From 1915 to 1918, the Turkish leaders of the Ottoman Empire carried out the killings of 1.5 million Armenians living there at the time. Over the course of those terrible 3 years, innocent people were murdered with death marches, execution, drowning, burning and other inhumane ways. Turkey has refused to take blame, and even denied the genocide’s existence and occurrence. There has been much dispute about whether or not countries outside of Armenia and Turkey should recognize these mass killings of Armenians in 1915-16 as a genocide or something else. The Ottoman Empire was multinational, but had always favored Muslims to Jews and Christians, so when World War I started and a substantial group of Christian Armenians were still in Turkey and …show more content…
Their goal was to create a completely Turkish state in the Ottoman Empire, and they saw the Armenians as an obstacle. The Turks were also Muslim, and greatly outnumbered the Armenians, who were Christian. The extreme hatred for Christians not only sprung from the Young Turk’s goal of being homogeneously Turkish, but also they were allied with Germany and against France, Britain, and Russia in World War I. Since they were allied with Germany and had hatred for Christians, the objective of mass Armenian killings, could almost seem justified. Talaat Pasha, one of the leaders of the Young Turks said that there were to be no Christians allowed. At the beginning of the genocide in 1915, hundreds of Armenian leaders in their communities were arrested, sent eastbound toward the Syrian deserts, and executed under the rule of the Young Turks and Talaat. Quickly, churches were burned, Armenian schools were closed, and any teachers who refused to convert to Islam were killed. Eventually there were deportation orders that were posted all around calling for the of Armenians to camps in the Syrian deserts. However, there were no such camps prepared for the deported Armenians and nearly half of them died on the journey there. The women were raped and abused, the men mutilated and both men and women were murdered …show more content…
When reminiscing about his grandfather’s - also named Hakob - story, he told us the event in which, “the Turk gendarmes had brought the Armenian deportees, had packed them into that large cave, had shut its entrance and had set fire to it.” Another testimony about the same event came from a man named Martiros Ashekyan. He said that nearly 40,000 people were in that cave when they were burned alive. There was no justified reason for all of these people to die, especially in such horribly violent ways. Although the term “genocide” had not been created while this one was occurring, the word is now widely used and accepted. There is no reason for the Turkish government today, to refuse to own up and admit to their crimes against humanity other than shame and fear of humiliation. With the pressing accusations against them - that have proof - are the Turkish not humiliating themselves more now by acting childish with their denial of these events? They’ve claimed in the past that more Turks died in the massacres occurring for 1915-1918, they’ve said that since there were other small groups of people who ended up being prosecuted who were not Armenian, that the whole
Mass extermination and deportation of Western population of Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces of the Ottoman Empire carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey in 1915-1923. The policy of genocide against Armenians was due to several factors. The leading role among them was the ideology
Since then, Turkish government has started to deny the truth about the Armenian Genocide. They denied that genocide took place. Even though there are many evidences that proves that did take place in 1915, they still deny it and don’t accept the truth. Some of the evidence is photographic evidence, eyewitness accounts, testimony of survivors and etc. Armenians still argue about this situation because they have a right to get their land back. Turkish people say that it never happened and that they are not responsible for it. For example, in the 1930s, Turks
During World War I, the government of Turkey sought to rid their country of the Armenians. The Turks and other ethnic groups hated the Armenians for their ability to prosper, even as a minority group with limited rights. This hatred led to the desire to cleanse the Ottoman Empire of Armenian influence. The Turkish people say that the Ottoman empire went through a civil war during this time, which explains the deaths of so many Armenians. Although the Turks claim otherwise, the treatment of the Armenian people during World War I qualifies as a genocide through scale, government involvement, and the usage of the genocide process.
Also, the Turks believed the Armenians were fighting with the Russians, which was the enemy. The Armenians felt they were being treated unfairly and protested. The protest infuriated the Turks and they retaliated by mass killings towards the Armenians following into a genocide. A genocide
Between the years of 1915 and 1918 the Ottoman Empire, under the Young Turks began a deliberate program of removing and exterminating the Armenian population; a population already dismantled through previous massacres. The Armenians were a minority in both population and religion. Because most Armenians were Christians, they were made an easy scapegoat in an empire that was mostly Islamic. With the world’s eyes on the First World War, the Armenian Genocide went mostly unnoticed and there were no punishments such as ones received by Germany after the Holocaust. The United States has deliberately avoided the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in order to maintain an ally in the Middle East and to avoid American genocidal policies,
The Armenian Genocide, also sometimes called the first genocide, happen in April 1915. The Ottoman government had a plan to decimate the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire. There was approximately 1.5 Christian Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire at that time. The Armenian Genocide physically annihilated approximately 664,000 to 1.2 Christian Armenian from the Spring of 1915 to the Fall of 1916. They went through starvation, illness due to exposure and massacres.
In 1915, the leaders of the Ottoman government set in motion a scheme to deport and massacre Armenians, with the hopes of obtaining an ethnic cleansing. By the early 1920s, through the intervention of outside nations, the massacres had finally ended, but between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians had already been killed, while many more had been forcibly removed from the country. Most historians today refer to this event as genocide; a premeditated and systematic campaign to exterminate an entire people. However, to this day, the Turkish government fails to acknowledge the atrocities that took place or the scope of these
Turkey’s involvement in the World War 1 provided cover for extreme elements of the very nationalistic Young Turks regime to carry out the genocide. The genocide started in 1915, culminated in 1917 and was characterized by mass deportation, slaughter, starvation and raped. Those Armenians who were conscripted in the Turkish army were executed and this was explained as a natural occurrence of war. Pasha was the Leader and chief executor in the mass execution.
Why does the country of Turkey still deny that the Armenian Genocide occurred? First off, what is the Armenian Genocide? The Armenian Genocide is the extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and the surrounding regions during 1915 to 1923. The massacres were masterminded by the government
The Armenian Genocide of 1915 was the Ottoman Governments eradication of the Armenians within what is now known as Turkey. Ottoman authorities arrested deported and eventually murdered Armenian subjects, as well as targeting men, women and Christian ethnic groups (Kévorkian, 2011). World War I was a key factor when looking at the Armenian Genocide; in 1914 the Turks entered the war on the same side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany. Government and military leadership feared the revolt of the Armenians; they
Some argue, “ there was no official policy of genocide. The claim is based on the fact that the comprehensive Ottoman archives contain no documents suggesting such a plan” (Stamford University Turkish Student Association). The idea of intent is a minute variable of the whole situation. According to an article found in The New York Times, titled, “Turks Accused of Plan to Exterminate Whole Population” in 1915 explained a letter they obtained from Constantinople in July of 1915: “We learn, besides that the roads of Euphrates are strewn with corpses of exiles, and those who survive are doomed to certain death, since they will find neither house, work, nor food in the desert. It is a plan to exterminate the whole Armenian people” (The New York Times, 1915). This evidence shows proof of government intent. Although, maybe there was no documentation saying they are trying to kill these people, the government had to know that putting the Armenian people in the desert would kill them. It’s absurd that the government used the justification of self defense and intent because, since they put them through the desert with knowledge of their inevitable deaths, that isn’t keeping them safe at all. They are separating two groups-- one subjected to torture of at the very least starvation and the other isn’t moving at
One of the most gruesome genocides to happen during the 20th century is the Greek Genocide, often referred to as the Pontian or Ottoman Greek Genocide. This genocide consisted of mass killings and exterminations of the Ottoman Greeks by the Turkish rule from 1914-1923. The main dispute was difference in religion and beliefs, Christians versus Islam. What most people do not know is that the Ottoman Greek Genocide is responsible for the almost complete destruction of the Christian Orthodox culture, including monuments and history. Many Greeks suffered from forced deportations, death marches, forced conversion of religion, executions, labor battalions, hunger, and the overall cruelty of the Turkish government during this time period. The ones responsible for these acts was the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the Young Turk reformists who seized control of the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Greeks of all ages and genders were persecuted because of their culture and minority in Turkey, so that the CUP and the Young Turks could achieved perfect “Turkification” of the empire.
The very corrupt mind of Adolf Hitler once said, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” (“Armenian Genocide Museum of America”). Not but 100 years ago, a mass murder of over 1.5 million innocent Armenian citizens occurred in the former Ottoman Empire at the hands of the Turkish military officials. Yet in the present day, many sources and scholars throughout the world refuse to accept such exterminating events that took place between the Turks and Armenians. (History.com Staff). According to Dictionary.com, the very definition of the word genocide means to “deliberately kill off or a systematic extermination of a large group people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation” (“Genocide”). The Armenian
The Armenian Massacre happened in 1894-1896 and the Armenian Genocide happened in 1915-1920 which was caused by the Turkish Government. The Turkish Government’s aim was to remove all the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire because they were more educated and wealthier then the Turkish population . The Turkish Government was also worried that the Armenians would become allies with Russia, who were a threat to Turkey . They killed and deported the Armenians to prevent this happening. It has been estimated
What is the Armenian genocide? The Armenian genocide was the Ottoman government's systematic killing of Armenians, which took place during World War I, beginning in 1915. A genocide, which has occurred since ancient times, is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. During World War I, the Turkish nationalist government killed an estimate of 1.1 to 1.8 million Armenians in Eastern Turkey. The Ottoman’s took power in the Armenian genocide through classification, preparation, extermination, and denial.