Why Did The Armenian Genocide Happen

The Armenian Massacre happened in 1894-1896 and the Armenian Genocide happened in 1915-1920 which was caused by the Turkish Government. The Turkish Government’s aim was to remove all the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire because they were more educated and wealthier then the Turkish population . The Turkish Government was also worried that the Armenians would become allies with Russia, who were a threat to Turkey . They killed and deported the Armenians to prevent this happening. It has been estimated

The extermination of the Armenians was on a large scale and was executed by the government of Turkey, suggesting

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.

(armenian-genocide.org). It started when the Turkish government arrested hundreds Armenian intellectuals. They then executed them. They took the Armenian soldiers and removed their weapons and made them do labor, such as building roads and other things. This lead to the deaths of many people. If the men did not die in labor they were shot. The technology used to kill thousands of people were the telegraphs and the trains. “The telegraph system allowed for the kind of centralization that heretofore was impossible.” (armenian-genocide.org).It allowed people to send messages to kill people it was a government service so the Ottoman Empire had to order the massacres. After that happened the Turkish government would take people out of their homes and put them to death. The men were first, they were taken and shot, or other Armenians would be forced to walk out into the desert for days without food and water, until they died. If they did not keep walking they were shot. The deportations occurred from 1915-1916. They happened secretively and were disguised as resettlement programs. (armenian-genocide.org). People went without resistance because the the Armenian soldiers were killed earlier and they were the strongest and they fought for what they believed in. With them gone, others saw that they did not have a choice so they just went with little or no resistance. Nobody really know how many people were murdered and how many just died on the walk to their new home. The Ottoman government was not concerned about the Armenians eating while they were being deported. Lots of Armenians died of starvation because they were not fed and given water. This is one of the biggest ways the Ottoman government got rid of the Armenian population. The Turks did not take the young children. The young children were forced to convert to Muslim. They were also renamed and given Turkish names because the Turks wanted to keep the next

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.

4). In 1913, “three of the Young Turks helped to gain control of Turkey’s government via a coup” (UHRC, par. 10). They wanted to create a “great and eternal land called Turan with one language and one religion” (UHRC, par. 10).

The Armenian genocide has its place in history as one of the first large-scale genocides of the 20th century. Technological advancements of the period allowed for the efficient killing of large amounts of people, making genocide possible. Automatic weapons made it easy to commit mass killings, and advances in communication allowed for much easier coordination of these killings. The era was characterized by an obsession with race and nationalism, and these topics dominated world politics (Kaplan, 2016, p. 41). This was an environment plagued by racism and xenophobia, which helped to facilitate the Armenian genocide.

After the interview the Turkish military officials, soldiers and ordinary men sacked Armenian villages and cities and massacred their citizens, many Armenian’s where murdered. As years passed in 1908 a new government came to place overthrowing Sultan Abdul Hamid which was called “young Turks” at first the Armenian’s had hope that things could probably change for them now that they had a different government. But they soon realized that the way these “young Turks” thought was “non- Turks and especially Christian non- Turks were a grave threat to the new state” ( History.com 2010).

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.

The Ottoman Empire was actually known as “the sick man of Europe” because of its constant military and territorial losses, and the Young Turks felt it was their duty to save it. Some Young Turks wanted to keep the empire out of foreign control “through democracy… and modernization; [but] other Young Turks were intent on creating a more unified Turkish state with a Turkish national identity and a unified Turkish language and culture.” By 1908, the Young Turks had officially gained power over the Ottoman Empire. The formal name for the Young Turk’s political organization was the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). The CUP had enough power to force the sultan to give the empire a constitutional government. After about a year, the sultan was removed from power and a younger and much weaker sultan was placed in power. Even though that sultan was weak, he still had supporters and people in high political offices; so, the Young Turks still overthrew him in a violent coup d’état in 1912. The Young Turks believed that that line of sultans had led to the downfall of the Ottoman Empire and they wanted to raise it back up. Once the Young Turks aka CUP was in power, everyone could see that their division in ideals was going to lead them into a place of turmoil. Some wanted democracy and others wanted a dictatorship. The group in favor of a dictatorship eventually won. This group lasted from about 1913-1918. The Young Turks believed in secularism, which means they wanted

Although unarmed, Armenians still fought back. Laws being passed to take away Armenians’ weapons should've been a sign that action needed to be taken. U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau said the Ottoman Empire leaders faced this obstacle, “Before Armenia could be slaughtered, Armenia must be made defenseless.” This of course took away the opportunity of being able to fight

It is estimated that about 1.3 to 2.1 million Armenians were killed in this great massacre ( Beckett 188). The impact of the Armenian genocide was not only that the Turks mass-murdered millions of Armenians, but that they also wiped out the Armenian culture and heritage with it. This genocide is truly significant and especially at the time it occurred, since it echoed the great lengths an empire could go to ensure

The war allowed the Turks to impose their wrath and destruction on the Armenians. The first phase began with the war afflicted provinces; the Turks took the opportunity to seize properties and personal belongings of the remaining Armenians. Whatever valuables they had were forcibly taken from them. They had no means of support and were subjugated under the leadership of the Turks. They were removed and transported by trains or had to walk miles and miles by foot to the Mesopotamian desert. This initial step was the start of the mass execution of the innocent Armenians in an isolated place at the hands of the Empire.

On April 24, 1915, the Armenian genocide began. That day, the Turkish government arrested and executed Armenian intellectuals. Then, ordinary Armenian citizens were taken from their homes and sent to death march through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. While on their way, the marchers stripped and forced to walk in the sun until they drop dead. People who stop to rest would be shot. In a short time, the Turkish countryside filled with the slain Armenian. In 1922, when the genocide was over, there were only 388,000 Armenians left in the Ottoman Empire. After the Ottoman surrender in 1918, the Young Turk leaders fled to Germany, which promised not to prosecute them for crimes of genocide. However, the Armenian nationalist groups

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.