Armenian Genocide

Armenian Genocide

“In the fourth century C.E., the mountain monarchy of Armenia, occupying much of eastern Anatolia”. The Armenians have been ruled by great powers before. The Mongols, Greeks, Romans, Persians and Byzantines have all ruled in the Armenian homeland.

Ottoman society was divided into millets, which are ethno religious groups or communities consisted of Muslim, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, and, of course, Armenian (Kiernan, 396). Also, Armenia was “the first nation to adopt Christianity” in the fourth century C.E. (Kiernan, Page 396). For Armenia, having different cultures and religions in one place brought a period of peace and accomplishments. Literature, the alphabet and many more arts had been created. In the time period where “France owned 70 percent of the Ottoman securities assets”, the Ottomans even contributed to some of the ideas of the French Revolution (Kiernan, Page 398). But the peace didn’t last long.

“In 1894, three highland villages at Sassoon near Lake Van refused to pay the double taxation that demanded government representatives and local Kurdish chieftains” (Kiernan, Page 398). Locals defended themselves. Many thought that they would prefer to serve with the Turks, rather than the Kurds. “When four Kamidiye cavalry regiments failed to subdue the Armeniands, the sultan ordered 12 army battalions into action with artillery batteries. Massacres of “enormous dimensions” ensued “without distinction of age or sex… of old people, the sick and the children””. Violent acts were made. “60 women were raped and murdered in a church. Vahakn Dadrian calls this campaign “the first instance of organized mass murder of Armenians in modern Ottoman history” (Kiernan, Page 398).

In defense, “the Hnchak Party decided to a 4,000-strong Armenian demonstration in Constantinople in September 1895” This resulted in Armenians having to experience three months of 41 massacres from different communities. Turks troops intervened and in December of...