":: uhhh, we could also add Standford Shaw on the list and last time I checked, he was a western scholar. As for the rest of your text Mr. Kojian, the fact of the matter remains that there is no concrete evidence written or otherwise that the Ottoman goverment of the time gave explicit or even implicit instructions to exterminate the community of Armenians for racial reasons. Until a time comes where there is substantiative proof that such instructions were given, it is totally misleading to coin the term genocide to the tragic events that unfolded in 1915-16. And it doesnt matter if there were a zillion eyewitnesses who funny enough all turn up to be christians, the most famous of which was Lepsius the racist protestant who was obsessed with preserving the ""good image"" of Germany.  

 No evidence?  Oh brother.  Have you read the article?  Believe me, every Armenian in Anatolia did not commit suicide to make Muslims look bad, and Germany look good.  I'm glad you admit though that you don't care if there were a zillion eyewitnesses, since you know better than the people who saw it with their own eyes.   

 I dont think you get my point which is that your sources of the period in question may very well have been biased maybe? You have to get rid of the typical mindset of  if it supports the genocide thesis, it must be an objective, unbiased source! If not, it has to be someone that is in the Turkish goverment payrolls! This approach of yours and most of those that support the genocide thesis is far from being constructive and is one of the reasons that this issue is not being addressed properly!  

 Addressed properly? Go ahead and address this.  Did the population of Armenians in Anatolia drop from around 2 million to around zero during WWI and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey?  And did that drop in population take place due directly to actions of Ottoman/Turkish authorities?  Yes or no.  No maybes, no yes but, no nothing else. There is no justification for genocide, and we don't even need Christian eyewitnesses to tell us that the Armenians are gone - while the Turks and Kurds were fruitful and multiplied.   

 First of all your figure on the number of Armenians in Anatolia is grossly exagerated, Ottoman census figures before the war put the total at below 1 million in the eastern provinces. Even the Armenian patriarchate put the figure slightly above a million so I dont know where you dug that ridiculous sum from (could be your mind playing tricks which happens when you are exposed to too much propaganda)! As for the numbers dropping close to zero, if its the eastern provinces you are referring to, its what seems to have happened as a result of relocation. Have you even bothered to read through the information provided from the Ottoman archives in the links under the section on those that oppose the genocide thesis? If not, it would very well explain your flawed opinion on this subject!  

In theory the edit is not so bad. But the problem is that it only gives credance to those that say the events aren't ""settled"". There needs to be an equal amount of discussion on those that say these things did happen, at the very least. And, to be honest, the edit just throws names around - there's nothing in the articles to say that they have a particular position.  

 Hellooo, this is the OPPOSITION section of the article. You can include the names of 'scholars' accepting it in the academic recognition section, I've no problem with that. These scholars exactly say the following in their declaration (word-by-word) ""The weight of evidence so far uncovered points in the direct of serious inter communal warfare (perpetrated by Muslim and Christian irregular forces), complicated by disease, famine, suffering and massacres in Anatolia and adjoining areas during the First World War. Indeed, throughout the years in question, the region was the scene of more or less continuous warfare, not unlike the tragedy, which has gone on in Lebanon for the past decade. The resulting death toll among both Muslim and Christian communities of the region was immense. But much more remains to be discovered before historians will be able to sort out precisely responsibility between warring and innocent, and to identify the causes for the events which resulted in the death or removal of large numbers of the eastern Anatolian population, Christian and Muslim alike. "" Source: New York Times May 19, 1985. 

And why sho