FREE ESSAY ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Why was the Armenian Genocide Forgotten?
GENOCIDE
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. 
FORGOTTEN
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. 
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
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 Armenians, a Christian minority, lived as second
class citizens subject to legal restrictions (Graber 119). These restrictions denied them
normal safeguards. Neither their lives nor their properties were guaranteed security. As
non-Muslims they were also obligated to pay discriminatory taxes and denied participation
in government. 
In its prime of the sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire was a powerful state. Its
minority populations really benefited with the growth of its economy, but by the
nineteenth century, the empire was in serious decline(Graber 121). It had been reduced in
size and by 1914 had lost virtually all its lands in Europe and Africa. This decline
created enormous internal political and economic pressures which contributed to the
increasing tensions among the races (similar to Germany's way of blaming the Jews for
their economic decline). Armenian aspirations for representation and participation in
government worried the Muslim Turks who had never shared power in their country with any
minority. Demands by Armenian political organizations for administrative reforms in the
Armenian-inhabited provinces and better police protection only invited further
repression. 
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 response to the crisis in the Ottoman Empire, a new political group called the Young
Turks seized power by revolution in 1908. From the Young Turks, the Committee of Union
and Progress (CUP) emerged at the head of the government in a coup staged in 1913. It was
led by a triumvirate: Enver, Minister of War, Talaat, Minister of the Interior, and
Jemal, Minister of the Marine (Hovanissian 15). The CUP spewed ultra-nationalistic
culture which promoted the establishment of an exclusively Turkish state. It also
promoted thoughts of conquering other regions inhabited by Turkic peoples, almost like
our Manifest Destiny. When World War I broke out in August 1914, the Ottoman Empire
formed part of the Triple Alliance with the other Central Powers, Germany and
Austria-Hungary, and it declared war on Russia and its Western allies, Great Britain and
France. 
The Ottoman armies initially suffered a string of defeats. 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.
These measures were part of the genocidal program secretly adopted by the CUP and
implemented under the cover of war. They coincided with the CUP's larger program to
eradicate the Armenians from Turkey and neighboring countries. Through the spring and
summer of 1915, in all areas outside the war zones, the Armenian population was ordered
deported from their homes. Convoys consisting of tens of thousands including men, women,
and children were driven hundreds of miles toward the Syrian desert. In April of the
young Turks convinced leaders of the Armenian population to meet to discuss the new
orders for all Armenians to march. This meeting attracted political leaders, church
leaders and other intellects of the community(Graber 130). Sadly but planned by the
Turks, the leaders were all killed and the poplulation was left leaderless. 
Leaderless, the Armenians knew that they were in trouble but had no one to turn to. With
no other choice, the towns and villages were forced to listen to the Turks. The Turks
followed a textbook strategy of annihilation; destroy the leaders, disarm the populace,
and use the big lie. For a number of reasons they did not know what was planned for them
and went along with "their" government's plan to relocate them for their own good. First
the Armenians were asked to turn in their hunting weapons for the war effort. Communities
were often given quotas and would have to buy additional weapons from the Turks to meet
their quota. Later, the government would claim these weapons were proof of the Armenian
plans to rebel. The able- bodied men were "drafted" to help in the wartime effort. These
men were either immediately killed or worked to death. Now the villages and towns, with
only women, children and elderly left, were systematically emptied. The remaining
residents would be told to gather only what they could carry for a temporary relocation.
The Armenians, again, obediently followed instructions and were "escorted" by Turkish
gendarmes in death marches.
The death marches would lead across Anatolia and the purpose became clear as soon as the
Armenians hit the trail. Along the way the Armenians were being raped, starved,
dehydrated, murdered and kidnapped. The Turkish gendarmes either led these atrocities or
turned a cold shoulder. Their eventual destination for resettlement was supposedly the
Syrian Desert. 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. Usually
those few that survived received assistance from friendly Turks.
When I started to develop an interest in this topic I was discussing it with a teacher
from my highschool who, in all honesty, thought that I would have trouble accessing
information on such a limited issue. At first, I was startled by their comment and asked
them to tell me all they knew about the Armenian genocide. This person wrapped up the
one-minute discussion by suggesting that I choose a different topic. 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. I scratched the surface of a major issue that is still the hot topic
of many heated debates to this day. 
Only adding to my interest, I discovered that several of the textbooks of my girlfriends
textbooks used in her history classes do not make any significant mention or reference to
the horrible massacre. 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. 
Now, more than ever, awareness and respect for all those that died and for those that
helped the survivors escape can be expressed on April 24 remembering the initial day that
the political and intellectual Armenian leaders were murdered. 
There is no doubt that the Turkish authorities made a deliberate decision to exterminate
the Armenians, that they sent this decision to involved officials, political,
administrative, and military. Those who did not comply were removed from their duty.
When all was said and done, approximately 1.5 million out of a total of 2.5 million
Armenians were killed. This would be like someone killing nearly 60% of all Americans
living today. That would put a significant dent in our population. 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. What is most appalling
is the idea that anyone could justify such an act. Throughout my research I came to the
frightening assumption that somehow there are Turkish historians who maintain that the
Young Turkish government is innocent of any charges of genocidal actions. For anyone to
believe that such organized mass murders of the sort that went on in the Ottoman Empire
could be executed by any such institution other than the government itself is totally
unfounded and irrational. 
The only time that I have ever heard Turkish official admitting to the possible
occurrence of an Armenian genocide was when one man stated something along the lines of
"We should have killed all the Armenians when we had the chance." 
Hitler himself felt confident enough in the world's selective memory to be quoted at a
meeting of his SS units (his personal murderous secret police). At this meeting he
ordered his men "to kill without pity, men, women, and children for who," he asked,
"remembers now the massacres of the Armenians"(Vahatai 89).