1 / 13

Armenian Genocide

“I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.”

ojal
Download Presentation

Armenian Genocide

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. “I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.” Henry Morgenthau, American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1913–1916. Armenian Genocide Jason Hermance Rochester Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Awareness July 7, 2014

  2. Who are the Armenians? • Armenian people have their roots prior to first century CE. • Armenian’s call their country “Haystan,” derived from the name Haik (a descendant of Noah). The name “Armenia” given by its neighbors. • Among the first peoples to adopt Christianity as a state religion, in 301 CE. • Today, the majority of Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. • Language unique from other Indo-European languages with own alphabet and grammar rules.

  3. Ottoman Rule • 11th Century: Seljuk Turks inhabit Anatolia • 1453 – Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople • Non-Muslims subject to taxes and discriminatory laws (judicial, civil, property rights). • 1800s – Armenian intellectual press for reforms, but not independence from the “Sick Man of Europe.” • Russian Armenians begin to support Armenians • Treaty of Berlin (1878) – promise of more rights and protection under the law. • These rights never granted by Sultan • Provision designed by British to limit Russian • interest in region.

  4. Early Atrocities • Protests of Armenians met with massacres by Sultan Abdul-Hamid II • 1894-1896 – Hamidian Massacres – 100,000 to 300,000 Armenians killed. • Reported on by New York Times • First international aid mission of the American Red Cross • $100 million in international aid from Near East Relief

  5. Young Turks • 1908 – Armenians and other minority groups including the “Young Turks” challenge the authority of the Ottoman Sultan. • Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), a Young Turk group, marched on Constantinople and overthrew the Sultan. • Promise of equality under new constitution • April 1909 – Groups loyal to the Sultan kill nearly 30,000 Armenians and destroy half of the city of Adana. • Culprits never punished. • While the Young Turks promised reform, it lost out to nationalist factions that wanted a “Pan-Turkic” identity for the new state (“Turkey for the Turks”). • Long standing mistrust of Russia’s intentions, border disputes and Russia’s support of the Armenians led to Turkey entering World War I against Russia and a new wave of violence against Armenians.

  6. Armenian Genocide • Armenians became scapegoats for Ottoman military defeats to Russia in the winter of 1914-15. • Spring 1915 - CUP gains control of government and begins to target Armenian intellectuals and leaders on April 24, 1915. • Minister of the Interior Talaat Pasha orders deportations to quell the “open rebellion” of Armenians and prevent aid and comfort being given to the enemy. • Forced deportations and murders coordinated with the use of new technologies including railroads and telephones.

  7. Genocidal Acts • Approximately 1.5 million Armenians and nearly 500,000 Assyrians and 350,000 Pontic Greeks. • Forced marches of women, children and the elderly into the Syrian Desert with little food or supplies. • Primitive Gas Chambers – Brush fires lit at the mouth of caves. • DeirZor – 450,000 Armenians killed • Sexual Abuse of Armenian Women • Women and children abducted or sold. • Children raised as Turks. • Tigris and Euphrates rivers filled with the bodies of women and children, polluting water supply. • By 1918, all remaining Armenians expelled from Turkey by order of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk).

  8. Deportation Map

  9. Evidence • Unlike Nazi Germany, most of the Turkish records destroyed and Ataturk creates a new alphabet. • Survivor Accounts and remains • Dispatches from US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, including: • "Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of eyewitnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress…” • Photographs of German Soldier/Medic Armin Wegner • Reporting of the New York Times

  10. Turkey’s Denial • Turkish Government continues to deny the Genocide. • Repeated attempts to recognize the atrocities as a Genocide have been defeated in the United States Congress due to diplomatic pressures. • Turkey was/is a US ally during the Cold War and War on Terrorism. • Turkey has threatened to restrict US access to oil pipelines, airspace and military bases. • 2004 – Article 305 of Turkish Law – Discussing the Armenian Genocide punishable by 10 years in prison. • 2007 – Murder of Hurant Dink, Armenian journalist living in Turkey.

  11. Armenia Today • Gained independence following World War I; however, invaded by Red Army and became part of USSR in 1920. • First republic to declare independence from Soviet Union in 1991 • Spends millions of dollars, hiring former Congressmen to lobby on its behalf in US Congress. • Memorial Complex in Yerevan Armenia

  12. Adolf Hitler On August 22, 1939, in preparation for the impending invasion of Poland, Hitler stated to Reichmarshal Hermann Goering and the commanding generals at Obersalzberg... "Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter - with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It's a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me. I have issued the command - and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad - that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness - for the present only in the East - with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (lebensraum) which we need.  Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

  13. Sources • The Genocide Education Projecthttp://www.teachgenocide.org • Armenian Genocide Museum-Institutehttp://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/index.php • Cohan, Sarah. “A Brief History of the Armenian Genocide.” Social Education 69(6). October 2005. pg. 333-337. • “The Century: The Forgotten Genocide.” ABC News. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVQj0dbeVgU • “Turkey and Armenia’s Battle Over History.” 60 Minutes. February 26, 2010. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/turkey-and-armenias-battle-over-history/

More Related