The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman government’s way of killing off the Armenian minority from their historic homeland in what is the modern-day Republic of Turkey. It took place after World War I and was implemented in two phases. The first phase involved killing all the male population by either forcing them into labor or by simply massacring them. The second phase was to deport all of the women, elderly, children and sick into the Syrian Desert where they would walk until they would collapse and die. The point of genocide is not only to destroy the people of today, but the future people as well. It is considered to be one of the first modern genocides, being at the beginning of the 20th century. It is agreed upon that the genocide started on the 24th of April 1915. It is estimated that 1.5 million Armenians died between 1915 and 1923 due to the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the Armenian population was removed from Anatolia and Armenia and was sent to Syria, where most of them were sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. The decision to carry out genocide against the Armenian people was made by the political party that was in power at the time, the Committee of Union and Progress.

The Ottoman Empire, sometimes referred to as the Turkish Empire, was an empire founded by the Oghuz Turks under Osman Bey in northwestern Anatolia in 1299. During the 16th and 17th centuries the Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful states in the world. The Ottoman Empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for over 6 centuries. The Ottoman Empire was eventually dissolved in the aftermath of the 1st World War.

After the demise of the Turkish Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the 1300s, Anatolia was di...

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...toman attacked. “The premeditated destruction of objects of Armenian cultural, religious, historical and communal heritage was a key purpose of both the genocide itself and the post-genocidal campaign of denial by the Ottoman and later Turkish. Armenian churches and monasteries were destroyed or changed into mosques, Armenian cemeteries flattened, and, in several cities, Armenian quarters were demolished” (Wikipedia-Armenian Genocide). Aside from the deaths, Armenians lost their wealth and property without compensation. In January of 1916, the Ottoman Minster of Commerce and Agriculture issued a decree ordering all financial institutions operating within the empire’s borders to turn over Armenian assets to the government. After World War I, Genocide survivors tried to return and reclaim their former homes and assets, but were driven away by the Anakara Government.