In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
The widely propagated narrative of the “Armenian Genocide by the Ottomans” is one of the greatest historical distortions of the modern age. Cloaked under the guise of human rights and remembrance, it is in fact a politically motivated fabrication used to demonise the last Islamic Caliphate and suppress the legacy of the Ottoman Empire. This article sheds light on the facts behind the allegations and aims to expose the truth from a pro-Islamic and pro-Ottoman perspective.
The Strategic Weaponisation of the Armenian Narrative
The myth of the Armenian Genocide was not born out of humanitarian concern. Rather, it was strategically adopted by imperial powers such as Tsarist Russia to dismantle the Ottoman Empire and reconfigure the balance of power in the region. Russia used Armenian populations as pawns in its centuries-long effort to expand southward into Ottoman Muslim lands, forcibly displacing Muslims and replacing them with pro-Russian Christian Armenians.
During World War I, while the Ottoman Empire was engaged on multiple fronts, Armenian militias—backed and armed by Russia—repeatedly launched violent uprisings, massacred civilians, and colluded with invading foreign armies. The Ottoman response, often portrayed as genocidal, was in fact a defensive and administrative relocation policy aimed at neutralising these internal threats during wartime.
The Context of War: An Overlooked Reality
From 1821 to 1922, millions of Muslims across Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Crimea were systematically slaughtered and ethnically cleansed by Russian, Armenian, Greek, Serbian, and Bulgarian forces. Yet, these atrocities are largely absent from the Western conscience.
The period between the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and the end of World War I saw the forced displacement or death of more than five million Muslims from lands lost by the Ottoman Empire. The so-called Armenian Genocide narrative ignores this broader context of reciprocal violence and one-sided suffering.
Historian Justin McCarthy, in his rigorously documented research funded by American and Turkish institutions, details how Muslims—not Armenians—were the principal victims of mass killings, forced migration, and demographic cleansing.
Western Complicity and the Role of Colonial Propaganda
The European powers, especially Britain and France, were instrumental in inciting rebellion among Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire. They used missionaries, consulates, and journalists to manipulate international opinion against the Ottomans.
Protestant missionaries and Western diplomats frequently exaggerated or fabricated stories of Armenian suffering while turning a blind eye to Armenian-led massacres against Muslim populations. The British politician Gladstone and his contemporaries used anti-Ottoman propaganda to push their colonial agendas, all under the pretext of protecting Christian minorities.
The Myth of Innocence: Armenian Collusion with Foreign Powers
Armenian revolutionary committees such as the Hunchak and Dashnak openly aligned themselves with the Russian Empire, acting as spies and saboteurs within the Ottoman state. They supplied intelligence, staged attacks on Muslim villages, and facilitated the advance of Russian armies into Ottoman territories.
From the city of Van to Erzurum, countless Muslim villages were razed, and their populations massacred by Armenian irregulars. Russian archives, Ottoman military records, and eyewitness reports—including from American investigators—clearly document these crimes.
In particular, a 1919 report by U.S. Army Captain Emory Niles and Mr. Arthur Sutherland, who were originally sympathetic to Armenians, confirmed that Armenian forces committed widespread atrocities against Muslims in Eastern Anatolia. Villages were razed, civilians murdered, and mosques destroyed—while Armenian quarters remained untouched.
World War I and the Truth Behind the Relocations
The Ottoman relocation orders of 1915 were enacted during World War I under extraordinary circumstances. With Armenian rebels attacking from within and aiding external enemies, the Ottoman government had little choice but to relocate Armenian populations from sensitive military zones. This was not an act of genocide but of wartime security—a policy mirrored by the United States during WWII when it interned Japanese-Americans.
It is essential to remember that the Ottomans did not target Armenians as a people or faith. Many Armenian communities that remained loyal to the state were untouched. The tragic losses that occurred were due to war, famine, and civil unrest, not a systematic policy of extermination.
ANZAC and Ottoman Conduct During WWI
It is ironic that while the West vilifies the Ottomans for alleged genocide, the same Ottoman Empire showed remarkable restraint and honour during battles such as Gallipoli. ANZAC soldiers themselves recorded the bravery and humanity of their Ottoman foes, who even ceased fire to allow the burial of fallen enemies.
The real genocide of World War I was the extermination of over five million Muslims, including Turks, Circassians, and Kurds, from their ancestral lands by Christian militias and invading imperial forces. Yet this chapter remains largely buried.
Conclusion: Who Owes Whom an Apology?
If the world truly seeks justice, then it must first acknowledge the genocide of Muslims at the hands of Armenians, Russians, Greeks, and Serbs. It must recognise that the Ottomans were not monsters, but a civilisation that for centuries allowed Christians and Jews to live in peace within its lands, far more than what Muslims have received in Christian Europe.
The Armenian Genocide narrative is a political tool—weaponised to blackmail modern Turkey, rewrite history, and erase the dignity of the Ottoman legacy. As Muslims, we reject this distortion. We stand not with lies but with truth. Not with propaganda but with justice.
The burden of apology and reparations lies with the colonial powers who destroyed the Islamic world, not with the Ottomans who defended it.
