on this day in 1915, the armenian genocide began, orchestrated by ottoman turks and culminating in the deaths of ~1.5 million armenians
the armenian genocide, summarized:
as i was taught in armenian history class: (apologies for any misinformation)
context
in the ottoman empire, armenians were considered second-class people; turks and kurds would pillage them as they pleased, steep taxes were imposed, land usurpations, etc. there is, in fact, a popular anecdote supplied by Raffi:
two turks on the street are conversing; one is showing off a sword that he just bought. the other is asking if it really is good. to demonstrate, the owner of the sword spots an armenian passing by them, and straight-up beheads them. this is why, even today, armenians sign the cross before leaving their homes; because they didn’t know if they would return.
now, by the end of the 19th century (a period we call զարթօնք (awakening)), armenians had begun questioning this status quo, forming a sense of armenian nationalism. the first armenian political parties were organized (Արմենականները, ՀՅԴ, ՍԴՀԿ), and began demanding reform.
as a result of this awakening, sultan abdul hamid II orchestrated the “hamidian massacres” in the 1890s; casualties are estimated from 100,000 - 300,000. ottoman officials believed that this new nationalism threatened the pan-islamic ideology of the empire.
in 1908, however, the unpopular sultan was overthrown by the young turks, whose ideology was instead focused on an empire based on pan-turkism instead of pan-islam. now, if you look at a map, you would see a string of “turkic” countries. and guess which tiny mountainous nation with a pesky population sat right in the middle, separating the ottoman empire from central asia? the armenians, of course!
world war I
by the time world war I came around, the ottoman empire was barely holding itself together already; in 1912, they lost almost all of their balkan territory.
so ottoman leaders turned to radical turkish nationalism to save themselves, reaching the conclusion that certain “issues” must be “dealt with” internally, the armenians being the most urgent because they might try to declare independence any second now.
in late 1914, enver pasha (minister of war) led ottoman armies (with significant armenian conscription) to the russian front (whose armies also had a significant armenian presence), and ultimately lost. so, who better to blame than the armenians, because they definitely sided with the russians and sabotaged the turks? [weapons caches and such were found, but belonged to independent paramilitary forces (fedayis) operating on behalf of various armenian political parties.]
thus, in early 1915, many armenians in the ottoman army were disarmed and relocated to labour camps (and later executed, of course).
april 24, 1915
…is considered the start of the armenian genocide; on the night of the 23rd-24th, around 200/300 armenian intellectuals were arrested and deported in constantinople. the figure later increased to 600. one of the pashas famously wrote in a letter: “we shall leave but one armenian and keep him in a museum.”
elsewhere in the empire, armenian families were also deported and led on death marches to the arabian deserts. those who were lucky enough to not succumb to starvation or get gunned down/raped by ottoman soldiers would eventually reach syria and lebanon, finding shelter there. many had to take on new identities as turks or arabs, even converting to islam, to conceal their being armenian.
the turks would also conduct supply blockades against the newly-independent first republic of armenia in 1918.
these deportations continued largely until 1923.
aftermath
do you really think the armenians would just sit there and take it? fuck no!
the armenian revolutionary federation organized operation nemesis, where they executed many of those responsible for the genocide, including taleat pasha, the main perpetrator. a war of independence was fought in 1918 against the ottoman empire. we won.
efforts to reunite orphans with their families were also carried out.
the genocide later served as inspiration for the holocaust; hitler said, “after all, who remembers the armenians?” indeed, today only 34 countries recognize the genocide.
in 1965 soviet armenia, a hundred thousand armenians protested in yerevan for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the genocide. the tsitsernakaberd memorial was erected two years later, honouring those we lost.
turkey continues to deny the genocide to this day.
(via doomhamster)
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