Armenian Genocide
From 1915 to 1918, the Turkish leaders of the Ottoman Empire carried out the killings of 1.5 million Armenians living there at the time. Over the course of those terrible 3 years, innocent people were murdered with death marches, execution, drowning, burning and other inhumane ways. Turkey has refused to take blame, and even denied the genocide’s existence and occurrence. There has been much dispute about whether or not countries outside of Armenia and Turkey should recognize these mass killings of Armenians in 1915-16 as a genocide or something else. The Ottoman Empire was multinational, but had always favored Muslims to Jews and Christians, so when World War I started and a substantial group of Christian Armenians were still in Turkey and
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the Ottoman Empire, the Turks had very violent ways of getting rid of them. There have been numerous letters and pictures showing proof of the Turk’s intentional annihilation of the Armenians, yet they still have not admitted to anything. The Armenian genocide was real and it should be recognized as a genocide by everyone around the world, especially the perpetrators. There is no excuse for the merciless killing of men, women, children, and the elderly simply because of their religion or ethnic background. As I stated in my introduction, the Armenian genocide took place from 1915 to 1918 in the Ottoman Empire. Over 1.5 million Armenians were killed in one of the most merciless, brutal, massacres of the 20th century. The rulers of the empire at the time were known as the ‘Young Turks.’ Their goal was to create a completely Turkish state, and they saw the Armenians as an obstacle. The Turks were also Muslim, and greatly outnumbered the Armenians, who were Christian. The extreme hatred for Christians not only sprung from the Young Turk’s goal of being homogeneously Turkish, but also they were allied with Germany and against France, Britain, and Russia in World War I.Talaat Pasha, one of the leaders of the Young Turks said that there were to be no Christians allowed. At the beginning of the genocide in 1915, hundreds of Armenian leaders in their communities were arrested, sent eastbound, and executed under the rule of the Young Turks and Talaat. Quickly, churches were burned, Armenian schools were closed, and any teachers who refused to convert to Islam were killed. Eventually there were deportation orders that were posted all around calling for the of Armenians to camps in the Syrian deserts. However, there were no such camps prepared for the deported Armenians and nearly half of them died on the journey there. The women were raped and abused, the men mutilated and murdered both regardless of age. This inhumane treatment was “justified” by the Young Turks who said that Armenians needed to be suppressed to prevent a revolt. The American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, wrote in his memoirs: “When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact.” After this point, the genocide was widely covered by western mainstream media and newspapers at the time. However, 65% of the Armenian population were killed and those who survived the genocide were most likely orphans who were then forced into marriage or into becoming Muslim. The horrific events that occurred in those years to the Armenians are not spoken of widely now, but in a speech in 1939, Adolf Hitler spoke proudly of his goals to kill and persecute Jews and many other groups “mercilessly,” even saying, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” This issue needs to be admitted to and apologized for by the Turks. The Young Turks and their leader, Talaat Pasha showed no mercy to any of the Armenians that they killed.
A lieutenant named Sayied Ahmed Moukhtar Baas, recounted some of the horrors that he saw and heard throughout his experiences deporting Armenians in 1915. Baas said that in July of 1915, he was given an order to deport all of the Armenians from the Vilayet of Trebizond. “Being a member of the Court Martial I knew that deportations meant massacres,” he said. There were no exceptions. In secret documents, there were orders to shoot and kill all Armenians without a trial. There were unproven conspiracies that Armenians had killed Muslim Turks, and that all of them needed to be killed for it, whether they be young or old, woman or man. However, it was not only the mass shootings of them that disturbed Baas, it was also the fact that many of the guards raped and abused the women and children before having them shot as well. The men would be separated from their families, and shot into a mass grave, while the women and children were hurt in unimaginable ways. Eventually the woman and older children would be shot, and the infants were, “taken out to sea in little boats. At some distance out they were stabbed to death, put in sacks and thrown into the sea,” says Baas. There was truly no mercy for the Armenians from the Turks, and after hearing about proof of what these horrible people did, it can be realized why the Turks really did not want to own up to this
genocide.
The Turkish disregard for human rights in their massacre against the Armenians is really the textbook definition of genocide; “The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” A collection of stories from various Armenian survivors including Hakob’s story. When reminiscing about his grandfather’s - also named Hakob - story, he told us the event in which, “the Turk gendarmes had brought the Armenian deportees, had packed them into that large cave, had shut its entrance and had set fire to it.” Another testimony about the same event came from a man named Martiros Ashekyan. He said that nearly 40,000 people were in that cave when they were burned alive. There was no justified reason for all of these people to die, especially in such horribly violent ways. To be slaughter people in large numbers simply because of their religion or nationality is genocide and there’s nothing else to it. Although the term “genocide” had not been created while this one was occurring, the word is now widely used and accepted. There is no reason for the Turkish government today, in 2017, to refuse to own up and admit to their crimes against humanity other than shame and fear of humiliation. With the pressing accusations against them - that have proof - are the Turkish not humiliating themselves more now by acting childish with their denial of these events? They’ve claimed in the past that more Turks died in the massacres occurring for 1915-1918, they’ve said that since there were other small groups of people who ended up being prosecuted who were not Armenian, that the whole ordeal itself does not fit the definition of a genocide. So many disgusting excuses that will never bring back the lives of the innocent. Excuses that have no justice for the lives that were lost. Even to admit at this point would not resurrect them. But it would allow full and complete closure to the families of the fallen. It would finally bring the last of justice, even long after Talaat Pasha was assassinated. The events that occurred in the Ottoman Empire in the years of 1915 to 1918 were truly a genocide and have even been referred to as, “The first holocaust.”
the Ottoman Empire, the Turks had very violent ways of getting rid of them. There have been numerous letters and pictures showing proof of the Turk’s intentional annihilation of the Armenians, yet they still have not admitted to anything. The Armenian genocide was real and it should be recognized as a genocide by everyone around the world, especially the perpetrators. There is no excuse for the merciless killing of men, women, children, and the elderly simply because of their religion or ethnic background. As I stated in my introduction, the Armenian genocide took place from 1915 to 1918 in the Ottoman Empire. Over 1.5 million Armenians were killed in one of the most merciless, brutal, massacres of the 20th century. The rulers of the empire at the time were known as the ‘Young Turks.’ Their goal was to create a completely Turkish state, and they saw the Armenians as an obstacle. The Turks were also Muslim, and greatly outnumbered the Armenians, who were Christian. The extreme hatred for Christians not only sprung from the Young Turk’s goal of being homogeneously Turkish, but also they were allied with Germany and against France, Britain, and Russia in World War I.Talaat Pasha, one of the leaders of the Young Turks said that there were to be no Christians allowed. At the beginning of the genocide in 1915, hundreds of Armenian leaders in their communities were arrested, sent eastbound, and executed under the rule of the Young Turks and Talaat. Quickly, churches were burned, Armenian schools were closed, and any teachers who refused to convert to Islam were killed. Eventually there were deportation orders that were posted all around calling for the of Armenians to camps in the Syrian deserts. However, there were no such camps prepared for the deported Armenians and nearly half of them died on the journey there. The women were raped and abused, the men mutilated and murdered both regardless of age. This inhumane treatment was “justified” by the Young Turks who said that Armenians needed to be suppressed to prevent a revolt. The American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, wrote in his memoirs: “When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact.” After this point, the genocide was widely covered by western mainstream media and newspapers at the time. However, 65% of the Armenian population were killed and those who survived the genocide were most likely orphans who were then forced into marriage or into becoming Muslim. The horrific events that occurred in those years to the Armenians are not spoken of widely now, but in a speech in 1939, Adolf Hitler spoke proudly of his goals to kill and persecute Jews and many other groups “mercilessly,” even saying, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” This issue needs to be admitted to and apologized for by the Turks. The Young Turks and their leader, Talaat Pasha showed no mercy to any of the Armenians that they killed.
A lieutenant named Sayied Ahmed Moukhtar Baas, recounted some of the horrors that he saw and heard throughout his experiences deporting Armenians in 1915. Baas said that in July of 1915, he was given an order to deport all of the Armenians from the Vilayet of Trebizond. “Being a member of the Court Martial I knew that deportations meant massacres,” he said. There were no exceptions. In secret documents, there were orders to shoot and kill all Armenians without a trial. There were unproven conspiracies that Armenians had killed Muslim Turks, and that all of them needed to be killed for it, whether they be young or old, woman or man. However, it was not only the mass shootings of them that disturbed Baas, it was also the fact that many of the guards raped and abused the women and children before having them shot as well. The men would be separated from their families, and shot into a mass grave, while the women and children were hurt in unimaginable ways. Eventually the woman and older children would be shot, and the infants were, “taken out to sea in little boats. At some distance out they were stabbed to death, put in sacks and thrown into the sea,” says Baas. There was truly no mercy for the Armenians from the Turks, and after hearing about proof of what these horrible people did, it can be realized why the Turks really did not want to own up to this
genocide.
The Turkish disregard for human rights in their massacre against the Armenians is really the textbook definition of genocide; “The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” A collection of stories from various Armenian survivors including Hakob’s story. When reminiscing about his grandfather’s - also named Hakob - story, he told us the event in which, “the Turk gendarmes had brought the Armenian deportees, had packed them into that large cave, had shut its entrance and had set fire to it.” Another testimony about the same event came from a man named Martiros Ashekyan. He said that nearly 40,000 people were in that cave when they were burned alive. There was no justified reason for all of these people to die, especially in such horribly violent ways. To be slaughter people in large numbers simply because of their religion or nationality is genocide and there’s nothing else to it. Although the term “genocide” had not been created while this one was occurring, the word is now widely used and accepted. There is no reason for the Turkish government today, in 2017, to refuse to own up and admit to their crimes against humanity other than shame and fear of humiliation. With the pressing accusations against them - that have proof - are the Turkish not humiliating themselves more now by acting childish with their denial of these events? They’ve claimed in the past that more Turks died in the massacres occurring for 1915-1918, they’ve said that since there were other small groups of people who ended up being prosecuted who were not Armenian, that the whole ordeal itself does not fit the definition of a genocide. So many disgusting excuses that will never bring back the lives of the innocent. Excuses that have no justice for the lives that were lost. Even to admit at this point would not resurrect them. But it would allow full and complete closure to the families of the fallen. It would finally bring the last of justice, even long after Talaat Pasha was assassinated. The events that occurred in the Ottoman Empire in the years of 1915 to 1918 were truly a genocide and have even been referred to as, “The first holocaust.”