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index.php?title=Armenian_Genocide_Photos>.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
WHO
The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the "Young Turk" government of the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire and other ethnic groups such as the Assyrians and Greeks. The Armenian Genocide was masterminded by the Central Committee of the Young Turk Party (Committee for Union and Progress) which was dominated by Mehmed Telat, Ismail Enver, and Ahmed Djemal. The Armenian Genocide was directed by a Special Organization set up by the Committee of Union and Progress, which created special "butcher battalions," made up of violent criminals released from prison.
WHY
The main goal of the Young Turk movement was to ethnic cleanse the Ottoman Empire of non-muslims, a process known as Pan Turkism. The genocide occurred also because the Turkish government was afraid the Armenians may possibly become to powerful and remove some of the Turkish power, and thus the Young Turks movement (a political party) decided to exterminate the Armenians.
WHERE
Armenia as a cultural, political, and geographical entity has existed for 2700 years. The land, historically identified as Greater Armenia, lies east of the Euphrates River. It is bounded on the northwest by the river Choruk, on the north by the Kura River, on the east and southeast by the River Araks and the Lake of Urmia, and on the south by the Tigris Valley.[before and after]
HOW
In May 1915, Mehmed Talat Pasha requested that the cabinet and Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha legalize a measure for relocation and settlement of Armenians to other places due to what Talat Pasha called "the Armenian riots and massacres, which had arisen in a number of places in the country." However, Talat Pasha was referring specifically to events in Van and extending the implementation to the regions in which alleged "riots and massacres" would affect the security of the war zone of the Caucasus Campaign. Later, the scope of the immigration was widened in order to include the Armenians in the other provinces. On 29 May 1915, the CUP Central Committee passed the Temporary Law of Deportation ("Tehcir Law"), giving the Ottoman government and military authorization to deport anyone it "sensed" as a threat to national security. The "Tehcir Law" brought some measures regarding the property of the deportees, but during September a new law was proposed. By means of the "Abandoned Properties" Law (Law Concerning Property, Dept's and Assets Left Behind Deported Persons, also referred as the "Temporary Law on Expropriation and Confiscation"), the Ottoman government took possession of all "abandoned" Armenian goods and properties. On 13 September 1915, the Ottoman parliament passed the "Temporary Law of Expropriation and Confiscation", stating that all property, including land, livestock, and homes belonging to Armenians, was to be confiscated by the authorities.
WHAT
The Armenian Genocide of 1915 was the supremely violent historical moment that eliminated a people from its homeland and wiped away most of the tangible evidence of its three thousand years of culture. It may be seen as the culmination of the persecutions and massacres of Armenians that had already occurred in the Ottoman Empire since the 1890s. Or it may be placed in the context of modern nationalism and the great upheavals that brought about the dissolution of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious religious empire and the emergence in its place of a Turkish nation-state based on a mono-ethnic and mono-religious society.
The Armenian Genocide was centrally planned and administered by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. It was carried out during W.W.I between the years 1915 and 1918. The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. Large numbers of Armenians were methodically massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women and children were abducted and horribly abused. The entire wealth of the Armenian people was expropriated. After only a little more than a year of calm at the end of W.W.I, the atrocities were renewed between 1920 and 1923, and the remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres and expulsions. In 1915, thirty-three years before UN Genocide Convention was adopted, the Armenian Genocide was condemned by the international community as a crime against humanity.
The Armenian Genocide was centrally planned and administered by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. It was carried out during W.W.I between the years 1915 and 1918. The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. Large numbers of Armenians were methodically massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women and children were abducted and horribly abused. The entire wealth of the Armenian people was expropriated. After only a little more than a year of calm at the end of W.W.I, the atrocities were renewed between 1920 and 1923, and the remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres and expulsions. In 1915, thirty-three years before UN Genocide Convention was adopted, the Armenian Genocide was condemned by the international community as a crime against humanity.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
WHEN
In the mid 1860s-1870s, the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire began to strive for equality and fair treatment. Inspiration came from post-Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality, resulting in a fervent desire for impartiality among the Ottomans. The Armenian population was offered many empty promises that no one cared to undertake. Thus, Armenian revolutionary movements sprouted with the common goal of improving lives for Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Unfortunately, Sultan Abdul Hamid II implemented policies that often angered the Armenians such as over-taxation. These unfair policies led to the gathering of 2,000 armenians in Constantinople on October 1st, 1895 to petition for better treatment. The peaceful petition resulted in a violent interefernce from Ottoman police and later, the Hamidian Massacres. When the Young Turk Revolution took place in 1908, there seemed to be a brighter future for Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. However, a countercoup took place 1909 and spilled over into pogroms against Armenians, building tensions between the Armenian population and the Ottoman Empire’s government. The Armenian Genocide officially started on April 24th, 1915 when Armenian leaders from Constantinople and other Ottoman centers were arrested and moved to two holding centers by the then minister of interior, Mehmed Talat Bey.
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