DJ #5 1/20/10

1. What is genocide? 2. How and why does this occur? 3. Describe some examples of genocide.

Armenian Genocide, 1915

The Forgotten Genocide

Genocide is the organized killing of a people for the express purpose of putting an end to their collective existence; acts committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group (note: the word genocide did not exist at the time of the killings of Armenians)

Overview
Ethnic group- lived east of Turkey First people to adopt Christianity as a national religion

Political changes in the Ottoman Empire: Young Turks want to create a free Turkey Saw Armenians as an obstacle to this goal Made secret agreement with Germany : Turkey fights with the Central Powers, they get their independent nation

Who was responsible?

Committee of Union and Progress (known as The Young Turks)- party ruling the Ottoman empire Relied on a newly-created secret group which they manned with convicts and irregular troops, called the Special Organization
Its primary function was the carrying out of the mass slaughter of the deported Armenians

Why?
By 1890s, nationalism was igniting new tensions (especially between Turks and other minorities seeking independence) Muslim Turks distrusted the Christian Armenians accused them of supporting Russian plans against the Ottoman Empire When Armenians protested repressive Ottoman polices, the sultan (leader) had tens of thousands of them slaughtered

April 24, 1915

300 Armenian leaders, writers, thinkers, and professionals in Constantinople (Istanbul) were rounded up, deported and killed. 5000 of the poorest Armenians were butchered in the streets and in their homes.

How many and in what way?

It is estimated 1.5 million Armenians died between 1915-1923. (There were an
estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of WWI).

Hundreds of thousands were butchered outright. Many others died of starvation, exhaustion, and epidemics which ravaged the concentration camps

The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. The bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger.

Where?

Are the Armenian massacres acknowledged today as a Genocide according to the United Nations Genocide Convention?
The U.N. Convention was adopted in 1948, thirty years after the Armenian Genocide, Armenians worldwide have sought from their respective governments formal acknowledgment of the crimes committed during W.W.I. Countries like US House of Representatives, France, Argentina, Greece, and Russia, where the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and their descendants live, have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. The present-day Republic of Turkey adamantly denies that a genocide was committed against the Armenians during W.W.I.

October 10, 2009: Turkey and Armenia have signed a historic accord normalizing relations after a century of hostility. -Nations agreed to open shared borders -Create joint commission to explore historical dimension