A current example of revisionist history is the
Turkish record on the
Armenian Genocide, the first
genocide of the twentieth century. In
1915 to
1923,
The Ottoman Empire (present-day
Turkey), already on the verge of collapsing during
World War I, decided that the
Christian Armenians, though Turkey had been their homeland for centuries, were pro-
Russian and had to be exterminated.
The Genocide received plenty of coverage in the USA at the time (from 1915 to 1923). This was to be expected. At this point, the Ottomans were making no attempt to cover up what was going on. High-ranked officials were even quoted as saying things such as "The Ottoman Empire should be cleaned up of the Armenians. We have destroyed them by the sword" (Enver Pasha, leader of the Young Turks movement) and "Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate these indigenous Christians" (Talaat Pasha).
Even after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the founding father of Turkey, Mustafa Ataturk Kemal, spoke on the failure to prosecute the oppressors, saying, "These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule." But slowly, over time, as new governments formed and new ideals were presented in the Turkish parliament, Turkey decided that it was in their best interests to claim that the Armenian Genocide was not a genocide at all. Rather, they claim, it was a civil war between the two parties (Turks and Armenians). The Armenian death toll was not 1.5 million as affirmed by most historians, but rather a meager 600,000. One must consider, does it really make Turkey any better that they only succeeded in murdering 600,000 innocent people instead of one and a half million?
Most countries do not accept Turkey's unfounded claims, and rightfully so. Armenian lobbies have worked for decades to get the Armenian Genocide recognized worldwide, despite Turkey's denial. They have succeeded in countries such as Great Britain, Russia, Canada, Greece, Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium, Cyprus, and Lebanon. But these were accomplished with constant threats by Turkey that their relations with the countries in question would suffer. Also, 2000 was a good year for the Genocide recognition, as it was also affirmed by France, Italy, and the European Union. But this year, the US, friendly to their big Middle-Eastern NATO ally, succumbed to immense pressure by the Turkish lobby to not recognize the Genocide. Since the US seemed ready to adopt a Genocide resolution, Turkey proceeded to make threats to the US, both in form of "hurting our relations" and threatening the lives of Americans in Turkey. But that's a whole other story altogether, refer to "Remember the Armenians".