The Eight Stages Of The Armenian Genocide

According to Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch there is 8 stages of Genocide and in his opinion Genocide is a progress that is developing in the eight stages and which is predictable and not inexorable. At each stage there are possibilities to stop or at least influence Genocide and Oskar Schindler’s deeds are one example of moral courage and active resistance to the worst Genocide in the history of humankind during the Second World War. The following text will deal with evidences of Stanton’s eight stages of Genocide in Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” and Schindler’s attempts to stop Genocide in the different stages.

Mass extermination and deportation of Western population of Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces of the Ottoman Empire carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey in 1915-1923. The policy of genocide against Armenians was due to several factors. The leading role among them was the ideology

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.

As provided by the first document, the Armenians were specifically targeted by the Turkish government, meaning that they were singled out as a ethnicity (Document 1). The document provides historical context as to what had happened inside the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and it shows that there was identification of the Armenians as people that should be exterminated. Similarly, the Turkish Minister restated the fact that the government had called for the end of all Armenians (Document 2). The minister’s point of view as a government official shows that the government was involved in the plan and was supportive of it. The photo in document 5 shows the large pile of dead bodies of Armenian people, presumably massacred by the government as shown by the neatness of the stacking (Document 5). Armin T. Wegner, the photographer, took this photo to prove that Armenians were being targeted, and to show what he has been seeing during his time in the Ottoman Empire. Because the Armenian people had been classified as a group that needed to be eradicated, the government had identified them, and completed the first part of the genocide process. The dehumanization of the Armenian people by stripping them of their belongings is reminiscent of the second step in the genocide process, expropriation. Before the war had taken place, there were 2200

Between the years of 1915 and 1918 the Ottoman Empire, under the Young Turks began a deliberate program of removing and exterminating the Armenian population; a population already dismantled through previous massacres. The Armenians were a minority in both population and religion. Because most Armenians were Christians, they were made an easy scapegoat in an empire that was mostly Islamic. With the world’s eyes on the First World War, the Armenian Genocide went mostly unnoticed and there were no punishments such as ones received by Germany after the Holocaust. The United States has deliberately avoided the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in order to maintain an ally in the Middle East and to avoid American genocidal policies,

“On that day (April 24, 1915) 300 Armenian leaders, writers, thinkers and professionals in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) were collected, deported and killed. Tragically, 5,000 of the poorest Armenians were also slaughtered in their homes and the streets."(https://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-armenian-genocide) In this essay I will discuss who the aggressors and target groups were from the genocide Armenia, why the aggressors engaged in Armenia and what actually occurred, and the attempts made to stop Armenia.

The Armenian population were taken out of their homes and on convoys on which they were transported to concentration camps. Some of the biggest relocations were the convoys from Erzurum which as stated in The

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.

Some Armenians went back to Armenia, but most stayed where they fled to. The Armenians that went back to Armenia kept Christianity as their main religion. They had to have new government officials because the Turkish killed all the old

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

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

Donald and Lorna Miller recount these actions of “self-defense” through the stories of many survivors, which they have collected in their book, Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide. The survivors tell of the atrocities that they witnessed when the Young Turk regime decided to empty the Ottoman Empire of the Armenian race. One survivor from the town of Khapert explains the scenario as her father was taken away, (the men were the first to be killed):

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

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.

At the beginning of the fourth century Armenia transitioned from being an independent country, to a part of the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians were Christian, unlike the Turks, who were Muslim. This led to unequal treatment of Armenians. For example, they had to pay higher taxes, yet had fewer political and legal rights. However, Armenians were very successful in the Ottoman Empire, which is another reason they were treated badly. They also were thought of as traitors because they might join the Russians in the war since they are also Christians. These were some of the reasons why the massacres began. Other reasons include the start of WW1 which allowed them to hide the massacres from the outside word, and made Turk suspicious of Armenians loyalty. Also the new government called the Young Turks saw the Armenians as a threat to the new state. The massacres that took place in the Ottoman Empire between 1914-1918 exhibited the ninth and tenth Stages of Genocide; Extermination and Denial. They also violated the human rights, Right to Equality and Freedom From Torture and Degrading Treatment.