The Armenian Genocide
by Marci RanzerOn the evening of April 24, 1915 in the city of Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, hundreds of Armenian community leaders were rounded up and later executed by the Turkish government. The ruthless killing of these men was an early indication of the extensive massacre of the Armenian people. This was the first genocide or organized mass murder of an ethnic group in the 20th century.
Causes of the Armenian Genocide
The causes of the Armenian genocide can be traced in part to ethnic and religious tensions that had arisen from the collapse of the once prevailing Ottoman Empire, which had been growing weak for hundreds of years. In the late 19th century, the empire was ruled by Sultan Abdul Hamid II also known as the Red Sultan because of his bloody ways. Concerned that the Armenian people’s desire for more civil rights might grow into an independence movement, the Sultan encouraged a series of massacres that killed between 200 and 500,000 Armenians between 1894 and 1896. Dissatisfaction mounted with the Sultan’s autocratic and corrupt leadership and in 1908, the Sultan was overthrown during the Young Turk Revolution.
The Young Turk leaders at the outset promised equal rights for all minorities in the empire. However, in 1913, an ultranationalist group within the movement seized power. This faction was comprised of men who believed in creating a pure Turkish state that excluded non-Muslim, non-Turkish minorities like the Armenians.
Three of these men led the regime and would later be responsible for initiating the mass murder. They were Edward Poshen, Minister of War; Talat Pasha, Minister of Interior Affairs; and Jamal Pasha, Minister of the Navy. These leaders forged closer ties with Germany which supplied the Turks with military support and training. In 1914, the Ottoman Empire aligned itself with Germany and the central powers in World War I and another rationalization for murdering the Armenian population presented itself.
The Muslim Turks who were fighting the Christian Russians in the war feared that their own Christian Armenian subjects would rise up and fight on the side of the enemy. Therefore, the Young Turk leadership envisioned and began a barbaric plan to eliminate the Armenian population.
The Atrocities
Early in 1915, the Turkish government began disarming all Armenians serving in the military, turning many of them into road laborers and pack animals. These men were then worked to death or shot. Sometimes, they were made to dig their own graves before being murdered.
On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government began the next stage of the genocide by eliminating the Armenian cultural and political elite in Istanbul. This included the men who would have been most likely to have organized a battle against the genocide. In the months that followed, the Turkish government ordered the deportation of all Armenians from the empire. Under the cover of the so called deportations, thousands of mostly women, children and elderly Armenians were forced to leave their homes and travel hundreds of miles on foot.
Though many of these Armenian refugees died from disease and lack of food and water, others were viciously killed by butcher battalions. These bands were part of a secret government formed group called the special organization. They were made up of criminals and murderers and were employed to massacre the worn out and defenseless refugees. The special organizations methods were savage and barbaric. They raped, stole and often used swords to hack their victims to death. Younger Armenian women were sometimes kidnapped and sold into bondage in Muslim and Turkish homes. Their churches were destroyed. Countless other Armenians were hanged, shot, even burned to death during the Turk’s murderous rampage. Armenian babies were thrown against walls and older children were poisoned to death. The relatively small number of Armenians who survived the death marches and reached northern Syria were rounded up in neglected camps and then dispatched into the desert to die.
The Armenian Genocide Denial
Tragically, the short pause in the slaughter of Armenians ended when a new nationalist Turkish movement led by Kemal Aveturk started a series of military campaigns between 1920 and 1923 that resulted in the decimation of the remaining Armenians in the region. The new Turkish republic founded in 1923 began an official policy of denying the genocide ever took place, a denial which the current Turkish government continues to this day. In the years following the mass killing of the Armenians, the world seemed to forget about the genocide. This Armenian genocide denial would soon encourage another dictator, Adolf Hitler. In justifying his own murderous holocaust, Hitler once said, “Who still speaks of the extermination of the Armenians?”
Aftermath
The American Ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morganthau was horrified by the disguising and sickening atrocities going on around him. Morganthau helped publicize the genocide in America which led to the formation of the Near East Relief Committee. Near East Relief raised funds and set up medical and educational facilities for the survivors of the holocaust, eventually saving tens of thousands of Armenian lives.
After World War I ended in defeat for Turkey, a new government took power and carried out trials which sentenced the former Turkish leaders to death for their murders. However, they had long since fled the country. The principal architect behind the Armenian slaughter, Talat Pasha was eventually assassinated in Berlin in 1921 by Armenian activists.
Tens of thousands of Armenians escaped the genocide and settled in countries all over the world where their descendants still live today. Many others fled to Russian Armenia, an area which would become a part of the Soviet Union. Since voting to declare their independence from the former Soviet Union on September 21, 1991 Armenians have once again had their own country. Today, Armenians annually commemorate April 24th as a day to remember the victims of the century’s first genocide.
Armenian Genocide Timeline
• Between the years 1894 and 1896, Sultan Abdul Hamid II encouraged the series of massacres that killed between 200 and 500,000 Armenians.
• In 1908, the Sultan was overthrown during the Young Turk Revolution.
• In 1914, the Ottoman Empire aligned itself with Germany and the central powers.
• On April 24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian community leaders were rounded up and later executed by the Turkish government.
• Also in 1915, the Turkish government began disarming all Armenians who served in the military.
• Between the years 1915 and 1918 an estimated 1 million Armenians were killed as part of the barbaric campaign of extermination directed by Turkish authorities.
• Between 1920 and 1923 a military operation resulted in the annihilation of the remaining Armenians in the state.
• In 1921, Talat Pasha was assassinated.
• In 1923, the new Turkish republic was founded and they began an authorized procedure of denying the genocide.
• On September 21, 1991 the Armenians voted to declare their independence from the former Soviet Union and were successful.
