Armenian Genocide Research Paper

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Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide was one of the first incidents of modern genocide that had happened. Why would the Ottomans target the Armenians during WWI? Ottomans and Armenians differed when it came to religion, wealth, and education so when the Ottomans took over Armenia, many injustices were served to the group of people.

The Armenians are from the Caucasus region of Eurasia and they have resided there for about 3,000 years.The Armenian Empire were one of the first countries to declare their official religion into Christianity.(History.com par 2) The empire was successful economically and education-wise even under the control of the Ottoman Empire years later. The Ottomans would later get jealous …show more content…

The Ottoman Empire expanded to take control of the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The leaders of the Ottoman Empire were Muslim while the Armenians, who were apart of the Caucasus region, were Christian. This created many tensions between the two races and started a long chain of human rights violations. Since the Armenians were under control of the Ottomans, the Ottomans made many laws that were unequal and unjust for the Armenians, such as increased taxes. “The Ottoman Empire at the time had an unstable border with Russia, who were Christians, so they were always suspicious of the Armenians betraying them.” (History.com par 4) Eventually, the Ottoman Empire was having a downfall which made them resent the Armenians more which led to the 1894-1896 massacre of Armenians. “Villages and cities were sacked, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed.” …show more content…

This new government was called the “Young Turks,” and they wanted a more modern government. This gave the Armenians a new hope because the Young Turks would be able to get rid of the injustices the Sultan has established. “The Armenians were wrong though, the Young Turks were nationalistic fanatics and wanted to make the empire more ‘Turkish.”(Wikipedia) The Young Turks made the Armenian situation worse than what the Sultan did. As World War 1 was approaching, the Young Turks were getting more suspicious that the Armenians might rebel. This lead to the Ottomans joining the side of the Axis Powers in order to wipe out their Christian enemies, especially the Armenians or in other words declare “Jihad” (History.com par 5) Armenians would eventually get some Russian aid to help them fight the Ottos but to no avail, the Turkish people still had control of their nation which lead to Armenians being deported. After the Ottos elimination of the Armenian battalions on the Eastern Front, they began to kill all the Armenians in every way possible such as, crucifixion, burned alive, drowned, and thrown off cliffs(History.com par 7).The Young Turks would establish a “Special Organization,” made up of murderers and ex-convicts, to be responsible for killing all the Armenians.(Wikipedia) The Ottomans would kidnap children and convert them into a Muslim and have them live a Muslim

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