Anatomy of Denial: Manipulating Sources and Manufacturing a Rebellion

Abstract

Turkey’s and Sudan’s governments use similar genocide denial tactics. This article, by closely examining Turkey’s tactic of claiming an Armenian rebellion, can help scholars combat similar claims by Sudan. Deniers claim the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) fomented a rebellion, but they elide the fact that Turkey’s ruling party tried to recruit the ARF to form a fifth column behind Russian lines. They also dismiss as a subterfuge the ARF World Congress decision that Ottoman and Russian Armenians must join their respective armies. These authors ignore multiple sources describing the interparty negotiations but base their positions on a book by Esat Uras, a perpetrator of the genocide, which created the template for denial. Deniers also distort the formation of volunteer regiments in the Russian army, made up predominantly of Russian Armenians, into a mass movement of Armenians deserting the Ottoman army to conduct guerilla warfare. The evidence for these false claims consists of a single Ottoman intelligence report and distortions of Armenian sources. But the internal deliberations of the ARF show no evidence of a conspiracy with Russia.