The Deported

<p><pre><code> “I wish,” Talaat now said, “that you would get the American life-insurance companies to send us a complete list of their Armenian policy holders. They are practically all dead now and have left no heirs to collect the money. It of course all escheats to the state. The government is the beneficiary now. Will you do so?” </code></pre> If anybody else is wondering what happened with some of those life insurance policies, The New York Life Insurance Company attempted to pay out 2,200 unclaimed policies in 2004[1]. That&#x27;s only after avoiding it for almost a century, and it&#x27;s still unclear how many were actually claimed in the end.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2001&#x2F;04&#x2F;12&#x2F;us&#x2F;insurer-to-pay-armenian-massacre-claims.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2001&#x2F;04&#x2F;12&#x2F;us&#x2F;insurer-to-pay-armenia...</a>

&gt;We base our objections to the Armenians<p>Objection to an ethnicity. Key indicator of genocide for any action taken based on such an objection.<p>&gt;on three distinct grounds. In the first place, they have enriched themselves at the expense of the Turks. In the second place, they are determined to domineer over us and to establish a separate state. In the third place, they have openly encouraged our enemies. They have assisted the Russians in the Caucasus, and our failure there is largely explained by their actions.<p>Reads almost verbatim just like Nazi Germany on Jews back then or Nazi Russia on Ukrainians today.<p>&gt; We have therefore come to the irrevocable decision that we shall make them powerless before this war is ended.”<p>Again very similar to the perception of themselves as the master race (Nazi Germany) or the master nation (Nazi Russia) and thus perceiving themselves as having the right to act in such a way.

Huh... Bing and DDG both seem to avoid autocomplete for &quot;Armenian Genocide&quot; - requiring one to type it out almost completely. Google suggests it early on, as one would expect.

These are NATO members.

As a Turk with very little interest to History, would like to share my guesses about viewpoints of these characters have.<p>First of all I am very impressed about how modern the ambassador is for 192X. He is Liberal exactly like someone from USA would be today.<p>Now! Liberalism is not a idea that is easily accessible back then. Let alone find a any group of people that will backup you in this way. Even in current Turkey&#x27;s politics: only 2-3 parties are viable in election and they are all about deciding whether country should go Muslim-National (Auth-Right but Muslim Traders Only) or National-National (Auth-Left)<p>Considering that Ottoman Empire was multi-cultural gaint and considering that literacy of people of Ottoman Empire were about low as %10. People from same culture&#x2F;race&#x2F;religion lived near together and even tho there have been problems here and there, they were probably doing fine like humanity of today.<p>But when once-in-a-life-time event occurs and you find yourself survived a war but your old government is colepsed; and the New authority (politicly) doesn&#x27;t look anything different from a group of revolters&#x2F;rioters from at your standpoint. Who can you trust in the middle of all this chaos other than people of your race&#x2F;culture&#x2F;religion.<p>Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Muslims Cults&#x2F;Sheiks, Old Ottoman Government&#x27;s supporters, all rioted and tried to overthrown the new authority of TBMM (team Ataturk&#x2F;Republic) within very near time spans.<p>At that point it must have been normal to react to these &#x27;issues&#x27; with this much aggression.<p>Calling it &#x27;Ptsd of an authority&#x27; would sum it maybe.<p>Still the whole event is presumably a overkill&#x2F;genocide when we take a look at from the current perspective.

&gt; Talaat’s first objection was merely an admission that the Armenians were more industrious and more able than the dull-witted and lazy Turks<p>Right. I wonder, precisely how bias is this great ambassador against the Turks?<p>Do you know what the truth behind it all is? Nations are violent. They tend to overreact in terrible murderous ways. What’s worse, their will always be enough support in the hardliners in their population. Look at world history: the Americans committed genocide against the Natives with the support of the majority (heck more than half today pretend like nothing wrong happened). The British and French and Japanese committed genocide (all over the world) with the support of a population pretending like they are spreading civilization. The British were literally smuggling opium into China despite a ban by the Chinese. The Germans murdered millions in an attempt to ethnically cleanse with the support of their people. The Israelis are currently ethnically cleansing Palestine — and it is the Israeli people themselves who are doing this.<p>States are violent. Savage. Terrible in their overreactions and they tend to overreact. If the Armenians did indeed sabotage the Turks during the war with Russia then they should have fled or taken up arms right against the Turks when their sabotage failed to lead to a complete defeat of the Turks. In any country west or east — rebelling against the government and aiding foreign adversaries is going to lead to violence and that violence is going to be supported by the people.<p>Terrible world we live in where those that rise to power are savage in their pursuit of increasing&#x2F;maintaining power.

&gt; “You are making a terrible mistake,” I said, and I repeated the statement three times.<p>&gt; “Yes, we may make mistakes,” he replied, “but”—and he firmly closed his lips and shook his head—“we never regret.”<p>And they never did. They don’t even acknowledge it. Interesting to contrast the response of the German state to its genocide and that of Turkey’s.<p>&gt; We base our objections to the Armenians on three distinct grounds. In the first place, they have enriched themselves at the expense of the Turks.<p>Similar reasoning and calls for genocide are routine by the ideologues in power in Tamil Nadu, India: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.deccanherald.com&#x2F;amp&#x2F;national&#x2F;south&#x2F;dmk-spokesperson-supports-periyar-s-call-for-killing-brahmins-subramanian-swamy-moves-ec-1116752.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.deccanherald.com&#x2F;amp&#x2F;national&#x2F;south&#x2F;dmk-spokespe...</a> Thankfully no large scale violence so far though, they have just stuck to the rhetoric.

And with all that genocide talk, Turkey is a NATO member and was(technically is?) an EU candidate. Moreover, rumors are, Finland and Sweden will submit to Turkish demands regarding Kurds. Turkey has also led a military campaign against Armenia together with their satellite just recently. Maybe it really doesn’t bother western liberal democracies whether genocide happened. And it’s only used as a tool.

alright, experienced Turk here. I have been living abroad almost 8 years already... Ask me anything...

<i>&quot;On every one of these points, I had plenty of arguments in rebuttal. Talaat’s first objection was merely an admission that the Armenians were more industrious and more able than the dull-witted and lazy Turks.&quot;</i><p>... something turntables ...