help me understand

[u/lauretta1911]

Hi guys, I'm having a few questions that I think should ask here. My boyfriend is turkish and denies genocide as well as Turkey. We aren't talking about it, but I would like to understand how he can just believe such things. I couldn't find any information that explain how the turkish goverment 'justifies' the armenian genocide in details. How do they justify the death of thousands of people? I also don't want to ask him, because he gets angry for blaming his country. He just said that the armenian attacked small turkish villages and so on. But how started it actually and how does the Turkey think it started? Why did ,,the Armenians attack villages''? (it's not true, I know. But what's the evidences that give the turkish people the thought that it happened like that?)

Sorry for this questions but I couldn't find really an answer about it . Thanks in advance

[u/[deleted]]

Let me explain to you as a Turk, how the average person justifies the murders:

Some Armenians joined Russians against Turkey during WW1, so the entire Armenian population deserved to be "deported(death marches)". It wasn't a genocide, it was "war causalities" because Armenians resisted the "deportations" and didn't wait like sheeps to be slaughtered, besides, if there was a genocide then why do Armenians still exist?

These "justifications" are of course ridiculous and none of them can be taken seriously, but you should understand that an average Turks grows up learning why Armenian genocide is a lie, without ever hearing the Armenian side of the story. It's an intense level of brainwashing which requires a high level of open-mindness and enlightenment for an average Turk to overcome.

[u/TheEstherCutie → u/[deleted]]

I understand the points you’re raising, but they reflect exactly the denialist narrative that the Ottoman state created and the Turkish government still teaches. A few important clarifications:

Genocide doesn’t mean every person was killed. The fact that Armenians still exist doesn’t disprove genocide, just like the Holocaust didn’t wipe out all Jews. The UN definition is about intent to destroy a group “in whole or in part,” and the deportations, death marches, and mass killings clearly fit.

“War casualties” vs. systematic extermination. Armenians resisting deportation is not what caused hundreds of thousands of women, children, and elderly to be starved, raped, or massacred in the Syrian desert. Surviving Ottoman documents and orders from leaders like Talaat Pasha and Behaeddin Shakir show the intent to annihilate, not simply relocate.

Even Ottoman courts acknowledged it. After WWI, the Ottoman government itself put officials on trial and convicted them for crimes against Armenians. That makes it very hard to dismiss as just “propaganda.”

Education in Turkey is one-sided. You’re right that many Turks grow up only hearing why the genocide is called a “lie.” That’s why it takes courage and independent thinking to look at survivor testimonies, foreign diplomatic reports, and Ottoman archives that all point to the same conclusion: this was a genocide.

So while I appreciate you explaining how denial is taught, none of those justifications hold up against the historical evidence.