Dadrian's The History Of The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian massacres of the 1890 's are an important marker in the history of humanitarian aid by the United States. Before this point, American humanitarian aid had been up to small committee efforts thrown together for an individual international crisis. During the 1890 's humanitarian reformers became more organized and elected officials began to look at the role the United States federal government could play in international humanitarian aid. (Wilson 27) At this time Protestant missionaries and Armenian nationals joined forces with former abolitionists, woman suffragists, and newspapermen to bring the condition of the Armenians to the attention of the citizens of the United States.

Since a hundred years ago, the discussion over the barbarous actions of the Ottoman Empire murdering and deporting of its Armenian community has come down to one question. Was the viscous acts of the Ottoman Empire considered Genocide or not? This is the real global issue that has been debated for so long throughout the world. While the vast American-Armenian community truly believes the word Genocide should be openly used to describe the massacre that took place a hundred years ago, the United States has not let the word out of their mouth. Many Armenians wonder why the United States choose not to express the G-Word when they know more than a million Armenians were massacred during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenian Genocide is the name given to the events of 1915-1923 in the Ottoman Empire, which was renamed Turkey after its founding father, Mustafa Ataturk. The Muslim majority destroyed the Armenians' homes, churches, and livelihoods in a continuous murderous event that took its course over 8 years. An estimated 1 million to 1.5 million Armenians died in this Genocide, and other ethnicities died as well including Greeks and Azerbaijanis who happened to be living in Armenian neighborhoods. (University of Michigan) The victims were sometimes forced to walk on endless marches that were intended to move the entire population out of the country and east to the mountains. Any Armenians who died on the march were left on the road to rot. The Armenian Genocide was first recognized by the Russian Empire in 1915, who saw what was happening before Europe did. The leaders of the Ottoman Empire, including Ataturk, were creating a modern Turkey for Turks, at the expense of all the minorities of the Ottoman Empire, and without mercy for any who would resist.

The genocide began on April 24, 1915, when “300 Armenian political leaders, educators, writers, clergy and dignitaries in Istanbul were taken from their homes, briefly jailed and tortured, then hanged or shot” just for being a non-believer in the Muslim religion (UHRC, par. 19). After this, many Armenian men were being arrested for no real reason. They were then taken and shot or bayoneted by Turkish soldiers. Now, it was time for the Armenian women and children. These people were “ordered to pack a few belongings and be ready to leave home, under the pretext that they were being relocated to a non-military zone for their own safety when they were actually being taken on death marches heading south toward the Syrian Desert” (UHRC, par. 21). Over a million people took part in these “death marches” with almost ¾ of people dying while traveling through the desert.

Also, all valuables had to be turned in to the Turks. It is a bit odd how the Armenians cooperated so well withal of it. They had no idea what was going to happen. Having been told by the Turks that everything was for the war effort, they turned in all weapons and gathered for relocation without much resistance, believing they were being transported to safety for their own good (“Armenian”). Though things went like this most of the time, there was some rebellion. A well known incident of such sort is the rebellion in the city of Van in the year 1914 (Douglas 326).

Elie Wiesel is quoted saying “Denial is the final phase of genocide, a second killing.” This can be seen when on April 24th, 1915, a group of Armenians were forcibly removed from their homes, and unknown to them, marched to their death. This would begin the period known to many as the Armenian Genocide. However, many still refuse to acknowledge the killings that took place. The mass genocide of Armenians is still a taboo subject in Turkey, almost 100 years after two million citizens lost their lives.

The Armenian genocide was the first genocide of Modern World History, but it was not the first time the world saw an ethnic and religious group angry with and persecuting another. The Armenian genocide is special because it was the first time the world saw mass slaughter being planned and executed by government officials. This deliberate slaughter of Armenians has been the focus of many because of its unique persecution of a single ethnic group and the fact that the Turkish government still denies its existence. Although the Armenian genocide took place in the Middle East, it has impacted the entire world. The Armenian genocide happened during World War I. Most known genocides have happened during times of war, because most of the world or

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

The Armenian Genocide started in April of 1915 and extended on for three years, ending when the Ottoman Empire surrendered in 1918. This was the first genocide of the twentieth century. During World War I when they saw a decline in the Ottoman Empire authority and witness the military loses increase. They blamed the Armenian people for these problems (used them as scapegoats”) and the genocide had started (EDB UTEXAS).

The Great War undoubtedly has led various nations into thinking that for the sake of the empire any form of annihilation is exceptional. It happened in the beginning of the Great War when the Germans marched into a neutral belgium destroying everything that could be beneficial for the it’s people and it happened again when the Ottomans not only deported Armenians living in the country but also man slaughtered them regardless of age, sex. This which was known as the Armenian Genocide was by far the largest crime against humanity during the course of the great war. The primary source utilized in this paper was written by Talaat Pasha who was one of the Leaders of the Ottoman Empire that oversaw the genocide. The Ottoman empire obliterated an

After “going to war” – Pasha and his team devised a method of eliminating the Armenians males for the purpose of weakening leadership and economic support for the family. The second phrase of genocide began when they

The Armenian genocide has several main causes: European meddling in Ottoman internal affairs, nationalism, economic jealousy, and Armenian involvement in the Russian war effort. Though, a lot of the causes are interrelated. For example, nationalism and European meddling go hand in hand. What exactly was the Armenian genocide? Well, the Armenian genocide was a state orchestrated machine of mass-murder and rape of the Armenian people, and several other ethnic groups, of the Ottoman Empire 1915-1923. The Armenians were one of many ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire, and they had lived in eastern Asia Minor for around three thousand years prior to the atrocity .

However, Rosson does not fulfill the expectation in her article by bringing up the Armenian Genocide in her article; she indicates that this censure by the UN was recognized by 42 U.S. states and 22 countries, as well as proclaimed by the United Nations Sub-Commission on Preventation of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (Rosson 3). Rosson also uses another source, a website, which takes the reader to a report. This website is called the teachgenocide, which This report claims that the given evidence and archived military logs of the Ottoman Empire provided enough proof to define the Armenian massacre as a genocide, by definition (). However, when one goes to the report she paraphrased, they can see that it is not fully accredited nor reinforced with other resources. This suggests that scholars and documentation often misrepresent the events of the Armenian Genocide. Although it is true that “genocide” is the word used by the United Nations, Rosson could have used other websites or several sources that are more reliable and well documented. She could have used the UN’s

After the Ottomans lost battles in WWI that were in Russian territory, the Russians started moving into Ottoman territory, which happened to be Armenian territory. The Turks needed someone to blame for their loss and a way to gather assets that were lost in the battle. Instead of accepting responsibility for their ill-conceived invasion plans and the consequential defeat of their armies, the Young Turks placed the blame on the Armenians by accusing them of collaboration with the enemy. Soldiers of the CUP soon started receiving messages to apprehend Armenians and either deport, incarcerate, and/or kill them.

He defied Turkish and German orders by taking photographs which was forbidden and collected others from missionaries and other eye witness. His collection comprises a major source of Armenian genocide image. His visuals not only stimulates the world mass but help victim bring relief and support from various charitable trust and missionaries. His powerful visuals explain every bits and detail act of barbarism which Armenian had undergone in Ottoman Empire, also intensified humanitarian sentiment. His visuals were scholarly debated and discussed