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1915 Armenian genocide
The evil of the Armenian genocide
1915 Armenian genocide
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Hennesis Castillo Essay 2 Genocide is the deliberate killing of all or part of a racial, ethnic, or religious group. Genocide is carried out through ruthless acts of violence, and oppression. There have been many acts of genocide documented throughout history. In this essay I will focus on the Armenian genocide, specifically how it was carried out and how the Ottoman Empire rationalized their actions. The preservation and purity of one’s race were important factors that eventually led to the Armenian genocide. The concept of “race” is a classification system used to categorize humans into large groups by cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical, linguistic, and/or religious affiliation. It was believed that only people of the same race make up what we consider to be a nation. However there is a sight difference between the two. In “A Century of Genocide” by Eric D. Weitz, he goes about depicting the differences between race and nation by using examples throughout history. “Race and nation, far from timeless concepts, represent modern ways of understanding and organizing human difference.” (Weitz, Page 17) The difference between race and nation is very permeable; therefore it is very easy to confuse the two. During the time in which the Armenian genocide took place, people shared the thought of Arthur De Gobineu, who believed that the mixing of races was bad for society. “Laws against intermarriage helped define racial boundaries and contributed to the meaning of “race” itself.” (Weitz, Page 25) The Ottoman Empire, ruled by the Young Turks, a Turkish nationalist reform party, supported reformation of the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Empire. That feeling of reformation meant the purification of Turkish nationali... ... middle of paper ... ... their sufferings were less well known….” (Balakin, Page 372) Attempts were made to play down the Armenian death toll and bribery from the Turkish government in form of large sums of money was also a tactic used to get people to support the Turkish side. In conclusion, the organized manner in which the Armenian genocide was carried out made it easy for the Ottoman Empire to rationalize their actions. Since an act of genocide is very calculated only a government has the resources to carry it out. In case of the Armenian genocide the Ottoman Empire’s strong military facilitated the murders that occurred. The actions of the Ottoman Empire were rationalized as the preservation and purification of Turkish nationalism. Majority of Armenian diaspora communities came as a result of the Armenian genocide. The denial of the Armenian Genocide is still an issue till this day.
In short, the majority of Turkey’s allies did nothing about the ordeal in the end. Basically brushing the entire event off. Eventually, the already small and fragile Armenian republic was given no support from the allies as a whole, and collapsed upon itself. As for the Turkish, in the successful obliteration of the vast majority of the Armenian people, they destroyed many priceless masterpieces, libraries and churches that had belonged to the Armenians. In Turkey, it’s illegal to even mention the topic of the Armenian Genocide.
Genocide, the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group. From 1992-1995 that was happening in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between the three main ethnic groups, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in Bosnia.
When a group feels as if their existence is threatened by another group, the only solution to their problem is the extermination of the opposing group. Genocide is also used to carry out systematic efforts in destroying enemies which will send out warning to other potential enemies. Acquiring economic wealth by destroying a group which stands in the way of that benefit is also another reason genocide is carried out. Finally, to create a “pure race” which means everyone practices the same way, follows the same culture, and the group who does not fit the guidelines, will be exterminated. The Center on Law and Globalization is a charitable organization which presents news about devastating problems in countries across the world. Its authors are reporters and journalist who experience firsthand the problems these countries are facing. In the article, Why Do Genocides Occur? Published by the Center on Law and Globalization, the conditions under which genocide usually occurs includes: when the victims are excluded, which means they have lost their citizenship and denied their rights, in crisis, when their government is in ruins, or in a dictatorial
In 1915 leaders in the Turkish government devised a plan to exterminate and or expel all Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. There are several different reports varying in content, but it is believed that there were about 2 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire at the time of the massacre. By the 1920’s 1.5 of the 2 million Armenians were dead and the majority of the remaining had been deported. Today most historians will classify the events as a genocide ; but to this day the Turkish
There are many ideas of what genocide is, but, according to Webster’s Dictionary, the official definition of genocide is “The deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group”. However, the more realistic and practical definition is “The unnecessary and unjustified killings of tens of thousands of innocent people all because of hate”. This was most defiantly the case in the Kurdish Genocide, which took place between 1986 and 1989. The result of this mass murdering left thousands of people without loved ones, and even more wondering why it had to happen.
When a group or a nation conquers another group or nation, it was common to kill all the men, civilians and soldiers of the conquered group or nation. In the 20th century mass killing increasingly became a part of some nations’ ways to achieve political goals. This was the case in The Armenian Genocide. The Armenian had a massive effect on Armenia as an Empire. It decreased its size and population. Going from seven million to about five million. What’s unfair to the Armenians is that till date, the massacre has not been recognized as a Genocide. The Armenians went through a terrible time during that period, and they are just asking for all that happened to be known to all, just like the Holocaust of the
The Armenian Genocide was an unbelievable catastrophe that can be related to the Holocaust, which was also very violent. Genocides usually occur with stages of hate that elevate each step, and discrimination is an imperative point in the start of genocide. The two genocides both started with the discrimination of another ethnic group of people. For instance, the Armenian Genocide started with the Turk’s long-lasting hatred towards the Armenian people. Similarly, in the Holocaust, Hitler’s hatred for Jews fueled the beginning of the massacre in Germany. In Armenia, the Turkish government soon took over the Ottoman Empire’s weak government and immediately discriminated the Armenians, starving them and blami...
On April 24, 1915 the Armenian genocide began. 1 million and 5 hundred-thousand people got killed because of Turkish government. Many of them got raped, enslaved and murdered. For instance, they drowned people in rivers, burned them alive, executed and etc. They also kidnapped children and sent to Turkish families. In many places, Turkish people rapped and used Armenian women as a slave. “The Armenians marched by Turkish soldiers” picture in “artvoice.com” website shows the Armenians nearby prison in Mezierh by armed Turkish soldiers. Also only 25% Armenians deported to the deserts of Syria and Iraq. After the war between Armenian and Turks, only 380’000 Armenian remained in the Ottoman Empire. In June 1915, 25 percent of the Armenian population was deported t...
The Armenian Genocide Started in Ottomans Empire. Which really shocked people because they have lived in peace for 3,000 years. After the peace was disrupted the rulers created restrictions against the Armenians Christians like unequal and unjust laws forcing them to pay higher taxes, have fewer political rights, and legal rights. Many Armenian men were forced into labor camps which had a highest death rate. They built roads and were almost like a human pack. Those who did not die in the labor area were most likely shot. When the orders were given to exterminate the Armenians it was in a coded telegram then, round ups began in April of 1915. The Turkish rounded up different types of people from their homes and were jailed, tortured, hanged or shot. Another torture method was a large number of people arrested where they were tied together and taken to outskirts of their town where they were shot and killed by the death squads or Turkish soldiers (United Human Rights Council).
The Armenian genocide is recognised as the first of the century and it was carried out by Turks during World War I. The genocide was an act of revenge as selected Armenians volunteered to fight alongside the Russian army, against Turkey. The attack on Armenians of the Ottoman Empire began in March, 1915. It took an immense toll on the women; hundreds of thousands of women were murdered or died on the harsh march from Turkey, south to Syria. The genocide consisted of brutal deaths, including burning alive, drowning, being tossed off cliffs, starvation, dying of thirst and through the act of rape and evisceration. The majority of men were killed through the severing of the head. Khanum Palootzian was a surviv...
The crimes the Turks had committed towards the Armenians were considered the destruction of Armenians not just the killing of them. The Turkish triumvirate had a plan to get rid of all the Armenians for good. They first started by killing all Armenian leaders on April 24, 1915. This was done so Armenians would be left leaderless and would have to make their own decisions to decide what's right for them. All Armenian children that were left behind were taught to be a Turk. After the genocide, Armenians, especially children who survived, were put into orphanages. They were later brainwashed and brought up to be Turkish. Since the Young Turks wanted to get rid of Armenians for good, children who got left behind were told they were Turkish so they would never know of or forget about their Armenian background.
The Armenian Genocide was the Muslim Ottoman Empire’s attempt to exterminate all of the Christian Armenians who were living in the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. Nationalism was rising and many nations wanted to become their own state: one of these nations included the Christian Armenians. The Ottoman’s then accused the nation of supporting Russia’s plans against the powerful empire. The Ottoman’s then slaughtered up to 1.2 million innocent Armenians. There is a current debate about whether the international countries had done enough to respond to the genocide occurring under the Ottoman Empire’s rule. Even though other nations, such as The United States, Germany, and Britain, had convincing excuses to not try to stop the Armenian Genocide.
As he previously stated, the Ottoman Empire was in the process of trying to become a major world power; however, the social and political discontent they faced meant the empire’s authority was, in reality, slowing declining (122). In 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost its land in the Balkans and relinquished considerable control to surrounding European nations. Secondly, Armenian culture appealed to other Christian European countries, some of which the Turkish government just lost its territory to, so the government viewed the Armenians as a threat (122). Next, Adalian states, “… the military weakness of the Ottoman Empire left it exposed to external threats and therefore made it prone to resorting to brutality as a method of containing domestic dissent, especially with disaffected non-Muslim minorities” (122). Just a few examples of the brutality against the Armenians are the massacres that took place in the small, vulnerable Armenian villages in the late 1800s. Another reason that the government raised the “Armenian Question” is that the villagers demanded better treatment and equal rights, especially after the massacres occurred. This angered the government since the Armenians avoided assimilating to the Turkish culture and instead clung to their own (123). The government did not believe that the villagers deserved what they were requesting. Lastly, as Adalian mentioned earlier, the Muslim Turks were envious of the Armenians’ economic and cultural development and viewed non-Muslim success as a threat to the empire. While Adalian does not try to explain every factor that contributed to the genocide, he supposes that these five main reasons influenced the Turkish government’s decision to
When people hear genocide they normally think of the Holocaust which was the persecution of Jews by the Nazi’s. This took place under Adolf Hitler’s rule but there have been other genocides throughout history. The Armenian Genocide is one of the many that have taken place. It took place in the Ottoman Empire between the years of 1914 to 1918 (“Armenian” Armenian). It started when the “Young Turks” took control of the government (Beecroft). The Holocaust and Armenian genocide are similar in the reasons that started them, but they are different in who was involved and how the two genocides were executed.
In Turkey, in the spring of 1915, what had started as disorganized killings rooted in religious intolerance, escalated into the wholesale genocide of the Armenian people, sanctioned by policies created by the government of the Young Turks. By the time the Ottoman Empire had fallen in 1923, nearly seventy five percent of Armenians had been killed or forcibly relocated. The result was the near extermination of a race of people with a history extending back nearly 3,000 years.