User:MarshallBagramyan/Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (In Armenian: Հայոց Ցեղասպանութիւն ("Hayots Tsegaspanoutsyoun"), Turkish: Ermeni Soykırımı) — also known as the Armenian Holocaust, Great Calamity (Մեծ Եղեռն "Mets Yegern") or the Armenian Massacres of 1915 — refers to the systematic slaughter and fatal deportation of hundreds of thousands to over a million Armenians as well as the intentional and irreversible ruination of their economic and cultural life environments under the government of the Young Turks during the First World War from 1915 to 1918 in the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenian Genocide is widely acknowledged to have been the first true genocide of the twentieth century. Of an estimated pre-war population of 1.8 to 2.4 million in the six eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, approximately 1.2 to 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated in government organized deportations and massacres in towns and villages strewn across Eastern Anatolia. Under the pretext of disloyalty, the Ottoman government charged that Armenians were siding with the Russian Empire and stipulated that the deportations were born out of the necessity to preserve national security.

The general date given to the beginning of the genocide is April 24, 1915 where Turkish authorities ordered the arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals in the capital of Constantinople, most of whom were killed. Deportations subsequently began in May where the Turkish military was utilized to uproot Armenians from their homes, and force them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to concentration camps established in what is now present-day Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender and widespread cases of rape and sexual abuse against women and children were commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is said to be the second-most studied case of genocide.

The successor to the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey does not accept the deaths as the results of a systematic plan to destroy the Armenians. In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide. To date, twenty-one countries have officially recognized it as genocide as most Western scholars and historians accept this view. The majority of the survivors and their descendants are what now comprise the bulk of the Armenian Diaspora.

Prelude

Main article: Armenians in the Ottoman Empire

The majority of the Armenian population was concentrated in the east of the Ottoman Empire.

Life under Ottoman rule

Following the fall of Constantinopolis in 1453 to the Turks and subsequent Ottoman growth in the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had consolidated an area which stretched from Eastern Anatolia to Eastern Europe. Although much of the Armenian population in the empire was dispersed throughout the six vilayets under the millet system, there were Armenians living in other western regions such as Cilicia and urban cities including Constantinople and Smyrna where many rose to prominent positions in finance and business.

In accordance to the dhimmi system Armenians, as Christians, living under the Islamic laws which governed the Ottoman Empire were guaranteed limited freedoms such as the right to worship but were, in effect, treated as second-class citizens.

Christians and Jews were not considered equals to Muslims and hence, were subject to numerous legal restrictions and humiliating practices: testimony against Muslims by them was inadmissible in courts, they were forbidden to carry weapons and to ride atop horses, their children were subject to the Devshirmeh system, their houses could not overlook those of Muslims', the ringing of church bells or construction of houses of worship could not disturb Muslims along with numerous other circumscriptions. Violating these statues and thus the dhimmi agreement, would result in punishment carried out by Ottoman authorities ranging from paying fines to the execution of the offender. In the nineteenth century, frustration with these restrictions lead many of the Ottoman Empire's minorities to protest for greater freedom; however, Muslims authorities were reluctant to give them more power and refused to accede to their demands.

The three major Christian European powers, Great Britain, France and Russia (known as the Great Powers), took issue with the plight of the minorities and increasingly pressured the Ottoman government (also known as the Sublime Porte) to extend equal rights to all its citizens. Beginning in 1839, the Ottoman government implemented the Tanzimat reforms to help improve the situation of minorities although they were largely ineffective. By the late 1870s, Greece and several countries of the Balkans, frustrated with the prevailing conditions, had, often with the help of the Powers, broken free of Ottoman rule with help from the Great Powers. Armenians, for the most, remained dormant during these years, earning them the title of millet-i sadıka or the "loyal millet."

Reform implementation

Main article: Armenian Question

In the mid-1860s to early 1870s, Armenians began to ask for better treatment from the Ottoman government. After amassing the signatures of peasants from eastern Anatolia, the Armenian Communal Council had petitioned to the Ottoman government to redress the issues that the peasants complained about: "the looting and murder in Armenian towns by [Muslim] Kurds and Circassians, improprieties during tax collection, criminal behavior by government officials and the refusal to accept Christians as witnesses in trial." The Ottoman government considered these grievances and promised to punish those responsible.

Following the violent suppression of Christians in the uprisings in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Serbia in 1875, the Great Powers invoked the 1856 Treaty of Paris by claiming that it gave them the right to intervene and protect the Ottoman Empire's Christian minorities. Under growing pressure, the government declared itself a constitutional monarchy (which was almost immediately dissolved) and entered into negotiations with the powers. At the same time, the Armenian patriarchate of Constantinople, Nerses II, forwarded Armenian complaints of widespread "forced land seizure...forced conversion of women and children, arson, protection extortion, rape, and murder" to the Powers.

After the conclusion of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War, Armenians began to look more towards Tsarist Russia as the guarantors of their security. Nerses approached the Russian leadership during its negotiations with the Ottomans in San Stefano and in the eponymous treaty, convinced them to insert a clause, Article 16, that stipulated that Russian forces occupying the Armenian provinces would only withdraw with the full implementation of Ottoman reforms. Great Britain was troubled with Russia holding on to so much Ottoman territory and forced it to enter into new negotiations with the convening of the Congress of Berlin on June 13, 1878. Armenians also entered into these negotiations and stated that they sought autonomy, not independence from the Ottoman Empire. They partially succeeded as Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin contained the same text as Article 16 but removed any mention that Russian forces would remain in the provinces; instead, the Ottoman government was to periodically inform the Great Powers of the progress of the reforms.

The Hamidian Massacres

A contemporary French political cartoon portraying Hamid as a butcher of the Armenians.

Since 1876, the Ottoman government at the time was led by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. From the beginning of the reform period after the signing of the Berlin treaty, Hamid II attempted to stall their implementation and asserted that Armenians did not make up a majority in the provinces and that their claims of abuses were largely exaggerated or false. In 1890, Hamid II created a paramilitary outfit known as the Hamidiye which was made up of Kurdish irregulars who were tasked to "deal with the Armenians as he wished." As Ottoman officials intentionally provoked rebellions (often as a result of over-taxation) in Armenian populated towns, such as the Sasun Resistance in 1894, these regiments were increasingly used to deal with the Armenians by way of oppression and massacre. Armenians successfully fought off the regiments and brought the excesses to the attention of the Great Powers in 1895 who subsequently condemned the Porte.

The Powers forced Hamid to sign a new reform package designed to curtail the powers of the Hamidiye in October 1895 but like the Berlin treaty, was never implemented. On October 1, 1895, 2,000 Armenians assembled in Constantinople to petition for the implementation of the reforms but Turkish police units converged towards the rally and violently broke it up. Soon, massacres by Turks and Kurds against Armenians broke out in Constantinople and then engulfed the rest of the Armenian populated provinces of Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Harput, Sivas, Trebizond and Van. Estimates differ on how many Armenians were killed but European documentation of the violence, which became known as the Hamidian massacres, placed the figures from anywhere between 100,000 to 300,000 Armenians.

Although Hamid was never directly implicated for ordering the massacres, he was suspected for their tacit approval and for not acting upon to end them. Frustrated with European indifference to the massacres, Armenians from the Dashnaktsutiun political party seized the European managed Ottoman Bank on August 26, 1896. This incident brought further sympathy for Armenians in Europe and was lauded by the European and American press, which vilified Hamid and painted him as the "great assassin" and "bloody Sultan." While the Great Powers vowed to take action and enforce new reforms, these never came into fruition due to conflicting political and economical interests.

Revolution and the Balkan Wars

The Young Turk Revolution

Main article: Young Turk Revolution

On July 24, 1908, Armenians hopes for equality in the empire brightened once more when a coup de etat staged by officers in the Turkish Third Army based in Salonika, removed Hamid II from power and restored the country back to a constitutional monarchy. The officers were part of the Young Turk movement that wanted to reform administration of the decadent state of the Ottoman Empire and modernize it to European standards. The movement was an anti-Hamidian coalition made up of two distinct groups: the secular liberal constitutionalists and the nationalists; the former was more democratic and accepted Armenians into their wing whereas the latter was more intolerant in regards to Armenian related issues and their persistent calls for European intervention. In 1902, during a congress of the Young Turks held in Paris, the heads of the liberal wing, Sabahheddin Bey and Ahmed Riza, partially persuaded the nationalists to include in their objectives to ensure some rights to all the minorities of the empire.

Among the numerous factions of the Young Turks also included the political organization Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Originally a secret society made up of army officers based in Salonika, the CUP proliferated amongst military circles as more army mutinies took place throughout the empire. In 1908, elements of the Third Army and the Second Army Corps declared their opposition to the Sultan and threatened the Sultan to march on to the capital to depose him. Hamid, shaken by the wave of resentment, stepped down from power as Armenians, Greeks, Arabs, Bulgarians and Turks alike rejoiced in his dethronement.

The Adana Massacre

Main article: Adana Massacre

An Armenian town left pillaged and destroyed after the massacres in Adana.

Armenian hopes for equality were quickly dashed in 1909 when armed military units rose up against the CUP. The counterrevolution began on April 13, 1909 and was largely supported by Muslim theological students known as softas who wished to revert the country back to its Islamic governance. Riots and fighting soon broke out between the units and the CUP until the government was able to put down the uprisings and a court martial was established to try its leaders.

In late March, rumors had spread to the Armenian populated region of Adana on the Mediterranean Sea that a counterrevolution had succeeded in pushing the CUP out. Seizing upon this notion, many Muslims who had opposed the overthrow of the Sultan in 1908 struck out against Adana's Armenian population, who had supported the revolution. Turks in Adana resented the Armenians since they were poor and the Armenians "were the richest and most prosperous class in the region. In Adana, Armenians had attained a high standard of living. In every field, they were ahead of the Turks." They further resented the fact that Armenians were being given broader rights and took advantage of the revolution by massacring Armenians in the towns and cities of the provinces. Mobs armed with sticks, clubs and pistols roved around Adana killing Armenians and many Turkish soldiers took their side or did not help quell to the violence.

In the end, between 15,000 to 20,000 Armenians had been killed in the course of what was called the "Adana Holocaust." Many Armenians who had supported the Young Turk Revolution were thus disillusioned by the level violence that had been exacted against them and felt betrayed by the regime.

Foreign corroboration and reaction

Hundreds of eyewitnesses, including the neutral United States and the Ottoman Empire's own allies, Germany and Austria-Hungary, recorded and documented numerous acts of state-sponsored massacres, though this evidence would later be disputed by the Republic of Turkey. Many foreign officials offered to intervene on behalf of the Armenians, including Pope Benedict XV, only to be turned away by Ottoman government officials who claimed they were "retaliating against a pro-Russian fifth column." On May 24, 1915, the Triple Entente warned the Ottoman Empire that "In view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, the Allied Governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres."

The U.S. mission in the Ottoman Empire

The United States had several consulates throughout the Ottoman Empire, including locations in Edirne, Elazığ, Samsun, İzmir, Trabzon, Van, Constantinople, and another in the Syrian town of Aleppo. The United States was officially a neutral party until it joined the Allies in 1917. As the orders for deportations and massacres were enacted, many consular officials reported back to the ambassador on what they were witnessing. One such report came in September 1915 from the American consul in Kharput, Leslie A. Davis, who described his discovery of the bodies of nearly 10,000 Armenians dumped into several ravines near Lake Göeljuk, later referring to it as the "slaughterhouse province".

A telegram sent by Ambassador Henry Morgenthau Sr. to the State Department on 16 July 1915 describes the massacres as a "campaign of race extermination."

An article by the New York Times dated 15 December 1915 states that nearly one million Armenians had deliberately been put to death by the Ottoman government.

The United States contributed a significant amount of aid to the Armenians during the Armenian Genocide. Shown here is a poster for the American Committee for Relief in the Near East vowing that "they [the Armenians] "shall not perish."

Similar reports began to reach Morgenthau from Aleppo and Van, prompting him to raise the issue with Talaat and Enver in person. As he quoted to them the testimonies of the consulate officials, both justified the deportations as necessary to the conduct of the war, suggesting that the complicity of the Armenians of Van with the Russian forces that had overtaken the city justified the persecution of all ethnic Armenians. In his memoirs, Morgenthau later suggested that, "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact..."

In addition to the consulates, there were also several Protestant missionary compounds established in Armenian-populated regions, including Van and Kharput. Many missionaries vividly described the brutal methods used by Ottoman forces and documented numerous instances of atrocities committed against the Christian minority.

The state-enforced genocide was reported daily in newspapers and literary journals around the world. Many Americans spoke out against the Genocide, including former president Theodore Roosevelt, rabbi Stephen Wise, William Jennings Bryan, and Alice Stone Blackwell. The American Near East Relief Committee helped donate over $110 million to the Armenians. In the United States and Great Britain, children were regularly reminded to clean their plates while eating and to "remember the starving Armenians."

Allied forces in the Middle East

On the Middle Eastern front, the British military engaged Ottoman forces in southern Syria and Mesopotamia. Upon hearing the account of a captured Ottoman soldier, British diplomat Gertrude Bell filed the following report:

The battalion left Aleppo on 3 February and reached Ras al-Ain in twelve hours....some 12,000 Armenians were concentrated under the guardianship of some hundred Kurds...These Kurds were called gendarmes, but in reality mere butchers; bands of them were publicly ordered to take parties of Armenians, of both sexes, to various destinations, but had secret instructions to destroy the males, children and old women...One of these gendarmes confessed to killing 100 Armenian men himself...the empty desert cisterns and caves were also filled with corpses...No man can ever think of a woman's body except as a matter of horror, instead of attraction, after Ras al-Ain.

Reacting to numerous eyewitness accounts, British politician Viscount Bryce and historian Arnold J. Toynbee compiled statements from survivors and eyewitnesses from other countries including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland, who similarly attested to the systematized massacring of innocent Armenians by Ottoman government forces. In 1916, they published The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916. Although the book has since been criticized as British wartime propaganda to build up sentiment against the Central Powers, Bryce had submitted the work to scholars for verification prior to its publication. University of Oxford Regius Professor Gilbert Murray stated of the tome, "...the evidence of these letters and reports will bear any scrutiny and overpower any skepticism. Their genuineness is established beyond question." Other professors, including Herbert Fisher of Sheffield University and former American Bar Association president Moorfield Storey, affirmed the same conclusion.

Winston Churchill, in his The World Crisis, 1911-1918, described the massacres as an "administrative holocaust" and noted that "the clearance of race from Asia Minor was about as complete as such an act could be...There is no reason to doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political reasons. The opportunity presented itself for clearing Turkish soil of a Christian race opposed to all Turkish ambitions."

The joint Austrian and German mission

As allies during the war, the Imperial German mission in the Ottoman Empire included both military and civilian components. Germany had brokered a deal with the Sublime Porte to commission the building of a railroad stretching from Berlin to the Middle East, called the Baghdad Railway. Among the most famous persons to document the massacres was German military medic Armin Wegner. Wegner defied state censorship in taking hundreds of photographs of Armenians being deported and subsequently starving in northern Syrian camps. German officers stationed in eastern Turkey disputed the government's assertion that Armenian revolts had broken out, suggesting that the areas were "quiet until the deportations began."

Germany's diplomatic mission was lead by Ambassador Baron Hans von Wagenheim (and later Count Paul von Wolff-Metternich). Like Morgenthau, von Wagenheim received many disturbing messages from consul officials around the Ottoman Empire. From the province of Adana, Consul Eugene Buge reported that the CUP chief had sworn to kill and massacre any Armenians who survived the deportation marches. In June 1915, von Wagenheim sent a cable to Berlin reporting that Talat had admitted the deportations were not "being carried out because of 'military considerations alone.'" One month later, he came to the conclusion that there "no longer was doubt that the Porte was trying to exterminate the Armenian race in the Turkish Empire."

When Wolff-Metternich succeeded von Wagenheim as ambassador, he continued to dispatch similar cables: "The Committee [CUP] demands the extirpation of the last remnants of the Armenians and the government must yield....A Committee representative is assigned to each of the provincial administrations....Turkification means license to expel, to kill or destroy everything that is not Turkish."

German engineers and laborers involved in building the railway also witnessed Armenians being crammed into cattle cars and shipped along the railroad line. Franz Gunther, a representative for Deutsche Bank which was funding the construction of the Baghdad Railway, forwarded photographs to his directors and expressed his frustration at having to remain silent amid such "bestial cruelty". Major General Otto von Lossow, acting military attaché and head of the German Military Plenipotentiary in the Ottoman Empire, spoke to Ottoman intentions in a conference held in Batum in 1918:

The Turks have embarked upon the "total extermination of the Armenians in Transcaucasia...The aim of Turkish policy is, as I have reiterated, the taking of possession of Armenian districts and the extermination of the Armenians. Talaat's government wants to destroy all Armenians, not just in Turkey but also outside Turkey. On the basis of all the reports and news coming to me here in Tiflis there hardly can be any doubt that the Turks systematically are aiming at the extermination of the few hundred thousand Armenians whom they left alive until now.

Similarly, Major General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein noted that "The Turkish policy of causing starvation is an all too obvious proof...for the Turkish resolve to destroy the Armenians." Another notable figure in the German military camp was Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, who documented various massacres of Armenians. He sent fifteen reports regarding "deportations and mass killings" to Germany's chancellor in Berlin. His final report noted that fewer than 100,000 Armenians were left alive in the Ottoman Empire; the rest had been exterminated (German: ausgerottet). Scheubner-Richter also detailed the methods of the Ottoman government, noting its use of the Special Organization and other bureaucratized instruments of genocide.

Some Germans openly supported the Ottoman policy against the Armenians, as the German naval attaché in Constantinople said to US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau;

"I have lived in Turkey the larger part of my life," he told me, "and I know the Armenians. I also know that both Armenians and Turks cannot live together in this country. One of these races has got to go. And I don't blame the Turks for what they are doing to the Armenians. I think that they are entirely justified. The weaker nation must succumb. The Armenians desire to dismember Turkey; they are against the Turks and the Germans in this war, and they therefore have no right to exist here."

In a genocide conference in 2001, professor Wolfgang Wipperman of the Free University of Berlin introduced documents evidencing that the German High Command was aware of the mass killings at the time but chose not to interfere or speak out against them.

Russian military

The Russian Empire's response to the bombardment of its Black Sea naval bases was primarily a land campaign through the Caucasus. Early victories against the Ottoman Empire from the winter of 1914 to the spring 1915 saw significant gains of territory, including relieving the Armenian bastion resisting in the city of Van in May 1915. The Russians also reported encountering the bodies of unarmed civilian Armenians in the areas they advanced through. In March 1916, the scenes they saw in the city of Erzerum led the Russians to retaliate against the Ottoman III^rd Army whom they held responsible for the massacres, destroying it in its entirety.