The Armenian Genocide In The Ottoman Empire

Christianity has become something more than a religion for the Armenian people. It was their soul and mentality. However, the Armenians had especially hard times when their ancestral lands were invaded from the Far East and Central Asian Turkic tribes. When a breakdown of Constantinople began it also affected an allied capital of the Byzantine – the Great Armenia, and so hard times began: Christian churches were turned into mosques, the minarets were set around, and the faces of the saints in the churches painted over. The Ottomans considered Armenians, Greeks and Slavs as an inferior class. Islamic fundamentalism was formed in the second half of the 19th century and flourished during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid. Armenians became especially hateful for the Turks when they hoped to get help from the Christian

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,

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

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).

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.

In the Memoir, young Karnig mentions how the Turks wanted the Armenians to be more like them. Even the priest tells Karnig and other Armenian children that “You are Armenian children, and you will always be Armenian. Whatever happens, do not ever forget your language and your prayers. Do not ever lose faith. God has protected you, and I am sure he will be watching over you in the future,

A French historian, Ernest Renan, once remarked, “In the creating of nations, the act of forgetting is as important as remembering” (qtd. in Anderson 2). For Turkey, this meant “obliterating the memory of a group that inhabited their country before they did” (Anderson 2). Due to hardships inside the Turkish government after its losses of many European provinces, a transnationalist ideology was created, and the war against the Armenians started. From 1915 to 1917, almost one and a half million Armenian men, women, and children were deported to the south from the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey and sent to their deaths. Mass murders and widespread deportations of the Armenian

At the beginning of the twentieth century from 1915 to 1923 conflicts arose between a group called the Young Turks and Armenians in the Ottoman empire. Many Armenians were driven from their homes and forced to march from the land they once called home to the deserts of Syria. Others were killed in massacres that took place across the Ottoman empire and those who remained were forced to convert. During the eight year genocide about one and a half million Armenians perished and another million were deported. Tragedies like these lead many to wonder how humans could commit such awful crimes towards each other. Religious differences, political suspicions, and treating Armenians as social inferiors were issues between Turks and Armenians that led up to, and exploded during the Armenian Genocide.

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

Turkish leaders in 1915, had planned to kill and massacres Armenians that were currently living in the Ottoman empire. Bloxham states, “However discriminatory were traditional Ottoman attitudes towards Armenians in a Muslim-dominated theocracy, and however miserable the life of the average Ottoman Armenians peasant, it was only after the Armenian question was promoted to the internal diplomatic table during the ‘eastern crisis’ of 1875-8 that it became such a toxic matter for successive Ottoman regimes as to be answered with periodic bouts of murder” (Bloxham 4). Currently, some historians call this even a genocide-a premeditated and systematic campaign to kill a good amount of population. Aside from the pressure from Armenians and social justice advocates throughout the globe, it is still illegal in Turkey to speak or make any comment on what had happened to the Armenians during this

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 Genocide, what many call the first genocide of modern times, occurred during World War I when many Armenians were deported from their homes in Anatolia, Turkey. The Turkish government assumed that the Armenians were sympathetic to Russia, who the Turks were at war. This mass deportation resulted in the deaths of about 600,000 to 1 million Armenians.

The Treaty of Lausanne, Article 39, 1,2 states, “Differences of religion, creed or confession shall not prejudice any Turkish national in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil or political rights, as, for instance, admission to public employments, functions and honors, or the exercise of professions

Muslims in court, and they could not bear arms. Christians such as the Armenians were allowed to practice their own religion, but were taxed more and were treated as second class citizens.

“Who does now remember the Armenians?” This famous quote, spoken by Adolf Hitler, gives us a small glimpse of the mind regarding a cruel monster. When Hitler said this, he was referring to the Armenian Genocide, which to this day, the Turkish Government still refuses to acknowledge. He believes that the world will not remember the “extermination of a people”. Although these are harsh words to speak and ugly thoughts to think; Hitler is accurate with these words. In our modern society, few people remember the Armenians though thousands of them were slaughtered and murdered during the Armenian Genocide.