On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 9:05 AM, Steve Summit scs@eskimo.com wrote:
Erhan Akan wrote:
Hi wikipedia! We think your "Armenian Genocide" document is not neutral. Please make it editable.
It is editable. (However, you need to be a registered user.)
I fear I'll regret saying this, but: he's right. Other than
knowing it's among Wikipedia's most highly-contested articles, I'd never paid much attention to it. Skimming it now, however, I see that the opposing POV is given *very* short shrift. There isn't even a "Controversy" section. The only place I can find mention of the opposing POV is in the "Republic of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide" section, and even there, most of the text consists of fairly blunt denial of the non-genocide claim.
This "point" really needs refuted several times over. This is not a "two sided" issue, this is a "one sided" issue with an extreme minority opposition (roughly "Official Turkish Position").
Make no mistake - the Armenian Genocide happened, and (at least roughly) it happened the way we describe it. Contemporary sources (of which there are many) report it this way, modern sources describe it this way. Although one is normally loath to compare things to the Holocaust, the comparison is apt - a genocide of similar proportions (~1.5 million killed), very limited denial, no credible scholars engaging in the denial, et cetera. Undue Weight isn't Equal Weight, and Armenian Genocide is one that always needs eyes, because the POV pushing is much worse than articles where it doesn't matter so much (like whether Norwegians invented paperclips).
If you're interested in denial of the Armenian Genocide, we have a fairly decent article on the subject http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial_of_the_Armenian_Genocide
If you're interested in why we only present the "Armenain" point of view, maybe see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_the_Armenian_Genocide maybe focussing on
"Several international organizations, conducting studies of the events, have determined that the term "genocide" aptly describes "the Ottoman massacre of Armenians in 1915–1916."[1] Among the organizations asserting this conclusion are the International Center for Transitional Justice, the International Association of Genocide Scholars,[2] and the United Nations' Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.[1][3]
In 2007, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity produced a letter signed by 53 Nobel Laureates re-affirming the Genocide Scholars' conclusion that the 1915 killings of Armenians constituted genocide."
Cheers WilyD