Ethocide: A new term coined by Ergun Kirlikovali, a Turkish-American student of history, on May 7, 2003, as a much needed companion term and an antonym for the term “genocide” created by Lemkin in 1943 (Turkish counterpart also coined: “AHLAKKIRIM”)
It Was Not “Genocide”; It was – and still is – “Ethocide” :
Ethocide, my humble gift to the English language, is coined from the words “ethics” and “cide”. The definition of ethics (singular in number), by Webster’s II, New Riverside Dictionary, is : “The branch of philosophy dealing with the rules of right conduct”. “Ethocide is related and includes all the meanings and interpretations of the word “ethic” (withouts “s” in the end), which according to the same dictionary, has the following two meanings: 1. A principle of right or good conduct. 2. A system of moral values. “Cide” is Latin word for killing and is already widely used in modern English language in coined forms: insecticide (kills insects); biocide (kills biological growth), suicide (kills self), genocide (kills a group of people with shared traits), etc. Ethocide is, therefore, “systematic extermination of ethics via deliberate and malicious mass deception for political and/or other gain. More detailed definition will be published in the book: “Ethocide, Not Genocide.”
Ergun Kirlikovali