Armenian Genocide
Why was the Armenian Genocide Forgotten? By definition genocide is the organized killing of a people for the express purpose of putting an end to their collective existence (Webster's dictionary). As a rule, the organizing agent is the nation, the victim population is a domestic minority, and the end result is the near total death of a society. The Armenian genocide generally conforms to this simple definition. The Armenian genocide is a hidden, almost lost part of world history, pretty much eclipsed by the more publicized genocide of the twentieth century, the Holocaust. The question is why. I could take a poll of this room and I am willing to bet that 95% of the students have ever even heard of the Armenian Genocide and those who have couldn't tell me more than a couple sentences about it. This is pretty scary, considering the statistics of the Armenian Genocide. The Ottoman Empire was ruled by the Turks who had conquered the land from across West Asia, North Africa to Southeast Europe. The Ottoman government was based in Istanbul and was headed by a sultan who was given absolute power. The Turks were Islamic and were a harsh disciplinary civilization. The Armeni
I scratched the surface of a major issue that is still the hot topic of many heated debates to this day. When all was said and done, approximately 1. In response to the crisis in the Ottoman Empire, a new political group called the Young Turks seized power by revolution in 1908. With no other choice, the towns and villages were forced to listen to the Turks. Through the spring and summer of 1915, in all areas outside the war zones, the Armenian population was ordered deported from their homes. Demands by Armenian political organizations for administrative reforms in the Armenian-inhabited provinces and better police protection only invited further repression. Whether retreating or advancing, the Ottoman army used the occasion of war to wage a "scam" campaign of massacre against the civilian Armenian population in the regions in which warfare was rampant. As I began to research, though, I realized that they were way off, and that all that I had to do was dig a little deeper. Those who miraculously survived the march to the bleak desert were either killed upon arrival or somehow found a way to survive until escape was found. This incomprehensible number and the fact that such an act could have been carried out by the institution that was implemented to protect and to guide them is pretty profound. As non-Muslims they were also obligated to pay discriminatory taxes and denied participation in government. Their eventual destination for resettlement was supposedly the Syrian Desert. Later, the government would claim these weapons were proof of the Armenian plans to rebel. During the reign of the sultan Abdul Hamid, a series of massacres throughout the empire meant to dampen Armenian expectations by frightening them, cost up to three hundred thousand lives by some estimates and resulted in enormous material losses on a majority of Armenians. In fact, if it weren't for some relatives that are active in the Armenian community of my home town I would have never heard of it either.
Common topics in this essay:
Syrian Desert,
Turks Turks,
Ottoman Empire,
France Ottoman,
Armenians Christian,
Forgotten GENOCIDE,
April Turks,
Armenians Turkey,
Europe Africa,
Abdul Hamid,
armenian genocide,
ottoman empire,
armenian population,
women children,
death marches,
participation government,
turkish gendarmes,
syrian desert,
|
Acceptance Essays
