Armenian Genocide Research Paper
Ligia Ismailyan
May 19, 2014
AP Euro History / Per.1
The Armenian Genocide “We are few, but we are called Armenians”, is a quote from Paruyr Sevag’s poem. Who are the Armenians? They are an ancient people, who inhabited the highland region between the Black, Caspian, and Mediterranean Seas for nearly 3,000 years. Is it absolutely necessary to eliminate the Armenian people in it’s entirely, so that there is no further Armenian on this earth? When people think of genocide why do they only think of the Jewish Holocaust? In recent decades, The Armenian Genocide has often been referred to as the forgotten or unremembered genocide. It is one of the most exterminating, brutal, and traumatizing genocide that is virtue of our attention. What were …show more content…
The Ottoman rulers, like most of their subjects, were Muslim. Christians had to pay higher taxes than Muslims, for example, and they had very few political and legal rights. In spite of these obstacles, the Armenian community thrived under Ottoman rule. They tended to be better educated and wealthier than their Turkish neighbors. In 1908, a new government came to power in Turkey. A group of reformers who called themselves the “Young Turks” overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid and established a more modern constitutional government. At first, the Armenians were hopeful that they would have an equal place in this new state, but they soon learned that what the nationalistic Young Turks wanted most of all was to “Turkify” the empire. According to this way of thinking, non-Turks–and especially Christian non-Turks–were a grave threat to the new …show more content…
That day, the Turkish government arrested and executed several hundred Armenian intellectuals. After that, ordinary Armenians were turned out of their homes and sent on death marches through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were stripped naked and forced to walk under the scorching sun until they dropped dead. People who stopped to rest were 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.” These killing squads were often made up of murderers and other ex-convicts. They drowned people in rivers, threw them off cliffs, crucified them and burned them alive. In short order, the Turkish countryside was littered with Armenian corpses. Records show that during these “Turkification” campaign government squads also kidnapped children and converted them to Islam and gave them to Turkish families. In some places, they raped women and forced them to join Turkish “harems” or serve as slaves. Muslim families moved into the homes of deported Armenians and seized their
May 19, 2014
AP Euro History / Per.1
The Armenian Genocide “We are few, but we are called Armenians”, is a quote from Paruyr Sevag’s poem. Who are the Armenians? They are an ancient people, who inhabited the highland region between the Black, Caspian, and Mediterranean Seas for nearly 3,000 years. Is it absolutely necessary to eliminate the Armenian people in it’s entirely, so that there is no further Armenian on this earth? When people think of genocide why do they only think of the Jewish Holocaust? In recent decades, The Armenian Genocide has often been referred to as the forgotten or unremembered genocide. It is one of the most exterminating, brutal, and traumatizing genocide that is virtue of our attention. What were …show more content…
The Ottoman rulers, like most of their subjects, were Muslim. Christians had to pay higher taxes than Muslims, for example, and they had very few political and legal rights. In spite of these obstacles, the Armenian community thrived under Ottoman rule. They tended to be better educated and wealthier than their Turkish neighbors. In 1908, a new government came to power in Turkey. A group of reformers who called themselves the “Young Turks” overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid and established a more modern constitutional government. At first, the Armenians were hopeful that they would have an equal place in this new state, but they soon learned that what the nationalistic Young Turks wanted most of all was to “Turkify” the empire. According to this way of thinking, non-Turks–and especially Christian non-Turks–were a grave threat to the new …show more content…
That day, the Turkish government arrested and executed several hundred Armenian intellectuals. After that, ordinary Armenians were turned out of their homes and sent on death marches through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were stripped naked and forced to walk under the scorching sun until they dropped dead. People who stopped to rest were 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.” These killing squads were often made up of murderers and other ex-convicts. They drowned people in rivers, threw them off cliffs, crucified them and burned them alive. In short order, the Turkish countryside was littered with Armenian corpses. Records show that during these “Turkification” campaign government squads also kidnapped children and converted them to Islam and gave them to Turkish families. In some places, they raped women and forced them to join Turkish “harems” or serve as slaves. Muslim families moved into the homes of deported Armenians and seized their