Was 1915 Massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks Genocide">Genocide

?

18 March 2010

A wall-sized poster depicting the faces of 90 survivors of the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, in Yerevan, Armenia, 20 Apr 2005

A U.S. congressional panel has described as genocide the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

The non-binding resolution in the House Foreign Affairs Committee recommends that President Barak Obama recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. The measure was passed by a narrow 23 to 22 vote with one member not participating.

The Obama administration opposed the resolution. After the measure passed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. does not believe the full House of Representatives will or should vote on the resolution.

Turkey's reaction was swift. Ankara said the measure accused the Turkish nation of a crime it had not committed. Its ambassador to Washington Namik Tan was recalled for consultations. And Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated he might not attend a mid-April nuclear energy summit in Washington hosted by President Obama.

Historians agree Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire - what was to become Turkey - during World War I. But not all agree that it was genocide.

Genocide

Ronald Suny, an expert on Armenia with the University of Chicago, defines genocide. "The definition of genocide that is most often used is the official U.N. definition in the Genocide Convention of the late 1940s. And that definition argues that a genocide is the intentional killing of all or part of a designated people defined by their faith, their race, their ethnicity or their nationality," he said.