“History is history, victims are victims,” said Prime Minister Boyko Borissov evading the word “genocide’ minutes before Bulgarian parliament acknowledged the Armenian massacres within the bounds of the Ottoman Empire over the 1915-1922 period as “mass extermination”, declaring April 24 a Victims Remembrance Day.

What happened on that day, April 24, in 1915?

The tragedy began in Istanbul, on Easter eve, when the Young Turk movement Unity and Progress set in motion its plan to massacre the Armenians within the Ottoman Empire. Why? Armenians had been demanding autonomy since the time of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, just like any other enslaved people within the bounds of the empire. But the Berlin Congress nipped any illusion of freedom in the bud and they were persecuted and systematically massacred after Austria, Germany and Great Britain forced Russia to withdraw from Armenian territory. Accused by the Young Turks of supporting the empire’s arch enemy, Russia, the Armenians had to be punished. They were also the main obstacle to the creation of an enormous Turkish empire, uniting all Turkic peoples from the Caucuses and Central Asia to China. So, the Young Turks set about their systematic extermination. The first step was to go after the elite of the nation. In just a few months thousands of Armenian doctors, intellectuals, journalists, clerical and secular leaders were brutally massacred. Almost 60,000 Armenians, mobilized in the Turkish army were later disarmed and killed, followed by the deportation and massacre of defenceless Armenians across Turkey – mostly elderly people, women and children. Deportation, massacres, concentration camps – everything was well organized and executed smoothly. At the time Talaat Pasha, one of the men who inspired the mass extermination said to the American ambassador Henry Morgenthau that the deportations had been launched after long and careful consideration. The death squads were made up of criminals who had been sentenced to death, Kurdish mercenaries and bashibazouks (irregular soldiers), so the Young Turks would not be held responsible. The ethnic cleansing claimed the lives of one and a half million Armenians, out of a total of three million. According to one document, carefully hidden away in the archives of the Turkish interior ministry 972,000 out of a total of 1,256,000 Armenians had gone missing over the 1915-1917 period. After many trials and tribulations, the persecuted survivors managed to reach Syrian land. Some were rescued by British and French ships.

Around 30,000 deported Armenians fled to Bulgaria. The Turkish government sent two notes of protest but the Bulgarian authorities remained firm; Tsar Ferdinand even issued a special decree for welcoming the Armenian refugees. The public did its best to help them in their integration, to build their own schools and churches, to earn their living. At the time Ottoman domination was still fresh in the memory of Bulgarians and they felt genuine compassion for the victims of the mass persecution. Unfortunately, today 61 percent of Bulgarians have not even heard of the Armenian massacres, even though the heirs of the refugees regard the country as their saviour. And all this because a large portion of the world prefers to keep a guilty silence.

The facts of the tragic events that turned the lives of generations of Armenians around are indisputable. There are some 4,000 testimonials by American State Department officials – consuls appointed in remote parts of the Ottoman Empire addressed to the US ambassador in Istanbul Henry Morgenthau - kept at the US State Archives. Their impartial descriptions of the bloody events corroborate each other and reveal what the plan of the Young Turks was. During World War I Theodore Roosevelt wrote “the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it”. The position of France, Russia and Great Britain, as expressed in a joint declaration in the spring of 1915 was also unequivocal. All three countries define the Turkish government’s actions against the Armenians as “a crime against humanity and civilization”.

One century later the events of those dark years are veiled in euphemisms, and the leaders of America and Bulgaria seem to suffer amnesia every time the Armenian issue is mentioned. Despite the tentative attempts to express its condolences to the victims, Ankara has doggedly been trying to write off the widespread massacres of Armenians as World War I casualties. On the other hand it reflects credit on some Turkish historians and public figures who are not afraid to say the truth about the massacres out loud. Renowned Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk publicly stated that one and a half million Armenians had been massacred in the Ottoman Empire. Seven years ago some 200 Turkish intellectuals signed a petition, apologizing for the Armenian massacres. The initiative was quickly joined by another 29,000 people. Despite Turkey’s efforts to restrict the number of countries which describe the mass extermination of Armenians as “genocide”, more and more countries have been adopting declarations condemning it.

As to Bulgaria – for years parliament postponed the signing of such a document. Finally, after “slight corrections” and protracted debate, the 43^rd National Assembly voted to describe the massacres as “mass extermination” with 157 votes “for” and 37 “against”. Albeit tentative, this is an acknowledgement. Let us hope that under the burden of facts, Bulgarian politicians will regain their memory.

English Milena Daynova