[262] In 1920, the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople reported it was caring for 100,000 orphans, estimating that another 100,000 remained captive. The reforms to equalize the status of non-Muslims were strongly opposed by Islamic clergy and Muslims in general, and remained mostly theoretical. [263], Following the armistice, Allied governments championed the prosecution of war criminals. A teenage ultra-nationalist, Ogun Samast, was jailed for nearly 23 years in July 2011 for murdering Dink, a Turkish-Armenian who edited a bilingual newspaper. [166][167] Ottoman politicians and officials who opposed the genocide were dismissed or assassinated. When, in 1894, the Armenians in the Sasun region refused to pay an oppressive tax, Ottoman troops and Kurdish tribesmen killed thousands of Armenians in the region. [161] Boys above the age of twelve (sometimes fifteen) were treated as adult men. Here's a rundown of who says what about the mass killings and . Read about our approach to external linking. Weeks before the outbreak of fighting in September 2020 Turkey had held large-scale military exercises with Azerbaijan. Why the Word 'Genocide' Matters - Recognizing the Armenian Genocide Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and Uruguay are among the more than 20 other countries which have formally recognised genocide against the Armenians. By the end of June, there were only a dozen Armenians in the vilayet. At the highest level, Adolf Hitler inspired, ordered, approved, and supported the genocide of Europe's Jews. All Rights Reserved. The presence of Armenians in Anatolia has been documented since the sixth century BCE, about 1,500 years before the arrival of Turkmens under the Seljuk dynasty. Was anyone held to account? Share this: Armenian woman kneeling beside dead child in field druing the Armenian Genocide (Photo: Library of Congress) Matthew Marasco was one of 11 students at the Wakefield, R.I.'s prestigious Prout School to graduate with an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. [111], The first deportations of Armenians were proposed by Djemal Pasha, the commander of the Fourth Army, in February 1915 and targeted Armenians in Cilicia (specifically Alexandretta, Drtyol, Adana, Hadjin, Zeytun, and Sis) who were relocated to the area around Konya in central Anatolia. Today, most historians call this event a genocide: a premeditated and systematic campaign to exterminate an entire people. Genocide, luckily, is a very rare phenomenon. 19151917 mass murder in the Ottoman Empire, Toggle Systematic deportations subsection, loss of almost all of the empire's European territory, Causes of the Armenian genocide Wartime radicalization, rounded up in Constantinople and across the empire, Directorate for the Settlement of Tribes and Immigrants, may have at least one Armenian grandparent, Confiscation of Armenian properties in Turkey, The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 100,000 Armenians lived in Constantinople, belief that Turkey is constantly under threat, have recognized and condemned the genocide, systematic purges of incriminating documents by Turkey, "Countries that Recognize the Armenian Genocide", Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide, "Earth, Fire, Water: or How to Make the Armenian Corpses Disappear", The Cambridge History of the First World War, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, "Recognition of the Armenian Genocide after its Centenary: A Comparative Analysis of Changing Parliamentary Positions", Comparative Studies in Society and History, "Financing the Ruling Party and Its Militants in Wartime:The Armenian Genocide and the Kemah Massacres of 1915", "Cultural Erasure: The Absorption and Forced Conversion of Armenian Women and Children, 19151916", Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915, Witnesses and testimonies of the Armenian genocide, Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, Association for Defence of National Rights, Alfortville Armenian Genocide Memorial bombings, How happy is the one who says I am a Turk, Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the Nation, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Armenian_genocide&oldid=1171355119, Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia extended-confirmed-protected pages, Articles containing Ottoman Turkish (1500-1928)-language text, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2022, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with default search, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 20 August 2023, at 16:47. April 24, 2018 Matthew Marasco Youth 14 Armenian woman kneeling beside dead child in field druing the Armenian Genocide (Photo: Library. The total number of Armenian dead is disputed. Armenian Genocide: Facts & Timeline - HISTORY [149], On 23 May 1915, Talaat ordered the deportation of all Armenians in Van, Bitlis, and Erzerum. The Republic of Turkey estimates the total to be 300,000. Do the Turks own up to their actions? [319][320][321] During the conflict, the Azerbaijani and Armenian governments have regularly accused each other of plotting genocide. [108][109] During the siege, Armenians in surrounding villages were massacred at Djevdet's orders. Article 301 of the penal code, on "insulting Turkishness", has been used to prosecute prominent writers who highlight the mass killings of Armenians. The killings are regarded as the seminal event of modern Armenian history, binding the diaspora together. [240] German diplomats approved limited removals of Armenians in early 1915, and took no action against the genocide,[241][242] which has been a source of controversy. [21][22][23] In 1876, when Sultan Abdul HamidII came to power, the state began to confiscate Armenian-owned land in the eastern provinces and give it to Muslim immigrants as part of a systematic policy to reduce the Armenian population of these areas. The first non-colonial genocide of the twentieth-century was the Armenian catastrophe in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. [217] By October 1915, some 870,000 deportees had reached Syria and Upper Mesopotamia. Arriving convoys, having passed through the plain to approach the Kahta highlands, would have found gorges already filled with corpses from previous convoys. [213][214][215], The first arrivals in mid-1915 were accommodated in Aleppo. Talaat Pasha, Berliner Tageblatt, 4 May 1915[120][121], During World War I, the CUPwhose central goal was to preserve the Ottoman Empirecame to identify Armenian civilians as an existential threat. Advertisement [137][138] In September 1918, Talaat emphasized that regardless of losing the war, he had succeeded at "transforming Turkey to a nation-state in Anatolia". Because Armenians and Assyrians lived along the Russian-Ottoman front, both the Russians and the Ottomans attempted to recruit the local Christians in their campaigns against their enemies. Because of the nature of things, one who was still innocent today could be guilty tomorrow. VideoScammer leaves sun-seekers high and dry, Obsession, deception and a cold case. [289][290], Armenian survivors were left mainly in three locations. In a 2005 letter to Turkey's then prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the IAGS said: "We want to underscore that it is not just Armenians who are affirming the Armenian Genocide but it is the overwhelming opinion of scholars who study genocide.". [199] Some were sold in Arabian slave markets to Muslim Hajj pilgrims and ended up as far away as Tunisia or Algeria. [314], Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is commemorated on 24 April each year in Armenia and abroad, the anniversary of the deportation of Armenian intellectuals. Terminology. [84] During its war preparations, the Ottoman government recruited thousands of prisoners to join the paramilitary Special Organization,[85] which initially focused on stirring up revolts among Muslims behind Russian lines beginning before the empire officially entered the war. The Dashnaks replied that Armenian Russian and Ottoman subjects would remain loyal to their respective empires. Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan. Lifting the lid on fine dining. The Young Turks' top triumvirate - the "Three Pashas" - had already fled abroad. [122][123] CUP leaders held Armeniansincluding women and childrencollectively guilty for "betraying" the empire, a belief that was crucial to deciding on genocide in early 1915. [188] Talaat Pasha personally authorized conversion of Armenians and carefully tracked the loyalty of converted Armenians until the end of the war. [102][103] Reports of local incidents such as weapons caches, severed telegraph lines, and occasional killings confirmed preexisting beliefs about Armenian treachery and fueled paranoia among CUP leaders that a coordinated Armenian conspiracy was plotting against the empire. April 24, 2021 at 3:55 p.m. EDT. Resettled Muslims were spread out (typically limited to 10 percent in any area) among larger Turkish populations so that they would lose their distinctive characteristics, such as non-Turkish languages or nomadism. [93][94] Beginning in November 1914, provincial governors of Van, Bitlis, and Erzerum sent many telegrams to the central government pressing for more severe measures against the Armenians, both regionally and throughout the empire. Militarism, weak rule of law, lack of minority rights, and especially the belief that Turkey is constantly under threatthus justifying state violenceare among the main legacies of 1915 in Turkey. Genocide can also be committed against only a part of the group, as long as that part is identifiable (including within a geographically limited area) and "substantial." Differing views of what caused the Armenian genocide include explanations focusing on nationalism, religion, and wartime radicalization and continue to be debated among scholars. Anti-Armenian feelings erupted into mass violence several times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Several senior Ottoman officials were put on trial in Turkey in 1919-20 in connection with the atrocities. Read about our approach to external linking. [245], Intentional, state-sponsored killing of Armenians mostly ceased by the end of January 1917, although sporadic massacres and starvation continued. [219][220] In late 1915, the camps around Aleppo were liquidated and the survivors were forced to march to Ras al-Ayn; the camps around Ras al-Ayn were closed in early 1916 and the survivors sent to Deir ez-Zor. [4][5] The Kingdom of Armenia adopted Christianity as its national religion in the fourth century CE, establishing the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Armenian 'genocide': This is what happened in 1915. [155] There was a distinction between the convoys from eastern Anatolia, which were eliminated almost in their entirety, and those from farther west, which made up most of those surviving to reach Syria. Instead, the men were usually separated from the rest of the deportees during the first few days and executed. [246] Both contemporaries[247][248] and later historians have estimated that around 1million Armenians died during the genocide,[3][249] with figures ranging from 600,000 to 1.5 million deaths. [286] According to Kvorkian, only the Soviet occupation of Armenia prevented another genocide. [264] Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha publicly recognized that 800,000 Ottoman citizens of Armenian origin had died as a result of state policy[265] and stated that "humanity, civilizations are shuddering, and forever will shudder, in face of this tragedy". The international community condemned the Armenian Genocide and at the end of the war, the Allied victors demanded that the Ottoman . Armenian Genocide | History, Causes, & Facts | Britannica [98] The Armenian soldiers in labor battalions were systematically executed, although many skilled workers were spared until 1916. In the areas where Ottoman and Russian troops faced each other, there were massacres of both Christians and Muslims. Most were repeatedly transferred between camps, being held in each camp for a few weeks, until there were very few survivors. [124][125] At the same time, the war provided an opportunity to enact, in Talaat's words, the "definitive solution to the Armenian Question". [45][46] In 1908, the CUP came to power in the Young Turk Revolution, which began with a string of CUP assassinations of leading officials in Macedonia. [256][257] In 1918, at least 200,000 people in Armenia, mostly refugees, died from starvation or disease, in part due to a Turkish blockade of food supplies[258] and the deliberate destruction of crops in eastern Armenia by Turkish troops, both before and after the armistice. The killings near the front lines were carried out by the Special Organization, and those farther away also involved local militias, bandits, gendarmes, or Kurdish tribes depending on the area. Armenian National Institute.Armenian Genocide. [197] Although Armenian women tried to avoid sexual violence, suicide was often the only alternative. The term "genocide" did not exist prior to 1944. It happed during World War 1, 1915- 1918. [205][206] Although the laws maintained that the state was simply administering the properties on behalf of the absent Armenians, there was no provision to return them to the ownersit was presumed that they had ceased to exist. In the Syrian Desert, the survivors were dispersed into concentration camps. As of 2023, 34 countries have recognized the events as genocide, concurring with the academic consensus. [225] The guards raped female prisoners and also allowed Bedouins to raid the camps at night for looting and rape; some women were forced into marriage. In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish empire attempted to wipe out the Armenian people from their historic homeland - it's labeled the "first genocide of the 20th century." Atrocities Turkey to this day. [328] According to Ihrig, the book is among the most important works of twentieth-century literature to address genocide and "is still considered essential reading for Armenians worldwide". Armenians have long pushed for the deaths to be recognized as genocide, a term that Turkey rejects. [329] The genocide became a central theme in English-language Armenian-American literature. However, Hitler did not act alone. Fearful Armenians capitalized on the Ottoman defeat to press for reforms, appealing to the European powers to force the Young Turks to accept a degree of autonomy in the Armenian provinces. Among the most significant was that of the US Congress in 2019. [69] The Balkan Wars put an end to the Ottomanist movement for pluralism and coexistence;[70] instead, the CUP turned to an increasingly radical Turkish nationalism to preserve the empire. [78] Around 150,000 Greek Orthodox from the Aegean coast were forcibly deported in May and June 1914 by Muslim bandits, who were secretly backed by the CUP and sometimes joined by the regular army. What Were the Main Causes of the Armenian Genocide? Others go to great -- sometimes tortuous -- lengths to avoid the 'g' word. . [335] More than 200 memorials have been erected in 32 countries to commemorate the event. These suspicions grew more acute as the Ottoman Empire began to crumble: At the end of the 19th century, the despotic Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid IIobsessed with loyalty above all, and infuriated by the nascent Armenian campaign to win basic civil rightsdeclared that he would solve the Armenian question once and for all. [33] Although Armenians had been called the "loyal millet" in contrast to Greeks and others who had previously challenged Ottoman rule, the authorities began to perceive Armenians as a threat after 1878. Armenian Genocide Flashcards | Quizlet [209][210] The dispossession and exile of Armenian competitors enabled many lower-class Turks (i.e. WATCH: Armenian Genocide (video) | Khan Academy [310] Although the AK Party softened the state denial rhetoric, describing Armenians as part of the Ottoman Empire's war losses,[311] during the 2010s political repression and censorship increased again. The Armenians were Christian while the Turks were not. Yes, there was an Armenian genocide - Religion News Service Driven forward by paramilitary escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to robbery, rape, and massacres. [88], Wartime requisitions were often corrupt and arbitrary, and disproportionately targeted Greeks and Armenians. [129][130][131], The deportation of Armenians and resettlement of Muslims in their lands was part of a broader project intended to permanently restructure the demographics of Anatolia. [229] At the beginning of 1916 some 500,000 deportees were alive in Syria and Mesopotamia. As middleman minorities, despite the wealth of some Armenians, their overall political power was low, making them especially vulnerable. [342][343] Almost all historians and scholars outside Turkey, and an increasing number of Turkish scholars, recognize the destruction of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.[305][344]. Armenian Genocide: The Mass Murder of Christians in Turkey Armenian genocide - Wikipedia While ties between the United States and Turkey have waned, other countries, including allies and friends like Germany and Russia, have also recognized the Armenian genocide. [26] The Ottoman state bore ultimate responsibility for the killings,[39][40] whose purpose was violently restoring the previous social order in which Christians would unquestioningly accept Muslim supremacy,[41] and forcing Armenians to emigrate, thereby decreasing their numbers. [221], In general, Armenians were denied food and water during and after their forced march to the Syrian desert;[219][222] many died of starvation, exhaustion, or disease, especially dysentery, typhus, and pneumonia. Ottoman soldiers did not protect Armenians and instead armed the rioters. Armenians in the Ottoman army were disarmed and killed. Questions and Answers About the Armenian Genocide [155][156], Overall, national, regional, and local levels of governance cooperated with the CUP in the perpetration of genocide. T3 Besondere Rolle der Eltern/ Bezugspersonen. Together with the mass murder and expulsion of Assyrian/Syriac and Greek Orthodox Christians, it enabled the creation of an ethnonationalist Turkish state, the Republic of Turkey. Updated: April 26, 2021 | Original: October 1, 2010. The concern for the safety of Turkey simply had to silence all other concerns. Before World War I, Armenians occupied a somewhat protected, but subordinate, place in Ottoman society. Analysis | The U.S. formally recognized the Armenian genocide. Why now The target of the genocide were mostly Armenians, but other minorites such as the Assyrians and Greeks were also targeted. Other Quizlet sets. [164] To motivate perpetrators, state-appointed imams encouraged the killing of Armenians[165] and killers were entitled to a third of Armenian movable property (another third went to local authorities and the last to the CUP). [163] Perpetrators had several motives, including ideology, revenge, desire for Armenian property, and careerism. A. Turkey's government has acknowledged that atrocities were committed during that period but has argued that a large number of Turks were also killed, and that to portray the killing of . [319] Azerbaijan has also joined the Turkish effort to deny the Armenian genocide. On April 24, 1915, the Armenian genocide began: That day, the Turkish government arrested and executed several hundred Armenian intellectuals. The Young Turks took that arrangement as further proof of the Armenians collusion with Europe to undermine the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. Neither one gained wide support among Armenians in Eastern Anatolia, who largely remained loyal and hoped instead that sympathizers in Christian Europe would pressure the Ottoman Empire to implement new reforms and protections for Armenians. Turkey is an important ally of the United States and other Western nations, and so their governments had been slow to condemn the long-ago killings.
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