Armenian Genocide

A detailed Summary of Armenian Genocide

Genocide is the deliberate extermination of a people or a nation. The twentieth century will always be remembered for the genocide that Adolf Hitler perpetrated against the Jews of Europe. But there was a lesser-known genocide during the First World War which may not have matched Hitler's in scale but certainly matched it in atrocity. This was the Armenian genocide masterminded by the Young Turk government of Turkey in 1915.

Historically, the Armenian people have always been subjected to oppressive regimes. Armenia was the first nation to accept Christianity as a state religion. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turk movement sought to restore Turkey's shattered national pride. Their idea was to go about it through the persecution of its minorities. In 1915 the Young Turk government resolved to deport the whole Armenian population of about 1,750,000 to Syria and Mesopotamia. It regarded the Turkish Armenians-despite pledges of loyalty by many-as a dangerous foreign element bent on conspiring with the pro-Christian tsarist enemy to upset the Ottoman campaign in the east.

Following is an excerpt from a speech presented to the Turkish Committee of Union and Progress, February 1915:

In the morning of April 24, in order that the task be accomplished with the least possible risk, the able-bodied men and the intellectuals were summoned to assemble at convenient places, generally outside the towns. None was overlooked. They were then butchered. This method was generally feasible in small places. In larger cities, it was not always possible to fulfill the orders from Istanbul so simply and promptly. The Armenian notables were assassinated in the streets or in their homes. If it was an interior city, the men were sent off under guard to another town. In a few hours the guards would return without their prisoners. If it was a coast city, the Armenians were taken away in boats outside the harbor to another port. The boats returned astonishingly soon without the passengers.

In what would later be known as the first genocide of the 20th century, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were driven from their homes, massacred, or marched until they died. There are varying death tolls of Armenians in Turkey because few outside observers could gain access to the region during that time. However, it is estimated to have been between 600,000 and 1,500,000 in the years from 1915 to 1923. Tens of thousands emigrated to Russia, Lebanon, Syria, France, and the United States, and the western part of the historical homeland of the Armenian people was emptied of Armenians.

When the genocide started, the Central Government recalled Tahsin Pasha, the conciliatory governor of Van, and replaced him with Djevdet Bey, a brother-in-law of Enver Pasha. Djevdet had spent the larger part of his life at Van; he was a man of unstable character, friendly to non-Moslems one moment, hostile the next, hypocritical, treacherous, and ferocious according to the worst traditions of his race. He hated the Armenians and cordially sympathized with the long-established Turkish plan of solving the Armenian problem. He came to Van with definite instructions to exterminate all Armenians in this province. When the Russians temporarily retreated in the spring of 1915 after prolonged fighting on the border, the Turkish army was able to turn its attention inward upon its Armenian population. The Turkish army turned aside and invaded their own territory of Van.

The genocide of Armenians was well planned and involved a long-term program on the part of the Turks. In earlier attempts at massacres, the Armenians had been weaponless and few men were trained to resist professional armies of the Turks. After 1908, however, Armenian men were able to get drafted in the army, they were allowed to bear arms and fight for the country. The authorities were allowed to do so because the revolution demanded men of fighting ability.

2 Ambassador Morgenthau Instructed to Make Representation on Request of Russia. (New York Times, 1915/4/28)

The Armenian Genocide began on April 24, 1915, during World War I. The Turks rounded up all the Armenian intelligentsia-all the professors, the government leaders, the priests-and they hung them in the public square. Some were taken to the outskirts of Istanbul and summarily executed. This was done as a precursor to the great genocide that would last until the year 1923. Killing of intellectuals was the last straw in a persecution campaign that had already witnessed unprecedented cruelty inflicted on the Armenians for decades. The government killed those who could be expected to raise their voices and tell the outside world what was happening to a minority group that had always adhered to Turkish laws.

The Armenian Genocide began on April 24, 1915, during World War I. The Turks rounded up all the Armenian intelligentsia-all the professors, the government leaders, the priests-and they hung them in the public square. Some were taken to the outskirts of Istanbul and summarily executed. This was done as a precursor to the great genocide that would last until the year 1923. Killing of intellectuals was the last straw in a persecution ca

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