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White genocide (Armenians)

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White genocide (Armenian: սպիտակ ցեղասպանություն, romanized: spitak tseghaspanutyun) is a descriptive term that is used in the Armenian diaspora,[1][2][3][4][5][6] for the threat of assimilation, especially in the Western world.[7][8]

During the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, the Armenians who lived in their ancestral lands that were then part of the Ottoman Empire were targeted for systematic extermination. From 1894 to 1896, up to 300,000 Armenians were killed in the Hamidian massacres.[9] From 1915 to 1923, the Armenian genocide took the lives of around 1.5 million Armenians, who were killed by the Ottoman government.[10]

The German political scientist Christoph Zürcher notes:

"Genocide" became a key word, which had several connotations. "White" genocide or "white" massacre denoted the repression, assimilation, or forced migration of Armenians from their historical lands (which were far larger than Soviet Armenia and included Karabakh, as well as areas belonging to contemporary Turkey).[11]

Western Armenians consider Armenians who assimilate to the local population of the country to which they were eventually forced to emigrate (such as United States, France, Argentina, Brazil and Canada) as lost to their nation because of the continuing exile after the actual genocide itself, and they thus consider that lost Armenian to be another victim of the genocidal attempt to eliminate the Armenians.[12][13]

The term has also been used by some Armenians to describe the discrimination and assimilation against Armenians since 1918 in Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhchivan, which has caused Armenians to leave their homes.[14][15][16][17][18][19] Some have also used it for the Javakheti, which includes an Armenian population.[20] Slogan "cultural genocide" was applied for the 2023 ethnic cleansing of the Armenians in Karabach.[21]

Genocidal massacres (1918–present)

Name Date Location Deaths
September Days 1918 Baku 30,000[22]
Khaibalikend massacre 1919 Ghaibalishen 700[23]
Agulis massacre 1919 Yuxarı Əylis 1,400
Muslim uprisings in Kars and Sharur–Nakhichevan 1919 Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic 10,000
Shusha massacre 1920 Nagorno-Karabakh 20,000[24]
Kars-Gümrü massacres 1920 Kars 10,000[25][26]
Sumgait pogrom 1988 Sumgait 200
1988 violence in Shusha and Stepanakert 1988 Nagorno-Karabakh 1[27]
Kirovabad pogrom 1988 Ganja 130
Baku pogrom 1990 Baku 90
Operation Ring 1991 Nagorno-Karabakh 50
Siege of Stepanakert 1991–1992 Stepanakert 169[28]
Maraga massacre 1992 Maragha 100
1994 Bagratashen bombing 1994 Bagratashen 12
Assassination of Hrant Dink 2007 Şişli 1
Murder of Gurgen Margaryan 2004 Budapest 1
Murder of Sevag Balıkçı 2011 Batman 1
2014 Armenian Mil Mi-24 shootdown 2014 Kəngərli 3
2020 bombardment of Stepanakert 2020 Stepanakert 13[29]
Aras Valley campaign 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh 40[30]
2020 bombardment of Martuni 2020 Martuni 5
Armenia–Azerbaijan border crisis (2021–present) 2021–present Armenia–Azerbaijan border 19[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ Armenian Church: 1976–1980, Volumes 19–23, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, p. 30, "The Armenian community is shaken in all parts of the world by civil war, revolution, and the "white genocide" of assimilation."
  2. ^ Conflict Studies, Issues 223–236, Current Affairs Research Service Centre, 1989, p. 1 " ...subject to being assimilated, a situation referred to by some Armenians as the "white genocide."
  3. ^ Carolin Alfonso, Waltraud Kokot, Khachig Tölölyan. Diaspora, Identity and Religion: New Directions in Theory and Research, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 9780203401057, p. 72 "Interethnic marriages, on the other hand, would eventually lead to a loss of identity and to so-called 'white genocide'; 'white genocide' is a popular term describing the threat of assimilation used in the dominant discourse of identity in Armenian diaspora communities all over the world."
  4. ^ Huberta Von Vos. Portraits of Hope: Armenians in the Contemporary World, Berghahn Books, 2007, ISBN 9781845452575, p. 128 "The catholicos is thoroughly opposed to the growing assimilation of diaspora Armenians, and coins for it a strong term, for it: 'white genocide', or also 'disappearance by assimilation'."
  5. ^ The re-appropriation of the past: History and politics in Soviet Armenia, 1988—1991, Harvard University, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2003. p. 392 "For example, environmental degradation was 'ecological genocide,' while assimilation and outmigration were viewed as 'white genocide'."
  6. ^ We are thankful for the blessing of hope, Armenian Reporter, November 29, 2008 "It was hope of survival as a people that kept 'White Genocide' at bay. It was hope of a return to the homeland that nurtured generations and trained them to love the ethereal idea of a homeland."
  7. ^ MultiCultural Review: Dedicated to a Better Understanding of Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Diversity, Volume 7, GP Subscription Publications, 1998, p. 12 "Armenian Americans face other challenges. Kasbarian describes the "White Genocide," the gradual assimilation of Armenian immigrants and their descen- dents into the broader American culture...".
  8. ^ Melkonian, Markar (2004). My brother's road: an American's fateful journey to Armenia. London: I. B. Tauris. p. 78. ISBN 9781850436355. ...by facilitating Armenian emigration from the Middle East to assimilation in the West, the Council had implicated itself in a "white genocide" that would put the oldest and strongest Armenian communities of the diaspora.
  9. ^ Akçam, Taner (2006) A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility p. 42, Metropolitan Books, New York ISBN 978-0-8050-7932-6
  10. ^ Derderian, Katharine (2005). "Common Fate, Different Experience: Gender-Specific Aspects of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 19 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1093/hgs/dci001. ISSN 8756-6583. PMID 20684092. the figure of 1.5 million people is generally accepted as a reasonable estimate
  11. ^ Zürcher, Christoph (2007). The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus. New York: New York University Press. p. 156. ISBN 9780814797099.
  12. ^ Donald Eugene Miller, Lorna Touryan Miller, Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide, p. 166
  13. ^ Waltraud Kokot, Diaspora, Identity and Religion: new directions in theory and research, p. 72
  14. ^ New Times, New Times Publishing House, 1994 "This would inevitably result in a "final solution," a new carnage of Karabakh Armenians or, at best, if international control is established, in "white genocide," that is, the breaking up and ousting of the national group by economic means...".
  15. ^ Tsypylma Darieva, Wolfgang Kaschuba. Representations on the Margins of Europe: Politics and Identities in the Baltic and South Caucasian States, Campus Verlag GmbH, 2007, ISBN 9783593382418, p. 111 "Thus, the notion of 'genocide', as perceived by the people, included the expressions 'white genocide' (bearing in mind the example of the ethnic cleansing of Nakhichevan and Nagorno- Karabagh of Armenians)...".
  16. ^ Ole Høiris, Sefa Martin Yürükel. Contrasts and solutions in the Caucasus, Aarhus Univ. Press, 1998, ISBN 9788772887081, p. 234 "...the Azerbaijanization of Nakhichevan is called a 'white genocide', that is, one that operates by erasure of evidence of Armenian residence"
  17. ^ Mark Malkasian, Gha-ra-bagh!: the emergence of the national democratic movement in Armenia, p. 56
  18. ^ Stuart J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War, p. 55
  19. ^ James Sperling, S. Victor Papacosma, Limiting Institutions?: the challenge of Eurasian security governance, p. 51
  20. ^ Yerevan protest urges respect for Armenian cultural heritage in Georgia, BBC Monitoring Central Asia, December 11, 2009
  21. ^ Maranci, Christina, (October 12, 2023). "What cultural genocide look like for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh," Time, https://time.com/6322574/cultural-genocide-armenia-nagorno-karabakh-essay/
  22. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1967). Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 227, 312, note 36. ISBN 0-520-00574-0.
  23. ^ Wright, John F. R. (1996). Transcaucasian Boundaries. Psychology Press. p. 99. ISBN 9780203214473.
  24. ^ "The Nagorno-Karabagh Crisis: A Blueprint for Resolution" (PDF). Public International Law & Policy Group and the New England Center for International Law & Policy. June 2000. p. 3. In August 1919, the Karabagh National Council entered into a provisional treaty agreement with the Azerbaijani government. Despite signing the Agreement, the Azerbaijani government continuously violated the terms of the treaty. This culminated in March 1920 with the Azerbaijanis' massacre of Armenians in Karabagh's former capital, Shusha, in which it is estimated that more than 20,000 Armenians were killed.
  25. ^ Armenia: The Survival of a Nation, Christopher Walker, 1980.
  26. ^ Akçam, Taner (2007). A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility. pp. 327. - Profile at Archived 10 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine Google Books
  27. ^ Gha-ra-bagh!: The Emergence of the National Democratic Movement in Armenia, By Mark Malkasian, Wayne State University Press, 1996, pp. 143-144
  28. ^ Denber, Rachel (July 1993). Bloodshed in the Caucasus: Indiscriminate Bombing and Shelling by Azerbaijani Forces in Nagorno Karabakh (PDF). Human Rights Watch/Helsinki. pp. 11, 5.
  29. ^ "Azerbaijan shelling Karabakh's capital, civilian settlements". PanARMENIAN.Net. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  30. ^ * "Defense Ministry: Intense fighting continued during night (VIDEO)". Trend News Agency. 29 September 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  31. ^ "Three Armenian servicemen killed in ongoing Azerbaijani attacks". Armenpress. 28 July 2021. Archived from the original on 28 July 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
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