This is the script from my award-winning documentary from the state of Massachusetts. I won 6 rounds of judging. Bibliography was primary sourced and verified before receiving the trophy and cash prize. Included is a dialogue of an interview with a museum curator https://twitter.com/heybiiighead/status/1340552002355511296

Please bare with me, as this is a LONG thread. I’m covering historical context. You will notice a Turkish-Armenian “debate” for both sides’ arguments, as a way for an unbiased source (me) to refute points that discredit the Genocide - a despicable event.

The Armenian Genocide: April 24, 1915-1923. Referred to as “Medz Yeghern” (Great Crime) and “Aghed” (Catastrophe) in the Armenian language. 1.5 Million Armenians; 950,000 Greeks; and 750,000 Assyrians perished. All Christians from Asia Minor.

The term genocide comes from the Greek prefix γένος (genos) which means a race or people and the Latin suffix -caedo which translates to ‘act of killing’. The term was coined by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1943

to identify the systematic extermination of a people as an international crime and describe the atrocities that occured to the Armenians, then later using it to define the Holocaust.

The definition of genocide is a deliberate killing of a group of people who are of the same ethnic, religious, or national background. It is a planned action to destroy a particular group.

Armenians are an ethnic group originating from the Caucasus. They have a history of more than 3,500 years. The Armenian Genocide occured during World War I. The victims were Armenians living under the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia.

Abdul Hammid II (‘Great Assassin’1870-1909) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire when Russia went to war with Turkey (Turco-Russian Invasion) in 1877. During the war between Russia and Turkey (Battle of Kizil-Tepe Aug. 12th) the Russians had troops stationed in Armenian territory

Sultan Abdul Hammid II resented the support between Russians and Armenians. European leaders were in fear he would take vengeance. These leaders debated on the best way to protect the people of Armenia

This is known as ‘The Armenian Question.’ Unfortunately, these European powers never came up with an answer in time.

By 1906, reformed minded Turks who opposed the Sultan formed a political party called Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Members of the CUP wanted Turkish nationalism to quickly rise.

Head figures of The Young Turk party were Ismail Enver Pasha (Minister of War), who organized the special organization which was involved with the Armenian Genocide and deportations.

Mehmet Talaat Pasha (Secretary General of the CUP) and was the individual who ordered the extermination of all Armenians.

Talaat’s Order: Minister of the Interior, Turkey

(1/2) “September 16,1916 -- To the government of Aleppo. It was first communicated to you that the Government, by order of Jemiet had decided to destroy completely all the Armenian living in Turkey…

(2/2) An end must be put to their existence, however criminal the measures taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex nor to conscientious scruples.”

And Ahmed Djemal, Syrian governor known for his brutal treatment towards Christians.

The next following parts of the thread debunks the “debate” between Turkish claims and historical facts! Listen closely.

Turkey’s present day position under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is that they did not commit genocide. Turkish people argue that their government wanted to protect the country (cont.)

from a possible attack from a disloyal group. To them the Armenians were a rebellious faction working against the best interests of the Ottoman Empire. So Turkey claims they took necessary security measures in a time of war.

But women, children, and the elderly were all taken away from their homes. Even people from the remote parts of the Empire were taken away. Why would Armenians not engaged in anti-Turk military activity be deported?

The Turkish response is that Armenians from the Eastern war front had to be removed because they were helping the Russians.

Yet cities hardly in the East were wiped out. Russia under the tsars never offered the Armenians their freedom.

Turkey rebuttals that it was a civil war or ethnic feud, but not a genocide.

It is hardly an inter-communal struggle or civil war when an armed government of 25 million people turns on, and exterminates, an unarmed minority of 3 Million.

Turks then go on to claim 600,000 Armenians died in the Ottoman Empire during WWI, not 1.5 Million, and that Turkish people were killed too.

This map demonstrates where executions occurred and route of death marches thru desert. No food or water. The fallen can’t be helped up.

Almost the entire Armenian population was wiped out by their own Turkish government. Scores of Armenians managed to fight back with success, in the name of self defense.

Turks ask, “why are all the Armenians getting sympathy, because 3 Million Turks died during this alleged genocide against the Armenians?”

Turkish muslims died fighting Indian and Arabian muslims as well (1917 Arabian Revolt). Including the women, children, and elderly there were only about 3 Million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire… so they can hardly be blamed for the death of 3 Million Turks.

Work on the Genocide was done under CUP and the notorious doctor Shakir who was sentenced to death in absentia by a Turkish court martial.

Turkey accuses the Americans who reported on the Genocide as not telling the truth, suggesting they were biased against them.

America never went to war with Turkey. Instead they kept diplomatic relations on behalf of intervening on the Armenians. They were a neutral power.

Turks: “Then it’s your word against ours.”

No. Prime Minister Dahmer III Pasha placed all blame on The Young Turk Party. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, “Father of the Turks” (1881-1938) said “The Young Turks should be made to account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects.”

Turks say no one to date has been able to come up with a credible documentation of Hitler’s alleged statement about the Armenians, as follows.

Hitler’s Order:

(1/2) “August 22, 1939 - I have given orders to my Death Units to exterminate without mercy or pity men, women, and children belonging to the Polish speaking race.

(2/2) ...It is only in this manner that we can acquire the vital territory which we need. After all who remembers today the extermination of the Armenians?”

Hitler’s statement, which has been denied by Turks, has been authenticated by Dr. Bajakian at Harvard University in 1985. It was from secret notes taken by German Admiral Wilhelm Canaris during Hitler’s speech.

Turkey claims American Admiral Mark Bristol’s testimony proves there was no Genocide. They falsely believe it is proved that Turkish Ambassador Sr. Henry Morganthau (1856-1946) was lying about there being an Armenian Genocide.

Ambassador Morganthau was in Turkey while Genocide was going on. Mark Bristol became High Commissioner to Turkey after WWI. So he arrived in Turkey in 1920, after the Genocide.

Bristol asked whoever was left about it. The people remaining had to have been Executioners of the Armenians. So Bristol talked about the “bad qualities” of Greeks and Armenians.

Do bad qualities of people really justify for Genocide?

Mark Bristol: “All the Armenians, both civil and military, ran… They robbed and plundered first what they could… Armenian soldiers hid under the children’s beds…” as he heard from Turkish government officials.

This is an interview from Gary Lind, curator of the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, Massachusetts. He is discussing the successes, failures, and consequences:

“The ultimate goal of The Young Turks was to create a modern nation-state. To create a nation-state in Turkey you had to create a Turkish middle class. There was no Turkish middle class in the Ottoman Empire....

From this view point the Armenian Genocide was basically collateral damage. That the goal wasn’t to exterminate the Armenians, the goal was to create the state..

If killing the Armenians was necessary to do that then they could accept the consequences. As far as successes and failures the Armenian Genocide was an overwhelming success on all points for The Young Turk party.

This had some very positive repercussions for Turkey. Most importantly it transferred the assets to the Young Turk Parties and their cronies so that they control the economy. Demographically, by depopulating the Armenian villages..

The depopulated villages provided a ready place to put the Turkish refugees. Some of the Young Turk Party had an ideal of a Pan-Turant lerranian stage.

That all Turks should be united under Istanbul, of course. But these would all be one great Turkish State. Well the problem to this idea was blockage right in the Caucasus, the Armenians were blocking the way.

If you get rid of the Armenian populations you can create this sphere. In that case they failed, because they didn’t exterminate all the Armenians. So the pan-Turanian dream did not succeed.

So for the centric party is was extremely successful. There were certain short term consequences. Economically, the interior provinces were disasters. We had whole provinces without a single shoemaker left in the province because all the shoemakers had been Armenian, had been..

killed. But, long term the economies would recover, and with the Armenians gone the Armenian Question is gone permanently.

All in all from the Turkish point of view it was an extraordinary success. And even more so because it was VIOLENCE WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE. It became a dead issue, literally a dead issue. The Young Turks government succeeded.

In the point of view of ethics, humanity, empathy... it was a disaster. That’s real politic.” End of interview.

Present-Day Relations: Turkey continuously threatens nations officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide with cutting military ties, removal of military bases in Turkey, and threats to citizens abroad.

As of 2020, only 30 countries recognize the Armenian Genocide. 49/50 American states recognize the Armenian Genocide -- Mississippi (MS) does not.

The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed a resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide in 2019. President Donald Trump did not sign it, resulting in the USA not officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide as a nation-state.

During the Armenian Genocide, non-military personnel was also expelled from the Ottoman Empire and left for dead. ARMED Turkish military also persecuted women, children, and elderly ethnic Armenians (Greeks + Assyrians too).

These victims were sent on death marches without food + water. If someone fell, they were not allowed to be helped up, simply left to die. Turks forced Armenians to physical labor digging HUGE pits, just to line them up & shoot them into their own mass graves.

Women were commonly raped and female children sold to Turkish men for slavery as prostitutes, as a deal to not be killed. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers ran red with blood at some point!!!!

When passing through Turkish towns, marching bands would play music loudly because the locals complained of all the noise & inconvenience the Armenian screams were causing them.

As a mockery to Christianity, Armenian victims would be hung on a cross. Armenian homes were raided and robbed of jewels, gold, money.. any valuables. They were forbidden to pack their belongings and take anything with them. Their homes were then given to Turks.