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NO GENOCIDE |
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QUESTION 8:
DID 1,5 MILLION ARMENIANS DIE DURING WORLD
WAR I?
Armenian propagandists claim that as many as
1, 5 to 2 million Armenians died as
the result of "massacres". Like the
rest of their claims, this also is
imaginary, with the
number claimed being exaggerated over time.
At first, immediately following the war
the Armenians claimed that as many as
600,000 had been killed. Later they raised
it to 800,000 and
now they talk about 1,5 million and tomorrow
they may talk even about
three million. The 1918 edition of
Encyclopedia Britannica said that 600,000
Armenians had been
killed; in its 1968 edition this was raised
to 1,5 million.
How many Armenians did die? It is impossible
to determine the number exactly,
since no complete death records of
statistics were kept during those years. The
only basis on
which even an estimate can be made is the
actual Armenian population in the
Ottoman Empire at the time. Even here
figures vary widely, with the Armenians
claiming far more
than other sources:
Claimed Armenian
Population
1. The Armenian author Leart, based on
figures Provided
by the Patriarchate of Istanbul 2,560,000
2. The Armenian historian Basmajian
2,380,000
3. The Armenian National Committee at the
Paris Peace
Conference 2,250,000
4. The Armenian historian Kevork Asian
1,800,000
5. The French Yellow Book 1,555,000
6. Encyclopedia Britannica 1,500,000
7. Constenson 1 400,000
8. Lynch 1,345,000
9. Official Ottoman census statistics for
1914 1,295,000
10. Annual Register (London) 1,056,000
Leaving aside the Armenian figures, which
are evidently exaggerated, the western
estimates vary between 1,056,000 and
1,555,000 which more or less correspond with
the official Ottoman census report of
1,295,000. How, then, could 1,5 million
Armenians have been massacred even
had every Armenian in the Empire been
killed, which of
course did not happen?
Therefore, what are the real Armenian
losses? Talat Pasha, in a report presented
to the last congress of the Union and
Progress Party, stated that this number was
estimated at around 300.000. Monseigneur
Touchet, a French clergyman, informed
the congress of "Oeuevre d'Orient" in
February 1916, that the number of dead is
thought to be
500.000, but added that this figure might
have been exaggerated.
Toynbee estimates the number of the
Armenian losses as 600.000. The same
figure appears in the Encyclopedia
Britannica's 1918 edition. Armenians had
also claimed the
same number before. Bogos Nubar, head of the
Armenian delegation at the
Paris Peace Conference, declared that
after the war 280.000 Armenians were living
in Turkey and 700.000 Armenians have
emigrated to other countries. According to
the estimation of Bogos Nubar, the
total number of the Armenian population
before the war was
1.300.000. Therefore, it can be concluded
that the number of the
Armenian losses was around 300.000.
This figure reflects the same proportion,
according to their total population,
of the 3 million loss of Turkish lives
during the same
period. Once more, facts do not correspond
with the Armenian claims.
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