Turkey, Armenians battle over genocide 100 years later

Corrections & Clarifications:A previous version of this article misstated the role Project 2015 played in the centennial commemoration.

ISTANBUL — Armenians from around the globe are in Istanbul for Friday's commemoration of what's been called the first genocide of modern times, when up to 1.5 million Armenians died in the massacres and deportations that began in 1915.

A century later, the bitterly contested history is hardly a thing of the past. Turkey continues to insist that the wartime killings were not genocide, while Armenians say Turkey's denial is an affront to a core part of their national identity.

"There is a question of political recognition of the genocide, but ultimately, it's about the Armenian story and history being incorporated into the collective memory of the countries where we live," said Nicolas Tavitian, director of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, who flew in from Brussels for the centennial.

"This isn't about Turks against Armenians, it's about recognizing what happened and acknowledging our history," he said.

Turkey has insisted for 100 years that those killed — mostly Christian Armenians and mostly Muslim Turks — were victims of civil war and unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed during World War I. Turkey's president reasserted that Thursday.

"The Armenian claims on the 1915 events, and especially the numbers put forward, are all baseless and groundless," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "Our ancestors did not persecute."

Erdogan angered the Armenian community by rescheduling a centennial commemoration of the Battle of Gallipoli on the same day of the genocide anniversary, inviting world leaders to attend the events.

Turkey considers the campaign to defend the Gallipoli peninsula from a European assault one of its most glorious triumphs and a precursor to the creation of the modern Turkish state in the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

In schools, Turkish textbooks describe the Armenians as "dishonorable and treacherous," and students are taught that Armenians were forcibly relocated to protect Turkish citizens from attacks. An exhibition at the Istanbul Military Museum features photographs of Ottoman Turks mutilated and slaughtered by Armenian gangs.

According to a recent poll by the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, an independent think-tank based in Istanbul, less than 10% of Turks say their government should recognize the mass killings of Armenians as genocide.

Historians largely dispute Turkey's version of events.

"There was certainly a lot of fog of war violence, and no doubt some percentage of Armenians died through starvation and not state policy, but it doesn't change the facts that the state had a sustained program to destroy the Armenians as a population," said Howard Eissenstat, a historian at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.

Last week, the European Parliament joined Pope Francis in urging Turkey to recognize the massacre of Armenians in 1915 as a genocide. Francis' remarks this month angered Turkey, prompting the government to recall its ambassador to the Vatican.

Eissenstat said Turkey is unlikely to change its stance.

"The genocide label would put the Ottoman Empire in the same category as Nazi Germany, which means being identified with the bad guys and having a moment of national creation linked to the greatest of crimes," Eissenstat said. "If Turkey is recognized as having committed a genocide in an international forum, it can potentially have legal repercussions."

There are some signs of a softened tone. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu offered his condolences Monday to the descendants of Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks, saying Turkey shared their pain.

"It's a step forward, but Turkey has a long way to go," said Sarah Leah Whitson, a board member of Project 2015, which helped Armenians participate in the centennial commemoration.

The killings were "put in place by what was ultimately a small number of government officials," she said, "and a larger number of people who were following orders."