BEYOND REVISIONISM | Britannica's Entries

Mavi Boncuk |

BEYOND REVISIONISM

A review of Britannica's entries on TURKEY and/or THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE from 1922 through the present will uncover three waves of revisionism with respect to the portrayal of the Armenian Genocide. The first wave - the most crude of the three - took place between 1922 and 1929 and left its mark to this day. The second wave - more subtle - took place between 1982 and 1985 in the Macropedia series. The third wave - equally subtle - took place between 1992 and 1995 in the Micropedia series.

The First Wave :
In the Eleventh edition of Britannica, issued in 1922, W.J.Childs (of British Intelligence background), contributor of the entry on the OTTOMAN EMPIRE, had described the Armenian massacres as follows:

With the Empire at war and the Committee (CUP) in Power, the Turkish Government resolved to execute their cherished scheme for the complete "Turkification" of Asia Minor…But "Turkification" was aimed chiefly against the Armenians, who were to be exterminated. During 1915-16 organized massacres and deportations were carried out systematically, to the extent of almost uprooting the Armenian race from Asia Minor. Hundreds of thousands were slaughtered; hundreds of thousands set marching for Syria and Mesopotamia perished on the way by hardship, disease, starvation; those who escaped became fugitives; from first to last at least three quarters of a million Armenians perished in Asia Minor in a population of less than two million. (33)

The coverage of the same events in Britannica's Fourteenth edition, in 1929, under the entry TURKEY contributed by Turkish historian A.A. Adnan had little resemblance to the one above. It read as follows:

During the Turco-Russian battles on the Caucasian Front, the Armenians created disturbances behind the Turkish lines and threatened to cut the lines of communications. The Turkish government began a general deportation in which atrocities were committed on a large scale. When General Antranik, the Russo-Armenian general, entered eastern Anatolia, the Armenian soldiers under his command, the so-called "Christian Army of Revenge," replied by similar atrocities. (34)

No reference to any "scheme of Turkification aimed against the Armenians" or to what General J.G.Harbord called "the most colossal crime of all ages (involving) violation, torture and mutilation" (35).

The one-sided slaughter of unarmed civilians by armed government forces, the event which had inspired contemporaries to write books titled The Murder of a Nation (36), The Martyrdom of a People (37), The Blackest Page of Modern History (38), The Extermination of Turkey's Christians (39), Martyred Armenia (40), Death's Ride in Anatolia and Armenia (41) and many others, had been reduced to intercommunal clashes in which both perpetrator and victim share the blame equally.

In order to rationalize the slaughter of innocent Armenians (including women and children) by accusing them of acts of sabotage, historian Adnan would have had to dismiss the verdict of the 1919 Turkish Military tribunal which found that the deportations were neither a measure of military necessity nor a punitive, disciplinary act (42). He would have had to ignore statements made by fellow Turks, officials in the post-war Turkish government and members of the intelligentsia who condemned the Ittihadist crimes against the Armenians in unequivocal terms. Foremost among them, none other than Moustafa Kemal (Ataturk), founder and First President of the Republic of Turkey who declared that Turkey's wartime leaders "should have been made to account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred" (43). Also others too numerous to mention here.(44)

Turkish historian Adnan's fabulous narration of the Armenian genocide carried the day for 42 issues in 45 years. The only concession Britannica ever made to reality was to specify that the atrocities committed by the Armenian soldiers were "on a far smaller scale" in 1946. However, starting from 1972, all reference to atrocities committed by either side was deleted. (45)

The Second Wave
In Britannica's Fifteenth edition the Armenian Genocide is covered, in the Macropedia series, under the entry Ottoman Empire and Turkey, History of, from 1974 through 1982 and under Turkey and Ancient Anatolia from 1985 on. The contributor is Historian Malcolm Edward Yapp. The 1974 issue reads as follows:

During the war the Young Turks also took the opportunity to attack certain internal problems…and the Armenian community in eastern Asia Minor and Cilicia was massacred or deported as part of a deliberate policy of eliminating one cause of European interference. Possibly a million Armenians either fled or were killed (principally by Kurdish irregulars) or deported.(46)

In this initial version, where the Armenians are portrayed as innocent pawns in European politics, it is clear that the genocide was not provoked by Armenian misbehaviour but rather stemmed from the deliberate state policy of the Turkish government.

By the 1985 issue, however, this relatively innocuous passage had transmogrified, under the pen of the same historian, to a different version in which the Armenian role was transformed from one of innocent pawn to that of potential collaborator. Also, the admission of premeditation implied in "deliberate policy" has been withdrawn. Thus:

During the war the Young Turks also took the opportunity to attack certain internal problems…and the Armenian community in eastern Asia Minor and Cilicia (47) was massacred or deported to eliminate any domestic support for the pro-Christian tsarist enemy on the Eastern Front. Possibly a million Armenians either fled or were killed (principally by Kurdish irregulars) or deported. (48)

The Third Wave
In its attempt to whitewash the historical record of the perpetrator and shift the blame onto the victim, revisionism has not ignored the Micropedia series. The following comparison in the coverage of the Armenian Genocide between the 1992 and 1995 issues will illustrate this point:

In 1992:
During the late 19th century the millet system for the governance of minorities began to deteriorate and systematic persecution of Armenians began, culminating in the genocidal massacre of the Armenians during World War I. (49)

In 1995:
During the late 19th century the millet system, under which religious and ethnic minorities had been granted local autonomy (50), began to deteriorate, leading to growing unrest and culminating in the genocidal massacre of the Armenians during World War I. (51)

Whereas the earlier expression "systematic persecution of Armenians" was an unequivocal affirmation of Armenians having been victimized, the modified version "leading to growing unrest" leaves the reader wondering whether the Armenians were the targeted victims or the trouble-makers.