The Armenian and Cambodian Genocides

It’s hard to imagine that people would support and act upon plans to kill millions of innocent human beings. The Holocaust and Cambodian genocide were two of the most horrific genocides in the history of civilization. The Holocaust and Cambodian genocide has not only similarities but also differences. How they treated their victims, USA involvement, and that they both killed millions of people are some things they share. Differences they include are the people they targeted, how the two leaders took office and lastly where these to genocides took place.

The Armenian Genocide was a very bad thing during a very bad time. One of the main causes of the genocide was the intolerance of a tyrannical regime. During this time it caused a lot of different problems for the armenians. During this time there were about 1.5 million Armenians living in the empire in 1915 and almost 1.2 million people died during the genocide. This event caused a lot more things to go on in the future because of how bad it really was.

Genocides are defined as a large group of killings often of a specific ethnic group or nation. Genocides targeting specific groups happen all over the world. Sometimes they are well known, while in other cases they are hidden and not published as much. Unlike the Holocaust, The Khmer Rouge Regime caused a smaller scale genocide in the heart of Cambodia. Beginning in the late 1960s the Khmer Rouge Regime came into power. Their leader Pol Pot committed atrocities, killing a little over two million innocent people. Pol Pot believed that this new society was becoming evil. He decided to bring the city of Phnom Penh back to the middle ages with communal farming. He murdered every “intellectual” of the country. He killed anyone who had any education, or even worse, glasses. He isolated the city and everybody in it. There are many stories coming from the victim's point of view and how they felt as 2.2 million of their own were killed. There are also reasons of why the Cambodian government's committed this atrocity. Finally, there are the views from America and its feelings towards watching the genocide go down from outside the country. Looking through all of these different lenses of this genocide help get a big picture of how and why something so horrific could have happened.

Long time ago, there was one couple who lived in a small village in Cambodia. They married with each other since they both were both 24 years old. A year after married, they decided to run a small business in order to support their life and everyday expansion. Unfortunately, the business did not go very well and they did not have any children. When they turned to 65 years, they promised each other if anyone die first, the one who still survive has to put the coin into the death person’s mouth. 5 years later, the husband has passed away. So his wife put the coin inside his mouth as they promised since 5 years ago.

Throughout history, there have been countless cases of genocide throughout the world. The problem is that no one seems to know what leads up to the genocide other than the obvious hatred of someone. After studying the cases of genocide, and the conditions in the country leading up to the devastation, it is clear that war plays a major part in each of them.

No Leader of any country should have the power to kill innocent people, however as history has shown that is not always the case. In Cambodia, a leader named Pol Pot Started Khmer Rouge, ruled from 1975-1979. It was in these years that he began a murderous regime. The CPK, also known as The Communist Party of Kampuchea, can also be referred to as Khmer Rouge’s other name. Khmer had so much power and authority that he was able to beat helpless people to death. He would do this by smashing their heads with hoes. Why a hoe you might ask? This was to save the bullets for use on others. Khmer’s reign was so powerful, so ruthless and full of death that his reign was classified as a genocide.

The Armenian Genocide began during World War I (1914-1918). The Ottoman Turks were very unfair to the Armenians, but the trend towards constitutional governments in Europe and this had made the Armenians ask for more and more equal rights under the government of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1800s. The Ottoman Empire had a decline in power and military losses experienced early in World War I caused the Ottoman government to use the Armenians as their victims for these problems, and the Armenian Genocide

Although genocide has been occurring for the last couple of decades, many people don’t know about it. Genocide is the deliberate killing of large amount of people or groups, especially in a particular ethnic group or nation. Many people disappeared, don’t come back, or their family don’t know what happened to them. Genocide has been occurring since 1945 probably even earlier. Genocide has occurred over than 75 different countries. Although there are 26 that are the major ones and the ones with the most people since the Holocaust. Some of the countries that it has occurred are in; Rwanda, Rouge Cambodia, and Darfur.

The workings of the Khmer Rouge regime, including many of the facets touched upon by Sambath within the confines of this film, have had, and continue to have, a significant influence on the development of Cambodia. As with any act of genocide, the mass killings executed between 1975 and 1979 deeply scarred both the economic and socio-political fabric of Cambodia, profoundly affecting the operations of the state, and detrimentally impacting the lives of its citizenry.

The history of Cambodia is something quite remarkable. This country has somehow seemed to prevail through their most difficult time ever, the Cambodian Genocide.

Genocide can exist on its own in plain sight or hide behind the curtain of war, rebellion control, emergency policy, national threats etc. Those who are not proud to boast about it, try to hide it and diminish its connotation within their country and to outsiders. Genocide represents one of the darkest parts of humanity and human ability, the capability to systematically destroy large groups of people no matter the gender or age because of their differences. Usually even after the killing is over, even years down the line, the perpetrators still have no remorse over their

Genocide is a mass killing of a group of people. One genocide that is very well known is the Holocaust. The Jewish civilization was involved with this genocide; they were the victims. They were targeted, treated terribly (beaten, tortured, and killed in a number of ways), and this event has affected them since then and will always have an impact on their lives. One of many genocides to occur happened in Rwanda. It is located in east-central Africa with a population of seven million. There were three ethnic groups: the Hutus, the Tutsis, and the Twa; but the population was mainly composed of Hutus and Tutsis. This genocide occurred between April and August of 1994. The Rwandan genocide is considered a “silent genocide” because it

Before 1975, Cambodia was just a small country in the mainland of South-east Asia. No one would ever expect the corruption in the years to come. In a little over 4 years, an estimated 1.7 million were put through the unimaginable. The Cambodian Genocide was the result of Khmer Rouge attempting to centralize the peasant farming society from 1975-1979.

Who is to decide whether or not a life should be taken? Should the decision lie in the hands of your "God", in the hands of the rich and powerful, or in the hands of a random stranger? Well, a man by the name of Pol Pot decided to take it upon himself to bring about the end of the lives of 2.3 million people. This mass killing was/is known as the Cambodian Genocide, which began in the year 1975, and continued for four years before ending in 1979. The Genocide was carried out by Pol Pot and those of the Khmer Regime. (Sharp, 2008)

On the other side of things, some people are upset with how the trials were handled. They believe that not only were the trials a failure, but that they didn’t provide enough justice quick enough for the survivors trying to move on and live a semi normal life. Loy Sinuon is just one example of a survivor who wasn’t happy with the way the government went about the trials and providing justice. She is a “67-year-old grandmother, said she is not satisfied with what Prime Minister Hun Sen has done regarding the Khmer Rouge.” (Cambodia Daily). She felt as if the government was not doing a good job at reconciliation after this tragic event. They were taking their time and even when the trails were happening they weren’t doing enough. Youk Chhang,