Folkemordet på armenerne er det nest mest studerte folkemordet i verdenshistorien. Vedrørende kurderne, så kan nevnes at tusener av armenere ble drept av osmanske soldater og kurdiske stammer allerede under de såkalte hamidiske massakrene (1894–1896), også referert til som de armenske massakrene og de store massakrene.
Under de hamidiske massakrene ble omkring 300.000 armenere, og en del assyrere, drept. For selv om massakrene rettet seg mot armenerne gikk de over til å bli anti-kristne pogromer, slik som i Diyarbekir hvor 25.000 assyriere ble drept. Det ble ikke gjort noe skille mellom armenske nasjonalister og den armenske befolkningen. Man massakrerte samtlige.
Beleiringen av Van, også kjent som Van motstanden eller Van opprøret, var et opprør mot Det osmanske rikets forsøk på å massakrere den armenske befolkningen i Van, som for det meste besto av armenere, den 20. april. Den osmanske regjeringen startet den væpnede armenske motstanden gjennom å legge forholdene til rette for det for deretter å kunne benytte seg av dette opprøret til å rettferdiggjøre den tvungne deportasjonen av armenere fra hele riket. Det var et forsvar av Van.
Guvernøren av Van, Jevdet Bey, som var svigerbror til Enver Pasha, planla å drepe alle menn i Van og angrep byen under påskudd av å hindre et opprør. Russerne erobret byen i mai 1915, men forlot den allerede i august, og osmanerne tok igjen kontroll over byen. Så ble de igjen fordrevet av russerne i september. Ved krigens slutt lå byen i ruiner.
Fire dager etter at urolighetene startet i Van, den 24. april 1915, som i dag er en offisiell helligdag i Armenia til minne om disse henrettelsene, arresterte regjeringen etter osmanske kilder 2.345 armenske intellektuelle, hvor av de fleste ble henrettet.
Den 25. mai 1915 beordret innenriksminister Talat Pasja tvungen deportering av hundretusener, muligens over en million armenere, fra hele Øst-Anatolia til Mesopotamia og til det som i dag er Syria. Under deporteringen døde mange armenere av sult og kulde, og mange ble angrepet, plyndret og drept av kurdiske landveisrøvere eller av tyrkiske soldater.
25 større konsentrasjonsleire eksisterte og sto under kommando av Şükrü Kaya, en av Talat Pashas nærmeste medarbeidere. Majoriteten av disse leirene var plassert nær grensen til Irak og Syria. Noen av disse ble kun brukt som massegraver, som Radjo, Katma, og Azaz, og ble stengt høsten 1915, mens andre, inkludert Lale, Tefridje, Dipsi, Del-El, og Ra’s al-’Ain, ble bygget spesifikt for dem som man forventet ikke ville komme til å overleve mer enn noen få dager. Mange ble brent, druknet, forgiftet og regelrett henrettet i disse leirene.
Kurdish Parliament In Exile Recognizes Genocide
BRUSSELS – The Kurdish Parliament in Exile, passed a resolution recognizing and marking the Armenian Genocide Thursday. Below is the entire text of that resolution, which is being reprinted in its entirety and without any editorial posturing. To The Public Opinion
In Kurdistan, together with the Kurdish people, live Assyrian-Syrians as well as Armenians.
Invasion, occupation and division of Kurdistan, has not only affected the Kurds but also the Assyrian-Syrians as well as the Armenian peoples. Imposed colonialist policies have set these people against the Kurdish people and against each other, have created clashes and forced deportations and exiles. In our country, by setting the peoples against each other, the bloodiest imposed period of colonialist policies is 1915 and the few years following that.
On April 24, 1915, the decision of mass genocide and annihilation of the Assyrian-Syrian and the Armenian peoples was taken by the Ottoman Empire.
The blueprints of and the logistics for this genocide being prepared ahead of time, they employed Hamidiye Alaylari from Kurdish tribes (Similar to the present day Village Guards system who kill our people) to commit history’s, until then unknown, Genocide. In this Genocide, millions of Armenians and Assyrian-Syrians were killed, and millions others were deported from their homes and land and scattered to the four corners of the world.
The Turkish State which practices policies of setting peoples and people of diverse opinions against each other, still pursues the same repulsive policies at the end of the 20th century. Similar to setting-up Alevis and Sunnis against each other, they set-up the Kurdish people against each other through their creation, the Village Guards, which consist of Kurdish Jahshs. Separately, through their diverse assaults to annihilate the Kurdish people, they are registering new pages in the annals of genocides.
The Turkish State regime, from history to our days, has worked against the peoples, as if a guilty party, and with her committed genocides has changed the demographics of Anatolia causing the demise of many cultures-civilizations. The same policies are being applied in Kurdistan today. I call upon the world public opinion to become aware of this Turkish State policies and vehemently oppose it.
Today is the 82nd anniversary of the genocide committed against the Assyrian-Syrian and Armenian peoples. Sharing the agony caused by this process, I find the Ottoman State and their collaborators the Hamidiye Alaylari, formed by some Kurdish tribes, responsible for this crime before history and I condemn them with abhorrence. Zubeyir Aydar Chairman of the Executive Committee
PKK leader expressed condolences to Armenian people on Genocide Remembrance Day
A leader of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) Murat Karayilan expressed his condolences to Armenian people on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. He stressed that April 24 became a day of Armenians’ massacre, killings and displacement 96 years ago. “For this reason, Armenian people are spread around the world. Turkey should accept its history. No matter how it was called, a genocide or displacement, the Armenian people were massacred. The denial of this truth is of no benefit to anyone,” he noted, Firat agency reports.
Kurdish recognition of the Armenian Genocide
Kurdish recognition of the Armenian Genocide is the recognition of the Kurdish participation in the ethnic cleansing of Armenians during World War I, when Kurdish tribal forces (as well as Turks and Muslims from various Caucasian tribes) attacked and killed Armenian civilians and refugees. In several of the Kurdish regions, the Kurds participated in the genocide of the Armenians while others opposed the genocide, in many cases even hiding or adopting Armenian refugees. Kurds in prison were given amnesty and released from prison if they would massacre the Armenians.
RA NA vice speaker hails Turkish MP’s call to apologize for Genocide
The vice speaker of Armenian parliament hailed the statement of a Turkish MP Ahmet Turk, urging for recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
“I welcome Turk’s call for his country to come to terms with its past. Turkish leadership must follow the MP’s suit in apologizing to Armenian people for this crime against humanity,” Eduard Sharmazanov said.
Earlier, the main mediator in the negotiations between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan and the leader of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan, Turkish MP Ahmet Türk commented on the role of Kurds in the Armenian Genocide.
According to Milliyet daily, Türk said, “It is high time, we came to terms with our past. Our forefathers and ancestors of Ottomans massacred Armenians, Assyrians and Yezidis. Our ancestors’ hands are stained with the blood of Armenians, Assyrians and Yezidis. We are obliged to apologize to Armenian descendants. The apology means a lot for our future. I hope Turkey will admit the truth and will apologize to Armenians. That’s historical necessity. Turkish authorities can’t deny the fact that a state decision was taken to annihilate thousands of Armenians, Assyrians and Yezidis during the Ottoman Empire. It won’t be difficult to apologize as the massacres were committed before the establishment of the Turkish State.”
PRK/Rizgari (Kurdistan Liberation Party)
“Our party conference denounces the massive genocide against the Armenians in 1915 as a black stain on the history of mankind. Our conference acknowledges that this bloody course of action, in which Kurdish feudal lords participated as collaborateurs of the Ottoman-Turkish colonialists, constitutes a historical injustice,”, said a resolution of the party conference of the PRK/Rizgari (Kurdistan Liberation Party).
Kurdish Leader Apologizes for Role in Genocide
Pro-Kurdish party leader apologizes to Armenians for 1915 incidents
Kurdistan Recognizes the Armenian Genocide
The Kurds and the Armenian Genocide
Kurdish recognition of the Armenian genocide
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