The Armenian Genocide was a planned murder of the Armenians, due to the ethnic differences between the Turks and the Armenians, which was spurred by the rising atrocities due to a suspicion that the Armenians were not faithful to the Ottoman Turks. A rising question around this research was - to what extent did the Armenian Genocide affect the religious, political, economic, and social aspects of society? The Armenian Genocide resulted in discrimination against the Christian Armenians through separating the Armenians from the Ottoman Turks, granting less rights for the Armenians in fear that the Armenians would abuse their power as they were viewed as very untrustworthy, and for this reason the Armenians had less wealth and power than the Ottoman Turks. Another major reason for the genocide was the desire of the Ottomans in creating a homogenous Turkish state.
I chose this topic because I am genuinely interested about how discrimination has affected populations and what effect that has had on both populations- the one being discriminated and the one discriminating. The Armenian Genocide was the mass-massacre of Armenians by a group of reformers that took power in 1908, known as the “Young Turks” (Vahagn 797). These reformers believed that the Armenians posed a threat to Turkey, especially during World War I. Due to this, the Armenians were discriminated against before the genocide, as the “Christian Armenians were thought to
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According to Kasbarian and Kerem, the political factors that pushed the Turkish government to perpetuate the Armenian genocide, was that the Young Turks “organized genocides of minorities for political gains” (Kasbarian and Kerem 115). The Young Turks organized massacres and made attempts to exterminate minority populations for political gains. As the Christian Armenians lost power in the Turkish political system, the Turks obtained a much higher status than the
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
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.
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.
There were many reasons that could be tied to why the Armenian Genocide happened, but there is no reason bigger than the fact that the Turkish Government was unsatisfied with the religious state of the Armenians. The Armenians had established their national religion as Christianity unlike Turkey who was mostly Muslim. The main group that enforced this was called the Young Turks. The Young Turks were a group that had taken control of Turkey. According to the United Human Rights Council, “[The Turkish Government] exploited the religious, cultural, economic and political differences between Turks and Armenians so that the average Turk came to regard Armenians as strangers among them.” It started with the Armenians
On the 24 April 1915, as the Ottoman Empire was being dismantled, a fiercely nationalistic Muslim political party known as the Young Turks began the process of exterminating approximately 1 500 000 Armenian Christians. The Young Turks aimed to create a state that was free from any Armenians and from Christians in particular. The genocide lasted 8 years, until 1923, during which time the Armenian Christian population in the Ottoman Empire was reduced from approximately 2 million to approximately 500 000. Still today, Turkey refuses to call what took place ‘genocide’. The modern Turkish government argues that the intent was to relocate the Armenians or, in some cases, that the genocide was completely fabricated by the Armenians, as a bid to gain support from the outside Christian world.
(armenian-genocide.org). It started when the Turkish government arrested hundreds Armenian intellectuals. They then executed them. They took the Armenian soldiers and removed their weapons and made them do labor, such as building roads and other things. This lead to the deaths of many people. If the men did not die in labor they were shot. The technology used to kill thousands of people were the telegraphs and the trains. “The telegraph system allowed for the kind of centralization that heretofore was impossible.” (armenian-genocide.org).It allowed people to send messages to kill people it was a government service so the Ottoman Empire had to order the massacres. After that happened the Turkish government would take people out of their homes and put them to death. The men were first, they were taken and shot, or other Armenians would be forced to walk out into the desert for days without food and water, until they died. If they did not keep walking they were shot. The deportations occurred from 1915-1916. They happened secretively and were disguised as resettlement programs. (armenian-genocide.org). People went without resistance because the the Armenian soldiers were killed earlier and they were the strongest and they fought for what they believed in. With them gone, others saw that they did not have a choice so they just went with little or no resistance. Nobody really know how many people were murdered and how many just died on the walk to their new home. The Ottoman government was not concerned about the Armenians eating while they were being deported. Lots of Armenians died of starvation because they were not fed and given water. This is one of the biggest ways the Ottoman government got rid of the Armenian population. The Turks did not take the young children. The young children were forced to convert to Muslim. They were also renamed and given Turkish names because the Turks wanted to keep the next
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
There were many reasons discussed for why the Armenian massacre should be called a genocide or not. The first definition of Genocide adopted by the United Nations stated “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious groups as such (De Waal 2015).” Many believed the meaning of the words “as such” is not clear and some deny that the massacre was “committed with intent”- an argument made frequently in Turkey (De Waal 2015). Even though many alleged perpetrators believe that the massacre was not committed with intent, the Ottoman Empire did attempt to wipe out an entire ethical group. The Armenians were either deported or killed and many women were either beaten or raped. The Armenian diaspora saw the word genocide as the perfect word to describe what happened to their parents and grandparents. They Armenian Diaspora began referring the Meds Yeghern as “the Armenian Genocide”, which sparked a political movement. This political movement was established in 1965 which marked the 50th anniversary of the massacre and the Armenian diaspora was out to seek
As mentioned in the summary, the Ottoman Empire, which consisted of the Young Turks, allied with Germany during World War I and decided that they wanted a Muslim-only country. In the minds of the Young Turks, this would lead to territorial expansion and the solidification of their crumbling country. This brutal genocide, like any genocide, was incredibly horrendous, filled with rape, abuse, and, of course, death. A staggering 1.5 million Armenians shed blood in their hands! Not to mention the other minorities in Turkey.
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.
The denial of the Armenian genocide and the use of the term “alleged” are insults to those who have agitated over the years in highlighting the genocide and the Armenian people themselves. The pictorial anger and anguish of this painful traumatic experience had left the survivors of this horrific event with deep scars beyond repairs. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a dark world for the Armenians who were held helpless and bound at the treacherous hand of the Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey. The Armenian Genocide includes: the context of power of the Ottoman Empire, the phases of destruction and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the genocide and provide support to the Armenians.
This source is a magazine article from History Today that I found on the database MasterFILE Premier. One hundred years ago the Armenian genocide occurred in Turkey. In his account of the complex historical background to these events Donald Bloxham focuses on the issue of great power involvement. Approximately one million Armenian Christians were murdered in 1915-16 under the auspices of the Ottoman state, directed by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Evidence for this state-sponsored mass destruction is too strong to waste any space demonstrating why the controversial 'G' word, genocide, is entirely applicable to the case. Yet, contrary to an 'Armenian' historiography that is keen -- partly as a response to ongoing Turkish
Unfortunately, the Turkish-Armenian conflict is not the only unacknowledged or marginalized genocide; there are several other incidents of this happening, just in the past century. One of the most prominent being the Rwandan Genocide, which
Approximately one and a half million Armenians were killed from 1915-1923. The remaining part was either Islamized or exiled.” The Armenian Genocide was a horrific event that caused the Armenians to have a major loss in population. From this, the Armenians should have been given reparations, but were not and that still affects them to this day.
Through the investigation of the changes occurring from the first European presence in the Muslim world to the end of the Ottoman Empire, this essay attempts to answer why the Armenian genocide occurred. The Ottoman Empire started its decline when Napoleon entered Egypt in 1798. Napoleon brought along with him armies but also a new culture. The British did the same with Moghul India. The elite and people in positions of power were impressed by what the Europeans and the Americans were doing and seeing how powerful and successful they were. The Turks in the Ottoman Empire wanted the same. The Young Turks overthrew the Sultan of the time and started a reform of the Ottoman Empire to try to salvage it. The Young Turks also believed that all people regardless of religion or ethnicity deserved the same rights.