In every friend group, there’s that one
person that doesn’t quite belong – nobody really likes them but nobody hates them enough
to kick them out. Their presence is just sort of tolerated. They have some dirty laundry, maybe they cheat
on their wife or sell drugs on the side – things you genuinely disagree with. But not enough to actually do anything about
it. They provide some sort of benefit to the group
– maybe they can get you into exclusive clubs or they’re the only ones with access
to a car. Something that makes everyone look past the
bones in their closet. Which is an open secret by the way, everyone
knows, but nobody brings it up because they want access to whatever they provide. Turkey is that friend to the United States
and NATO. And just like any other friend group, the
longer we ignore that one friend’s less awesome qualities, the more likely they are
to keep doing it. This video was brought to you by Skillshare. Most Americans tend to look at history through
the lens of American history. Which is fine, we all need a reference point. After World War 2 was the Cold War, before
that was the Depression and World War 1. But before that? Reconstruction, the Civil War, Manifest Destiny…
all internal history. The rest of the world still existed you know. The American version of World War 1 is that
Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, and a complicated system of military alliances led
to the first global war. Which is mostly true. But it’s not like Europe was sitting there
with these overlapping defense treaties waiting for something to set it off. The main cause of World War 1 was nationalism. Nationalism is like toxic patriotism, it’s
fine to be proud of your country but when that pride leads to excluding anyone you don’t
view as being part of it – you’ve got a problem. And that’s what was going on in Europe in
the lead up to World War 1. Archduke Ferdinand wasn’t just assassinated
for kicks, the guy who killed him was a member of Young Bosnia – a Yugoslav and Serbian
nationalist group fighting for a unified Balkan region. He was also a member of the Black Hand, a
Serbian nationalist group. Late 1800s Europe was a mess of nationalist,
independence, and separatist movements, on top of all of the conventional wars and changing
borders common to the region. A few of these movements are important to
the story I’m about to tell. The Russo-Turkish War occurred between 1877
and 1878, historians aren’t the most creative when it comes to naming things. Especially things they consider to be minor. It ended with the Russian occupation of eastern
Turkey in order to address the “Armenian Question” – I really wish I was joking. That’s what they called it during the Congress
of Berlin in 1878. You see, the European powers were concerned
with how the Muslim Ottoman Turks were treating Christians living in their empire, they were
basically second-class citizens. With forced conversions and higher taxes and
such. Europe was also concerned with giving Russia
too much influence though, so the occupation was essentially toothless and eventually ended. Leaving the Armenian Question to the Turks. In 1890, the Ottoman Sultan created the…. Hamidiye? Hamidiye, a paramilitary group tasked with…
answering the question. They were sort of like the Turkish Black and
Tans – only, thirty years before the actual Black and Tans. I suppose this is as good a time as any to
tell you that the Turks really don’t like the Armenians, seeing them as untrustworthy
and disloyal. They did just cause a Russian occupation after
all. The Hamidiye would intentionally incite Armenian
rebellions within the empire for the sole purpose of putting them down. Get them to fight you, so you can claim self-defense. These are known as the Hamidian Massacres
and they killed anywhere from 100,000-300,000 Armenians between 1894 and 1896. That is already more than Nanking and the
actual event hasn’t started yet. In 1908 a group called the Young Turks overthrew
the Sultan and reinstated the Ottoman constitution and parliament. While they were progressive and technically
liberal, they were also a nationalist group. The Ottoman Empire was the best and anyone
saying otherwise was an enemy and asking a foreign power to intervene in internal politics
was downright blasphemous. Those pesky Armenians asking for… equality. The Young Turks envisioned a homogenous state
in Anatolia, run by Turks for Turks… Turkey belongs to the Turks. And Skyrim belongs to the Nords. They didn’t like minorities in power or
the fact that Armenians ran all the banks and were overrepresented in business and law. I swear I’ve heard that before… except
later in history. Yes, this is where the Young Turks news show
gets their name, but I’m sure they were more focused on the revolutionary history
rather than the nationalist stuff. In 1909 there was a counter-coup against the
Young Turks and the constitution, which just spilled over to killing anyone perceived to
not support the Sultan. Which led to the deaths of 15,000-30,000 Armenians. The counter-coup failed and the Young Turks
stayed in power, specifically a faction led by the Three Pashas known as the Committee
of Union and Progress or CUP. Which is the faction that remains in power
and carries out everything that follows. Then in 1912, the Balkan Wars occurred between
the Balkan states and the two major empires in the region. It’s very complicated and messy, so we won’t
get into it, but the important part is that the Ottoman Empire lost all of its holdings
in Europe. Nothing gets that nationalist blood boiling
quite like losing. The Balkan states also decided to take this
opportunity to expel every Muslim from the region. Sending 850,000 refugees into Anatolia. So the board is set, all the pieces are in
the right place – the Ottoman Empire has suffered numerous defeats, successful and
attempted coups, and is looking for someone to blame. Then a Serbian nationalist decides to assassinate
the leader of a foreign imperial power. The main goal of the Ottoman Empire during
World War 1 was to regain all of the territory it had lost since 1878. And also… answer the Armenian Question. The Ottomans were engaged on three fronts,
in Gallipoli against the British and French, in Mesopotamia and Persia against the British
and Russians, and the Caucasus against just the Russians. Where the Ottomans were losing… badly. The Turks tried to get the Armenians to fight
the Russians but they just wouldn’t, so after every loss, suspicions of a secret alliance
went around. Especially after the siege of Van. In April 1915, a Turkish general wanted to
conscript every man in the city of Van, primarily made up of Armenians. Who refused to join the Turkish army – suspecting
that it was actually just a ruse for mass execution. Which it was, just for the record. So the Turkish general decided to turn his
weapons on the town in retribution. That’s a Turkish general with a Turkish
army, laying siege to a Turkish town. The Armenians held the Turkish forces at bay
for a month until Russian forces arrived to save them. Thus reinforcing the Russian collusion narrative
in the minds of the Ottomans. Every time a country loses a war or the economy
is in the toilet, we look for someone to point the finger at as the cause of our troubles. Because of course, it can’t be us. So whether it’s protesting hippies, foreigners
taking your jobs, or a minority group who seems to be in charge of all the money and
present at every military loss… Someone’s to blame. So in the middle of the first global war in
history, the Ottoman Turks decided to get rid of anyone that they sensed to be a threat
to national security. Which in this case was anyone who wasn’t
an Ottoman Turk. The Ottomans just watched the Balkan states
expel every non-Christian from their land and Turkey is still dealing with almost a
million refugees. So Turkey felt justified in expelling every
non-Muslim. This event is known as the Armenian Genocide,
genocide being a somewhat important word, but just as the Holocaust wasn’t only Jewish
people… The Armenian Genocide wasn’t just Armenians. They were the largest group by far, which
is probably why it’s named that – 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives along with
750,000 Greeks and 350,000 Assyrians. But it didn’t start with the expressed goal
of killing them. In 1913, the Ottomans created the Special
Organization, tasked with the “relocation” of all ethnic minorities, they were kind of
like the Ottoman SS. But again, decades before the actual SS. During the siege of Van, the Special Organization
started relocating and deporting any non-Turkish citizens from Anatolia. The region we would later call Turkey – It
started in the capital of Istanbul, though it wasn’t actually Istanbul at the time,
it was still Constantinople. Istanbul was Constantinople. While you might think the Greeks would have
been pushed towards Greece, everyone was generally pushed in a southeasterly direction. Armenians and Assyrians were marched into
the Syrian desert, where it was expected that they would die. One of the common defenses Turkey uses against
the claim of genocide is that it was just a deportation, anyone who died along the way
was just accidental. That defense fell apart in 2017, when telegrams
were discovered showing that the Ottoman government ordered the killings. Most Armenians and Assyrians were force marched
under brutal conditions to Deir ez-Zor, in the middle of Syrian desert. With just enough supplies to make it there. People were expected to survive on just 150
grams of bread a day during the journey. Which is this much bread, by the way, I did
the math. Assuming they survived the journey, which
90% of them did not, once they arrived, they died – even if they tried to leave, they’d
die before they made it anywhere. From starvation, dehydration, and good old-fashioned
killing. This is near the beginning of World War 1,
methods of mass killing like chemical weapons weren’t available yet, so people were just
shot or beheaded, or any other conventional way you can think of. There were 25 concentration camps, five of
which were specifically death camps. Yes there is a difference. There were some mass graves with 60,000 people
in them, which… Do you know how big of a mass grave you’d
need to dig to fit that many people? If you were to perfectly stack every person,
minimizing empty space between them, you would need two Olympic sized swimming pools to fit
60,000 people. Yeah I did the math. 80,000 people were burned alive in the city
of Mus and 50,000 people were mass drowned. If you look at this map for longer than a
second, you’ll soon come across these dots to the north. Were people being deported across the Black
Sea to Russia? No, people were being deported… to the Black
Sea. 50,000 people were taken out to the middle
of the water and thrown off the boat. There were other features that we’ve come
to expect from genocides, like medical experimentation, property destruction, and… rapes. So many rapes. Which I don’t understand in this context
– or any context, really – you hate a people so much that you’re marching them
out of your country, you want to kill them, they’re inferior and subhuman. But you’re willing to look past that for
a few minutes? Accounting for inflation, almost 55 billion
dollars worth of property was destroyed or confiscated, 2000 churches were destroyed,
and millions of people had been displaced or killed. Most of this happened during the summer of
1915, but it continued throughout the war. Teddy Roosevelt would go on to say that this
was the greatest crime of the war, it was reported on almost daily, and the US wasn’t
even in the war yet. And much like Nanking, there are dozens of
foreign accounts of the events. The Turks know … that the Christian nations
are too busy to take care of Armenians, so they take advantage of the times to destroy
their "enemies" … it is quite obvious that the purpose of their departure is the extermination
of the Armenian people. After the war, those responsible for the genocide,
including the Three Pashas, were charged with war crimes and the CUP was dissolved. But that fell apart at the same time as the
Ottoman Empire. Their Middle Eastern holdings were divided
between the British and the French, and the Caucasus were given to the Russians. The Turkish people abolished the monarchy,
consolidated themselves into Anatolia, renamed it Turkey, and renamed the capital Istanbul. Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople. There was significant internal political strife,
as you can imagine. But they still found time to continue fighting
the newly re-established Republic of Armenia in the Turkish-Armenian War. Where another 100,000 Armenians died. While also having to fight Azerbaijan in the
Armenian-Azerbaijani War. These names are really uncreative. How did Azerbaijan get involved in all of
this? When the Armenians fled Turkey, were they
encroaching on ancestral Azeri lands? No, in fact Azerbaijan didn’t exist until
1918. It became a country the same day as Armenia
actually, though Armenia existed for over a thousand years before the Ottomans took
it over – it’s where Noah’s Ark landed after all. Azerbaijan has no previous history. The answer is that the people who live in
Azerbaijan are Azeri Turks – just another group of Turks. Turks are an ethnic group. Just like Arabs or Slavs, they are a separate
group, containing several other groups, like the Ottomans and the Azeris within it. All Turks hate Armenians. So the Azeri Turks joined the Turk Turks in
fighting the Armenians until the Soviets took over in 1920. The Soviets somehow managed to keep the peace. In a region that like the Balkans, is very
messy… I mean, part of Azerbaijan is on the other
side of Armenia, and the disputed state of Nagorno-Karabakh lies entirely within Azerbaijan. Not to mention Chechnya and the South Ossetian
independence movement from Georgia. But once the Soviet Union started to fall
apart in the late 80s and early 90s, things in the Caucasus started to fall apart too
and the Armenians and Azeris have been fighting each other in the streets on and off ever
since. The Soviet Union is actually a big part of
the problem here. You see, I just told you about the Armenian
Genocide – it’s a true historical event that happened. You would think it would be that simple. But only a handful of countries recognize
it – the United States federal government does not, but 49 individual states do. It’s Mississippi, before you pause the video
to google it. Here’s a map of all the countries and states
that will openly agree that a thing happened… there are some notable absences here including
the US, the UK, Israel, and of course, Turkey. The current Turkish government does not recognize
the Armenian Genocide and anyone who does risks losing their diplomatic ties. Erdogan just denounced the Pope for calling
it a genocide. Instead, Turkey calls it “the events of
1915.” Their defense is as shaky as you would expect
– it didn’t happen, and if it did happen, it wasn’t deliberate, so it wasn’t a genocide. But it didn’t happen. It definitely did happen, the evidence is
overwhelming and with the newly discovered telegrams, it’s impossible to say that it
wasn’t deliberate. It was the Ottoman Empire, not Turkey. This is the only one I can actually maybe
give them some credit for because it’s true. The Ottoman Empire ceased to exist in 1922. Unlike Japan, who is another genocide denier,
it’s not the same government that perpetrated the crime. However, you’d still have to admit there
was a crime. Changing your name doesn’t really wipe away
your responsibility, it’s a step in the right direction, but only if you take responsibility…
like the Germans did after they changed governments. More Turks died in the war than Armenians. Firstly, that isn’t true, secondly, I don’t
know where this number argument came from, I see it all over the place, even for things
like the Holocaust and Native Americans. There is no number requirement for a genocide. Genocide wasn’t a crime in 1915, it didn’t
even exist as a concept for decades afterwards. You can’t charge someone with a crime before
it was a crime. That’s true, the term genocide was coined
in 1943 and first published in 1944 to describe what Hitler was doing in Europe. World War 2 wasn’t over yet when it was
created. Raphael Lemkin, who invented the term, didn’t
know everything about the Holocaust yet – so I’ll give you one guess as to what event
he was looking at when coming up with the definition for his new word. Did you guess the Armenian Genocide? Because it’s the Armenian Genocide. So the UN definition of genocide fits the
Armenian Genocide because this definition was written specifically for the Armenian
Genocide. So yes, it was a genocide – the first genocide,
in fact. The Holocaust was the first genocide to be
tried as a new crime, and yes, there were genocides throughout history before that… But this was the first officially defined
one. So why do so few countries recognize it? Because of the Soviet Union. Turkey is the second largest country in NATO
and sits in a strategic location for missile bases and an important crossroads for trade
– it is Russia’s only real access to the Mediterranean. It was also the first country in the region
to recognize Israel. It is an extremely important country for numerous
reasons. Because of that, they are the friend that
we know has skeletons in their closet, but we ignore them and we tolerate their presence. Because we need the access they provide. Nearly every American politician agrees that
the Armenian Genocide occurred… Two years ago, I criticized the Secretary
of State for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly
used the term 'genocide' to describe Turkey's slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting
in 1915. … as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide. …right up until they become important on
the world stage. Then, suddenly the word genocide disappears
from their vocabulary – even on Armenian Remembrance Day… We cannot continue to look the other way. The longer we enable it, the more likely they
are going to keep doing it. Tensions between the Turks and Armenians have
been escalating since the fall of the Soviet Union, it’s entirely possible that another
war could break out at any moment. Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as the Republic
of Artsakh, is a semi-autonomous region claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan and is currently
under military blockade. Some people are accusing the Armenians of
using history to gain political favor. History that the Turks deny ever happened. And here’s the real kicker, the fact that
Turkey faced no consequences for the Armenian Genocide is what inspired Hitler to think
he could get away with the Holocaust. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians? Well I do, and now you do too. We’ve examined a number of different genocidal
events on this channel over the last few years. This used to jokingly be known as the genocide
channel. But in researching this one, I found myself
saying things like “oh, just like the Nazis” or “oh, that also happened in Nanking”
far too many times. The similarities are… scary. The Ottoman Turks blamed the Armenians for
their woes and the genocide started as a deportation program. Just like Hitler did with the Jews. Turkey changed governments after the war,
just like Germany, but continues to deny their crimes. Just like Japan. It wouldn’t be so scary that the Armenian
Genocide is just an amalgamation of other genocides if not for the fact that it took
place first. This is the original genocide – TM. History rhymes more often than it repeats,
and we see the same patterns echo across time. Most major projects in history, good and bad,
seem to follow the same basic formula – a formula you can learn on Skillshare by going
to skl.sh/knowingbetter10. Skillshare is an online learning community
with over 25,000 courses taught by experts in their field. Take this course in how to create your own
custom productivity system, learning how to use different tools and apps to get more work
done - rather than sending incriminating telegrams. Or this course in how to use project management
to achieve your goals… kind of a good thing this didn’t exist a hundred years ago. Not everyone should achieve their goals. But you can, with an annual subscription costing
less than $10 a month. And if you head over to skl.sh/knowingbetter10,
you can get two months of unlimited access to all of Skillshare’s courses for free. You’ll also be supporting the channel when
you do. The more people who know about this event,
and that it actually happened, the fewer people can continue to deny it. Yes, Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks used to
deny the genocide in the 90s… I’m a Turkish-American and I grew up believing
the things that I was taught. But has since come around, saying it was a
real thing just two months ago. The Armenian Genocide happened. It existed, it’s true. Okay? I don’t know how I can be any clearer than
that. He’s come under fire for only believing
it because of public pressure, but… I don’t care how you arrive at the right
answer, just that you arrive at the right answer. I would prefer that he cracked open a book
and changed his own mind, but hey. With enough international pressure, Turkey
and Azerbaijan might admit their past and normalize diplomatic relations with Armenia. Once they do that, we can figure out how to
prevent it in the future. I don’t know about you, but finding out
that many of the characteristics of other, more famous genocides are just echoes of what
happened to the Armenians was frustrating. I don’t want history to rhyme anymore, and
I hope you don’t either, because now, you know better. I’d like to give a shout out to my newest
Golden Fork patrons, Erin, Jon, Tunnelgram, Brian, and Kevin. Sorry for not saying your names in the last
video. If you’d like to add your name to this list
of deportees, head on over to patreon.com/knowingbetter, or for a one-time donation, paypal.me/knowingbetter. Don’t forget to relocate that subscribe
button, check out the merch at knowingbetter.tv, follow me on Twitter and Facebook, and join
us on the subreddit.
Everyone- we all know that genocides happened before the Armenian Genocide. The point was that clearly expressed in the video is that, because the word "genocide" was literally invented to describe the Armenian genocide, it is technically the first one. Every genocide committed previous to the Armenian one was essentially grandfathered into the term.
So stop saying, "it wasn't the Fffffiiiiiirrrrrsssst".
Please
Great video about an important topic!
I have a few grievances though:
1) The assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was (arguably) an Anarchist - the Young Bosnia was influencend by russian Anarchists, and the anarchist movement at that time committed many assassinations throughout Europe.
2) You say you don't understand why the perpetrators of the genocide raped the victims. This shows, in my opinion, a misunderstandig of rape. Rape isn't about sex, or sexual attraction, it's about power. To attack another humans self. In asking why the rapists would look past their hate is implying hate isn't at the core of rape.
3) Statements like "All turks hate armenians" fails to take in account that is not a natural inevitability to be racist. The mainstream culture in these societies may have hated armenians, but there is no biological link between Turks and hating Armenians.
4) The deflection tactic of implying a state of an expelled minority is using their history to further their political goals is also used against Israel. I feel like you could have incorporated that.
Other than that, again, a great video! Thank you for your work!
Great video
Stop taking things out of the context.
"All turks hate armenians" doesn't mean literally that every person of turkish in every moment in history hates armenians.
KB was talking about 2 different ethnic sub-groups of turks that had 2 different countries (Turkey and Azerbaijan).
"All turks hate armenians" in that context means that both of the countries at that time hated armenians.
If i am talking about the anschlus (the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938) and i say (hypotetically, things were different) that "Austria and Germany are 2 different countries with same ethnic root, but all germans hate the jews" i am not talking about nowday or every single germanic descent person, but I am using the ethnic group to indicate the countries policies.
It's something that everyone does while talking about historical events, it's called synecdoche.
Don't take it personally and read the context.
Couldn't disagree more. The way a person arrives at the answer tells a lot about them. If you just arrive at the right answer because people pressure you to, you're not really thinking for yourself. That isn't worth much. That means that just like people pressured you into arriving at the right answer, they can pressure you into arriving at the wrong answer (and we all know the public shouldn't be blindly trusted in picking the right answer).
Great video as always!
But as a Turkish person, I have spotted some minor mistakes in the video.
First of all, I would argue that Armenians and other Christian Groups weren't treated as second class citizens. Since they held most of the capital and the overall production in the Ottoman Empire, they had accumulated some advantageous privileges. Yes, they had to pay higher taxes but in exchange they didn't serve in the military. (That system was introduced with the Islahat Fermanı in 1856) Also these "forced conversions" weren't common practice. Greeks and Armenians stayed under Ottoman rule for more than 400-500 years and the dominant religion in their homelands stayed the same. You can argue Ottomans coerced non-muslims by "Cizye tax" but not more.
2)Austria-Hungary stayed neutral in the Balkan wars.
3)Ottomans also fought in Hijaz-Yemen front against the British and the Arab Revolts.
There were some European caused genocides of major scale in colonial Africa before the Armenian Genocide. So it is not really accurate to portray the Armenian Genocide as the first.
Using phrases like "All Turks hate Armenians" is simply very wrong. I have no problems with Armenians or Armenia in general. A phrase like "The majority of every Turkic nation hates Armenians" could have been a much more accurate statement that portrays the truth in a way that allows us to acknowledge the existence of many Turks around the world who wish to live harmoniously with all peoples of the world.
I can detail my statements if you want me to, there are also some problems with the genocide part of the video but that requires a better preparation :)
Thank you for your time and hope you respond
Great video, just a few small nitpicks:
At 5:50: Austria did not participate in the Balkan wars
5:56: The Ottoman Empire still held Thraki and Constantinople in Europe
6:05: There are several Muslims still living in the Balkan states in this day, as well as two Muslim-majority countries (Bosnia and Albania)
This video apparently got demonetized according to KB's own comment on the video on YouTube... Anyone know what kind of policy they would use to justify demonetization? I'm not super privy to the whole politics of demonetization, but I wonder if there's an official "rule book" laying out what will lead to demonetization. And it seems ridiculous to me that they would demonetize the video. Does it often come down to largely subjective rulings?
I dont know why he says that turkey is the one friend who doesnt fit in when the US has plenty of friends like turkey.