[WikiEN-l] Armenian Genocide

[Wily D]

On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 9:05 AM, Steve Summit <scs at eskimo.com> wrote:
> Erhan Akan wrote:
>  > Hi wikipedia! We think your "Armenian Genocide" document is not neutral.
>  > Please make it editable.
>
>  1. It is editable.  (However, you need to be a registered user.)
>
>  2. 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