Treatment of Minorities in Turkey Essay

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.

In 1914 through 1918, the Turks, while they were still labeled as the Ottoman Empire, were in a war with Russia and were afraid that one of their occupied lands, Armenia, would help Russia since they both were Christians. This forced the Turkish government to decide that it was time to eliminate the Armenians by blaming and killing them for their alleged betrayals. Even today, Turkey still denies they committed genocide. The massacre that took place in the Ottoman Empire between 1914-1918 should be considered genocide because it went through all eight stages of genocide, especially highlighted preparation and extermination.

Even today, a counter history put in place inside of Turkey proves that not only do they know about the genocide but also that they are still trying to hide it. Turkish historians and authors work to minimize, relativize, and ultimately obscure the scale of the violence during the genocide. Multiple authors wrote saying that the Armenians were traitors and were alone responsible for their own fate and more importantly, all other minorities were just as much the targets as the Armenians were. One author wrote that the Armenians were indeed violators of treason and “simply had to be moved from the front-line areas; and that they themselves were responsible for numerous massacres” (11). “The struggle against official historiography will continue to prove impossible, so as it is anchored at the highest levels of the state, claims leading academic experts as its adherents, and remains a part of decades of tradition” (qtd. in Armenian Genocide 11). Turkey’s altered history and extreme aggression toward any author or historian that tried to tell the truth, makes any person question what they have to hide and why they won't allow the freedom of speech that people

Most know about the horrific and shameful acts of violence against the Jewish during World War II. It is taught and studied in world history classes within every country. However, many have not heard of the Armenian Genocide. It is still a debated and controversial topic. Against what all documents and witnesses who have survived show and tell, the Turkish government still denies the existence of this terrible event. This act of ignorance is highly irresponsible and insulting towards the survivors of this horrible event. By accepting the existence of such shameful act, the new Republic of Turkey can move forward and fix their foreign affairs with opposite parties.

The Armenian people under the Ottoman Empire have gone through persecution by their government on more than one occasion. While the Armenian Genocide is still not acknowledged by present-day Turkey, the motivations behind the deaths are questionable. The persecution of a whole people is racist, but other motivations may have been a stronger influence. Previous acts against the Armenian people were meant to sabotage the growing sense of Armenian nationalism by intimidating the Armenian people with severe consequences for disputes. The massacres of 1894 to 1896, carried out under the control of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, witnessed the killing of Armenian people in broad daylight in front of the general public. The public killings were meant to send

    This horrific event started in 1915 taking place in the country of  Turkey (Krajeski).The Caucasus region of Eurasia is where most of the Armenians existence made their stay (“Genocide”).Over the years the Ottoman Empire took over and permitted any religion except for their own Muslim worshipings (“Genocide”).Throughout the years the Armenians thrived and had plenty of success under the Ottoman rule that soon the Turkish citizens started to envy the victims (“Genocide”).The Turkish citizens are to blame for this catastrophic event.They seized the Armenians because they believed they were the cause of their collapsing empire (Krajeski). “Armenian civil leaders, intellectuals, doctors, businessmen, and artists were rounded up and killed” (Cohan). “Armenian villages were raided frequently by bands of Turks and Kurds ,other ethnic groups in the region. Sultan Hamid the ruler of the Ottomans ordered a series of massacres from 1894 to 1896 killing between 100000 - 300000” (Friedman 13).Sadly the amount of deaths recorded was over 1.5 million Armenians (Krajeski).

Sam: Today, most history experts and others worldwide label this event as a genocide. A genocide is the deliberately executing of a large group of people, most of which are of the same ethnic group or nation. Unfortunately, the Turkish government does not acknowledge the damage that these events had upon the people. Despite pressure from Armenians and social justice advocates throughout the world, it is still illegal in Turkey to converse about the events that included the Armenians during this era. Armenians were publicly humiliated and

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 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.

Far from being repentant of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey, under the leadership of Prime Minister Erdogan, is again, like its Ottoman forbear, targeting Armenians; is again causing their death and dislocation.

In 1991, a series of uprisings in Iraq turned into multiple rebellions in Northern and Southern Iraq started the “Kurdish War”. Millions of men,women and children were killed by the war. This was a genocide because this behavior resulted in torture devices, chemical

Turkey has many different people that come from many different backgrounds. There are many people that are harassed, discriminated against, and even killed over their ethnicity. The people in Turkey are divided. People are afraid of losing their heritage and their traditions.

This issue has been with Turkey almost since the foundation of the Turkish State in 1923. The Kurds were promised the creation of an independent state as part of the treaty of Sevres in 1920 but this part of the treaty was never ratified and Turkey has refused to recognize the existence of a separate Kurdish ethnic community within its borders.

Kurdistan is a region that has existed in turmoil and is the “never was” country. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group of the Middle East, numbering between 20 and 25 million. Approximately 15 million live in the regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, an area they called Kurdistan, yet they do not have a country of their own. Formal attempts to establish such a state were crushed by the larger and more powerful countries in the region after both world wars. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I, the Kurds were promised their own independent nation under the Treaty of Sevres. In 1923 however, the treaty was broken allowing Turkey to maintain its status and not allowing the Kurdish people to have a nation to call