Armenia: genocide or carelessness?

Armenians around the world mark this Thursday as 'Armenian Genocide Day'. On this day in 1915, a pogrom began of the Armenians in Constantinople.  Armenians say 1.5 million were deliberately exterminated during the First World War. 

Turks, who celebrate National Sovereignty Day on Wednesday, do not deny 'events', but say many of their own people died too amid general mayhem. If Armenians succumbed to harsh conditions while being moved (as a 'fifth column' suspected of siding with the Russian enemy) from northeastern Anatolia to Syria, it was because the authorities were not interested in treating them properly.

Whether the proper term is genocide is still a live political controversy:

• Armenia and the Armenian diaspora -- mostly descended from Ottoman refugees -- insist on spreading their version in order to be revenged on a racial enemy.
• Turks, as a matter of honour, deny it – "the national character does not allow it to commit such crimes", Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said recently.
• Others align themselves with one or the other side.  In Bulgaria, anti-Turkish ultra-nationalists recently sponsored a genocide recognition bill; in Denmark, it was the far-right Danish People's Party.  Israel, an ally of Turkey, withholds recognition -- as long as Ankara behaves itself.

Turkey's international weight has prevented all but a few countries taking the Armenian line, although they include France, which has made genocide denial a criminal offence.  A move to recognise it lies before the US Congress, but President George Bush managed to stall it after Ankara threatened to restrict aerial access to Iraq.  Presidential candidate John McCain opposes Resolution 106, valuing Turkey as a US ally.  Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both support it -- although her husband dodged the issue for his eight years in office.

In 2007, Turkey proposed a joint historical commission to establish the truth -- in itself, a step forward.  Whether the commission succeeds in reaching agreement on the terminology hardly matters -- a lot of people died at a time of war because other people hated them for who they were.