Armenian Genocide Fitzgerald 1
Armenian genocide fitzgerald 8
Armenian Genocide
Orianne E. Fitzgerald
Hawaii Pacific University
Armenian Genocide
During World War 1, between the years of 1915 and 1918, the Armenian people suffered a tragic genocide. It is also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacre, and the Great Calamity. The genocide began because the Turkish government believed that the Armenians were supporting the Russians, which was not okay with the Turkish. The Armenian Genocide was a horrible slaughter of nearly 1.5 million Armenians by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire, which is today known as Turkey. This particular genocide was known as the first genocide in modern times.
At the start of the 20th century, around 2.5 million Armenians were living in the Ottoman Empire, mostly in the six provinces of Eastern Anatolia, along with that a large number also living on the Eastern Anatolia, and the other lived beyond the Ottoman Empire in a Russian Territory. The Armenian Community consist of three different religions, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Protestant, and Armenian Apostolic. Most the community lives in poverty, except the few that are wealthy such as merchants and artisans. The Armenians had to deal with the impulses of the Turkish and Kurdish neighbors, who would regularly over take them, and kidnap them, along with trying to convert them to Islam. The Christians were not considered equal to the Muslims, and they were prohibited them doing many things. It went as far as to, Christians couldn’t even have their houses overlooking a Muslims house. The Ottoman rulers like their people to be Muslims, and they viewed Armenians as “infidels” and they were just unequal to those of Muslims. Another thing that was known is that the Christians paid higher taxes than the Muslims. This was only the beginning of how the genocide came about. But overcoming these obstacles, the Armenian community was thriving under the Ottoman ruling, because they were more educated and wealthier than the Turkish neighbors. That resentment started because they figured that Christian people would be loyal to Christian governments, which is what the Russians were, and that was Ottoman disloyalty.
Before the genocide started, the Armenians hoped for equality in the Ottoman empire. By the year 1914, the Ottoman Empire authorities began their propaganda to drive them out of their empire. Beginning on the night of April 23rd, going into the 24th 1915, the Ottoman government rounded up, and took to prison an estimated 250 Armenian intellectuals, and community leaders. The were later moved to two holding centers near Ankara, but towards the end of May, the leaders were gradually deported and assassinated. The deportation began, and it arose riots and massacres within the country, because of this, more were rounded up and deported. On May 29th, 1915 the Committee of the Union and Progress (CUP) passed the temporary law of deportation (Tehcir Law) which gave...
