亞美尼亞人的悲歌

The Sorrows of the Armenians

鄂圖曼土耳其在1915 年於境內的亞美尼亞人展開屠殺，據估計有80-150 萬亞美尼亞人喪生，佔了境內該族人口的三分之二，波蘭法學家Raphael Lemkin 目睹如此有系統的大規模謀殺，在1943 年發明「滅種」（genocide）一詞。土耳其迄今並不願意承認犯行，理由是當時並沒有白紙黑字說政府要殺害亞美尼亞人；此外，他們也不喜歡他人稱為滅種，比較中性的用字是「1915 事件」。我們先將介紹亞美尼亞人的歷史，接著嘗試理解土耳其的動機，再來剖析滅族政策的進行，然後說明土耳其的否認、以及承認與和解。

The Ottoman Empire massacred 0.8-1.5 millions of Armenians, roughly two-thirds of the people within in 1915. Witnessing the systemic murders, Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin coined the term ＂genocide.＂ So far, the modern Turk government has persistently refused to recognize the atrocities as there was no formal order to onslaught them. Nor does it accept the term. We shall star with a brief history of the Armenians. Efforts are made to examine the motivations behind the scenes and to ascertain how the policy was implemented. Finally, we will look into Turk denial, recognition, and reconciliation.