Smith 1
John Smith
Mrs. Kelly/Mrs. Messina/Mrs. Sheridan/Mrs. Kenvin
ELA2
February 28, 2014
Human Rights of the Armenians
The thunderous noise made the ground rumble, the sound putting fear in people’s hearts. The sound of the Armenians, marching on order to the distant lands, not for jovial times, but to meet their untimely ends, where the land turned red as it filled with the blood of its own people. This was the unfortunate occurrence for the many happenings of the executions of the Armenians in the Armenian Genocide. The genocide that happened in 1915 through 1918 was a complete act of atrocity by the group known as the Young Turks. These Ottoman Turks mass murdered the Armenians, killing roughly 1,500,000 of them. This was about half the whole Armenian population. The once strong and liable Ottoman Empire fell to the reign of the brutes that killed their own people. During the time period of the Armenian Genocide, the human rights of the Armenians were greatly impacted by the maligned actions of the Young Turk rulers of the Ottoman Empire.
To start with, the Young Turks had to rise to power to commit their inhumane crimes. During the years of 1876 through 1909, the Ottoman Empire was ruled by a sultan named Abdul Hamid II. Many of the Empire’s inhabitants did not praise the new sultan due to his suppressive policies. Many groups were coming together to go against the sultan. In 1889, multiple groups came together to try and take action against such things. This group was called the Young Turks. Once created, the reform-minded group looked for ways to take motion in the government. They created a political group called the Committee of Progress and Union, or CUP. The Committee of Progress and Union quickly gained popularity in both the general public and in the government. Taking many of the empire’s influential seats, the ideas of the Young Turks became widespread among many people. With its new influential powers, the Committee of Union and Progress started a rebellion against the sultan, and eventually forced Abdul Hamid II from his throne in 1906. Originally, the Young Turks had Armenians as well as Turks fighting against the sultan. Now, with reform in its mind, and with the empire captured, the Young Turks eventually forget their promises for a changed government (Freedman 3).
Afterwards, the Ottoman Empire became anti-Armenian as the Turks grew to hate the other ethnic group. After the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I, conditions became bad for the population. Costs inflated, villages were destroyed, and misfortune occurred everywhere (GenocideEducation). Enver Pasha was an important leader of the Young Turks. He was a high ranking officer who went to battle in the war. Following another loss against the Russians in the war, Enver Pasha decided to blame someone for all the losses that they were facing. He blamed the Armenians. This sparked much hatred towards the already under-tension Armenians (Freedman). Being a pro-Muslim empire, the Christian Armenians were never trusted by the Muslim Turks. As the empire kept crumbling after the war, the Turks hated the Armenians more and more. During the war, the Turks also sought a new state extending into Central Asia. Promoters of the idea were called “Pan Turkish.” At the time, almost all government officials of the Empire agreed to the idea, and that it would be beneficial. However, the “Pan Turkish” unfortunately saw the Armenians as an obstacle to their goal (GenocideEducation). Their differences caused the tension between the two groups to the point of breaking.
There is no doubt that the Ottoman Empire played a major role in the execution of the Armenian Genocide. The difference with the Armenian Genocide is that it was actually considered legal, even though it definitely was not in regular terms. The Armenian Genocide can closely relate to more current genocides like the one that happened in Darfur. Just like in Darfur, the government actually allowed for the executions of the Armenians. After the Turks decided that the Armenians were a treat to their “Pan Turkish” ideas, they decided to use the government to take action. Using the Ottoman government the Turks captured in 1913 after overthrowing the sultan, they started to make plans to execute for the mass murders of the Armenians (The History Place). Turkey being the central part of the Ottoman Empire meant that by using propaganda their ideas would be more widespread to the people. Then, on April 24, 1915, several hundred Armenian officials were sent out to be executed. These people included the people in the Young Turks who were originally fighting to take control of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman government themselves were the one who executed the order of the murders. Even the Armenians in the Ottoman army were sent out to the desert to die. As a “minority” in the Ottoman Empire, the passive ideas of hundreds of past leaders were forgotten as the government devised cunning plans to execute the mass murders of the Armenian people (Armenian National Institute).
Therefore, the human rights of the Armenians were greatly impacted by the inhumane attempts of the Turkish Ottomans to purify their lands of the “minorities” that were found in it. Today, with all the evidence of the killings, the Armenian Genocide isn’t all too widely accepted. Many people today believe in the horrible crimes the Turks committed against the Armenians, but many more reject the horrendous thoughts of the 1,500,000 Armenians that were slaughtered, or starved, or poisoned. Their human rights were completely forgotten as many of them died every day. The only way to counter another genocide like the Armenian genocide happening again is to look at what happened and to try and learn from it. We cannot undo the horrible actions of the Turks in the Armenian genocide, but what we can do is to prevent any other genocides from happening again. In the certain case of the Armenian genocide, people should start to realize what happened and to realize their own mistakes and to learn from that in the future. As someone once said, “Forgetting will make the actions of the future generation forget, and they will not learn from our past omission.