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Armenian presence in Asia Minor "almost a millennium" prior to Turks

The following clause in the Background Section needs to be revised:

The presence of Armenians in Asia Minor is documented since the sixth century BCE, almost a millennium prior to the Turkic migrations to the area.

The intrusion or penetration (the term “migration” would make serious historians and anthropologists laugh—migrants do not come to foreign lands with fire and sword Battle of Manzikert) of Seljuk Turks into Asia Minor in the eleventh century AD does not make it “almost a millennium” after the cuneiform inscription, dated sixth century BC, had mentioned Armenia (Armina) on the Behistun rock Behistun Inscription. Suny’s statement “By this inhuman policy the Turks tried to eliminate a people who had lived in eastern Anatolia for nearly a thousand years before the Turks had arrived” does not make it “nearly" a thousand years. Consider simple math: sixth century BC + 1,000 years = sixth century AD. There were no Turks in sight in Asia Minor or anywhere near the region in or around sixth century AD. All empirical evidence indicates that Seljuk Turks appeared in the region in the eleventh century AD. Below please find a few selected sources testifying to the fact. I hope they won’t be dismissed, in breach of Wikipedia’s own regulations Wikipedia:Reliable Sources, on the flimsy grounds that they are not “from the last 15 years or so” or are not “recent scholarly sources” or are not “the same weight as peer reviewed work” or are “old books from 100 years ago”:

1. Encyclopædia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seljuq;
2. New World Encyclopedia https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Seljuk_Turks;
3. Beihammer, Alexander, “Patterns of Turkish Migration and Expansion in Byzantine Asia Minor in the 11th and 12th Centuries”, in Migration Histories of the Medieval Afroeurasian Transition Zone, Chap. 6, 166-192;
4. Beihammer, Alexander, “Defection across the Border of Islam and Christianity: Apostasy and Cross-Cultural Interaction in Byzantine-Seljuk Relations”, Speculum, Vol. 86, No. 3 (July 2011), 597-651;
5. Brand, C., “The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 43 (1989), 1-25.
6. Vryonis, S., The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century, Berkeley: 1971;
7. Vlyssidou, V.N. (ed.), The Empire in Crisis (?): Byzantium in the 11th Century (1025–1081) Athens: Institute for Byzantine Research, International Symposium, 11, 2003;
8. Doğan, Gürpınar, Anatolia’s eternal destiny was sealed: Seljuks of Rum in the Turkish national(ist) imagination from the late Ottoman Empire to the Republican era, European Journal of Turkish Studies, 2012;
9. Nicolle, David. Manzikert 1071: The Breaking of Byzantium. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2013;
10. Barin, Filiz, Othello: Turks as “the Other” in the Early Modern Period, The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Fall 2010), 37-58;
11. Margarian, Hayrapet, The Nomads and Ethnopolitical Realities of Transcaucasia in the 11th-14th Centuries, Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 5 (2001), 75-78;
12. Roche, Jason T. In the Wake of Mantzikert: The First Crusade and the Alexian Reconquest of Western Anatolia, History, Vol. 94, No. 2 (314) (April 2009), 135-153;
13. Kafadar, Cemal, Introduction: A Rome of One’s Own: Reflections on Cultural Geography and Identity in the Lands of Rum, Muqarnas, Vol. 24, History and Ideology: Architectural Heritage of the “Lands of Rum” (2007), 7-25;
14. Kaegi, Jr., Walter Emil, The Contribution of Archery to the Turkish Conquest of Anatolia, Speculum, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan., 1964), 96-108;
15. Dashdondog, Bayarsaikhan, “Mongol Noyans in Greater Armenia (1220-1245)”, in The Mongols and the Armenians (1220-1335), Brill: 2011, 43-7098.231.157.169 (talk) 18:56, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• Hi, thanks for providing these sources. I will take a look. Hopefully you don't mind that I reformatted your list so it is easier to read, if you do mind I will revert it. (t · c) buidhe 19:11, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Thanks to you too for taking a look. The list is very short, there are tons of literature on the Seljuk Turk invasion of Asia Minor and most of the Middle East. Is is an undeniable historical fact that Seljuk Turks have penetrated into the region in the 11th century AD. This does not make it "almost a millennium" after the first inscription recording Armenians had been found.98.231.157.169 (talk) 19:15, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Hi I checked #8, #10, and #13, and unfortunately I don't see that any of them answers the question, "When (and how) did the Turks begin to live in Asia Minor?" The closest thing I can find is in Barin, which states "The Battle of Manzikert in 1 07 1 , under the command of Alp Arslan, ended in a decisive victory for the Seljuk Turks over the Byzantine Empire and opened up Anatolia for further Turkish advance." But, this does not inform whether there were Turks living in Asia Minor prior to the battle of Manzikert. It would be helpful to maybe start with just one source that does clearly answer this question and give a page number and quote if possible. (t · c) buidhe 19:44, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

So, let me get this straight... Out of fifteen sources, you chose to take a look at the ones that were written by Turkish authors? Still, it looks like you weren’t paying close attention.

In Barrin, opening para.: “The Battle of Manzikert in 1071 […] opened up Anatolia for further Turkish advance. In 1095, Pope Urban II launched a military campaign to push back Turkish forces from Anatolia”. In Gürpınar, p. 39: “The Turkification and Muslimization of Anatolia occurred within two centuries, mainly in two waves: the first in the second half of the 11th century […]” In Kafadar, p. 8: “[…] the Turks naturally get to be the descendants of Inner Asian nomads and warriors, […] there were many who emigrated from […] Central Asia and Khorasan […]. Manzikert 1071 happens (according to Seljuk designs), and Turks pour into Asia Minor […]”98.231.157.169 (talk) 20:21, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

@(t · c) buidhe. I don't have much time to spare in order to restate the widely known fact of Seljuk Turk appearance in Asia Minor in only the 11th century AD, but I think checking your own articles Byzantine–Seljuk wars and Seljuk Empire would help. If you're still unconvinced, here are just a few extracts from several selected works. Oh, I forgot, most of them are from the last 15 years or so:

1. Andrew C.S. Peacock, Early Seljuq History: A New Interpretation, Routledge, 2010, p. 2: The subject of this book is the rise of a group of Turks from their origins as an obscure tribe living in the west Eurasian steppes to rulers of an empire that dominated the Middle East and Central Asia. Led by the descendants of the chief Seljuq b. Duqaq, in the first half of the eleventh century the Turks captured the established centres of civilisation of the Islamic world — the great cities of Transoxiana, Iran and Iraq — and reached far into Anatolia and the Caucasus. The Ghaznavid, Buyid and Byzantine Empires that dominated Central Asia, Iran and Iraq, and Anatolia all met defeat at the hands of the armies of Turkish nomads.
2. Alexander Beihammer, 2020, p. 166: After various expansionist stages that culminated in the reign of Basil II the [Byzantine] empire’s eastern provinces stretched from the western coastland of Asia Minor as far as northern Syria, the Upper Euphrates region, and the Armenian highlands. A ruling clan […] called Seljuk and superficially Islamized nomadic warriors, who drew their origin from the Turkic Oghuz tribes dwelling in the steppe lands of Transoxania, formed the driving force of this new [Seljuk] empire. In the 1040s, Turkmen hosts made their first raids into the region south of the Anti-Taurus range and invaded the Armenian highlands between the Araxes and the Arsanias (Murat) Rivers.
3. Alexander Beihammer, 2011, p. 603: [t]he overall situation after the first great wave of Seljuk invasions from the 1040s until the late 1070s and throughout the twelfth century […] can be characterized as highly unstable and, in certain periods, even relentlessly hostile.
4. David Nicole, 2013, p. 14: […] under the loose leadership of the Seljuk family, substantial numbers of Turkish tribal groups crossed [River] Syr Darya [from Inner Asia] early in the 11th century, then spread into Transoxania, eastern Iran and Afghanistan. While the early Seljuks pressed south and west, other Oghuz [people] migrated westwards, north of the Black Sea until they reached the Byzantine frontier in the Balkans.
5. Charles M. Brand, 1989, p. 2: [t]he integration of Turks into the Byzantine ruling class, from the mid-eleventh century, when Turks first made serious inroads into Byzantine Anatolia […]
6. Hayrapet Margaryan, 2001, pp. 75-77: […] Turkic nomads […] coming to Transcaucasia from Central Asia had had little to do with land tillers or urban life in their home countries. A retrospective look at the 11th-14th centuries realities yields a well-substantiated conclusion on the differing natures of military actions undertaken by the Turkic peoples […] in Transcaucasia. […] A military action with an intention to seize the territory and to eliminate or partially absorb the existing population can be termed as invasion. [It] is in this sense that the invasions of the Seljuk and later the Turkic tribal confederations […] have to be understood. Following the seizure of most Transcaucasia and Asia Minor, the Seljuks started to actively reclaim the occupied areas.
7. Jason T. Roche, 2009, p. 135: This article […] seeks to address […] general histories of the Byzantine empire concerning the Turkish invasion of and settlement in western Anatolia after the battle of Mantzikert in 1071. […] Historians have addressed the eleventh-century Turkish incursions into Anatolia, which were the initial source of the turmoil […]
8. Walter Emil Kaegi, 1964, p. 96: [t]he Byzantine loss of Anatolia to the Seljuk Turks in the second half of the eleventh century. In 1050 the peninsula seemed to be the firm keystone of the Byzantine Empire; the Byzantines had been defending it successfully […]. By the accession of Alexius Comnenus to the emperorship in 1081 the Seljuks had overrun most of Anatolia.
9. Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog, 2011, p. 43: [t]he Seljuks (Saljuqs) of Rūm had been in power in the western part [of the Caucasus] since the end of the twelfth century.98.231.157.169 (talk) 22:34, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• Wikipedia has a strict policy against original research: all content must be supported by sources that "directly support the material being presented". You seem to start with the assumption that there are no Turks living in Asia Minor prior to the Seljuks, but we cannot assume that the arrival of the Seljuks is equivalent to the arrival of the Turks without a source that clearly says so. The question I am trying to answer is "When (and how) did the Turks begin to live in Asia Minor?" Fifteen sources are not necessary, just one or two that explicitly answer the question. (t · c) buidhe 01:07, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

@(t · c) buidhe, you need to read multiple pages in sources in order to form an idea about the original habitat of various nomadic Turkic groups and their intrusion into Asia Minor. Seljuks were just one group representing Turkic tribes living in what is now areas around the Altai Mountains in Russian Siberia. Scholars cannot ascertain when the Turks first used that name to describe themselves. But what they all agree is that it was only in the eleventh century when nomadic Seljuk warriors penetrated the lands of the sedentary peoples living in Asia Minor. I believe you know this well, because two of Wikipedia’s own articles above testify to the fact. And, again, peaceful settlers or migrants do not “arrive” to foreign lands with fire and sword. There is a specific term for this in the English language: intrusion. I’ll see if I can find sources that say in clear and massive print written in black letters on white paper what is known as a widely accepted historical fact: Turkic nomads started appearing in Asia Minor only in the eleventh century AD. There were no Turks or however these groups called them before that time on the lands of ancient autochthonous people such as Byzantine Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, and the Kurds.98.231.157.169 (talk) 14:45, 30 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Could the material being presented be supported more directly than the way Andrew Charles Spencer Peacock, a renowned British historian specializing in the history of the Seljuks, has put it?: “[A] group of Turks (Seljuks, that is-Davidian) [rised] from their origins as an obscure tribe living in the west Eurasian steppes to rulers of an empire that dominated the Middle East and Central Asia. Led by the descendants of the chief Seljuk Dukak, in the first half of the eleventh century the Turks captured the established centres of civilisation of the Islamic world — the great cities of Transoxiana, Iran and Iraq — and reached far into Anatolia and the Caucasus.” What is "more direct" way of stating a simple and widely known historical fact?98.231.157.169 (talk) 15:03, 30 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Hi IP, why don't you just create your own profile and edit yourself? You seem to be fairly informed on the topic and your knowledge would probably be welcomed on Wikipedia also in other articles.Paradise Chronicle (talk) 15:24, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

Why won’t you go to Paradise and edit yourself?98.231.157.169 (talk) 15:40, 30 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

@(t · c) buidhe. This will be my last contribution in this thread, because I cannot waste time proving to Wikipedia editors that yoghurt is white. Below please find a few selected Reliable Sources, which directly support the material being presented by outlining in clear and massive print written in black letters on white paper: (a) the place of original habitat of the Turkic tribes (Seljuks and Türkmens or Turkomans); (b) the time period of their westward movement to foreign lands; and (c) the exact century when they intruded Asia Minor and the Caucasus. Oh, I forgot, most of them are sources form the last fifteen years or so:

1. Andrew C.S. Peacock, Nomadic Society and the Seljūq Campaigns in Caucasia, Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2005), pp. 205-230
2. Roderic H. Davison, Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774-1923: The Impact of the West, University of Texas Press, 2013, pp. 1-3
3. Leonard, Thomas M. (2006). “Turkey”, in Encyclopedia of the Developing World, Volume 3. London; New York: Routledge, 2006, p. 1576.
4. Sahadeo, Jeff; Zanca, Russell (2007). Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007, pp. 22-23.
5. A. Sevim and C.E. Bosworth, The Seljuqs and the Khwarazm Shahs (Part One: The origins of the Seljuqs and the establishment of Seljuq power in the Islamic lands up to 1055), in M.S. Asimov and C.E. Bosworth (ed.), History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume IV, UNESCO Publishing, 1988, pp. 145-175

Cheers98.231.157.169 (talk) 16:03, 30 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

While I don't care for the IP's tone of voice (highly unsuitable for WP [or anywhere else]), they appear to be right regarding content. Some of the quotes they provide talk about "Turks", not just Seljuks. Saying that Turks didn't enter Anatolia before the 11th century seems entirely unproblematic, and the onus would be on anyone making the opposite assertion (I don't believe anyone has). Jeppiz (talk) 22:59, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

As you can see I already corrected the article accordingly. (t · c) buidhe 23:24, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

• The introductory sentence in the Background (Armenians in the Ottoman Empire) is still imperfect. It needs to be further revised for more clarity, as follows:

The presence of Armenians in Asia Minor is documented since the sixth century BCE Behistun Inscription, around 1,500 years prior to the Turkic incursions to the area. Cheers,98.231.157.169 (talk) 15:04, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

If we can't explain how some historical detail is related to genocide than it shouldn't be in this article because it gives readers an incorrect impression that is detriemtnal. Many of the Jews killed in the Holocaust and indeed the Jews who were disproportionately effected in the early stages of the Holocaust were Jews who were rendered "stateless" by political upheavals in Orthodox lands (for more on this see Ze'ev Jabotinsky who was affiliated with the Young Turks in 1908) Many authors cited in the article have never written about genocide in general or any genocide other than the history of Armenians in Turkey (and sometimes also the Soviet Union), and others, like A.C.S. Peacock, have no recognized expertise in genocide whatsoever. Some of those errors are extremely, such as the current discussion about whether the Armenians lived in Asia Minor before the Turks. Gators bayou (talk) 17:18, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Yes, the Armenians had inhabited Asia Minor millennia before Turkic nomads penetrated into the area. This is quite relevant to the section “Armenians in the Ottoman Empire” and thanks for including a clause in it. Authors cited for the edit I proposed above are not genocide scholars, of course, but all agree that first appearance of Turkic tribes in Asia Minor pertains to the 11th century AD. This makes it 1,500 years after the documented inscription of the presence of Armenians in the region was found. Eastern Europe was not the historical habitat of the Jews. For Armenians, Asia Minor was. Bringing Jabotinsky into this discussion is not a very good idea, as it unnecessarily brings up a new subject of Jewish/Dönmeh conspiracy in the genocidal extermination of the Armenians.98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:51, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

IP's tone on this talk page accusing editors of sinister motives is inappropriate. Jabotinsky is relevant for any discussion of the the pogroms, which were committed by the Russian army and its auxiliary forces. It's depressing how uneducated people still are about the facts of the Holocaust. Many of the Jews who fled from Orthodox lands were murdered in the early stages of the Holocaust. When they were caught crossing borders without papers countries like France turned them over to the Germans who slaughtered them. This line of reasoning that "Eastern Europe was not the historical habitat of the Jews" has a long history and is pervasively odious. Gators bayou (talk) 18:19, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

What tone? Where did you find a hint of accusation? And I’m sorry for you that from all my contributions to this talk you got an idea that I’m an “uneducated” person. What is wrong with reiterating that the historical habitat of the Jews is in Israel and Judah? What is wrong about it from the historical point of view? Did you notice the word “historical”? Armenians are also a Diasporan nation, but their historical habitat is not in France, but on the Armenian Plateau and the adjoining regions. Take it easy.98.231.157.169 (talk) 18:41, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

It's not some innocent fact of history when you are claiming it is relevant to an article about genocide but can't (or won't) explain why it's relevant. Israel may be the historical habitat of the Jews, in some sense, but it doesn't diminish the wrong that was committed against the countless refugees who were run out of their ancestral homes by hateful Orthodox mobs. Many of those Jews died in the Holocaust simply because they were Jewish and they weren't wanted for that reason... After that Israel was founded. The experience of the Armenians in diaspora was dissimilar. I'm not seeing the connection you are drawing with the concept of Israel as a home for Jews which is about more than a "historical habitat" (mostly a religious connotation). Gators bayou (talk) 19:08, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

As a descendant of genocide survivors, I fully understand. No need to tell me simple things related to human suffering and human compassion, especially since the Shoah happened also because the Armenian Genocide, the precursor, has never been condemned and its state perpetrator never punished. In this sense, yes, the Armenian experience is indeed dissimilar. I hope the State of Israel finds the balls to acknowledge the similar sufferings of other people... eventually. I’m gonna stop here. Cheers.98.231.157.169 (talk) 19:29, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Between 800,000 and over 1 million

This is a flawed and, I suspect, politically motivated, downsized figure. Wikipedia editors chose to state that “most estimates” for the Armenians who had been murdered within the period from 1915 to 1923 range from 800,000 and over 1 million. This is in and of itself untrue. And yet they cite only one (!) reference to the work by Jakub Bijak and Sarah Lubman titled “The Disputed Numbers: In Search of the Demographic Basis for Studies of Armenian Population Losses, 1915–1923”, disregarding the fact that in the introductory paragraph these authors unequivocally state that “[t]he existing estimates are quoted as ranging from 600,000 to 2 million […]” for the said period. Wikipedia editors thus allow themselves to be drawn into an arbitrary selection of sources to cherry pick only those that support the figure between 800,000 and over 1 million. Whereas many, MANY other sources indicate that in the period between 1915 and 1923 the number of Armenian dead was approaching 1.5 million.98.231.157.169 (talk) 15:11, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• A different page of Bijak and Lubman is cited, which states, "in the existing data, there is evidence of mass-scale killings and displacements of the Armenian population in 1915–23. The existing estimates roughly agree as to the order of magnitude of the number of victims, from at least 600,000, or – more likely – 800,000 to over a million during the entire period." (In a table elsewhere in the chapter, they give 6 estimates, of which the majority are below 1 million, the lowest is 584,268 and the highest is 1,150,000). SOME sources do give 1.5 million as an estimate but this is an outlier. (t · c) buidhe 15:17, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Well, then be so kind as to add that in the single work that you cite to support the flawed view that “most estimates are between 800,000 and over 1 million”, some sources do give 1.5 million as an estimate. If “most” estimates are between 800,000 and over 1 million, how come you cite only ONE source to support this view, if I may ask? Don’t you think it is preposterous? Wikipedia regulations encourage ALL reliable sources to be listed, and its editors do not own the articles so they cherry pick the desired ones and dismiss others.98.231.157.169 (talk) 15:33, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Bijak and Lubman's paper is a survey of other estimates in published sources, it is not one person's estimate. (t · c) buidhe 17:03, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

I understand that, thank you. But as a survey of other estimates in published sources, Bijak and Lubman’s piece lists several sources that place the death toll at 1.5 million (and, by the way, only 3 (!) sources—mostly Turkish or pro-Turkish—place it under or around 600,000) and states that “the existing estimates are quoted as ranging from 600,000 to 2 million” (see p. 26). So, I still wonder how did the wide range from 600,000 to 2 million metamorphose into “around 1 million” in your introductory sentence? Doesn’t the average obtained from 600,000 to 2,00,000, based on our lower school grades’ knowledge, make it 1,300,000? Is 1,300,000 anywhere near “around 1 million”? Also, how come 3 (three!) Turkish or pro-Turkish sources suggesting 600,000 or lower deaths are not "an outlier", but several sources that offer 1.5 million are "an outlier"? Curious to know...98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:52, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• You're misrepresenting the source; the authors do not cite a single reliable source that supports an estimate of 2 million. Whether a source is "Turkish or pro-Turkish" is does not answer the question of whether it's reliable. I will not respond to any more posts based on bad-faith assumptions.
• I maintain that "about 1 million" is the best way of representing the estimates that we have and the degree of uncertainty. All reliable estimates, when rounded to one significant figure, are 1 million. Some reputable historians, such as Suny, argue that the true figure was probably less than 1 million, others such as Akçam say it was probably more. (t · c) buidhe 18:52, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

@(t · c) buidhe: All I wanted to propose was for you to provide the range, and not to approximate. I hope you understand that approximation serves to the detriment of the numbers higher than 1 million. And, no, Turkish or pro-Turkish does answer whether a source is or is not reliable, because most non-Turkish (and non-Armenian) authors admit that these figures are understated. Again, that is why I propose placing a range based on various sources, not to approximate it to a flawed figure of "nearly 1 million". This is WRONG98.231.157.169 (talk) 19:06, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

This will be my last attempt to appeal to reason. If you have a degree of uncertainty about the death toll and an enormous pool of various estimates, I most earnestly believe that the best way to deal with it is to provide a range and not round it up to an unsubstantiated figure of “around 1 million” without even mentioning the core period of genocide. Besides, how do you even round up the number of people subjected to the most vicious forms of violence to a “significant figure”? Do you think it’s acceptable from the moral and ethical point of view? Please consider revising to: “According to various estimates, from 800,000 to as many as 1,500,000 ethnic Armenians have been murdered in the period from 1915 to 1923”. You cannot disregard the fact that governments, parliaments, professional associations, academic societies, human rights groups, and many individual scholars across the globe have acknowledged the Armenian Genocide based on the figure of 1.5 million. How do you think Wikipedia’s Jewish readers would react if I introduced an edit to The Holocaust page, stating that “around 4 million” Jews were systematically murdered across German-occupied Europe?98.231.157.169 (talk) 19:54, 29 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Actually the Holocaust article already gives a point-based estimate of "some six million" (t · c) buidhe 16:50, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

Yes, based on US Holocaust Memorial Museum data, a mostly Jewish institution. And in the Death Toll, the article restates the most commonly cited death toll being six million based on data from Yad Vashem, an Israeli institution. But here, not once did the editors mention that the most commonly cited death toll among Armenians, or the most internationally recognized one, is 1.5 million. How about that?98.231.157.169 (talk) 01:06, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Okay, then, since Wikipedia readily included the figure of six million Jews killed during the Holocaust provided by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, here is the figure of 1.5 million Armenians killed supplied by the Armenian Genocide Museum of America. Please embed in the article.98.231.157.169 (talk) 01:22, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Oh, and since Wikipedia’s Holocaust article contains data from Yad Vashem, here’s the figure of 1.5 million supplied by Armenia-based Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. Please embed in the article.98.231.157.169 (talk) 01:33, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Armenians in the Ottoman Empire

Another frivolous approximation based on a single source, Suny 2015, was introduced by editors in this section, stating that “[a]round 2 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of World War I”. Whereas several RS indicate that there were 2.5 million and more Armenians prior to the genocide. Because Wikipedia editors appear to be fixated on rounding up wide ranges of numbers of victims of genocide, Armenian population numbers, etc., this recent edit is in sheer contradiction with Wikipedia’s own article Ottoman Armenian population, where it says in black letters on a white background that “[m]ost estimates by Western scholars range from 1.5 to 2.4 million. According to Britannica prior to 1915 and Samuel Cox, American Embassy in Istanbul from 1880-1886, it was 1.75 million and 2.4 million, respectively”.98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:04, 1 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Except that it takes into account 1.5 to 2.4 million by being in-between. Hemşinli çocuk 18:11, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Why is there a need to provide an in-between number instead of ballpark numbers? Please refer your readers to a relevant Wikipedia:PAG98.231.157.169 (talk) 21:10, 1 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Specially for Wikipedia editors, who first include in the article the figure “from 1.5 to 2.5 million Armenians” and then downsize it to “around 2 million” and to those gentlemen who rush to back this reduction by stating that 2 million “is a reasonable estimate”. Well, below please find Armenian population numbers based on Ottoman census and population update results:

1844 Ottoman census: 2,400,000 Armenians

1876 Ottoman census: 2,400,000 Armenians

1875-1876 Ottoman census: 2,500,000 Armenians

After the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War, Europe witnessed the internationalization of the Armenian Question. Treaty of Berlin was signed in 1878 containing Article 61, which read:

“The Sublime Porte undertakes to carry out, without further delay, the improvements and reforms demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited by Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians and Kurds. It will periodically make known the steps taken to this effect to the powers, who will superintend their application.”

Unsettled by European powers’ involvement with Ottoman Armenians in terms of guaranteeing their security against Muslim groups, from 1878 onwards Turkish authorities resorted to gross undercounting of the Armenian population. From 1878 to 1914, two censuses and one population update were carried out.

1881-1885 Ottoman census: 1,169,960 Gregorian, Catholic, and Protestant Armenians

1903-1906 Ottoman census: 1,194,443 Gregorian, Catholic, and Protestant Armenians

1914 Ottoman population update (carried out by the Young Turks on the basis of 1903-1906 census): 1,294,851 Gregorian, Catholic, and Protestant Armenians

An appeal to reason to Wikipedia editors. How is this even possible that the Ottoman state counted 2,500,000 Armenians in 1876, but already in 1885, that is, just nine lousy years after, listed only 1,169,960 Armenians?! Where did 1,330,040 Armenians go in the short course of nine years? Evaporated?... Mind you, the first case of mass violence against Ottoman Armenians, in which tens or hundreds of thousands were killed, took place in 1894-1896 during the Hamidian massacres. And if you bring the Patriarchate census figure, I will have to reiterate that for several Armenian-populated areas the census-takers relied on flawed Ottoman statistics, which resulted in a total figure below the actual number. When genocide survivors made their testimonies, they would customarily increase their populations per village by about 20 to 70 percent as compared to the Patriarchate figures.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the pre-genocide Ottoman Armenian population was greater than 2.5 million people, does it?98.231.157.169 (talk) 01:39, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Hi Davidian, to answer your question, there were border changes, population transfers, obviously migrations, the Hamidian massacres, etc. Those affected the demographic makeup of the region. The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies (the chapter that was written by Hilmar Kaiser) p.382 estimates that there were at least (he writes "lowest estimate" in the note 70) 1,718,132 Armenians using Multu estimations of +34% (to account for the undercounting), similarly to Talaat estimation of +30%. Therefore, the Armenian population can be anywhere between 1.7 million to a little over 2 million that's further supported by the figures Kaiser provides, since he writes: An Armenian census arrived in 1913 at 1,914,620 Armenians while leaving out some communities. Seems to me that when taking into account the available material on the subject, 2 million is reasonable, and does the job. Hemşinli çocuk 03:52, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

No, it doesn’t. And here's why. Wikipedia editors seem to have been tasked by whoever give them policy orders to decrease both the number of Armenians killed during the genocide and the size of Ottoman Armenian populations. They do this by rounding up various estimates, instead of providing the range. One doesn’t have to be an Armenian to understand these cheap stunts. I presented data from primary sources, or secondary sources that used data from primary sources, and not a secondary source, such as Hilmar Kaiser. Please indicate what border changes, population transfers, migrations, etc. took place in the course of nine years from 1876, when an Ottoman census recorded 2,500,000 Armenians, and 1885, when the next Ottoman census listed 1,169,960 Armenians? Curious to know. Hamidian massacres, as you know, but still decide to bring up because you’re running out of arguments, occurred in 1894-1896. Kaiser doesn’t know, while Armenian scholars do, that the 1913 Patriarchate census (using “Armenian census” is wrong, doesn’t Kaiser know?) not only left out several areas, but also for several other areas relied on flawed Ottoman statistics, which resulted in a total figure below the actual number. Therefore, rounding up estimates that range from 1.7 million to 2.5 million and more is not only unreasonable, but totally unprofessional. Give the range, don’t approximate. I provided several rare primary sources that you won’t find in Kaiser or Suny.98.231.157.169 (talk) 14:15, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Wikipedia editors are simply trying to reach clarity on an opaque and difficult point of contention. I'm in agreement with other editors that we should be giving the range. Secondary sources talk about "estimates" and give ranges. I don't think there is any other option when primary sources conflict that we should be giving the range like secondary sources. Gators bayou (talk) 17:40, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Hi Davidian, lets go back to the previous discussion (that's much more constructive), the most obvious problem with the use of a range, is that someone can say 1.3 – 2.5, another 1.8 – 2.1, and be referring to the same Wikipedia rules to justify their change by using the author that each think is more notable, or more credible. Each individual author, alone, is just one sample.

Here a set of ten different range (all supportable by different sources biased on one side or the other), from different permutations and combinations, you are free to add more, same goes for other editors.

• 1.3 – 1.8
• 1.5 – 1.8
• 1.5 – 2.0 
• 1.3 – 2.5
• 1.8 – 2.1
• 1.5 – 2.5
• 1.7 – 2.5 
• 1.8 – 2.4
• 1.8 – 2.5 
• 2.1 – 2.5 

• Mean range: 1.63 – 2.26 million
• Mean of Means: 1.945 million
• Variance : 0,052

• At a confidence level of 95 %, margin of error is of ± 0.146 million.

If I mistyped something in my sheet and got the calculation wrong, correct me.

And if everyone contributes and adds all possible combination of ranges from every side of the spectrum, it seems that it will level out to about that number (that is, close to 2 million).

And now, do the same exercise for the number of victims.

• A note, this exercise can only be done in the case of the Armenian genocide, because actors here have some form of freedom no matter the opinion they espouse, covering all the spectrum and mitigate several form of bias to arrive to a form of long-standing consensus. No one can then claim that one authors point of view was not considered in the building of that consensus (since statistical tools aren't in dispute here). As the information flows and knowledge become more decentralized, scholars with that freedom they enjoy can be revisiting other historical events to apply the same standards. Hemşinli çocuk 19:28, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

This set of range variants needs to be amended by (a) sources used (apparently Turkish sources mingle amongst them reducing the mean range); (b) to which period sources referred (if pre-genocide, immediately prior to it or years/decades before it?); (c) to which area sources referred (six Armenian-populated eastern vilayets or Ottoman Empire in general?); and (d) combinations based on newly-introduced late 19th-century population data are likely absent. If you expand on (a), (b) and (c), I’ll do the rest.98.231.157.169 (talk) 21:18, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Hi, that's my last reply. They are randomized but with constraints (the constraints being set of used well known figures) to compose ranges. Turkish sources are necessary to cover the whole spectrum and form as much as possible a Gaussian curve (but I didn’t analyze the data to verify if it did). Selecting and removing any of the figures used because they are Turkish or Armenian will taint the results (but we can be rejecting extremes for both sides, that’s already done when analyzing samples). Data analyses can show narrowing of the curve, asymmetry or other anomalies and that give clues that the data was filtered, processed, there was cross contamination, etc. Everything being wholly disclosed and can be replicated. Editors who have a position could be hunting for all the sources they can find, collecting them similarly to when it’s done in data-mining. That’s better than relying on one single author or some authors or editors judgement and standard (those are undisclosed). But I don’t hold my breath that that’s going to happen anytime soon, because all articles here have to be reassessed and edited appropriately. So I prefer spending my time developing applicable models to make that possible then editing articles here. And that’s also why I won’t be continuing this discussion any further. Hemşinli çocuk 22:25, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

• Last note, if you or anyone else want to contact me for more info on those models, you can email me from Wikipedia (you need an account and enable emailing for that). Hemşinli çocuk 22:32, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

In addition to pre-1878 Ottoman censuses above, in which Armenian population size ranged from 2,400,000 to 2,500,000, here are population data found in Armenian primary sources and secondary sources that used primary data. Together with pre-1878 Ottoman census figures, these primary data are intended to infuse new blood, so to say, into ossified figures by Suny et al that editors so love to make reference to:

2,660,000 Armenians in 1882 (this figure was provided to European powers by the Security Committee at the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, which was entrusted with drafting the reforms in Armenian populated provinces

2,026,700 Armenians in 1912

2,100,000 Armenians in 1913

2,382,336 Armenians prior to genocide

1,915,560 Armenians in 1914 (Patriarchate data available to Kévorkian and Paboudjian. Please note: 1,914,620 mentioned in their work must be a typo, because the resulting total from the charts on pp. 57-60 comes to 1,915,560

If added to the set of ranges above, these Ottoman and Armenian figures will no doubt bring mean of means to more than 2 million. If Turkish sources are out (all those laughable 1.3s), because crime perpetrators, need I say?, tend to grossly underreport numbers, I can say on a prima facie basis that mean of means may reach up to or about 2.3-2.5 million Ottoman Armenians. Hope this helps.98.231.157.169 (talk) 00:35, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• This line of investigation is based on original research. One cannot assume that the numbers of Armenians in 1882 is similar to later figures because emigration, massacres, and Islamization were already leading to a decline. We base our estimates on what is said in recent academic sources, particularly those which summarize other estimates (e.g. Morris & Ze'evi as well as Bijak & Luban), indicating academic consensus. Wikipedia editors should not be looking at the original census figures and trying to divine it for themselves. (t · c) buidhe 01:15, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

If you looked closely, you’d see that all sources cited in this thread are reliable secondary sources containing primary data, such as censuses or population updates. May a reliable secondary source contain census data? It may? Tha-a-a-ank you. No WP:RS guideline says that sources must be recent. Stop making things up. And lastly, this last edit was meant to be an addition to the set of different ranges offered by Hemşinli çocuk. No one asked you to look at the original census figures and divine them.98.231.157.169 (talk) 01:52, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Please illuminate us about instances of emigration, massacres, and Islamization between 1875-1876 Ottoman census, which reported 2,500,000 Armenians, and the next census in 1881-1885, which downsized their number to 1,169,960. Where did 1,330,040 Armenians go in the short course of nine years? Might you know?98.231.157.169 (talk) 02:03, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• In a fit of approximation of figures (perhaps they were good at that at school), editors rounded up various estimates for Ottoman Armenian populations ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 million and more, to a lousy figure of “around 2 million”, providing one (one!) reference to Suny’s 2015 work. Please be aware that in Encyclopedia Britannica which features Suny’s article “Armenian Genocide: Turkish-Armenian history”, this same author has stated: “At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 2.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire”. Please enlighten Wikipedia readers, based on WP:PG and not a frivolous interpretation or a caprice, as to how editors should handle the conflicting numbers supplied by the same author at the same time? In Article History, Britannica informs their readers that Suny has made the last thorough revision on 8 April 2015.98.231.157.169 (talk) 20:12, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Death toll?

A 2005 paper is quoted as stating that "the figure of 1.5 million people is generally accepted as a reasonable estimate" which isn't quite the same as "1.5 million is the most published number". Taner Akçam states that "one can confidently say that the number of deported Armenians was around 1.2 million" (The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity (2011), p. 258), of whom some managed to survive. Many sources have lower estimates. For example, They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else (2015) comes up with an estimate of approximately 664,000 Armenian victims between 1915 and 1918. USHMM states, "At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide."[1] According to a 2016 Springer chapter by two professional demographers, "The existing estimates are quoted as ranging ‘from 600,000 to 2 million’, and are heavily disputed." The conclusion of this paper states:

Precise knowledge of the number of Armenian victims is not possible, and striving for ‘more accurate’ estimates might be misplaced... The existing estimates roughly agree as to the order of magnitude of the number of victims, from at least 600,000, or – more likely – 800,000 to over a million during the entire period. [1915–1923]

According to Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi in The Thirty-Year Genocide (2019):

For decades, Armenian spokesmen and historians have zoomed in on World War I and have referred to 1-1.5 million Armenians murdered during 1915–1916, the core genocidal event during the 30- year period. Recent works, including by Armenian historians, have revised that figure substantially downwards. A major initial problem is that there are no agreed figures for the number of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1914. Secondly, no proper count was made of the number of Armenians who survived and reached foreign lands. Most historians estimate that on the eve of WWI, there were 1.5–2 million Armenians in the empire, mostly in Anatolia, and that between 800,000 and 1.2 million of them were deported. Raymond Kevorkian has written that 850,000 were deported and that “the number of those who had perished exceeded 600,000” by late 1916. Presumably he believes that more died during the following years. Fuat Dündar maintains that about 800,000 were deported and that altogether 664,000— consisting of those who were slaughtered in place, died during the deportation marches, or died in their places of resettlement— were dead by war’s end.3 Taner Akçam has estimated, mainly on the basis of Talât’s calculations in late 1917, that some 1.2 million Armenians were deported. Of these only 200,000 or so were alive by late 1916, implying that one million were murdered in 1915–1916.

Although these estimates don't include those who were killed after 1918, Morris and Ze'evi estimate that this is only thousands. They seem to imply that only by including the Hamidian massacres and Adana pogroms is the total likely to be more than a million, according to their estimation.

Perhaps it would be better to give a range rather than a definitive number, if the question remains to be settled and is potentially unanswerable. Another option would be "around a million, although the exact figure is disputed" (t · c) buidhe 17:22, 15 November 2020 (UTC)

References

Estimated 1 million, the infobox states. By who? Seems like the entire purpose of these discussion was to downgrade the death toll. The most widely accepted number is 1.5 million, not 1 million as falsely stated, and is officially used by the majority of (non-armenian) government and organization adopted resolutions. Addictedtohistory (talk) 19:20, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

That's why we use scholarship as reliable source rather than political resolutions, which are not reliable. (t · c) buidhe 19:51, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

1.5 million is the most accepted estimate and official estimate in most of the adopted resolutions. Taner Akçam, whom you quoted states that 1.2 million where deported only during 1915-1916, of whom about only 200 thousand survived. That already makes up 1 million. After all the genocide continued to 1923 (1918 stated by some). "Leave it to historians/scholars" is the turkish denialist policy. Governments who adopted resolution base their estimates on expert views. Addictedtohistory (talk) 21:52, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

The statement that armenian historians revised and downgraded the death toll estimates is a falsification. The armenian population estimate of 1.5–2 is another falsification. During the second half of the 19th century, in several occasion ottoman census recorded 2.4 million. The ottoman Armenian officials, i.e Migirdich Bey Dadian, put an estimate of 3.4 million. Addictedtohistory (talk) 22:12, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

The majority of historians use the word "Armenian Genocide" to refer to the killings during the First World War (especially 1915–1916, sometimes continuing to 1917 or 1918) and do not include the postwar period. For example, The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History, The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity, They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else, etc. Akcam's estimate is on the high end of what RS use. For example, Ronald Grigor Suny states that during the genocide, "It is estimated conservatively that between 600,000 and 1 million were slaughtered or died during the marches". A compromise solution is "around 1 million" because all non-FRINGE estimates are close to that to one order of approximation. I'm not going to discuss whether scholarly sources should be disregarded in favor of political resolutions. (t · c) buidhe 22:32, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

1 million is your own estimate, based on your interpretation of your chosen sources. The intro and infobox should use official estimate. Addictedtohistory (talk) 18:48, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

The majority of historians use the word "Armenian Genocide" to refer to the killings during the First World War is a WP:POV. Even the sources you rely on bags to differ. Addictedtohistory (talk) 18:56, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

• The contemporary sources use the 800,000 figure so it carries some weight, then up to 1.5million. The high figure is often cited in Congressional debates of the United States so it carries some weight too. That range encompasses most of the detailed estimates Buidhe cites. Gators bayou (talk) 20:12, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

800,000 is the death toll published by Ottoman Gazette in 1920 for the period of 1915-1918, which is considered an underestimate for obvious reasons. December 15 NY Times issue states Million Armenians killed or in exile.... American committee on relief says victims of turks are steadily increasing. Thats for the 8 first months of the genocide. Addictedtohistory (talk) 22:37, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

Two grave, inexcusable and, I suspect deliberately left, blunders in the introductory sentence: “around 1 million ethnic Armenians from Anatolia and adjoining regions”.

First, most historians (of course, excluding Turkish denialists) agree that from under 2 to over 2.5 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. Even if we assume, for a moment, that only 1.5 million Armenians lived (this is an unbelievably low figure), the first sentence in the Death Toll section states that “[t]he genocide reduced the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire by 90 percent”. Well, 90 percent of 1,500,000 is 1,350,000, that is, well over “around 1 million”. In the same section, the second sentence states that “most estimates are between 800,000 and over 1 million for the entire period 1915 to 1923”. Well, then, be so kind as to not to insult me and millions of descendants of the genocide survivors, and at least move this clause up to the introductory sentence, so it reads as follows: “The Armenian Genocide (other names) was the systematic mass murder and ethnic cleansing of between 800,000 and over 1 million ethnic Armenians […]”... if you’re so uncomfortable to repeat the figure of 1.5 million, which most genocide scholars, most professional genocide associations, and most governments that recognized the genocide had arrived at. Second, there have been no “Armenians from Anatolia”, because “Anatolia” is a relatively modern made-up Turkish toponym, invented to replace a more geographically and historically correct place name “The Armenian Highlands” or “The Armenian Plateau” . Again, if Wikipedia editors are so uncomfortable with using the correct toponyms and/or terms, you could at least replace the Turkish toponym “Anatolia” with a more neutral term “eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire”, although genocidal extermination of the Armenians also took place in Cilicia, a part of the Armenian homeland on the Mediterranean coast, as well as in other places beyond eastern provinces.98.231.157.169 (talk) 00:35, 25 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

most historians (of course, excluding Turkish denialists) agree that from under 2 to over 2.5 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire, that's simply inaccurate. The official Ottoman figure was 1,251,785, and the Armenian patriarchate's estimate was 1,915,858. Many authors argue that it is somewhere in between (such as 1,500,000), others do use the Patriarchate's figure, but that's still less than 2 million (see They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else pp. 354–355). When Suny states that the population was reduced by 90 percent, he is also counting those who were "ethnically cleansed" and managed to survive the ordeal but could not live in their homeland post-1923. As for place names, we generally use what the sources use. There were also many Armenians outside the Armenian Highlands/plateau in central and western Anatolia, Cilicia, etc. (t · c) buidhe 01:51, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

“The official Ottoman figure” has genuinely made me laugh… I hope you’re not serious bringing Turkish figures into this discussion? I wrote “under 2 to over 2.5 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire” based on most historians’ estimates. And it is quite correct. It is that you chose to refer only to the figures under 2 million. But there are also figures above 2 million and around 2.5 million. I’ll revisit this thread with reliable sources shortly. Hold on.98.231.157.169 (talk)Davidian — Preceding undated comment added 02:08, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

Encyclopædia Britannica (author: Ronald Grigor Suny) : “At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 2.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire, mostly concentrated in the six provinces of Eastern Anatolia.”

“Over 2,400,000 Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire in 1897”. Çaik, Y.G. Türk Devleti Hizmetinde Ermeniler 1453-1953 (Armenians in the Service of Turkish State, 1453-1953), İstanbul: Yeni Matbaa, 1953, p. 240.

“The Ottomans do not have a definite number. That is, we have in our hands contradictory numbers regarding the Armenian population within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. I would think […] this is to be between two and three million.” Seçil Karal Akgün, Hürriyet, 27 April 1987.

“Avant 1914, sur 2 millions et demi d’Arméniens vivant dans l’empire ottoman, il y avait un peu plus de 100,000 catholiques”. Maurice Pernot, La Question turque, Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1923, p. 207.

“En sories que l’on comptait, avant 1914, 4,160,000 Arméniens, dont 2,380,000 habitaient en territoire turc, 1,500,000 étaient sujets de l’empereur de Russie, 64,000 vivaient dans les provinces du chah de Perse et les diverses colonies à l’étranger, ce qui portait à 4,500,000 environ le nombre total des membres de la nation arménienne, nombre que les malheurs de ces derniers temps out réduit dans des proportions qu’il n’est pas possible de définir à l’heure présente.” Jacques de Morgan, Histoire du peuple arménien, Nancy-Paris-Strasburg: Berger-Levrault, 1919, p. 297.98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:45, 26 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

None of these are actually recent scholarly sources, i.e. from the last fifteen years or so. Someone's statement to a newspaper is not the same weight as peer reviewed work, and when dealing with old books from 100 years ago you have to ask—is this still supported by current scholarship? I do not think that Suny endorses such a high figure now, as in his 2015 book he does not mention any figure as high as 2 million (p. 354). Also, some of these estimates are of the Armenian population prior to 1914, which was indeed higher, given that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred or emigrated prior to World War I. (t · c) buidhe 17:53, 26 March 2021 (UTC)

Where in Wikipedia policy does it say that Wikipedia: Reliable Sources must be “from the last fifteen years or so”? Where does it say that “old books from 100 years ago” have to be supported by “current scholarship” in order to qualify for RS? Please be so kind as to refer your readers to a relevant Wikipedia regulation. Next, Dr Seçil Karal Akgün is a professor of late Ottoman history and contemporary Turkish history at Middle Eastern Technical University. Therefore, by no means is she “someone”, as you chose to characterize her. What, if a scholar gives an interview to a major newspaper, it cannot be considered an RS? Where in Wikipedia’s regulations does it say that a source must be mandatorily a “peer reviewed work”, please? Further, Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Article History indicates that Suny’s article was thoroughly revised as recently as April 08, 2015. And lastly, a correction, only one estimate, found in Çaik, Y.G., pertains to the period prior to 1914. However, it is still relevant, because it was made after hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred or emigrated fleeing the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1896.98.231.157.169 (talk) 18:37, 26 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

There is a vast literature on the topic of the Armenian Genocide, it ranges from straight up political propaganda and/or denialism to very good quality scholarship. You can cherry pick just about anything from sources, but per WP:NPOV we strive to cover views in accordance with the amount of support that they have in relevant academic field(s), while avoiding giving undue weight to assertions that may be WP:FRINGE. In order to show that the view, that Armenian population in 1914 was greater than 2 million, is a widely held one that merits inclusion in this article, it is necessary to cite recent scholarship that reflects such a view. (t · c) buidhe 19:06, 26 March 2021 (UTC)

Okay, all I ask is to direct participants and viewers in this talk to a Wikipedia regulation that states, unequivocally, that in order to support a view (in this case, that Armenian population in 1914 was greater than 2 million), the view “must be a widely held one that merits inclusion in an article” and, especially, that “it is necessary to cite recent scholarship that reflects such a view”. Neither WP:NPOV nor WP:FRINGE refer to or in any way support your interpretation of Wikipedia’s policies in this regard, I’m sorry to say. All sources I’ve brought up, suggesting that Armenian population in 1914 was greater than 2 million, are absolutely neutral and non-fringe. Two by Turkish scholars, two by French historians, one by Encyclopedia Britannica, whose last thorough revision of the article “Armenian Genocide” was made as recently as 2015 and, mind you, none by a current Armenian author (although they are many), so it won’t be regarded as “political propaganda” or “nationalist propaganda” or what have you.98.231.157.169 (talk) 19:30, 26 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Is Ronald Suny’s article published in WWI Encyclopaedia qualifies for an RS that was published “from the last 15 years or so”? And I hope Suny is not regarded by Wikipedia editors as a biased or fringe author, is he? Well, then in an article last updated on 26 May 2015, he offers the following figure: “Some 2 million Christian Armenians lived in the Ottoman lands in 1915, most of them peasants and townspeople in the six provinces of eastern Anatolia.” Please note that the figure refers to Armenian populations in “six provinces of eastern Anatolia” only. Is a study carried out in 2015 by an internationally renowned scholar considered a “good quality scholarship” and a “recent scholarship” by unspecified Wikipedia standards?98.231.157.169 (talk) 20:08, 26 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

“The only empirical method that approaches reality is to compare the number of people counted before the war with the number of escapees. Thus, one can estimate that over two-thirds of the Ottoman Armenian population—around two million people on the eve of the First World War—were exterminated in the course of the war. Around 1,300,000 people, to which we must add victims of military operation and massacres carried out by the Ottoman Army and its paramilitary affiliates in Iranian Azerbaijan, Russian Azerbaijan, and in the Caucasus against Armenian civilian populations. This makes for a clear total of nearly 1,500,000 people.” Raymond Kévorkian, “The Extermination of Ottoman Armenians by the Young Turk Regime (1915-1916)”, SciencesPo, 3 June 2008 (published within 15 years—Davidian)98.231.157.169 (talk) 20:34, 26 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• Yes, "around 2 million" implies the Patriarchate's figures (1.9 million) are accurate, this is not a fringe view and I never said it was, but neither of these sources say it was *greater* than 2 million. (t · c) buidhe 21:01, 26 March 2021 (UTC)

Yes, but the five above did say it was greater than 2 million. But you chose to dismiss them on the grounds that they don’t “merit inclusion in this article” because they are not “from the last fifteen years or so” and that some of them are “old books from 100 years ago”. Whereas, again, I fail to see in Wikipedia: Reliable Sources that Wikipedia regulations set such limits for the inclusion of sources in an article. I earnestly think that arbitrary or frivolous interpretation of policies is less than helpful.98.231.157.169 (talk) 21:24, 26 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

As for the 1913-1914 Patriarchate census figure, there is this extensive study by Armenian researcher Robert Tatoyan, titled “The Question of Western Armenian Population Number in 1878-1914” (Yerevan: The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Press, 2015), unfortunately in Armenian only, which traces the census operation and factors that impacted the collection of data. Based on a meticulous examination and comparative analysis of data, the author arrives at a conclusion that for several Armenian-populated areas the census-takers relied on flawed Ottoman statistics, which resulted in a total figure below the actual population number. This became evident in the light of testimonies of the genocide survivors who would customarily increase the number of populations per their native villages or hometowns by about 20 to 70 percent, as compared to the Patriarchate figures. 98.231.157.169 (talk) 22:53, 26 March 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• Most scholars would agree that the official Ottoman census was an undercount. As Morris and Ze'evi state, "Most historians estimate that on the eve of WWI, there were 1.5–2 million Armenians in the empire, mostly in Anatolia", which is already stated in the article. Wikipedia attempts to capture academic consensus views. If we relax that standard, then we also have to consider denialism as a legitimate viewpoint to be included in the article. (t · c) buidhe 02:25, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Hi buidhem, while I agree with you that the round number of a million is a good estimation for the number of victims, I don't agree with you regarding the estimates of Ottoman Armenian population. It seems that Morris and Ze'evi are assuming that there are almost no Ottoman Armenians that were living outside of Anatolia.

The most notable lowest estimate, easily verifiable, is provided by McCarthy (1,465,000 in Anatolia proper, but 1,698,301 total; for the whole Empire, many who cite McCarthy forget that part), whose work is still a reference for most (if not all, that means a source of cross-contamination that has to be taken into account when assessing the prevalence of an estimate) scholars who reject the thesis of genocide; also cited by Salt (in The Unmaking of the Middle East). While McCarthys estimates are tweaked (or "corrected") Ottoman statistics to account for undercountings, Morris and Ze'evi lowest figure in their provided range is even lower than McCarthy estimates (since they claim those figures to represent the Armenian population inside the Empire, not Anatolia alone). Even if you have to use as the lowest estimate Ottoman official figures without McCarthy correction, you will have to take into account Murat Bardakçı publication of Talat telegrams (cited in Akçam (2012)) and Talaat « correction » (because, in one form or another, they are « official » figures too… and the most up to date at that, and date of publication is a relevant criteria for academic publications) for the undercounting. And you will have to arrive at the same conclusion, again... the range provided by Morris and Ze'evi for the whole Empire dos not fully represent the range of estimates.

As much as Ottoman statistics (the one cited by Talaat in those telegrams) has to be the basis of most lower estimates (rather than historians, because there are no lesser justifications to take one historian over any other historian), the highest estimates are mostly to be drawn from Armenian sources. In this case, the Armenian Patriarchate, that provides for Anatolia alone 2.1 million Armenians (2.4 total), cited in one (or several?) Akçams work. Your assumption about the other figure (of about 1.9 million), that since it is an Armenian estimate it has to be someone at the highest range seems inaccurate, as even Justin McCarthy disagrees with you (on the origin of the 1.9 million figure) : « The most likely explanation of these statistics is that an order went out to the Armenian bishops, who took Ottoman statistics and local information from Armenian parishes, correcting them for perceived undercounts. As might be expected, this produced some exaggeration. However, comparison to Ottoman data corrected by demographic techniques does not show great differences. For some cases, the corrected Ottoman data shows more Armenians than does the Armenian data. » http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/PopulationOttomanArmenians.pdf

That statistic to close to two million is therefor not the official Patriarchate figures (the one that was cited by Akçam) but a form of middle ground based on both Ottoman statistics AND local information from parishes. Likewise, when estimates are indescribably presented, they varry from 1.5 to 2.4 or 2.5 millions, and the "Armenian" figure assessed by McCarthy sits right in between. Hemşinli çocuk 09:24, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

• Right, in Akcam's 2012 book he states, "according to the Ottoman census, was 1.3 million (according to Justin McCarthy, about 1.5 million), while according to the Armenian Gregorian Church, the figure was 2.1 million", however, he does not state which estimate he finds most accurate. (If I gave the impression of holding the Armenian patriarchate count as a high estimate, perhaps because Suny states that the actual figure "fell between the official Ottoman figure of 1,251,785, and the figure given by the Armenian patriarchate of 1,915,858".) As far as I can tell, Morris and Ze'evi are correct that most estimates in scholarship are between 1.5 and 2 million. You state, there are no lesser justifications to take one historian over any other historian I would disagree, we have to consider WP:WEIGHT as well as WP:RS, if the estimate is not widely held in scholarship it should probably be discussed in a sub-article such as Ottoman Armenian population or Casualties of the Armenian Genocide. However, based on what I can see, the figure of 2 million (Akcam 2018: "ca. 2 million Armenians in Anatolia in 1914", Kevorkian (quoted above), Suny 2015: "Some 2 million Christian Armenians lived in the Ottoman lands") seems to be more widely accepted than 1.5 million, so I will change this to "around 2 million". (t · c) buidhe 15:10, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
• Which Wikipedia regulation gives editors a right to round up various estimates found in sources? Wikipedia's policy encourages inclusion of as many RS as possible. Which regulation gives editors an authority to manipulate with estimates found in RS in a heavy-handed manner rounding them up to some absurd unsubstantiated figures? Editors do not own articles in Wikipedia, need I remind or you remember this fundamental rule?98.231.157.169 (talk) 15:56, 1 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian
  • Wikipedia's policy encourages inclusion of as many RS as possible. Nope. (t · c) buidhe 16:06, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
    • Yeap. WP:NPOV encourages editors to add alternate and multiple points of view to an article”98.231.157.169 (talk) 16:24, 1 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

@ Hemşinli çocuk How can you agree that the rounded number of a million is a “good estimation” for the number of victims if, as you yourself write, it is just a rounded number, and not an estimation per se, moreso “good”? This number is an arbitrarily approximated figure based on a single, repeat: single, source: Bijak & Lubman 2016, in which a range of estimates from selected authors is tabulated. The lower bound of that range includes just three Turkish or pro-Turkish (McCarthy) sources of around 600,000, which every self-respecting genocide scholar knows are grossly understated, and then comes a bulk of various Western and Armenian estimates ranging from 800,000 to 1,200,000 ending with the upper bound of 1,500,000. Yet Wikipedia editors chose to round up this range to a flimsy “around 1 million” in the introductory sentence, which is the most foolhardy thing to do with respect to the range of estimates and the internationally accepted figure of 1.5 million. I already proposed an edit which was disregarded by the editors. I hereby rephrase it based on Wikipedia editors’ beloved single source Bijak & Lubman 2016, so it reads as follows:

The Armenian Genocide (other names) was the systematic mass murder and ethnic cleansing of ethnic Armenians inhabiting Asia Minor and adjoining regions by the Ottoman government during World War I. According to various estimates, in the period from 1915 to 1918 and well into 1923, between 800,000 and 1,200,000 to as many as 1,500,000 Armenians have been murdered.

I hope editors understand that the most disgraceful thing to do is to round up the wide range of estimates to a flimsy figure, knowing that “the exact number of Armenians who died is not known and impossible to determine”. Well, again, then be so kind as to provide the range and not an arbitrarily approximated number.98.231.157.169 (talk) 15:04, 1 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Hi Davidian, a round number is sufficient, in this case, to give an order of magnitude (in term of human loss), to the closest million.

Regarding 1918-23, it is true that starting with 1918 there were some level of atrocities extending beyond the Ottoman borders, many of the victims were "Russian" Armenians (including Ottoman Armenians who migrated over the course of the years preceding or during the events), even if we consider that some of the reports are subject to exaggeration, the incursions into Russian Armenia caused considerable losses (both human and material). But this can be added somewhere else in the article. It’s more simple in the lede, to state that during the course of WWI out of a population of 2 million, around half died. This doesn’t mean that there was no atrocities later, but the rest of the info needs more context and can be added elsewhere in the article.

Hi Buidhe, I do agree with your more recent edit, round number of 2 million is a reasonable estimate. Hemşinli çocuk 17:57, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Why is it necessary to round up figures? Who benefits from decreasing the number of Armenians killed, internationally acknowledged as being at or up to 1.5 million, to a hastily approximated figure of “around 1 million”? Who gave Wikipedia editors an authority to make approximations in articles containing victim- and population numbers? Please refer your readers to a relevant policy regulation in Wikipedia:PAG which binds editors to provide a first order approximation instead of providing figures in the ballpark extracted from RS? Who decides whether or not a round number is sufficient? Who decides that Ottoman Armenian population was 2 million? Who stands behind your involvement in a most unprofessional business of rounding up figures from a variety of estimates? 98.231.157.169 (talk) 21:06, 1 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• @Hemşinli çocuk When you add considerable human losses that were produced as a result of killings after the core period of genocide in 1915-1916 and incursions into the Kars province and Russian Armenia starting with 1918, as well as the elimination of the remaining pockets of Ottoman Armenians (Great fire of Smyrna, as one example) that lasted until the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, you inevitably arrive at the figure of or around 1.5 million. And this must be stated in the lede, and not added “somewhere else in the article”. But at the core, it is inexcusable to round up the number of victims, instead of providing the ballpark, which in most sources ranges from 800,000 to 1,500,000 million. Please take pains to show your readers a policy guideline Wikipedia:PG that commits editors to round up sensitive figures. Still waiting…98.231.157.169 (talk) 14:34, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

“The only empirical method that approaches reality is to compare the number of people counted before the war with the number of escapees. Thus, one can estimate that over two-thirds of the Ottoman Armenian population [...] were exterminated in the course of the war. Around 1,300,000 people, to which we must add victims of military operation and massacres carried out by the Ottoman Army and its paramilitary affiliates in Iranian Azerbaijan, Russian Azerbaijan, and in the Caucasus against Armenian civilian populations. This makes for a clear total of nearly 1,500,000 people.” Raymond Kévorkian, “The Extermination of Ottoman Armenians by the Young Turk Regime (1915-1916)”, in SciencesPo, 3 June 200898.231.157.169 (talk) 16:10, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• The opening sentence in Death Toll: “The exact number of Armenians who died is not known and impossible to determine, but both contemporaries and later historians have estimated that around 1 million Armenians perished during the genocidal campaign carried out during World War I” is flawed in several respects.

One, it is not true that "contemporaries and many later historians estimated the number of deaths at around 1 million". In fact, several contemporaries placed the number at more than 1 million (for example, 1.5 million was mentioned in a Report Volkswirtschaftliche Studien in der Türkei submitted to the German Foreign Office on 14 July 1916; 1.5 million was mentioned in another German Foreign Office report dated 27 May 1916; 1.5 million was mentioned in a Report dated 4 October 4 1916 by Wilhelm von Radowitz, German ambassador to Constantinople; German Major Carl Franz Endres, who served in the Ottoman army, reported 1.2 million; during the Turkish courts-martial of 1919-1920, 1.2 million Armenian deaths were in circulation during the court proceedings). In 1984, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal session “Armenian Genocide” held in Paris, considered the case of 1.2 million Armenian killed. Scores of later historians, of whom Wikipedia editors are well aware, reported more than 1 million deaths over the period from 1915 to 1923 (Akçam, Kévorkian, etc.).

Two, the genocidal campaign against Armenians was carried out during World War I and in the later years, from 1918 onwards and up until 1923.

Three, while Bijak & Lubman 2016, whom editors mention in Reference 196, do contend that “the exact number of Armenians who died is not known and impossible to determine”, in Conclusion on page 39, they specifically note that “[t]he existing estimates roughly agree as to the order of magnitude of the number of victims, from […] more likely 800,000 to over a million during the entire period. Hope this helps.98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:19, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• Second sentence in this section erroneously states that “both contemporaries and later historians have estimated that around 1 million Armenians perished during the genocidal campaign carried out during World War I”. Twice in this discussion, I cited several contemporary German sources that placed the number of murdered Armenians at 1.5 million and reiterated the widely known fact that many later historians have arrived at the same figure. This sentence, therefore, is complete nonsense. But editors continue to stubbornly dismiss edits, making a reference to none other than Tom de Waal, a journalist by training. Editors, since when it has become an acumen of your professionalism to make a reference to a journalist? Do you know that there are professions more suitable for occasion, such as genocide scholar, historian, international lawyer, etc.?98.231.157.169 (talk) 20:29, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian
  • You are obviously cherrypicking a few estimates that are higher than 1 million, while ignoring that other contemporaries made lower estimates. (Johannes Lepsius, the #1 pro-Armenian campaigner in Germany, estimated 1 million deaths). The book was published by a division of Oxford University Press and reviewed (positively) in multiple scholarly journals, so it meets the standard expected here. (t · c) buidhe 21:08, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

No. I’m not “obviously(?!) cherrypicking” a few estimates that are higher than 1 million. These important few estimates (there are several others in reserve, fyi) are from contemporaries who have reported 1.5 million Armenians dead. Their reports refute the laughable sentence you decided to include in this section that “contemporaries […] have estimated that around 1 million Armenians perished”. Well, the figure of 1.5 million was also reported by contemporaries. Why won’t you go ahead and—obviously—include them in this section? What keeps you from adding ‘em in? And, no. Johannes Lepsius initially estimated the number of Armenians who had died in 1915-1916 at 1,000,000, but in the 1919 edition of the Bericht he revised that figure to 1,100,000. In addition, Lepsius put the number of Eastern (Russian) Armenians killed during the Turkish invasion of Transcaucasia in 1918 at up to 100,000. This makes it about 1,200,000 Armenians killed by 1918 only. Just so you know.98.231.157.169 (talk) 00:01, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Copyedit

@Buidhe: Some prose notes:

• I removed "in international diplomacy" but maybe that detail is important
• Vocab words I found hard: "sedentarization", "Sublime Porte", "gendarmes". Probably should introduce the second
• Should be clear that "Dashnaks" are the party from earlier
• Maybe put quotes around Turkify ?
• "The mass confiscation of Armenian properties was an important factor in forming the economic basis of the Republic of Turkey by endowing its economy with capital." This is wordy, but I found it hard to reduce without changing the meaning slightly. So please check what I did
• "war criminals" I changed it to this from something like "people who committed war crimes" but I'm not sure if it's too direct, since I guess they're not convicted at that point in time

Let me know if you're satisfied, as this is my first GOCE request; I can take a second pass. Maybe I should have chosen a shorter request! Great article, by the way... sobering. Sincerely, Ovinus (talk) 04:50, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

• Ovinus Your edits were very helpful; I am entirely happy with them. I have checked them all and addressed most of the points above. Thanks so much! (t · c) buidhe 05:59, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 April 2021 (2)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Change

- and ethnic cleansing of around one million ethnic Armenians
to
- and ethnic cleansing of around one million ethnic Armenian Christians

sources--

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-overview,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56874811,
https://www.britannica.com/event/Armenian-Genocide Mylovejesus (talk) 05:41, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

 Not done, duplicate request. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 19:30, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Violation of one revert rule

@Buidhe: It seems that you violated one revert rule (WP:1RR) twice in a 24 hour period. Please stop doing this or you may be blocked for disruptive editing.[2][3][4]--Visnelma (talk) 11:31, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

Not a single mention of 1.5 million Armenians killed

Despite the widely known fact that most governments, parliaments, provincial administrations, municipalities, clerical Christian organizations, professional associations, academic societies, human rights organizations and advocacy groups, as well as many genocide scholars, historians, and international lawyers used 1.5 million as the estimate of Armenians killed in their resolutions, statements, declarations, condemnations, proclamations, and scholarly works, there is no single mention of that figure in this article. It’s really a shame.98.231.157.169 (talk) 21:47, 1 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

We should be giving the range. The lead gives the range from 800,000 to 1.2 million but Buidhe has refused to budge on the "Estimated around 1 million" in the infobox. She has expressed some opposition to increasing the range from 800,000 to 1.5 million because she says it is "too high". Sorry if I'm getting this wrong Buidhe, it's what I remember from our earlier discussion, feel free to jump in here. Gators bayou (talk) 17:44, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Actually, 800,000 to 1.2 million refers to the number estimated deported in various sources, which is different than the number killed (some survived deportation, others were massacred without being deported also). (t · c) buidhe 18:09, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

I'm gonna copy and paste Thomas de Waal's discussion of casualties here because it's highly relevant:

Almost every element of this has become highly politicized, even before we get to the use and abuse of the word “genocide,” invented in the 1940s. Inevitably, a gruesome game of numbers looms over the issue of the Genocide. Politicized historians inflate and diminish the casualty figures, count and discount corpses, seeking to prove that greater or smaller numbers of Armenians died. Again, there are no big secrets here. During World War I, observers estimated that one million Armenians had been killed. The postwar Allied-backed Ottoman government of 1919 put the figure at 800,000, a number that Kemal Atatürk apparently accepted.

(t · c) buidhe 18:11, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

"During World War I, observers estimated that one million Armenians had been killed." This is not true, Mr de Waal. In fact, several contemporaries placed the number at 1.5 million. For example, 1.5 million was mentioned in a report titled Volkswirtschaftliche Studien in der Türkei submitted to the German Foreign Office on 14 July 1916. 1.5 million was mentioned in another field report dated 27 May 1916 dispatched to the German Foreign Office. Wilhelm von Radowitz, German Ambassador to Constantinople mentioned 1.5 million in a report dated 4 October 1916.98.231.157.169 (talk) 02:32, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

“The postwar Allied-backed Ottoman government of 1919 put the figure at 800,000.” This is another falsehood, Mr de Waal. During the Allied-backed Turkish courts-martial of 1919-1920, 1.2 million Armenian deaths were in circulation throughout the court proceedings.98.231.157.169 (talk) 02:37, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Nope. (t · c) buidhe 02:46, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

Vahakn N. Dadrian, The Turkish Military Tribunal’s Prosecution of the Authors of the Armenian Genocide: Four Major Court-Martial Series, in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring 1997), p. 34.98.231.157.169 (talk) 03:04, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Postwar Ottoman government was not led by Humayak Khosrovian but rather by Damad Ferid who actually did put the number of Armenian deaths at 800,000. (t · c) buidhe 04:13, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

The postwar Ottoman government would accept just about anything to get away with the murder of a people. In this sense, Tom de Waal’s statement, in his capacity as a journalist, is hogwash. Most self-respecting genocide scholars and late Ottoman era historians outrightly dismiss Ottoman figures because, as crime perpetrators, Turks customarily understate the number of deaths. It must be understood, therefore, that Turks would happily admit lower bounds to the actual number of dead. Thus, 800,000. To make this clearer to you, Turkish courts-martial under the government of Damad Ferid were Allied-backed and, during the court proceedings, prosecution introduced the figure of 1.2 million. Mind you, this is 1919, and the genocidal extermination of the Armenians would continue up until 1923, thus increasing the death toll.98.231.157.169 (talk) 16:26, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

This is becoming radicilous, a single editor does not WP:OWN the article. Most of non-denialist/non-turkish/non-israeli estimates rage 800.000 to more than 1.5 million. Even the underestimated 800.000-1 million is usually used for the first of 8 years of the genocide. Not to mention that dosens of countries officially use 1.5 million as estimate. The current death toll, population estimates in the article are based solely on a single editors interpretation of selected sources. Addictedtohistory (talk) 18:25, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Oh, and journalist Tom de Waal has now metamorphosed into a genocide scholar, huh? And his unprofessional mumbling is regarded by a Wikipedia editor as "highly relevant"? Nice...98.231.157.169 (talk) 18:59, 2 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• I think @Buidhe:'s numbers seem quite accurate. I will cite a paragraph by David Nicolle, The Ottomans Empire of Faith: "By the time the war ended the easternmost provinces of Anatolia had a minimal Armenian minority. The Allies claimed that over a million Armenians had been massacred; Ottoman documents indicated that around 400,000 were deported and 500,000 fled to the Caucasus with the Russians. Today, western historians put the Armenian genocide at around 600,000 dead; others estimate that 200,000 Armenians perished as a result of famine, disease, war action, and deliberate murder during a period in which a far greater number of Muslims perished."--Visnelma (talk) 06:59, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

@Visnelma:Even genocide deniers do not stick to your grave numbers. Your arguments are examples of Turkish official denialist policy, that's not accepted by any dissent scholar, not even to mention Western. Addictedtohistory (talk) 15:00, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

And it was apparent from article nomination date that they seem to have deliberately put it under lock, under the pretext of “protection from vandalism”, so that reasonable and educated Wikipedia readers won’t be able to make edits of their stupid number approximations.98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:18, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

@Addictedtohistory: There is nothing to say much if you don't care about what a prominent academician on Middle Eastern history says. Everything seems reasonable to me. By the way, David Nicolle uses the word "genocide" so he is not a denialist :) --Visnelma (talk) 15:36, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

@Visnelma:I'm not going to discuss or give a weight to genocide-denialist turkish propaganda promo here. Addictedtohistory (talk) 16:32, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

@Addictedtohistory: lol because I cited a RS, I'm being accused of denialism. By the way your "genocide-denialist turkish propaganda promo" attack is completely baseless and I think you should read WP:NPA.--Visnelma (talk) 22:05, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

@Visnelma: My comments targeted the denialist literature you quoted, not you.

David Nicolle is not a denialist. He uses the word genocide.--Visnelma (talk) 07:30, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Addictedtohistory (talk) 12:48, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

To post an article on Armenian Genocide and not to mention in any way the internationally recognized figure of 1.5 million circulating in the academia, executive and legislative bodies, human rights and advocacy groups, professional genocide associations, etc., amounts to denying the crime. Wikipedia editors, you should be ashamed of yourselves. I think the time has come to consider forwarding this article to major Armenian lobbying and advocacy organizations.98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:57, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

I'm sure you wouldn't do that as it would be WP:Canvassing and WP:Meatpuppetry. (t · c) buidhe 18:09, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

Oh, now you’re bringing up WP:PG? When you were asked several times to refer your readers to Wikipedia guidelines that give editors an authority to approximate numbers, you were as silent as a grave.98.231.157.169 (talk) 18:23, 3 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Whataboutery is not a productive discussion method.--Visnelma (talk) 22:30, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

• @Visnelma: Wrong. @Buidhe:'s numbers do not seem "quite accurate", because numbers provided by military historian David Nicolle are overshadowed by numbers supplied by professional genocide scholars, such as Tessa Hofmann: “Contemporaries predicted in 1915 that roughly more than half the deportees would perish en route to their destinations. An early estimation, based on an extrapolated survey by Sister Rohner and communicated through the German embassy to the German government, established that out of 2.5 million Ottoman Armenians, 2 million had been deported; of the deportees, 1.5 million had perished by early October 1916. This calculation is entirely in line with the figures established by Raymond Kévorkian, the main expert on the final two stages of the deportation. According to him, about 870,000 survivors arrived in Mesopotamia, most of them being interned in concentration camps near the Baghdad Railway, while a smaller percentage succeeded in staying in the cities of Aleppo, Dayr-az-Zawr, Ras-ul-Ayn, and Mosul. Out of the 870,000 deportees who did reach Mesopotamia in 1915, 630,000 died during the second and third phases of the deportation, by fall 1916.”98.231.157.169 (talk) 00:59, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian
  • “Today, western historians put the Armenian genocide at around 600,000 dead”. Dearest military historian David Nicolle, whom Visnelma so ecstatically brought in here, below are just a few Western historians (more are in reserve) who "put the Armenian genocide" (lol, what sort of English language is this: “western” in lowercase, “put the Armenian genocide at certain number of dead”? And this is an "expert" whom Wikipedia editors chose to cite here? Jesus Christ…) at or up to 1.5 million:

1. Israel W. Charny (ed.): “In all, it is estimated that up to a million and a half Armenians perished at the hands of Ottoman and Turkish military and paramilitary forces and through atrocities intentionally inflicted to eliminate the Armenian demographic presence in Turkey.”
2. Wayne H. Bowen: “The genocide of 1.5 million Armenians was made possible by collaboration”.
3. Alfred de Zayas: “The Armenian civilian population in Eastern Anatolia was then subjected to massacres and deportations that cost 1 to 1.5 million lives”.
4. Samuel Totten and Paul R. Bartrop: “A genocide committed against Armenians by the regime of the Committee of Union and Progress (Ittihad ve Terakki Jemyeti), also known as the Young Turks, in the Ottoman Empire in the period following April 24, 1915 (1915-1923). According to most accounts, at least 1 million—though, on the balance of probabilities, closer to 1.5 million—Armenians were slaughtered as a direct result of deliberate Turkish policies seeking their permanent eradication from the empire”.
5. Armen Marsoobian (Southern Connecticut State University, the US): “This ‘numbers game’ has been played out with regard to the Armenian genocide. The Turkish government’s position is that only 300,000 Armenians perished during the ‘troubles,’ while most historians place the number somewhere between a million and a million and a half”.

• Britannica also states:" Conservative estimates have calculated that some 600,000 to more than 1,000,000 Armenians were slaughtered or died on the marches." which alignes with the source I cited and what Buidhe says. Also as far as I could found about them, Charny and Marsoobian are not specialised in history but rather in psychology and philosophy.--Visnelma (talk) 02:07, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

No, Sir. Another falsehood. Israel W. Charny is an Israeli psychologist and genocide scholar98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:45, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

This clause in Britannica refers to the period of 1915-1916, in case you didn’t notice. If you open your eyes wider, you’ll see that Britannica specifically uses the term “conservative estimates” and, in contrast to Wikipedia editors, provides a range, and not a lousy approximation, between “some 600,000 to more than 1,000,000 Armenians”. Did you notice more than for the period of 1915-1916?98.231.157.169 (talk) 17:53, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• Yet, it doesn't mention 1.5-1.8 million deaths and Britannica's "600.000-1.000.000" range is perfectly in line with David Nicolle's numbers: "The Allies claimed that over a million Armenians had been massacred; (...) Today, western historians put the Armenian genocide at around 600,000 dead" I don't think you read the text carefully.--Visnelma (talk) 19:26, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

No one here suggested 1.8 million deaths. Don’t put words in my mouth that I’ve never uttered. For the third time, Britannica’s entry on the Armenian Genocide refers to the core period of 1915-1916. You’re either not able or, more likely, not willing, to read carefully the text of the para. that starts with “Soon after the defeat at Sarıkamış”. It describes, in black letters on a white background, the period from May 1915 and to the massacres that continued into 1916. Hence, the range “some 600,000 to more than 1,000,000 Armenians”, that is for the period of 1915-1916 only. And, mind you, Britannica specifically uses the term “conservative estimates”. Do you see this important specification, conservative estimates? Nowhere in the text do I see “600.000-1.000.000”. I see “some 600,000 to more than 1,000,000 Armenians”. Might you have a reading comprehension predicament? I'm worrying... And please stop parroting an unprofessional clause by a military historian. I can provide tons of western genocide scholars and late Ottoman era historians who can beat him to pieces.98.231.157.169 (talk) 20:27, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Marsoobian is a philosopher. But, in contract to military historian David Nicolle, who "puts the Armenian genocide at a number of dead" in a "very eloquent" English language, he has a remarkable amount of peer-reviewed publications on the Armenian Genocide which earned him an award from the Hrant Dink Foundation Prize for Historical Research for studies on the Armenian Genocide.98.231.157.169 (talk) 18:02, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• • Is Raphael Lemkin, the father of the term “genocide”, considered a “Western genocide scholar” based on Wikipedia editors’ inimitable standard of thinking? Well, then, this clause from his autobiography is specially for these editors @Buidhe: and @Visnelma::

“In Turkey, more than 1.2 million Armenians were put to death for no reason other than that they were Christians. They were driven from their homes along the Euphrates River and then, suddenly, the escorting gendarmes started shooting at both ends of the long line of deportees. […] Then one day I read in the newspapers that all Turkish war criminals were to be released. I was shocked. A nation was killed, and the guilty persons were set free.”98.231.157.169 (talk) 19:14, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

I'm glad if I was able to bring some enlightenment.98.231.157.169 (talk) 01:34, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• I don't know why you are spending so much time arguing here rather than tackling the many articles on Ottoman/Turkish history that are seriously whitewashed. (t · c) buidhe 20:52, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Because I have reasonable grounds to suspect that Wikipedia editors have been tasked with deliberate downsizing both the number of Armenian genocide victims and the size of Ottoman Armenian populations by behind-the-scene powers who pull your strings. P.S. I’m not "arguing", I’m suggesting edits supported by RS, in case you didn’t notice.98.231.157.169 (talk) 21:04, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

If you know there are many articles on Ottoman/Turkish history that are seriously whitewashed, why are you using their figures or make reference to them here?98.231.157.169 (talk) 21:12, 4 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Hi IP, your talk page edits aren't delivering the result you aim for it seems. Usually an argument is made in only a few edits and then the editors move on to create content. You have made more than a 100 edits to the Armenian Genocide talk page and the last ones weren't really constructive. Everybody can edit on Wikipedia, improve the Ottoman/Turkish articles you want and have patience at the talk page, we'd be grateful.Paradise Chronicle (talk) 23:29, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

I use a penname “Davidian”, so next time you scribble something here, make sure you address me by this penname and not an “IP”, okay? Otherwise I’d have to address you “Hell Chronicle”, how about that? If you’re interested why my edits aren’t delivering the result I aim for, please ask your BFF colleague (t · c) buidhe as to why she keeps dismissing valuable, constructive, RS-based edits, sinking to rounding up various estimates of victims and population size to stupid unsubstantiated approximations, okay? Also, please ask her as to why she’s not responding to Wikipedia readers' inquiries about various WP:PG guidelines. Oh, I forgot, I cannot edit on this article, didn't you know?, it has been put under the lock “due to vandalism”, lol. I’ll keep on fighting genocide deniers and Armenian victim number diminishers. Make no mistake.98.231.157.169 (talk) 00:08, 5 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

• • Statement by US President Joe Biden on Armenian Remembrance Day:

"Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring. Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination. We honor the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history. And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms." (t · c) buidhe, is this of any help to you?98.231.157.169 (talk) 16:31, 24 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Lede citations

There's not a single citation in the entire introduction section and it's kind of ridiculous. Like I don't mean to sound insensitive but especially when things like "Prior to World War II, the Armenian Genocide was widely considered the greatest atrocity in history." being inserted without a single source is unbelievable. You can't... do that! 47.20.177.163 (talk) 20:31, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

See WP:LEADCITE. It's cited in the body. (t · c) buidhe 20:33, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Noted. 47.20.177.163 (talk) 20:34, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

---

Map is wrong

Sweden does not recognise the Armenian genocide (I'm embarrassed by it and I wish it weren't so, but that's the case nonetheless). No Swedish government has ever recognised it; as recently as today the Swedish foreign minister made a point of it. I'm removing the erroneous map until its corrected. Jeppiz (talk) 18:06, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

To be more precise, the Swedish parliament did pass a motion in 2010 encouraging the government to recognize the genocide. Both the government at the time and all subsequent governments have refused to do so. I assume some user saw the parliament motion and misinterpreted it as recognition. Jeppiz (talk) 18:23, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Jeppiz, In fact, the parliamentary recognitions *are* what is shown on the map. This is the focus of how it's discussed in the media and academic literature, for example [5] Also the sources are cited in the image description. (t · c) buidhe 19:09, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Buidhe, sorry but that is incorrect, please self-revert. The caption of the map reads "States that officially recognize the genocide". Sweden does not officially recognize the genocide. In some countries Parliament may have the power to pass such recognition, but that is not the case in Sweden. The parliamentary motion is without any official status. Again, kindly self-revert. Jeppiz (talk) 19:24, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Most of the countries displayed are those where parliament has passed a nonbinding resolution. Sweden is listed as one of the countries that recognized Armenian Genocide here.[6][7] It's simply how reliable sources count these things. If you think there's an issue, you could add a clarification to the caption. (t · c) buidhe 19:36, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Those are hardly a reliable sources. You are pushing original research (worse, actually, as you're pushing factual error). If Sweden has recognized the Armenian genocide, why is there a debate in Sweden about its refusal to recognize it? Jeppiz (talk) 19:41, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

@Jeppiz: @Buidhe: I agree with Jeppiz that stated sources by Buidhe are not reliable.--Visnelma (talk) 21:19, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Yes, armenian-genocide.org is such an unreliable source that it's repeatedly cited in academic research for countries recognizing the Armenian Genocide![8][9][10][11][12][13][14] (t · c) buidhe 21:29, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Okay, I accept I have evaluated source's reliability wrongly but simply putting a link to a photo is original research as Jeppiz stated.--Visnelma (talk) 22:06, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Sources explicitly stating Sweden refuses to recognize the genocide

Here are a number of highly reliable sources, all from the largest media corporations, making it perfectly clear Sweden refuses to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Quite frankly, claiming that Sweden does so is highly insulting to all Armenians in Sweden who campaign tirelessly for recognition. [15], [16], [17]. Jeppiz (talk) 20:07, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

I added a clarification to the map indicating that it includes parliamentary resolutions. (t · c) buidhe 20:32, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Buidhe, that is original research. The map is based on your own interpretation of what recognition means. Including countries that explicitly refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide because you make the interpretation of what constitutes is a rather obvious OR-example. Jeppiz (talk) 20:54, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

No, I cite reliable sources in the image description, which include (as most sources do) parliamentary resolutions as recognition of genocide. (t · c) buidhe 21:18, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Just putting my two cents to the debate in this thread. Library of Congress Global Legal Monitor https://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/sweden-parliament-approves-resolution-on-armenian-genocide/. Note official information from the Swedish Parliament website. 98.231.157.169 (talk) 00:51, 25 April 2021 (UTC)Davidian

Gator bayou copyedit request

In 1891, Abdul Hamid created the Hamidiye regiments from Kurdish tribes, allowing them to act with impunity against Armenians. From 1895 to 1896 the empire saw widespread massacres; at least 100,000 Armenians were killed by Ottoman soldiers, crowds incited to violence, and Kurdish tribes. Many Armenian villages were forcibly converted to Islam. The Ottoman state bore ultimate responsibility for the killings, whose purpose was violently restoring the previous social order in which Christians would unquestionably accept Muslim supremacy, and forcing Armenians to emigrate, thereby decreasing their numbers.

1. "The" is not correct English here, indefinite article (which for plural is null) is used.
2. ??? The source refers to conversion of villages, presumably referring to when the residents of a village convert as a group.
3. What do you think? The reader is expected to use their brain while reading. (t · c) buidhe 12:19, 22 April 2021 (UTC)

1. Please read the last sentence again. We ought not to shift the burden of bad writing to our readers. You've been possessive about letting others make changes so I tagged it for you to do. It requires familiarity with the source so it's not a simple copyedit.
2. For the conversion of villages, if the concept has historically significant context per the source it should be explained to the readers. In modern terms villages don't have ethnicities or religions so we should not just leave it for readers to presume. If it's only a passing remark from one source with no explanation we should remove it. Gators bayou (talk) 12:22, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

I see nothing wrong with the last sentence. As for the second point, a "Armenian village" is one that's populated by Armenians, in just the same way as a "Chinese neighborhood" in a US city means one inhabited by Chinese people. No need for a complicated explanation—it's just plain English.

I will revert any edit that in my estimation makes the article worse, just as with any other article on my watchlist. (t · c) buidhe 12:52, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

The last sentence has inappropriately combined two sources in a way that misrepresents Suny, significantly. It's also badly written. There have been other subtle distortions of sourcing in some of the recent changes you have made. Even while your version does not have support on this talk page the rapid fire reverts continue, as do the accusations that other editors are making the article worse. Gators bayou (talk) 13:41, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

I fail to see anything inappropriate with combine two sources for different information in one sentence. This is completely acceptable and done in many featured articles. It does not "misrepresent" any source since each is cited for the information it supports. (t · c) buidhe 13:45, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

1. No, itt's not always inappropriate, the way you have done it here is inappropriate. Suny states that there are two significant views among historians. One is that the massacres were the first stage "leading inevitably to the genocide that lay ahead". (Suny). The other is the "the Hamidian killings were not genocide ... massacres were not intended to eliminate the sultan's Armenian subjects but rather to restore the old equilibrium ... in which the subject peoples would accept the dominance of the Ottoman Muslim elite with little overt questioning." (Suny).
2. Instead of stating there are two views, the content seems to fuse the sources. It's hard to fix without access to Kevorkian, but Suny says "not intended to eliminate the sultan's Armenian subjects". He doesn't say anything about forced deportations or decreasing their numbers.
3. "subject peoples" and "Armenian subjects" has been changed to Christians (editor preference?)
4. It should be "unquestioningly", not "unquestionably accept Muslim supremacy". It certainly remains questionable, something beyond even the Sultan's powers.

Gators bayou (talk) 14:04, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

I cite for what Suny himself states, which is that "Unlike the Genocide of 1915–1916, the 1894–1896 massacres were not intended to eliminate the sultan’s Armenian subjects but rather to restore the old equilibrium in interethnic relations, an imperial settlement in which the subject peoples would accept the dominance of the Ottoman Muslim elite with little overt questioning." It's 100% supported and not misrepresentation at all.

One of my annoyances with this book is that Suny does not make it clear which of his "some other people think" are widely accepted versus which are fringe views. If you follow the footnote, there's only one source cited where he quotes:

“The policies of centralization from the Tanzimat onwards had shifted not] only the relative power relations within the Ottoman Empire, but also turned them into antagonistic ones. Now the policy was to unite (the Sunni majority) and rule against the minorities. Ottoman politics had been redefined as a zero-sum game, one in which the Armenians were bound to lose.” Astourian, “On the Genealogy of the Armenian-Turkish Conflict,” p. 207.

In my opinion that does not even clearly support what it's cited for, and even if it did, it is a minority view (The Thirty-Year Genocide thesis being rejected by most).

Kevorkian states is

In any case, demographic considerations helped shape the sultan’s policy vis-à-vis the Armenians, even if the massacres committed between 1894 and 1896 have often been presented as punishments meted out to “insurgents.” The proof, we would suggest, is provided by the complementary Hamidian policy of very plainly encouraging emigration. The destruction of work tools, looting of stores and businesses, growing tax burden, and constant insecurity due to the bands of hamidiyes organized by the sultan drove hundreds of thousands of people into exile, depopulating both town and country.

The Ottoman Empire did demographic engineering for centuries, but demographic engineering is not inherently genocidal so there is no contradiction. There is also no "fusion" or original synthesis, since these are separate clauses.

You can't use the exact words of a source, that would be a copyright violation. I always rewrite in my own words. Not just Armenians but also other Christians such as Assyrians were targeted during the Hamidian massacres.

Yes, unquestioningly is the word I meant. (t · c) buidhe 14:25, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

It's of primary importance that the content in the article does not "cite for what Suny himself states". I really do appreciate your work but you are really rushing things here without engaging meaningfully with the discussions. You have two scholars who represent two different views on a thorny issue. You need to present this in a neutral explanation with attribution, not combine the sources to push your views, over the objections of many editors on this talk page. The editors who have objected to your editing on this article represent diverse views on the subject, so it is not just a case of one camp against the other. Your view is "The Ottoman Empire did demographic engineering for centuries, but demographic engineering is not inherently genocidal so there is no contradiction." Kevorkian, the source you are using, makes it clear that this is an argument he is making contrary to how the massacres have "often been presented". This, like the issue with the number of "Estimated 1 million" in the infobox, is inappropriately forcing your views into the article, even where many editors have objected. This does not appear to be an isolated incident and it's not appropriate for you to remove tags unilaterally. Gators bayou (talk) 11:12, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

References

Notice to editors regarding 1RR

As there was some confusion over whether 1RR still applied to this article, editors are notified that it unequivocally does going forward. Editors are advised to review the AE request, as further edit warring is likely to lead to additional sanctions. Seraphimblade ^{Talk to me} 13:53, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 April 2021

The smallest suggestion for a correction; I'm being pedantic really. "The court-martials relied almost entirely on documentary evidence and sworn testimony from Muslims."

I believe the plural of "Court-Martial" is "Courts-Martial" 46.7.0.179 (talk) 14:00, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

•  Done (t · c) buidhe 14:05, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Population exchange

@Buidhe: This article states that minorities left Turkey before the population exchange as you said but also expresses that people who were left in Turkey after the war were exchanged with an agreement.[18] "Büyük Taarruz sonucu yaklaşık 1.000.000 Rum Yunanistan’a göç etmiş, kalanların durumu ise Lozan Konferansı sırasında Türkiye ve Yunanistan arasında imzalanan bir sözleşme ile çözümlenmiştir" (After the Battle of Dumlupınar 1 million Greek emmigrated to Greece and the situation of the remaining people were resolved with an agreement that was signed between Greece and Turkey during the Laussanne Conferance.)--Visnelma (talk) 15:48, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

I don't know why you are so insistent on highlighting them as it was a small minority of the total number of Greeks removed from Turkey (~700,000 killed, ~1 million expelled through the end of 1922 with another ~200,000 deported afterwards). Besides, since population exchange is a form of "expulsion", these individuals are already covered by the current wording. (t · c) buidhe 16:23, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

@Buidhe: +1.000.000 people is not a small minority and I didn't say that but adding this information helps reads to understand that some of the population was transferred after the war which is a huge number as you stated.--Visnelma (talk) 18:07, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

Visnelma, NO. Did you read what I wrote? Only c. 200,000 Greeks were expelled as a result of the population exchange. The rest of them had already been killed or ethnically cleansed. (t · c) buidhe 00:58, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

"Only 200.000"?? It is not a small number.--Visnelma (talk) 05:43, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Less than 10%. (t · c) buidhe 05:56, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Nah, it is about %10. And 200.000 is still a big enough number to be mentioned.--Visnelma (talk) 21:15, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

You want 10% of the expulsion of the Greek population to get 3 times as much coverage (counting the words in your diff) as the other 90%. That's clearly not due weight. (t · c) buidhe 21:21, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

@Buidhe: I think the proper thing would be mentioning the other expulsions in more detail, not deleting extra info as that paragraph was very short.--Visnelma (talk) 07:48, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

No, adding unnecessary content to the lead that isn't about the direct subject of this article is also WP:UNDUE. (t · c) buidhe 12:29, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

@Buidhe: dude what are you talking about? I have never mentioned anything about the lead. I just said we should add this information to the Turkish War of Independence section. Are you really reading what I wrote?--Visnelma (talk) 16:38, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

I don't see how any of these details are relevant to this article. Any readers who want to know can just click the links. (t · c) buidhe 16:40, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

@Buidhe: I think you should read everything from start once again. It is relevant because it is about people being expulsed. And that paragraph is just 1 sentence long. It needs to be improved.--Visnelma (talk) 16:43, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Spelling of Talat/Talaat

I've noticed the spelling of "Tala[a]t" is inconsistent across the web as well as within Wikipedia. I assume one should be preferred over the other as a matter of consistency. For reference, the article on Talaat Pasha has the "aa" spelling. 2600:1700:5590:4960:98FB:F7E4:CB30:D1F (talk) 17:43, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

This article consistently uses the "a" spelling which has become more common:[19] (t · c) buidhe 17:55, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

It seems to me that aa is still more common.--Visnelma (talk) 20:45, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Thankfully, we have more reliable sources that what seems to a particular Wikipedia editor to be the case. (t · c) buidhe 21:15, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Just look at the data you shared, talaat is more common.--Visnelma (talk) 22:10, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Location: Anatolia, Asia Minor, Turkey, Ottoman Empire?

Anatolia

• "Taken in their entirety, Ottoman and Western archives jointly confirm that the ruling party CUP did deliberately implement a policy of ethnoreligious homogenization of Anatolia that aimed to destroy the Armenian population"[20] — Taner Akcam
• "Between the years 1915 and 1923 the vast majority of the Armenian population of Anatolia and historical West Armenia was eliminated."—Rouben Paul Adalian[21]
• "The persistence of genocide or near-genocidal incidents from the 1890s through the 1990s, committed by Ottoman and successor Turkish and Iraqi states against Armenian, Kurdish, Assyrian, and Pontic Greek communities in Eastern Anatolia, is striking." —Mark Levene[22]
• "Thereafter, in a wave spreading westwards and southwards throughout the empire from the provinces of eastern Anatolia - the areas of heaviest Armenian population - the Turkish government, led by the Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress: CUP), implemented an increasingly radical programme of deportation and murder."—Donald Bloxham[23]
• "Finally, a comprehensive scheme for the removal of the Armenian communities of Anatolia to Syria began in May 1915."[24]

Asia Minor

• "This imperial violence was followed in 1915–17 with the forced deportation and subsequent destruction of almost the entire Armenian population of Asia Minor." — Fatma Muge Gocek, Denial of Violence (Asia Minor -> Anatolia)
• "Hans-Lukas Kieser, Kerem Öktem and Maurus Reinkowski argue that while the Ottoman Empire officially ended in 1922, when the Turkish nationalists in Ankara abolished the Sultanate, the essence of its imperial character was destroyed in 1915 when the Young Turk regime eradicated the Armenians from Asia Minor."[25]

Ottoman Empire

• Marc David Baer defines the Armenian Genocide as "mass murder of Armenians carried out in the Ottoman Empire in 1915"[26]
• According to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum "the Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916."[27]
• Stefan Ihrig refers to "The Armenian Genocide, as a historical event... happened in the Ottoman Empire in 1915/1916"[28]

Other

• Ronald Suny put it as follows: "The canvas on which the mass deportation and massacre of Armenians and Assyrians took place was a landscape that stretched from Istanbul almost 1,000 miles to the east, beyond the eastern ends of the Ottoman Empire into Persia and the Caucasus." (Edit: Suny also counts Western Armenia as part of Anatolia: "Particularly difficult to control were the easternmost provinces of Anatolia, what had been historic Armenia and where most of the Ottoman Armenians lived.")

The IP editor objected to "Anatolia", so I changed it to "Asia Minor". I would also be OK with Ottoman Empire as that is also used in sources, but I have not been able to find scholarly sources referring to the genocide by the present day territory of Turkey. (t · c) buidhe 23:27, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

Anatolia and Asia Minor are names for the same land mass. It lies west of a diagonal line stretching (approximately) from Batumi on the Black Sea in the north to Dortyol and the Mediterranean in the south. To the east of that line lies most of what comprised the heart of historic Western Armenia, with famous towns and cities such as Van, Moush, Bitlis, Erzeroum, Diarbekir, Kharpert, Yerzingan and too many others to list here. This was ground zero for a vast proportion of Armenian victims of the genocide. Placing them in the “adjoining regions” category is a travesty. The setting for the Armenian Genocide was the national territory of the state that arose from the extermination of the Armenian people. That is the most accurate and informative way to describe it.Diranakir (talk) 02:51, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

It's true that some sources do define Anatolia as the area farther west but most Armenian genocide scholarship (see above) does include Van, Bitlis, and Erzurum etc. in "Anatolia". (t · c) buidhe 03:18, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

Buidhe from edit summary today: ' "Anatolia" according to relevant RS goes at least as far east as Ottoman borders in 1914.' Possibly into Iran and who knows where else? Diranakir (talk) 18:32, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

Neither you nor I get to unilaterally change the meaning of terms to a different one than is used in reliable sources, or substitute you own opinion for what it says in those sources, which do not phrase the location in terms of postwar borders. (t · c) buidhe 21:16, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

Which of your reliable sources says "massacres turned into genocide"? Diranakir (talk) 22:20, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

Suny, on page 245: "What evolved rapidly into genocide began as sporadic massacres that following a colossal defeat resulted in political panic, despair, and a thirst for vengeance." (t · c) buidhe 22:32, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

Thank you. Diranakir (talk) 22:57, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

Buidhe from edit summary today: "Armenian Highlands is NOT synonymous with Anatolia." Yes, that's right, it is not synonymous. Anatolia is the west of the current Republic of Turkey and the western section of the Armenian Highlands are the east, and therefore Anatolia does NOT encompass Asia Minor AND the western section of the Armenian Highlands. The fact that reliable Armenian and non-Armenian scholars parrot "Eastern Anatolia" from Turkish sources does not make them right. "Eastern Anatolia" is not the area to the EAST of the Euphrates, but the area immediately to the WEST of that river. Because there is a river called Euphrates that begins in the Armenian Highlands and ends in the Persian Gulf. Any geographer who knows his/her trade would report that the Euphrates is the natural boundary between the Armenian Highlands on its left bank (EAST of the Euphrates) and Asia Minor (= Anatolia, namely, "the east" in Greek, meaning the areas to the east of Greece) starting on its right bank (WEST of the Euphrates). The central theater of the Armenian genocide encompassed the area to the EAST of the Euphrates up to the Ottoman-Russian of 1914 (western section of the Armenian Highlands) and then the WEST of the Euphrates up to the outskirts of Constantinople(Anatolia = Asia Minor) and Eastern Thrace. This is all one needs to know, rather than repeating the letters RS as a mantra. Armen Ohanian (talk) 23:02, 26 April 2021 (UTC)