Armenian Genocide
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
The Armenian Genocide was the forcibly deportation and massacring of Armenians during the government of the Young Turks from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire. [1]
Contents |
[change] Planning
In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire went into the World War I on the side of the Central Powers.
İsmail Enver, was now the Minister of War, he launched a disastrous military campaign against Russian forces in the Caucasus in hopes of capturing the city of Baku. His forces were routed at the Battle of Sarikamis, and many more of his men froze to death.
Returning to Istanbul, Enver largely blamed the Armenians living in the region for actively siding with the Russians.[2] In 1914, the Ottoman Empire's War Office had already begun a propaganda drive to present Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire as a liability and threat to the country's security. An Ottoman naval officer in the War Office described the planning:
| “ | In order to justify this enormous crime the requisite propaganda material was thoroughly prepared in Istanbul. [It included such statements as] "the Armenians are in league with the enemy. They will launch an uprising in Istanbul, kill off the Ittihadist leaders and will succeed in opening the straits [of the Dardanelles]."[3] | ” |
The Ottoman government, moving quickly, arrested an estimated 250 Armenian intellectuals on the night of 24 April 1915.[4]
The Turkish massacres of Armenians in 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1909 were still fresh in their minds. [5]
[change] Foreign accounts
| “ | "I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915." Henry Morgenthau, American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1913-1916. -Henry Morgenthau | ” |
[change] Influence of the Armenian Genocide on Adolf Hitler
The Armenian Genocide is said to have impacted Adolf Hitler, according to his many references to the Ottoman killings of Armenians.[6] The extent of Hitler's knowledge of the Armenian Genocide is unclear, though he did refer to their destruction several times.[7] The most known quote attributed to Hitler on the Armenians is taken from an August 1939 military meeting, prior to the invasion of Poland:
| “ | I have issued the command -- and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad -- that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness -- for the present only in the East -- with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space [Lebensraum] which we need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?[8] | ” |
[change] Gallery
 "In 1922-23 Near East Relief evacuated 22,000 children from ophanages in interior Turkey to Syria and Greece. These two pictures show part of the 5,000 children from Karput en route on donkey back and foot" |
 Massacres of Erzeroum of October 30, 1895 |
 Armenian women put up for auction. |
 |
[change] References
- ↑ "Cultural Cleansing: Who Remembers The Armenians," in Robert Bevan. The Destruction of Memory, Reaction Books, London. 2006, pages 25-60
- ↑ Balakian. The Burning Tigris, p. 200
- ↑ Dadrian., History of the Armenian Genocide, p. 220
- ↑ Balakian. The Burning Tigris, pp. 211-212
- ↑ "A Peace to End All Peace", by David Fromkin, p211.
- ↑ Sumner, Colin (2003). The Blackwell Companion to Criminology. Blackwell Publishing, p. 74. ISBN 0631220925.
- ↑ Fisk. Great War for Civilisation, p. 330
- ↑ Lochner, Louis P.What About Germany? Dodd, Mead & Company, 1942 pp. 11-12.
