The Turks Genocide

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 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.

In 1914 the Ottoman Empire entered World War I, as an ally to Germany . They joined the Central powers, consisting of Germany and Austria-Hungary, fighting against the Allied powers; Russia, Britain and France. The Turks ruled over the Ottoman empire and were ruthless towards the Armenians. Turks felt that the Armenians were second class citizens because they were not Muslim. The Armenians were deprived of having government jobs and had to pay higher taxes.

The Armenian Genocide of 1915 was the Ottoman Governments eradication of the Armenians within what is now known as Turkey. Ottoman authorities arrested deported and eventually murdered Armenian subjects, as well as targeting men, women and Christian ethnic groups (Kévorkian, 2011). World War I was a key factor when looking at the Armenian Genocide; in 1914 the Turks entered the war on the same side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany. Government and military leadership feared the revolt of the Armenians; they

The year 1918 brought the simultaneous culmination of both World War One and the Armenian Genocide. With Ottoman defeat and the collapse of the CUP dictatorship, the Allied Powers saw an opportunity to execute punishment and assist the rehabilitation of Armenian survivors. Despite the trial and death sentencing of several organizers of the genocide, no stable attempt was made to properly take the Turkish Government to court and press charges against this crime against humanity. Thousands of culprits were left free to remain in office and within a few months the judicial proceedings were adjourned and prisoners of war were free to be sent home. After WWI, finding the path to world peace distracted the Allies. Organizations were formed, treaties

The Turks left the Armenians with nowhere to turn and no choice but to become Turkified to survive. This happened to mostly woman and children and they were forced to convert to Islam, adopt Turkish names and to lose their Armenian identity. The Turks also removed any trace of Armenian presence by destroying the buildings, the monuments, and renaming villages, and towns. Mostly anything that could show that Armenians were from or around that area and turn it to a Turkified

On April 24, 1915, the genocide began. The Turkish military invaded the empire, arrested, and executed every Armenian citizen they saw. After that, the

The Armenians have claimed their home in the southern Caucasus since 7th Century BCE. Throughout many centuries, the Mongol, Persian, Russian, and Ottoman empires have fought over this region. Due to the Armenians lack of unity and strength, they could not claim their lands any longer. They were weak in relation to their conflicting neighbors, and were often deported from the very lands they first lived in. Constant deportations over history eventually led them to many different parts of the world, forming what is the Armenian diaspora.

In 1914, the Ottoman Empire allied with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the same year, religious leaders declared a jihad, a holy war against all Christians. As a result of Armenians organizing to help the Russian army fight against the Ottoman Turks, military leaders declared Armenians as traitors. The government as a result, declared the Armenian people to be removed.

In April 1915 the Ottoman government decided to diminish the civilian Armenian Population. The persecutions were varying, as it was on a curve with high intensity until 1923. In 1923, the Ottoman Empire was gone from existence, and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population in 1915 was about two million, and by 1918, about 1 million people have died, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless refugees. By the year 1923, the Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey was gone. The Ottoman Empire was controlled and led by the Turks. The Turks had conquered and seized lands from across West Asian, North Africa, and Southeast Europe. While the overall Ottoman government was controlled in Istanbul (Constantinople), and was headed by a sultan who wanted absolute power.

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

The solution to the empire's nationality problems was ultimately directed at 'problem' populations themselves rather than their grievances and aspirations" (Bloxham, 29). The Muslims "opposed attempts to legislate for greater equality between Muslims and non-Muslims" (Bloxham, 39). In addition, Armenians started revolutions which as a result were seen as "dangerous revolts and order severe repression" (Bloxham, 53). Such a small scale issue is made into a large scale issue because the governments decides to kill the Armenians instead of negotiating. This idea of the "Armenian Question" was blown out of proportion and seen as a massive and dangerous issue for the Turks, resulting to the genocide, to rid the empire of this "problem"

The Armenian Genocide began in 1915 and ended in 1923 when the Ottoman Empire dismantled and became the Republic of Turkey. The Ottoman Empire consisted of regions in three different continents which caused their empire to be multilingual and multinational. The empire reached from Southeast Europe, parts of Central Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. The Turks, who controlled the Ottoman Empire were Islamic and some people within their empire were not, but that was not an overt issue until the Armenians wanted representation within the government.

Especially because they had established a more modern government. However, the Christians could not have been any wronger. The Young Turks ambitions were to Turkify the empire, and the Christians did not fit into this plan. During all of this World War One was undergoing. The Ottomans joined the war in 1914 and sided with the central powers; Germany and Austria-Hungary. They also declared war on all Christian nations, excluding their allies. The Armenians helped out the Russians in a battle against the Turks. This was the last straw. The Ottomans were going to do something about the Christians once and for all. On April 24 1915 the Armenian genocide begins. Armenian intellectuals were executed. Innocent Armenians were thrown out of their houses and sent to march their death in the desert. The marchers were stripped naked and were not given any food or water. They marched in the blazing sun and were shot if seen resting.

During the years of the Bosnian crisis, without the North Atlantic Treaty Organization working with the United Nations and executed humanitarian relief by launching military intervention, sending peacekeeping forces and imposing sanctions respectively.