The Armenian Genocide In The 19th Century

On the positive side, this brought about international attention to the crisis at hand. On the negative side, that attention did not amount to any actual reform in the Ottoman Empire on the behalf of the Armenian people. There is also the matter in which American activists worded the problem that has caused the Armenian people to struggle with self-identity in the United States; I will talk more about this later in this paper. To gather aid for the Armenian cause the ABCFM sat down and devised a plan on how to present the Armenian people in the United States. What came about was that the United States had a duty to intervene in order to save the Christian Armenians because of familiar religious ties. Somehow the Armenians were “unique in the world for their long-standing devotion

The Young Turks sought to kill all Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire, aiming to create an Armenian free country. Turkish leaders stated that “all Armenians must die; we will wipe them out and rid this Empire of them.” They referred to what would happen as a “Turkification campaign” and used World War one to hide what they were doing.

The Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire against its minority Armenian population from 1915-1917 left an estimated 1.5 million dead and to date, not one individual has been tried for these egregious crimes. The mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in World War I and Jews by the Nazis in World War II shocked the conscience of the international community and led to the creation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), in order to hold the perpetrators of crimes of this magnitude accountable. In its preamble, the UN charter sets the objective to "establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained". The genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire and Nazis made it clear that an international standard must be set in order to protect the rights of individuals. The UN has attempted to establish international law with the creation of the CPPCG and other resolutions, however, these resolutions are simply words on paper unless they are properly enforced. In this essay I will be examining whether the United Nations have been successful in its enforcement international law, specifically the CPPCG.

The Holocaust is one of the most well known events in history. It had a great affect on the Jewish population and the Zionist movement. The Holocaust is very similar to the Turkish massacre of the Armenians during World War I. Alike the Holocaust, it also had a large effect on the Armenian population. Both of these are horrific events in history because of the mass numbers that were killed. The Holocaust, which had a great effect on the Jewish population, is comparable on a much larger scale to the Massacre of the Armenians in Turkey during World War 1 because of the incredibly large numbers of lives lost during the specific massacres.

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.

At this time, the Ottoman Empire saw itself as predominantly Muslim, even though it was home to many non-Muslim citizens, such as the well educated Christian Armenians. These citizens wanted reform, as well as the right to vote. However,

Genocide is a terrible thing. It is the systematic and deliberate killing of a group of people. Some succeed, and others have had intervention. Perhaps the most infamous one is the Holocaust, where the Nazis tried to eliminate the Jews. However, some are much less known, and some even go unrecognized by the majority of the world. Some countries even attempt to cover up a genocide and pretend it didn’t happen. This is exactly what happened in the Armenian Genocide.

The Ottoman Empire was ruled by the Turks as they had the most conquered land, including North Africa, West Asia, and Southeast Europe, while the Armenians resided their as “second-class citizens.”4 By the start of World War I in 1914, the Ottoman Empire had suffered tremendous loss and experienced a major reduction in size, losing most of their seized land in Europe and Africa. This created tension between the Turks and the Armenians, two opposing races. The Turks practiced Islamic religion while the Armenians represented a Christian minority group. Since the Armenians were non-Muslims, they were required by the Turks to pay taxes and were denied security and any part in the government. The Armenians demanded representation in the government

The Russian government had planned to reform six Turkish provinces that were almost populated by Armenian people/citizens. The government slowly was taking away their things such as their weapons, they arrested many intellectuals, and they started deporting the Armenian citizens to a concentration camps in the Syrian desert where they were starved to death or exiled. By the end of the year 1915, 75% of the Armenian population were extinct. The Turks killed over one million armenian citizens and other people who lived there. They made the armenians go extinct so they could win/take over their territory. Thousands of armenians were murdered during the

In the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish government put into motion a plan to murder and massacre several Armenians that lived in the Ottoman Empire. One of the main reason the genocide began was because the Armenians were asking for more equal rights. The Armenian Genocide was not necessary.At the time of the massacre.there were about 2 million Armenian’s in the Ottoman empire. By the time the massacre ended, there were about 1.5 million Armenians dead, many were also removed from the country. The Armenians were discriminated by the Ottoman, many Armenians began to ask for equal rights because of the tend toward constitutional governments in Europe. There was a decline of power in the ottoman empire and major military losses during WWI, which

To this day, the subject of the Armenian Genocide is controversial, splitting nations as well as researchers over the true nature of what happened and for what reasons. This research paper aims to examine the origins of the Armenian Genocide and what factors led to its conception. I utilize a number of primary sources in this research, including archival material from the Armenian National Institute that includes sources from both American and United Kingdoms governments. In addition, I also examine the accounts from those who witnessed the genocide first hand, an example being the memoir of Grigoris Balakian, an Armenian bishop who personally witnessed the persecution of his people. Through these works as well as several other secondary sources, I find evidence to support my argument that the Armenian Genocide was a pre-planned attack with the intention of exterminating the Armenian Christians. Therefore, despite the contention over its nature, the surrounding evidence and testimonies that have come forth help in making the argument that the Armenian massacres were a pre-conceived plan carried out by the Ottoman government and serves as the first true genocide to take place in the twentieth century.

The Turkish people of the Ottoman Empire were followers of Islam, whereas the Armenian people’s domination was of the Christian belief, even though they resided in the Ottoman Empire. Due to this obvious divide, prejudice had begun to sprout. Armenians had to pay discriminatory taxes and were denied participation in government.

The discriminatory actions and injustices made by the Turks provoked many Armenians to protest and fight for their basic rights. Between 1894 and 1896, the Turkish military took action upon these protests and began the first massacres that would later be known as the Armenian Genocide in which hundreds of thousands Armenians died. In 1908 a new form of government based on reformal ideas overthrew the previous leader, Sultan Abdul Hamid, they called themselves The Young Turks. They had different and more modern ideas,

By the Spring of 1915, The Ottoman Empire’s very existence was in danger. They faced a war on three fronts during World War One : Anglo-Indian troops to the South in the Levant, The Russians to east in the Caucasus, who were ahead after their victory in Sarıkamış, And the British and French to the West, who mounted naval attacks against the Dardanelles. It was clear that the Empire was in bad shape. With the situation so grave, the Ottomans began mobilizing their population for war, as well as doing away with those not loyal.They mobilized Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Bedouin Tribesman, and even used prisoners as irregulars. However, they didn’t mobilize Armenians as they declared them a dangerous group. To show insight into the reasons for the systematic killings and deportations of Armenians

The main goal of these reforms was to move the non-Muslims from an inferior national to a full subject of the Empire. The thought was that if the Sultan gave his minority subjects more rights, per say, than they would not form a separatist movement. Or worse the subjects separatist movement lobby international support; for example, in the Greek national movement in 1821. The Greeks were assisted by France, Romanov Russia, and The United Kingdom. In this way two causes for the Armenian genocide interweave. At the same time as nationalistic centrifugal forces are pulling the Empire apart, Europe is sticking their hands in Ottoman internal affairs. The Tanzimat Reforms were really a failure, and did not promote equal citizenship among citizens. Nor