamanoukian, "Le Genocide Armenien dans la presse Canadian" (The Armenian Genocide in the Canadian Press) by the Armenian Youth Federation of Canada, "The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From the American Press 1915-1922" by Richard G. Kloian, "The Armenian Genocide as Reported in the Australian Press" by Vahe Kateb, "Heralding of the Armenian Genocide: Reports in The Halifax Herald, 1894-1922" by Katia Minas Peltekian, ""The Globe"'s representation of the Armenian genocide and Canada's acknowledgement" by Karen Ashford, "Through the Eyes of the "Post": American Media Coverage of the Armenian Genocide by Jessica L. Taylor" and others. [15] [17]

List

Included in this list are examples of newspaper articles as republished by various secondary sources. The list also includes press coverage of the massacres prior to the Armenian genocide such as the Hamidian massacre and the Adana massacre. These massacres are viewed by scholars as beginning a process of exterminating the Armenian people which, in large part, culminated in the final process of genocide in 1915. [18] [19] [20] Much of this is apparent in the press articles themselves since they repeatedly place the massacres of 1915 in the context of the previous massacres. [15] Other scholars, such as the Soviet historians Mkrtich G. Nersisyan, Ruben Sahakyan, John Kirakosyan, and Yehuda Bauer subscribe to the view that the mass killings of 1894–96 during the Hamidian massacre were the first phase of the Armenian Genocide. Even though the Hamidian massacres ended in 1896, Armenians continued to be massacred during what many believed to be "peaceful times". [21] The massacres conducted during these times involved dislocation, disarmament, dispersion, and ultimately murder. [21]

Hamidian massacres and pre–Young Turk Revolution

1890

1893

  • April 10, 1893, The Washington Post , "Dungeons for Christians: Nearly 2,000 Armenians immured in Turkish prisons." [21]
  • August 4, 1893, Los Angeles Times , "The Armenians: Innocent Christians executed by the Ottoman Authorities." [21]
  • October 20, 1893, Chicago Daily Tribune , "Armenians murdered in Turkey: Hundreds of bodies thrown into the harbor of Constantinople." [21]

1894

1895

Il Secolo Illustrato, Italy ArmenianGenocideSecolo.jpg
Il Secolo Illustrato, Italy

1896

Armenian Massacre in Constantinople. The gathering of the corpses of victims, street of Galata in the French magazine Le Petit Parisien, September 13, 1896 Armenianmassacresgalata.jpg
Armenian Massacre in Constantinople. The gathering of the corpses of victims, street of Galata in the French magazine Le Petit Parisien , September 13, 1896

1897

1898

1900

1901

1902

1903

1904

1906

1907

Adana Massacre

Journal des Voyages, Paris, 1909 Massacres in Asia Minor, Adana, 1909.jpg
Journal des Voyages, Paris, 1909

1909

1912

Armenian genocide

1913

1914

1915

"The Assassination of a Race" - The Independent, October 18, 1915.gif
January
March
April
May
July
August
September
"The Depopulation of Armenia" - The Independent, September 27, 1915.gif
October 7, 1915, New York Times Pontiangreeks.jpg
October 7, 1915, New York Times
October
October 10, 1915 New York Times Turkish statesman denounces atrocities.png
October 10, 1915 New York Times
Tortured Armenian woman with child as reported by the Russian Iskri newspaper Iskrinewspapertortured.jpg
Tortured Armenian woman with child as reported by the Russian Iskri newspaper
October 22, 1915, The Fredericksburg Daily Star, "Turks Boiled Baby Alive. Made Armenian Mother Heat Water, Bound Her and Took Child's Life." TurksBoiledBaby.jpg
October 22, 1915, The Fredericksburg Daily Star , "Turks Boiled Baby Alive. Made Armenian Mother Heat Water, Bound Her and Took Child's Life."
The Washington Herald, December 19, 1915 The Massacre of a Nation.png
The Washington Herald, December 19, 1915
November
December

1916

Jesse B. Jackson led a campaign to save the lives of Armenians and support the relief effort. According to this article published by The Sun on February 9, 1916, he is accredited for saving the lives of "thousands of Armenians". JesseBJacksonSaved.png
Jesse B. Jackson led a campaign to save the lives of Armenians and support the relief effort. According to this article published by The Sun on February 9, 1916, he is accredited for saving the lives of "thousands of Armenians".

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian genocide</span> 1915–1917 mass murder in the Ottoman Empire

The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through the mass murder of around one million Armenians during death marches to the Syrian Desert and the forced Islamization of others, primarily women and children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adana massacre</span> 1909 massacre of Armenian Christians by Ottoman Muslims

The Adana massacre occurred in the Adana Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire in April 1909. A massacre of Armenian Christians by Ottoman Muslims in the city of Adana amidst the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 expanded to a series of anti-Armenian pogroms throughout the province. Around 20,000 to 25,000 people were killed in Adana and surrounding towns, mostly Armenians; it was reported that about 1,300 Assyrians were also killed during the massacres. Unlike the earlier Hamidian massacres, the events were not organized by the central government but instead instigated by local officials, intellectuals, and Islamic clerics, including Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) supporters in Adana. Professor of History Ronald Grigor Suny from the University of Michigan describes Adana as "more like an urban riot that degenerated into a pogrom rather than a state-initiated mass killing".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamidian massacres</span> 1894–1897 massacres of Armenians and Assyrians in the Ottoman Empire

The Hamidian massacres also called the Armenian massacres, were massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1890s. Estimated casualties ranged from 100,000 to 300,000, resulting in 50,000 orphaned children. The massacres are named after Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who, in his efforts to maintain the imperial domain of the declining Ottoman Empire, reasserted pan-Islamism as a state ideology. Although the massacres were aimed mainly at the Armenians, in some cases they turned into indiscriminate anti-Christian pogroms, including the Diyarbekir massacres, where, at least according to one contemporary source, up to 25,000 Assyrians were also killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casualties of the Armenian genocide</span> Number of deaths in the Armenian genocide

Ottoman Armenian casualties refers to the number of deaths of Ottoman Armenians between 1914 and 1923, during which the Armenian genocide occurred. Most estimates of related Armenian deaths between 1915 and 1918 range from 600,000 to 1.2 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halil Kut</span> Ottoman general and genocide perpetrator

Halil Kut, also known as Halil Pasha, was an Ottoman military commander and politician. He served in the Ottoman Army during World War I, notably taking part in the military campaigns against Russia in the Caucasus and the British in Mesopotamia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek genocide</span> 1913–1922 genocide of Greek Christians in the Ottoman Empire

The Greek genocide, which included the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia, which was carried out mainly during World War I and its aftermath (1914–1922) – including the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923) – on the basis of their religion and ethnicity. It was perpetrated by the government of the Ottoman Empire led by the Three Pashas and by the Government of the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, against the indigenous Greek population of the Empire. The genocide included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches through the Syrian Desert, expulsions, summary executions, and the destruction of Eastern Orthodox cultural, historical, and religious monuments. Several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period. Most of the refugees and survivors fled to Greece. Some, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Van (1915)</span> Armed resistance of the Armenian population of Van against the Armenian genocide

The defense of Van and in Russian Van operation was the armed resistance of the Armenian population of Van and Russian army against the Ottoman Empire's attempts to massacre the Ottoman Armenian population of the Van Vilayet in the 1915 Armenian genocide. Several contemporaneous observers and later historians have concluded that the Ottoman government deliberately instigated an armed Armenian resistance in the city and then used this insurgency as the main pretext to justify beginning the deportation and slaughter of Armenians throughout the empire. Witness reports agree that the Armenian posture at Van was defensive and an act of resistance to massacre. The self-defense action is frequently cited in Armenian genocide denial literature; it has become "the alpha and omega of the plea of 'military necessity'" to excuse the genocide and portray the persecution of Armenians as justified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mehmed Reshid</span> Ottoman politician and physician

Mehmed Reshid was an Ottoman politician and physician, official of the Committee of Union and Progress, and governor of the Diyarbekir Vilayet (province) of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. He is known for organizing the 1915 genocide of the Armenian and Assyrian communities of Diyarbekir, in which between 144,000 and 157,000 Armenians, Assyrians, and other Christians were killed. During the Allied occupation of Istanbul, Reshid was arrested and his roles in the massacres were exposed. He later escaped from prison, but committed suicide after being cornered by local authorities.

<i>The Burning Tigris</i>

The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response is a book written by Peter Balakian, and published in 2003. It details the Armenian genocide, the events leading up to it, and the events following it. In particular, Balakian focuses on the American response to the persecution and genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire from 1894 to 1923.

<i>The Memoirs of Naim Bey</i> 1920 book by Aram Andonian

The Memoirs of Naim Bey: Turkish Official Documents Relating to the Deportation and the Massacres of Armenians, containing the Talat Pasha telegrams, is a book published by historian and journalist Aram Andonian in 1919. Originally redacted in Armenian, it was popularized worldwide through the English edition published by Hodder & Stoughton of London. It includes several documents (telegrams) that constitute evidence that the Armenian genocide was formally implemented as Ottoman Empire policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian genocide in Trebizond</span> Aspect of Armenian history

Trebizond was a city in the Ottoman Empire where the Armenian genocide occurred. The method employed to kill was mainly by mass drowning, resulting in estimated deaths of 50,000 Armenians. The city was also an important location of subsequent trials held to prosecute those involved with the systematic massacre. Cemal Azmi, the governor of Trebizond during the genocide, was later assassinated as part of Operation Nemesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry H. Riggs</span> Christian missionary

Henry H. Riggs was a Christian missionary stationed in Kharpert during the Armenian genocide. In his book Days of Tragedy in Armenia: Personal Experiences in Harpoot, 1915-1917, Riggs provides an important eyewitness account of the genocide and concluded that the deportation of Armenians was part of an extermination program organized by the Ottoman government. The book is considered to be one of the most detailed accounts of the Armenian genocide in the English language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witnesses and testimonies of the Armenian genocide</span> Overview of testimonies and the witnesses of the Armenian genocide

Witnesses and testimony provide an important and valuable insight into the events which occurred both during and after the Armenian genocide. The Armenian genocide was prepared and carried out by the Ottoman government in 1915 as well as in the following years. As a result of the genocide, as many as 1.5 million Armenians who were living in their ancestral homeland were deported and murdered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Yarrow</span>

Ernest Alfred Yarrow was a Christian missionary and a witness to the Armenian genocide. He is also known for his leadership of a relief effort carried out by the Near East Foundation that saved and cared for tens of thousands of Armenian refugees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">İzmit massacres</span> Atrocities committed in the region of İzmit, Turkey, during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)

The İzmit massacres were atrocities committed in the region of İzmit, Turkey, during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) which took place during the Greek genocide. An Inter-Allied Commission of Enquiry that investigated the incidents, submitted a report, on 1 June 1921, about the events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amasya trials</span> Special ad hoc trials organized by the Turkish National Movement

The Amasya trials in 1921, were special ad hoc trials, organized by the Turkish National Movement, with the purpose to kill en masse the Greek representatives of Pontus region under a legal pretext. They occurred in Amasya, modern Turkey, during the final stage of the Pontic Greek genocide. The total number of the executed individuals is estimated to be ca. 400-450, among them 155 prominent Pontic Greeks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Knapp</span> American missionary who witnessed the Armenian genocide in eastern Turkey

Grace H. Knapp was an American Christian missionary and teacher who served in the Ottoman Empire. During her time as a missionary, Knapp was a witness to the Armenian genocide. During the Armenian genocide, Knapp was stationed in Van and eventually described the events in the region in two published books describing her experiences. The first book, The Mission at Van in Turkey in War Time, describes in detail the massacres of Armenians by Turkish soldiers during the Van Resistance. Her second book, The Tragedy of Bitlis, relates the narratives of two nurses who witnessed massacres of Armenians in Bitlis. Her recounts of Bitlis are one of the few written accounts of massacres in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Late Ottoman genocides</span> 1913–1924 Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides

The late Ottoman genocides is a historiographical theory which sees the concurrent Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides that occurred during the 1910s–1920s as parts of a single event rather than separate events, which were initiated by the Young Turks. Although some sources, including The Thirty-Year Genocide (2019) written by the historians Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi, characterize this event as a genocide of Christians, others such as those written by the historians Dominik J. Schaller and Jürgen Zimmerer contend that such an approach "ignores the Young Turks' massive violence against non-Christians", in particular against Muslim Kurds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mehmed Kemal Bey</span> Ottoman administrator and Armenian genocide perpetrator

Mehmed Kemal Bey was an Ottoman administrator and educator from the Young Turk party involved in the Armenian genocide. He served as the sub-prefect of Boğazlıyan, governor of Yozgat, and inspector of deportations in Konya. He is known for organizing the deportation of 40,000 Armenians from Boğazlıyan, establishing "killing sites" in the Yozgat region that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Armenians during the genocide, and overseeing deportations in Konya. Kemal Bey was the first person executed of the Istanbul trials.

During the Armenian Genocide, when 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1917, many Turkish civilians, politicians and military leaders refused to participate in the massacres and looting and tried to stop the deportation and massacre of Armenians. Many of these people lost their positions as a result of their actions, and some were killed.

References

  1. 1 2 "Press Coverage of the Armenian Genocide". Armenian National Institute.
  2. Babkenian, Vicken (Fall 2012). "Stories of "International Goodness" during the Armenian Genocide". Genocide Prevention Now (11).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Armenian Genocide: frontpage coverage in the foreign media". Genocide Museum.
  4. "Online exhibition on front-page coverage of Armenian Genocide opened". PanArmenian.net. June 24, 2009. Publications with particular photos are predominantly remarkable for they convey valuable information about genocide as a phenomenon, its process and consequences.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Kloian, Richard (1988). The Armenian genocide: news accounts from the American press, 1915-1922. Anto Printing.
  6. "Armenian National Institute Announces Major Expansion of its Website on the Armenian Genocide". Genocide Watch.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tellalian Kyrkostas, Margaret C. "U.S. Media Coverage". University of Minnesota: Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies.
  8. Kateb, Vahe (2003). "Australian press coverage of the Armenian genocide 1915-1923". University of Wollongong.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. Ashford, Karen (2012). "The Globe"'s representation of the Armenian genocide and Canada's acknowledgement. University of Windsor (Canada). ISBN   9780494772485.
  10. Herzig, edited by Edmund; Kurkchiyan, Marina (2005). The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. Abingdon, Oxon, Oxford: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN   0203004930.{{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  11. Andreopoulos, George J., ed. (1997). Genocide : conceptual and historical dimensions (1. paperback print. ed.). Philadelphia, Pa.: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN   0812216164.
  12. Yeghiayan, Vartkes (1990). The Armenian genocide and the trials of the young Turks. American Armenian International College Press.
  13. 1 2 Hovannisian, Richard, ed. (2007). The Armenian genocide cultural and ethical legacies. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. ISBN   978-1412835923.
  14. Lemkin, Raphael (2008). Michael J. Bazyler (ed.). Raphael Lemkin's dossier on the Armenian genocide : Turkish massacres of Armenians : (manuscript from Raphael Lemkin's collection, American Jewish Historical Society). Glendale, Calif.: Center for Armenian Remembrance. ISBN   978-0977715343.
  15. 1 2 3 Taylor, Jessica L. (2009). Through the Eyes of the "Post": American Media Coverage of the Armenian Genocide. East Tennessee State University. ISBN   978-1109213805.
  16. ""The Armenian Genocide: Frontpage Coverage in the Foreign Media" Exhibition in Beirut, Lebanon". Massis Post. May 2, 2012.
  17. Gerald Ottenbreit, Jr. (February 19, 2011). "Before the Silence". University of Michigan. Archived from the original on August 19, 2010. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  18. Der Matossian, Bedross (Summer 2011). "From Bloodless Revolution to Bloody Counterrevolution: The Adana Massacres of 1909". Genocide Studies and Prevention. 6 (2). University of Toronto Press: 155. doi:10.1353/gsp.2011.0123. Other scholars attempt to represent the acts of violence that took place at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries as part of a linear process that culminated in the extermination of the Armenians.
  19. Vahakn N. Dadrian, The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus (Providence, RI, and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995)
  20. Raymond H. Kévorkian, Le génocide des Arméniens (Paris: Jacob, 2006).
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Peltekian, Katia M. (April 23, 2008). "Daily Newspaper Reporting of The Armenian Genocide: Could They All Be Wrong?". Groong News Site.
  22. 1 2 3 Compiled by Dr. Lou Ann Matossian. "Minnesota Newspapers Reportage About the Armenian Genocide, 1915-22". University of Minnesota.
  23. Hevesi, Dennis (April 26, 1987). "ACROSS THE GENERATIONS, 1915 HAUNTS ARMENIANS". New York Times.
  24. Hovannisian, Richard, ed. (2008). The Armenian genocide cultural and ethical legacies. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. p. 98. ISBN   978-1412808910.
  25. "Russian-language newspaper Iskri". Genocide1915.
  26. "Les atrocités turques : Les enfants ont été jetés à la mer, les hommes ont été fusillés par paquets". Nouvelles Armenian Magazine.