What was the Armenian Genocide?
2 Answers
The Genocide resulted in the death of more than 1.5 million people that the Turkish government blamed on the victims.
Explanation:
The Armenian and other Christian minorities had long been discriminated against. There had been previous bouts of persecution that resulted in destruction of property, and hundreds of thousands of Armenians killed. Turkey practiced the dhimmi system where religious minorities were treated as second class citizens. For example a Christian could not testify against a Muslim in a criminal case, leaving the Christians open to physical assault and robbery.
In the early 1900s the Armenians protested their treatment and petitioned the Ottoman government and the Western Powers for equal rights. Under pressure from the Western Powers most of these rights were granted. This caused resentment from the Young Turks, the traditional Muslim factions, and the over 800,000 Muslims that had been deported from the Balkans to Turkey by Christian governments. The Young Turks called for the forced conversion or deportation of the Armenian Christians.
In 1914 the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers fighting against the Ottomans's traditional enemy Russia. In November 1914 a holy war or jihad was declared against all Christians. In December 1914 the Ottomans suffered major defeats in a campaign against Russia. The defeat was blamed on the Armenian Christians cooperating with the Russians.
The Ottomans took action by removing all Christians from the armed services and putting them into slave labor battalions. (Feb 1915) Collecting 284,000 of the leaders of the Armenian Christians and murdering them ( April 13 1915) and deporting all the Armenians in the war zone of Eastern Turkey and deporting them to "relocation" camps in the Syrian Desert. These actions were justify as a self defense against the collaboration of the Armenian Christians with the Christian government of Russia.
Of the 1,700,000 to 2,000,000 Armenian Christians counted before World War I in 1917 only 284,000 Armenians were left alive in Turkey.
Thousands left Turkey, hundreds of thousand died of starvation and exposure on their relocation journeys. The men in the slave labor battalions all died "in battle". There were reports of whole villages being herded into churches and barns and being burned alive.
The policy of the Ottoman government was to eliminate the Christian population. The justification was self defense during a time of war. The government blamed the Christians for their death and expulsion on the Christians support of the Turkish enemy Russia.
The Armenian genocide evolved into a policy of the Young Turks movement although like actions had previously existed. Oppression of non muslim minorities had take place since the 16th century.
Explanation:
The Young Turks were military men who wanted to modernize the Ottoman Empire so it could resist its growing dissolution. This was an attempt to change the military fortunes by modernizing rather than a solely a liberal movement. There were secular and Islamic divisions in the movement. There were also centralizing and decentralizing groups. International diplomacy insisted that the Christian minorities be protected. Equal rights to these minorities were rejected by most Ottomans.
The Balkan Wars created a large Islamic refugee problem. Many of these refugees settled in Armenian areas. There was conflict between the relatively better off Armenians and absolutely destitute Refugees. World War 1 made all these difficulties worse. Armenians were blamed for losses to the Russians and systematic killing started.
Mohammad had difficulties with religious minorities and sometimes dealt well with them. There is a lot of traditional Islamic law about other religious minorities. It still doesn't add up to a lot of protection when the chips are down. When a government that acknowledges a crime then they might have to do something about it. When there is no interest in either by the ruling body or the majority of the country then its not going to happen.
