A cynical thought on Armenian genocide, genocide in general, & politics

[yurbud]

Maybe somebody else figured this out a long time ago, but the publicity in America about the genocide coincided with the West's push to break up the Ottoman Empire.

Once it was gone and replaced with Western colonies and a neutral to pro-West Turkey, our government saw no self-interest in pushing the issue, so it was swept under the carpet for most of the last hundred years.

That would also fit the pattern of genocides that get noticed in our media and that seemingly prompt action from our government.

By contrast, ones like that in Indonesia in the 60's or East Timor a decade and a half later are unknown here beyond academic circles.

[merrily]

1. Thanks. Good points. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Throd]

2. There are genocides going on right this moment in varying scales.

But they are in far-flung places involving people wearing funny clothes, so most of the media doesn't give a shit.

[yurbud]

5. especially if the right people are doing the killing

[The Magistrate]

3. Hard To Know What You are Talking About, Sir

Pogroms against Armenians became a feature of ottoman life in the late nineteenth century, when, as a Christian minority much involved in finance, they were handy scape-goats for popular outrage against Ottoman decline and Western ( read Christian in the agitator's argot at the time ) meddling.

The principal episode occurred during the Great War, in which Turkey allied with Germany, and naturally received a good deal of play at the time. The mutually atrocious conduct of parties in the Greco-Turkish War of the early twenties kept the thing to the fore for a while; that was the war which established the present Turkish Republic, under Gen. Kemal.

[yurbud]

4. my point was not how much went on, but why it got play with our press and government

and then didn't.

[KamaAina]

6. There was no Armenian genocide which you cannot prove so stop saying that!

Oh, wait a minute, I'm not Turkish!

[yurbud]

7. the Turkish PM made a half apology, and the comments on the RT article are incredibly rude

http://rt.com/news/154344-turkey-armenia-genocide-erdogan/

[KamaAina]

8. That's actually half more than ever before!

[WatermelonRat]

9. The Armenian genocide happened just a few years before the Ottoman Empire broke up.

Of course it received more press attention during that time period than in the ninety years since then.

You're dead on about there being a lot less mention of it by politicians after Turkey became our ally, though.