‘The first genocide of the 20st century’, a sober and heavy synopsis for the events that occurred to the Armenian population in the former Ottoman Empire during World War 1. At the onset of technological improvements and scientific breakthroughs which gave us the modern man an entire nation was being swallowed up by the deserts of Syria and the sharp edges of barbaric ideology. It was the intended death, regrettably through humiliation and suffering, of 1.5 million Armenians which caught the attention of then ambassadors and travelers which sparked the light of protest against the governments which played a role in its implementation. Indeed this one dark chapter of human history would carry itself much further into the future, helping shape the policies and ideologies of future events. It can be said that there was a people who at one time would take the reality of human natures evil and show the world its horror. A horror great enough it would be remembered with great sobriety after the world witnessed the reality of the Holocaust. Even a hundred years later the wealthiest nation in the world, the beacon of democracy and freedom, the U.S, would face its weathered consequences and have to make an ideological stand in its respect. Yet the genocide is a very complicated matter which has many names and ideas to speak of. It came at a turbulent time, where death and misfortune had occupied the world and in which climate it would become easy to deny great wrongs. Yet even during those times a great attention would be turned towards the Turkish governments blind-eye and ideological indifference to the organized mass exile of non-combatant ethnic minorities. There was no way to deny genocidal activity then, just as it is insincere and politically cynical to deny it now. The historic event known as the ‘Armenian Genocide’ could be explained by many factors which I will do so now.
Armenia is a nation with a long and progressive history that dates back to antiquity. The first notions of a unified Armenia are recorded to have come at around 1200-1000 BC. Even earlier than that groups of tribes and nation states had lived in the region of modern Armenia who claimed a common ancestor, Hayk, who was the patriarch of the Armenian nation. The collectivism of the Armenian people had served to preserve their identity in a very tumultuous region of the world. Armenia had seen short spans of complete independence and prosperity as a nation from its on set, galvanizing its strength under the king Argishti I who built the modern capital of Yerevan in 782 BC and successfully protected the state from foreign influences. The kingdom of Armenia, as an official political state came later in the year 190 BC under ‘Tigranes the Great’. During another short period this small nation state became the strongest state east of the Roman Republic growing into an empire and attaining hegemony of the entire trans-Caucasus region. However the region was dangerously competitive and the powers of the kingdom would again sway under Roman rule. In this process many nation states had come and went, and great nations alike had disappeared. Yet the Armenian population held steadfast to what they considered their ancestral lands and the mountain on which Noah and eventually his offspring Hayk had landed, Ararat. Mt. Ararat had become a symbol of the Armenian nation, and in 301 Armenia became the first sovereign nation to accept Christianity as a state religion. The cultural heritage of Armenians therefore reaches into the origins of civilization geographically and religiously as Armenians would hold steadfast to their faith. Christianity would continue to shape Armenia, giving them the unity and power to preserve themselves against Islamic Seljuk conquests. It continued to be invaded by various forces which arose in the region, surrounded by Roman, Persian, Russian and Ottoman powers. Yerevan itself had changed fourteen times between the Turks and Persians between 1513 and 1737. This region had matured greatly and many socio-ethnic forces were established. By the 18th century Armenia had become a country with an extensive and proud history, cemented into the Caucasus region of its ancestors and professed the historical faith of Christianity.
One may begin the study of the Armenian Genocide by looking at the 19th century Ottoman Empire. The world was beginning to open up and foreign policy had become a key science to attaining great power. The conquests of the British left the sun always shining on them. Europe was becoming more centralized as nation states developed and gave power to a few prominent leaders. The United States had formed as a nation which left most of the globe explored and the Asian territories with it became more open. Religion had also followed geography creating a Christian north and a Muslim south. Russia was having its golden era with continuous military victories and an explosion in art and literature. In short great powers were formed in the world who had centralized most of the disorganized conquering of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Ottoman Empire was perhaps the last power remaining from that specific era of conquest. The Ottomans indeed had achieved a great feat. Under powerful leadership they conquered Jerusalem and the Byzantine Empire converting the Orthodox Christian capital of Constantinople into an Islamic Caliphate. It had even stretched itself as far as Austria and had dominion over modern day Serbia and Bulgaria. Their territories even included Egypt and the north African Mediterranean coastline. And most of the modern day middle east was under its rule. The Ottoman Empire was given special treatment due to its position and had political ties with the Great Powers (Russia, England, France). The Ottomans had imposed Islamic rule on their territories, a law which treated the Christians and Jews as second-class citizens. Christians in turn were oppressed heavily by this. Since a great number of historically Christian lands lay under Ottoman rule, resentment had grown in those territories to these practices. Russia had accepted Orthodoxy around 1000 AD and had special interests in the city of Constantinople and considered itself the third Rome, and protector of all Orthodox and Slavic Christians living in Ottoman territories also known as the pan-slavic movement. The English and French were interested in using Turkish ports and lands, and as a buffer to keep Russia in check. The Great Powers however did turn their attention to the treatment of minorities in Ottoman lands, petitioning on behalf of Christians and demanding that the Ottomans reform. Reformation was not entirely possible as social forces opposed it and the economical state of the empire was beginning to fall apart. Armenians had also followed the modern cosmopolitan ideals which spoke in defense of better conditions for them and demanded that the mid-evil policies of the past be amended. The weakening of the Ottoman Empire, influences from European countries and the mis-treatment that ethnic minorities experienced had lead to various independence movements, notably in the Balkans which were brutally suppressed. Armenians in turn flirted with the possibility of independence however spoke out in favor of autonomy instead.
The Russo-Turkish wars had seen the Ottoman Empire, aided by England and France defeated and created a platform on which independence was achieved for Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Montenegro. For many years the issue of ethnic Christian abuses was ignored, and Russia as the protector had lead the charge to liberate these territories. This became a great accomplishment for minorities in the Balkans. The Russians thus become favored by Armenians, and they saw their own independence a possibility with such an ally. However with the Balkans now independent the Ottomans were left with the ‘Armenian Question’. In 1876 Sultan Abdul Hamid II had assumed control of the Ottoman Empire. His eventual rise to power would lead disastrous for Armenians. Abdul Hamid II was a hardliner and did not tolerate any petitions by ethnic minorities. His creation of the ‘Hamidiye’, a paramilitary group, lead to the continuing oppression of ethnic Armenians. It was under Sultan Abdul Hamid that Armenians would suffer their first of many violent episodes called the “Hamidian Massacres” which had killed from 100,000 to 300,000 Armenians. The strains of the empire were being shown and any appeals by the modernized European governments had fallen on deaf ears. These massacres could have been avoided had the Great Powers not meddled against each other during the Russo-Turkish war peace process. Originally Russia had vowed to stay in Ottoman lands that housed a majority of ethnic minorities until the reformation process had taken place and initialized. Yet the British powers did not desire to see Russia spread its influence on a territory that they were trying to control. The treaty of Berlin therefore, meant to protect the minorities left them without a protector. The Sultan instead took advantage of this and sent a clear message to the Armenians, that they should not expect any reformation to occur and hoped that this would destroy the willpower of Armenians to fend for themselves. The massacres had occurred tactfully and were the first genocidal policy of the Ottoman Empire. This ugly development had created a vacuum in which ethnic minorities would be abused, mis-treated and killed, many times with the assistance of the government. It proved to be true once again during the “Adana Massacre” of 1909 where pogroms against Armenians had ensured after an initial uprising began targeting the revolutionary Young Turk government which had no relation to the Armenians. This uprising cost 15,000-30,000 Armenian lives and showed that Armenians were paying with their lives for any turbulence that the country experienced, eventually making them an easy scapegoat and making them targets of Ottoman aggression.
What followed those events was the eventual power shift to the Young Turks, ex-officers in the army who had restored the country back to a constitutional monarchy. Their new visions had given Armenians hope in the future. However the tragic events known to the Armenians as ‘the great calamity’ would happen under their ruler-ship. The Young Turks had inherited a world war with their new power. Early off the Ottomans suffered crushing defeats on the Eastern front. Enver Pasha, one of the rulers of the government had taken the opportunity to blame Armenians in the military defeats. To him the Armenians had sided with the Russians, and this lead to the defeat of the Ottoman army. Indeed rebellions had sprung up on the Eastern territories and Armenians had come to clash with Ottoman authorities. The Ottomans were losing control over their ethnic minorities and the lands they lived on. To counter the ‘Armenian Question’, Armenian soldiers were converted to laborers, who eventually would simply be killed off. On April 24, 1915 Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople were arrested and eventually killed, an event known as Red Sunday. This could have quite been the first open government position concerning Armenians and which supported genocidal results. These events had revealed the cooperation of the Turkish government to take action into its hands and speed up the process of eliminating Armenians from the Ottoman Empire. On May 27, 1915 the ‘Tehcir Law’ was passed which basically had demanded that Armenians be deported from their lands. This was a temporary law and was named “regulation of the settlement of Armenians relocated to other places because of war conditions and emergency political requirements”. Questions remain about the end all purpose of these laws and if their main goal was to destroy the Armenian population, yet it is widely held still that the government had simply become complacent in dealing with Armenians and carrying out a systematic plan to destroy them. These massive deportations were to blame for the amazingly high number of deaths during the ‘death marches’. It is during these deportations that the brutalizing deaths and humiliations had occurred. Death had come in various forms, from straight forward massacres to simply exhausting and starving the Armenian refugees. The man responsible for that law was Talaat Pasha. He had never denied the atrocities reported, which is a very interesting position and had simply said that the Armenians deserved it. They ‘brought it’ upon themselves he would later argue. This testifies to the fact that to deny the genocide after it happened was even impossible for the leaders. This law was later supplemented with the “Tehjir Law” which directly gave the government the right to deport anyone it deemed a threat. Armenians were now being deported with great numbers, and there belongings simply taken. It was later believed that around 25 major concentration camps were also created. The total annihilation of the Armenians was under way. Ottoman rulers had not even denied these brutal acts while they were happening by defending their decisions as a war against Russian backed insurrection.
The Armenian Genocide was a very well documented event in history. A famous name in this respect was American Ambassador Morgenthau who wrote numerous reports and memoirs of what he was witnessing on a personal level. He had also used the term “race extermination” to describe the events that were unfolding. He was one of many ambassadors who had reported back to their embassies calling the situation quite awful and accused the government of a racial extermination. The British consulate James Morgan has written that there was an order for Armenians to leave the country within a month following the “pursuance of the policy that no Christians are to be allowed to stay in Turkey”. The French, British and Russian embassies had tried in fact to sway the Turkish government. Hitler had famously said once before leading another military campaign, “who today remembers the Armenians??” to justify his officers to do what they wished with the local populations. The Nazi’s had used many of the same tactics the Turks used against the Armenians. Everyone was killed merciless including women and children. The number of dead is estimated at 1.5 million. Most of the leaders of the Young Turks were assassinated in different countries by an alleged Armenian hit squad.
To this day Armenians hold on tightly to the memories of the injustice they suffered as this issue continues to shape modern politics. 20 countries have accepted legislation that views the events as genocide. However the United States was not able to unify both House and Senate in declaring the same. Turkey as a strong ally has great influence on its partner countries and therefore it becomes completely inappropriate to ruin that relationship over ‘history’. This event has created animosity between the Turks and Armenians and it will probably continue to be so for a long time, possibility forever. It is easily foreseeable that this unresolved issue will continue to influence events and that perhaps it will ultimately affect the world one way or another.
To date the continual denial of the genocide by Turkey, as well as the United States is a direct insult to all of our modern international organizations seeking a just and accountable world, especially the UN. When morality is second to military bases, the ethos of diplomacy and world politics is blemished to the core opening a Pandora’s box of acceptable behavior and hypocrisy. It is with great humility that we remember another anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and seek to offer closure to many who are seeking it, as well as provide context for those still exploring. The tense political standoff regarding the acceptance of the genocide is a great opportunity for those who love international politics and relations to find their place in understanding history and what it means to our current generations.
Regardless what position you stand upon, we call for peace and a moment of reflection on this solemn day of resemblance.