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[quote="TeachEnglish"]Hmmm.. were there 2 million deaths..or is that an exaggeration? The last thing I read stated that there were only about 1.5 million Armenians living in the area at the time.. and it would have been very difficult to kill 2 million.. quote]

One side always comes out with the crap that there were only so many Armenians living in '''the area'' at the time so the number of dead can only be a fraction of what the other side says.

Firstly many Armenians were driven out/fled other areas such as Adana and of course fled to ''the area'' that was mentioned-safety in numbers and possible protection form Russia. Secondly accurate records are not available which of course is exploited by one side to put the number of ''flu deaths'' at a low amount.

[justme]

[k2everest]

For those interested read Justin McCarthy's book Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims.
First, he shows the other side of the 'terrible Turk' myth, that Turks were wiped in vast numbers during the Balkan wars and the war of independence.

Secondly, he denies that a systematic and intentional effort was made to wipe out the Armenians. In other words he (along with Stanford Shaw and Bernard Lewis) denies the Turks were guilty of genocide, and that the X-mllion of victims were those of war.

McCarthy himself is very involved in this issue and has lobbied congress to prevent the passing of a resolution categorizing it as genocide.

My impression is that it was however some sort of ethnic cleansing, that the Armenians were driven in to the desert with the intention of wiping them out. That the Russians and Armenians were combatants doesn't alter the fact. That people like McCarthy, Shaw and Lewis say that after decades in the Turkish archives they have not found eny evidence of intentionality on the part of the Turkish authorities is hardly surprising. Given the incredibly sensitive and politicized nature of this issue such categorical evidence if it exists, and if it is found, would be unlikely ever to be made public.

By and large McCarthy is an excellent scholar, on this though I think he is wrong and takes too benevolent a view of his evidence.

[ImanH]

As promised, dmb.
When I asked her for an unbiased source, her response was "It hasn't been written yet".
Some are in English, some in Turkish.
Happy reading!

From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide Taner Akcam Zed Books

Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko-Armenian Conflict
~Vahakn N. Dadrian Transaction Publishers

The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus Vahakn Dadrian Berghahn Books

Remembrance and Denial: Case of the Armenian Genocide
Richard G. Hovannisian (Editor) Wayne State University Press

Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Confronting the Armenian Genocide
~Richard G. Hovannisian (Editor) Transaction Publishers

German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicit ~Vahakn N. Dadrian
Blue Crane Books, Inc Paperback - July 1998

The Armenian Genocide: The Young Turks Before the Judgment of History
~John S. Kirakossian, Shushan Sltunian (Translator)
Sphinx Pr

[dmb]