Armenian Genocide Memorials

Ronald Suny’s book They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide is a deeply researched work of the Armenian Genocide. Published the same year that marked the Centennial Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, Suny's book has created a well-informed history of the complex world that committed the Armenian Genocide. Through the examination of scholarly articles and eyewitness accounts of the persecution of the Armenians, Suny explores the political and international issues that lead to the genocide. His captivating and powerful narrative of the atrocity attempts to investigate “those moments of choice when political actors might have acted differently but decided instead to embark on a course that led to devastation and destruction” (Suny, xi). Suny is one of the authors that takes a deeper look at how the perpetrators of the genocide used human emotions of fear and resentment to commence mass killings as a way of finding a solution to the Armenian problem, showing their intent to

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 Jewish identity is reintegrated among the monuments through Hebrew inscriptions, the Star of David, and ritual practices (Appendix B, Figure 3). Eva Reimers (1999), interprets that a collective group identity is based on the idea of common historical origin (p. 148). This idea is important when analyzing the role of identity in the process of mourning Holocaust survivors. It illustrates that the formation of identity is founded on historical events. Therefore, the Holocaust serves as a historical event, which reinforced the importance of Jewish identity to the Jewish community. The practices of collectively mourning Holocaust survivors serves as an extension over the generations, which reduce the threat death poses to reduction of Jewish identity (Reimers, 1999, p.148). Furthermore, remembering the victims of the Holocaust creates a collective

Many people recognize the Holocaust as the biggest and worst genocide ever. Although the Holocaust was one of the worst and biggest genocides ever. It is important to learn about other genocides to study how and why they happened and to understand the causes and effects. The ultimate goal is to get rid of genocides all together. Through education we learn to stop and prevent these types of events from happening. One and a half million people died from 1915 to 1923 in the Armenian genocide. A genocide is deliberate killing of a large group of people (dictionary.com). In 1915 the Armenian people living in the Ottoman Empire were targeted by the Turkish government. Many people do not know about the Armenian genocide because they do not teach

To inaugurate, the author’s speech has had such an extraordinary impact on the audience of 1999, Wiesel's words still leave people in awe in the 21st century. Furthermore, eighteen years earlier from The Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide occurred in 1915, which was considered one of the most gruesome and brutal genocide of the century. One and a half million Armenians were killed between the span of eight years. Additionally, similar to The Holocaust it was a bloodbath, many innocent were left for dead. In 1915, leaders of the Turkish government set in motion a plan to expel and massacre Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. According to Armenian National Institute, “Armenian Genocide” The Young Turk government took precautions and imposed restrictions on reporting and photographing, there were lots of foreigners in the Ottoman Empire who witnessed the deportations. This profound statement highlights Wiesel's key message, that indifference is dangerous. They did not want to publish any information about the matter, many were told to not take photos nor speak about it; hence, leads to the fact that the matter was kept incognito. This continues to Wiesel's point of indifference because they ignored what was happening, which made violence grow. Consequently, “[N]o strong actions were taken against the Ottoman Empire either

To quote the words of Vahan Kenderian, “My grandmother would have told me that it was man, not God, who made the misery in the world and that it was only God’s grace that made that misery bearable” (Bagdasarian 76). Forgotten Fire’s main character provides truthful insight as to what people felt during the Holocaust and other genocides. Vahan experiences one of the largest genocides, and is forced to experience the deaths of almost every member of his family. This can easily compare to the Holocaust. The novel Forgotten Fire delves into the Armenian genocide, an event similar to the Holocaust that featured genocidal persecutions, cruel punishments, and corrupt governments.

The museum has achieved outstanding things for the community, one of which is the museum and memorial for the Cambodian genocide. The organization campaigned for four years to get the first memorial for the genocide built in the United States. To this day, it is still the only one. They have launched four major exhibits since 2004 and have involved community feedback, because, ultimately, everything they do is to give back to them. Their goal is to educate the world about what happened during the genocide and to inspire other communities to do the same. Julia said, “It was built for the survivors. A space for them where they’re not being acknowledged as victims of the genocide, but as survivors.” Not only did they want to raise awareness of what happened, but also to bring attention to hope and healing that

In this essay, I will be considering whether or not the Holocaust, or Shoah can be represented by conventional, museographic means. The events of Holocaust, or as it is also commonly known, the Shoah left an impossibly large sense of loss within the Jewish community that will never fully heal, but the memory of this catastrophe is kept alive, not only in the hearts and minds of the surviving generations of Jews, but also in the ‘social’ or ‘collective’ memory of society. It is suggested that items such as novels, films, and belongings left behind by the destroyed community can preserve these ‘collective’ memories, but in some cases a more effective means can be found the museums the objects are displayed in and the memorials that are built

According to Turkish Professor Taner Akçam, in the 2014-2015 school year textbooks, required readings for the few Armenian schools as well as primary and secondary schools throughout Turkey, Armenians were described as traitors, enemies, and a threat to Turkish national security, while the genocide was not surprisingly downplayed and attributed to Armenian rebellions and even Armenian murders of their own people. The anti-Armenian rhetoric on the governmental level has persisted for a century. Armenian children growing up in Turkey today are forced to read that they were traitors, their history is false, and that they themselves are to be feared and discriminated, even today. In the Eastern Anatolia, the traditional Armenian homeland, anyone with Armenian roots can be subject to ostracization and racial slurs like “feleoglufele” or “giaour”: these are Muslim citizens of the Republic of Turkey, with maybe a grandmother or great-grandmother that was Armenian, who usually identify as either Kurdish or Turkish. So it should not come as a surprise that there are so-called “Crypto Armenians” like this today where Armenians had lived for millennia, forced to relinquish their cultural heritage. The cartoon that the Armenian Genocide is something that is in the past is

In the past 150 years, tens of millions of men, women, and children have lost their lives in genocide or mass atrocities. Millions have been tortured, raped or forced from their homes. (“Past Genocides”) Forgotten fire is a historical fiction by Adam Bagdasarian. It is based on the author’s great uncle's life during the Armenian Genocide in Turkey between 1915-1923. It's important to study the Armenian genocide and its victims because it is important to pay respect to the victim, teaches people to accept each other, and recognize signs that can potentially lead to a genocide.

Banu calls on Allah to “give [her] the strength to bear the knowledge”, and Mr.Bitter then shows her the events of the past in the form of a flashback (Shafak 193). After bearing witness to the horrendous events, Banu is forced with the moral decision of how to handle the information presented to her. Because of Armanoush’s efforts, the silence of the genocide is beginning to break. Armenians were robbed not only of their homes, belongings, and family members, but also robbed of “recognition of the past”(Gursel). If the Turkish government is to break the silence and “apologiz[e] for crimes against humanity” the Armenians can finally begin to their road to recovery, to truth and reconciliation(Gursel). Without recognition by sharing the stories, it seems near impossible for the Armenian people to ever

I remember from my childhood the remembrance services conducted for the survivors and victims of the Holocaust. The anniversary of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), the night when Nazi Germany conducted a massive pogrom against its Jewish community on November 9, 1938, seemed to be the unofficial remembrance day for members of my family’s synagogue as well as my home state of New Jersey.

The tragic events of humanity are often firmly held in our memory as events that must be memorialized and remembered in order to prevent future tragedy. Remembering the victims of human-perpetrated destruction is visualized as a method of bringing justice to those who have been lost, as well as a prevention mechanism for further human destruction. Although it is essential that we remember and memorialize catastrophic events such as the Holocaust, it is fundamental that we acknowledge remembrance does not prevent future catastrophic destruction. In fact, David Rieff argues the act of remembering and the refusal to forgive and forget consequentially leads to increased and continual violence based on reprisal. Before addressing the importance of memory and the times in which it may be beneficial to forget and move on, the foundation of collective memory and how it operates in society must be addressed.

The results of their political and ethnical differences triggered a systemic killing of the Tutsis, slaughtering up to 1,000,000 Tutsis up until the rebellion.

For centuries throughout their cultural history, the Armenian people have been maltreated; however in this essay, I’ll focus solely on the period from 1850-1915, which is just before the occurrence of the Armenian genocide. The historic Armenian homelands were controlled by two empires called the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire. The Ottoman Empire which controlled Western Armenia, was home of the Turkish people, whereas the Russian Empire which controlled Eastern Armenia was ruled by the Russians. As a result, the Western portion of Armenia was divided into six vilayets called Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Kharpert, Sivas, and Erzurum, while the remnants of Eastern Armenia was divided into Kars and Yerevan. In account of the factors that led to this disheartening division of the Armenians’ fatherland, expatriatism emerged and can be personified through Armenian works of art such as that of Vahan Tekeyan and Hovanness Toumanian’s writings.