Press coverage during the Armenian genocide

December 15, 1915 New York Times article headline

This page contains a selected list of press headlines relevant to the Armenian genocide in chronological order, as recorded in newspaper archives. The sources prior to 1914 relate in large part to the Hamidian massacres and the Adana massacre.

The Armenian genocide was widely covered in the international community and in many publications such as magazines, newspapers, books, and memoirs.[1] Some organizations, such as the Near East Foundation, used media and newspapers to raise the plight of the Armenians.[2] However, after World War I ended, the Armenian genocide received little press coverage for the first half of the 20th century. Coverage and public discussion resumed in the last quarter of the 20th century and continued into the 21st century.[1]

Press discussion and photographs have been particularly important in educating the public about the Genocide.[3][4] Press coverage is also considered valuable and important because it constitutes primary sources of what was widely known at the time.[5] During the time period, much of the global press had condemned the nature of the massacres and called for aid of the Armenians. Coverage of the Armenian genocide was done by many throughout the world and were often similar when depicting the massacres.[6] Many well-known newspapers in the English language such as The Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Montreal Gazette, and others also reported extensively about the events. It is believed that The New York Times published thousands of articles pertaining to the Armenian massacres between 1894-1922 and 124 articles in 1915 alone.[5][7] Some countries, like Australia, relied largely on news agencies in Europe for their information.[8] It is noted that newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on the Armenian massacres almost daily for over a year.[9] The coverage mainly included reports by correspondents, travelers, and consuls or ambassadors of different countries based in the different regions of the Ottoman Empire. Additionally, detailed reports came from missionaries who witnessed the massacres and attempted to aid orphans and other survivors. Local press coverage in the Ottoman Empire came mainly from the Takvim-i Vekayi, the official gazette of the Ottoman government. During the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–1920, the newspaper became especially important because it reported the cross-examinations of Turkish officials and the verdict of court which sentenced Talat, Enver, and Cemal Pashas to death for their roles in massacres against Armenians.[10][11][12] Noteworthy studies of the press coverage of Muslim communities in the Middle East and particularly that of Syria have also been instrumental in depicting first hand accounts of the Armenian deportees exiled to the area.[13] The Syrian press also made note of the demographic impact of the Armenian deportees into the region and condemned the Ottoman government for what it largely believed was a campaign of "annihilation", "extermination", and the "uprooting of a race".[13]

Terms such as "massacre", "killed", "murdered", "slaughtered", "systematic massacre", "extermination", "atrocities", and "war crimes" were used instead of "genocide" during the period, as Raphael Lemkin coined the term "genocide" much later in 1943.[14][15]

Exhibitions set up by the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan have been held in Denmark, Lebanon, Sweden, and the United States displaying numerous periodicals from the international press dating from 1860 to 1922.[16] There have also been numerous studies and books published about the press coverage of the Genocide including: "El Genocidio armenio en la prensa del Uruguay, año 1915" (The Uruguayan Press of 1915 on the Genocide of Armenians) by Daniel Karamanoukian, "Le Genocide Armenien dans la presse Canadian" (The Armenian Genocide in the Canadian Press) by the Armenian Youth Federation of Canada, "The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From the American Press 1915-1922" by Richard G. Kloian, "The Armenian Genocide as Reported in the Australian Press" by Vahe Kateb, "Heralding of the Armenian Genocide: Reports in The Halifax Herald, 1894-1922" by Katia Minas Peltekian, ""The Globe"'s representation of the Armenian genocide and Canada's acknowledgement" by Karen Ashford, "Through the Eyes of the "Post": American Media Coverage of the Armenian Genocide by Jessica L. Taylor" and others.[15][17]

List

Included in this list are examples of newspaper articles as republished by various secondary sources. The list also includes press coverage of the massacres prior to the Armenian genocide such as the Hamidian massacre and the Adana massacre. These massacres are viewed by scholars as beginning a process of exterminating the Armenian people which, in large part, culminated in the final process of genocide in 1915.[18][19][20] Much of this is apparent in the press articles themselves since they repeatedly place the massacres of 1915 in the context of the previous massacres.[15] Other scholars, such as the Soviet historians Mkrtich G. Nersisyan, Ruben Sahakyan, John Kirakosyan, and Yehuda Bauer subscribe to the view that the mass killings of 1894–96 during the Hamidian massacre were the first phase of the Armenian Genocide. Even though the Hamidian massacres ended in 1896, Armenians continued to be massacred during what many believed to be "peaceful times".[21] The massacres conducted during these times involved dislocation, disarmament, dispersion, and ultimately murder.[21]

Hamidian massacres and pre–Young Turk Revolution

1890

1893

  • April 10, 1893, The Washington Post, "Dungeons for Christians: Nearly 2,000 Armenians immured in Turkish prisons."[21]
  • August 4, 1893, Los Angeles Times, "The Armenians: Innocent Christians executed by the Ottoman Authorities."[21]
  • October 20, 1893, Chicago Daily Tribune, "Armenians murdered in Turkey: Hundreds of bodies thrown into the harbor of Constantinople."[21]

1894

1895

Il Secolo Illustrato, Italy

1896

Armenian Massacre in Constantinople. The gathering of the corpses of victims, street of Galata in the French magazine Le Petit Parisien, September 13, 1896

1897

1898

1900

1901

1902

1903

1904

1906

1907

Adana Massacre

Journal des Voyages, Paris, 1909

1909

1912

Armenian genocide

1913

1914

1915

January
March
April
May
July
August
September
October 7, 1915, New York Times
October
October 10, 1915 New York Times
Tortured Armenian woman with child as reported by the Russian Iskri newspaper
October 22, 1915, The Fredericksburg Daily Star, "Turks Boiled Baby Alive. Made Armenian Mother Heat Water, Bound Her and Took Child's Life."
The Washington Herald, December 19, 1915
November
December

1916

Jesse B. Jackson led a campaign to save the lives of Armenians and support the relief effort. According to this article published by The Sun on February 9, 1916, he is accredited for saving the lives of "thousands of Armenians".

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Press Coverage of the Armenian Genocide". Armenian National Institute.
  2. ^ Babkenian, Vicken (Fall 2012). "Stories of "International Goodness" during the Armenian Genocide". Genocide Prevention Now (11).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Armenian Genocide: frontpage coverage in the foreign media". Genocide Museum.
  4. ^ "Online exhibition on front-page coverage of Armenian Genocide opened". PanArmenian.net. June 24, 2009. Publications with particular photos are predominantly remarkable for they convey valuable information about genocide as a phenomenon, its process and consequences.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Kloian, Richard (1988). The Armenian genocide: news accounts from the American press, 1915-1922. Anto Printing.
  6. ^ "Armenian National Institute Announces Major Expansion of its Website on the Armenian Genocide". Genocide Watch.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Tellalian Kyrkostas, Margaret C. "U.S. Media Coverage". University of Minnesota: Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies.
  8. ^ Kateb, Vahe (2003). "Australian press coverage of the Armenian genocide 1915-1923". University of Wollongong. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ Ashford, Karen (2012). "The Globe"'s representation of the Armenian genocide and Canada's acknowledgement. University of Windsor (Canada). ISBN 9780494772485.
  10. ^ Herzig, edited by Edmund; Kurkchiyan, Marina (2005). The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. Abingdon, Oxon, Oxford: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0203004930. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  11. ^ Andreopoulos, George J., ed. (1997). Genocide : conceptual and historical dimensions (1. paperback print. ed.). Philadelphia, Pa.: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812216164.
  12. ^ Yeghiayan, Vartkes (1990). The Armenian genocide and the trials of the young Turks. American Armenian International College Press.
  13. ^ a b Hovannisian, Richard, ed. (2007). The Armenian genocide cultural and ethical legacies. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1412835923.
  14. ^ Lemkin, Raphael (2008). Michael J. Bazyler (ed.). Raphael Lemkin's dossier on the Armenian genocide : Turkish massacres of Armenians : (manuscript from Raphael Lemkin's collection, American Jewish Historical Society). Glendale, Calif.: Center for Armenian Remembrance. ISBN 978-0977715343.
  15. ^ a b c Taylor, Jessica L. (2009). Through the Eyes of the "Post": American Media Coverage of the Armenian Genocide. East Tennessee State University. ISBN 978-1109213805.
  16. ^ ""The Armenian Genocide: Frontpage Coverage in the Foreign Media" Exhibition in Beirut, Lebanon". Massis Post. May 2, 2012.
  17. ^ Gerald Ottenbreit, Jr. (February 19, 2011). "Before the Silence". University of Michigan. Archived from the original on August 19, 2010. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  18. ^ Der Matossian, Bedross (Summer 2011). "From Bloodless Revolution to Bloody Counterrevolution: The Adana Massacres of 1909". Genocide Studies and Prevention. 6 (2). University of Toronto Press: 155. doi:10.1353/gsp.2011.0123. Other scholars attempt to represent the acts of violence that took place at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries as part of a linear process that culminated in the extermination of the Armenians.
  19. ^ Vahakn N. Dadrian, The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus (Providence, RI, and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995)
  20. ^ Raymond H. Kévorkian, Le génocide des Arméniens (Paris: Jacob, 2006).
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Peltekian, Katia M. (April 23, 2008). "Daily Newspaper Reporting of The Armenian Genocide: Could They All Be Wrong?". Groong News Site.
  22. ^ a b c Compiled by Dr. Lou Ann Matossian. "Minnesota Newspapers Reportage About the Armenian Genocide, 1915-22". University of Minnesota.
  23. ^ Hevesi, Dennis (April 26, 1987). "ACROSS THE GENERATIONS, 1915 HAUNTS ARMENIANS". New York Times.
  24. ^ Hovannisian, Richard, ed. (2008). The Armenian genocide cultural and ethical legacies. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. p. 98. ISBN 978-1412808910.
  25. ^ "Russian-language newspaper Iskri". Genocide1915.
  26. ^ "Les atrocités turques : Les enfants ont été jetés à la mer, les hommes ont été fusillés par paquets". Nouvelles Armenian Magazine.