Why Did The Armenian Genocide Happen

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

Armenians only end up killing three leaders of the Young Turks. The Case of Soghomon Tehrilian is a fascinating novel that describes the Soghomons life and how he killed Talaat Pasha, who was one of the Young Turk leaders. According to “murderpedia.com” website, “Soghomon witnessed the rape of his sisters and brutal killing of all his family members butchered by the Turkish gangs. During the death marches, although he was injured and believed dead, he survived”. In 1921 he was involved in the Operation Nemesis and his plan was to take a revenge on Talaat Pasha, who was the chief organizer of the Armenian Genocide. After a long search he found Talaat Pasha in Berlin and assassinated him. He was arrested in charge of the murdering him, but because of telling the story about the Armenian Genocide and killing family it was the reason to recognize as an innocent person for the German court.

During World War I, the government of Turkey sought to rid their country of the Armenians. The Turks and other ethnic groups hated the Armenians for their ability to prosper, even as a minority group with limited rights. This hatred led to the desire to cleanse the Ottoman Empire of Armenian influence. The Turkish people say that the Ottoman empire went through a civil war during this time, which explains the deaths of so many Armenians. Although the Turks claim otherwise, the treatment of the Armenian people during World War I qualifies as a genocide through scale, government involvement, and the usage of the genocide process.

On the positive side, this brought about international attention to the crisis at hand. On the negative side, that attention did not amount to any actual reform in the Ottoman Empire on the behalf of the Armenian people. There is also the matter in which American activists worded the problem that has caused the Armenian people to struggle with self-identity in the United States; I will talk more about this later in this paper. To gather aid for the Armenian cause the ABCFM sat down and devised a plan on how to present the Armenian people in the United States. What came about was that the United States had a duty to intervene in order to save the Christian Armenians because of familiar religious ties. Somehow the Armenians were “unique in the world for their long-standing devotion

One of the reasons why the Armenian genocide was forgotten was that Turkey wanted it to be forgotten. Regardless of the vast amount of evidence that points to the fact the there was an Armenian genocide such as, eyewitness accounts, official archives, photographic evidence, the reports of diplomats, and the testimony of survivors, denial of the Armenian Genocide has gone on from 1915 to the

There first target were the Armenian intellectuals, who were arrested followed by an execution. “The deportations were disguised as a resettlement program. The brutal treatment of the deportees, most of whom were made to walk to their destinations, made it apparent that the deportations were mainly intended as death marches.”(Armenian National Institute). Men who were fighting in the war with Russia were excused from their battle ground and into labor camps, where they were killed or forced into death marches. Women, children, and the elderly were sentenced to death marches as well across the desert, mountains, and wilderness without the comfort of food or water. Often they were stripped of their last piece of dignity and marched naked under the merciless sun. This resulted in dehydration and exhaustion. “Anyone stopping to rest or lagging behind the caravan was mercilessly beaten until they rejoined the march.”(United Human Rights Council). Finally, those who were too weak were shot. The marches undeniably caused serious trauma to those who witnessed the death of companions or loved ones. However, those who did survive, a slim percentage, were sent to labor camps where they were soon shot. “At the same time, the Young Turks created a ‘Special Organization’, which in turn organized ‘killing squads’ or ‘butcher battalions’ to carry out, as one officer put it, ‘the liquidation of the Christian elements.”(History). These squads were

Turkey’s involvement in the World War 1 provided cover for extreme elements of the very nationalistic Young Turks regime to carry out the genocide. The genocide started in 1915, culminated in 1917 and was characterized by mass deportation, slaughter, starvation and raped. Those Armenians who were conscripted in the Turkish army were executed and this was explained as a natural occurrence of war. Pasha was the Leader and chief executor in the mass execution.

When the French National Assembly declared it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians, Turkish leaders and their supporters began a new form of

The Armenian people were seen as traitors because Ottoman military officers feared that they might join the enemy and join them to fight back the government. In the book “’A Fate Worse Than Dying’: Sexual Violence during the Armenian Genocide” by Matthias Bjornlund, she said, “Organized, gender-selective mass killing – sometimes termed gendercide – is a common feature of war, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, and has in such situation of conflict primarily targeted men through history, especially younger ‘battle-age’ men.6”(Pg.17) This shows how the Ottoman empire had an agenda to eliminate a specific population that interferes their way of thinking because if any of these population oppose to any of their ideas then their would be an issue overcoming it. In this case since men were seen as ma much stronger and bold gender, they were considered as a threat because they had the possibility to join the army and fight alongside with the enemy. In this book, Matthias Bjornlund said, “They, in turn, were followed by those of the remaining men and older boys who had not managed to hide or escape and were massacred as prelude to, or in the early stages of, the deportation – the death marches.”(Pg.18) This represents the Ottoman military tactics by looking and executing Christian men throughout their territory. Although executing all the

Approximately one and a half million Armenians were killed from 1915-1923. The remaining part was either Islamized or exiled.” The Armenian Genocide was a horrific event that caused the Armenians to have a major loss in population. From this, the Armenians should have been given reparations, but were not and that still affects them to this day.

The Armenian genocide has several main causes: European meddling in Ottoman internal affairs, nationalism, economic jealousy, and Armenian involvement in the Russian war effort. Though, a lot of the causes are interrelated. For example, nationalism and European meddling go hand in hand. What exactly was the Armenian genocide? Well, the Armenian genocide was a state orchestrated machine of mass-murder and rape of the Armenian people, and several other ethnic groups, of the Ottoman Empire 1915-1923. The Armenians were one of many ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire, and they had lived in eastern Asia Minor for around three thousand years prior to the atrocity .

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

Simultaneously, the Ottomans managed to eliminate the more dangerous Armenians, as the ones that are truly violent and hateful were massacred in these miniature killings. “commisioned write articles for publication in the Sura- yi Ummet, demonstrating that Britain was no longer pursuing friendly policies as she had done in the past, in particular, in the 1830’s and 1840’s. On the contrary, she was now inciting the Armenian, the Macedonians revolutionaries, and even the Arabs against Turkish rule” (Unal) To the Ottomans, Britain meant Christianity, so to hear that Britain didn’t want to be allies anymore meant that Christians didn’t want to be with the Ottomans either. That the Ottomans would connect the Easter Orthodox church of the Armenians with the Protestant Church of England, two very different sects of Christianity, is bizarre. This connection ultimately hurt the Armenians. “The CUP was always at pains to disguise its Turkish nationalist an, by implication, anti-Christian leanings particularly in its Ottoman-Turkish publications.” (Morganthau) By hiding the fact that they are anti-Christian, the subliminal messages attacking the subconscious are much more effective than a conscious message. The CUP was a very effective propaganda making machine, and very effectively caused Ottoman to be polarized into two groups, Muslim

Krain (1997) purports that the presence of political opportunity was a contributing factor to the Armenian genocide and that genocide is much more likely to occur when there is a change in political opportunity. This finding can be supported when one recalls that there had been many political upheavals within the Ottoman Empire that preceded the genocide, creating a change in political opportunity. Valentino (2000) also writes that mass killings are more likely to occur when the power of elites is threatened and is often used to completely eliminate a group’s influence. The Ottoman elite felt threatened by the Armenians, which was the main reason for the massacre, but it was made possible through the “leadership’s…promise of spoils and plunder to cajole the public into participating in the genocidal process,” (Kurt, 2015, p. 306). Academic literature pertaining to the Armenian genocide mainly attributes the cause of the genocide to the Young Turks’ want to consolidate their own power, which is in accordance with the stance of the film Aghet.

Most people can agree that genocide is the systematic destruction against a specific group, of people with the intention of destroying them as a whole. The Armenian Genocide is important to study because it teaches people that social involvement can help prevent a genocide and the struggles of a minority group against their corrupt government. The Armenian Genocide began in 1915 by the Turks against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire at that time was lead by a Turkish ruler, Mehmed V, who wanted absolute power over the people. The Armenians, a Christian minority, which according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, “ made up 45% of the population, lived as second class citizens and were denied certain rights higher class citizens had”. The Turks on the other hand, practiced Islam and knew nothing about Armenians religiona and culture. Armenians being non-Muslims, were also obligated to pay certain taxes and denied rights to participate in government activities. No allied power came to the help of the Ottoman Empire as it collapsed under the Turkish government.