History 155
Writing Assignment #1
T TH 9:00am
Turkey and the Armenian Genocide Denial An American first coined the word genocide in 1944 for all the Jewish that were killed in World War Two. A similar type of killing occurred in April of 1915 during World War One. The Armenians were victims of genocide during the 1st world war by the Turks. Turkey did not always deny about the killings of Armenians, but it has changed its stance on what happened during World War One. Is it right for Turkey to deny what happened to the Armenians during World War One since they were part of the Ottoman Empire at the time or wrong since it is denying a part of their history? I believe that it is wrong for Turkey to deny the genocides of …show more content…
Although ruled by the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians were able to practice their religion and keep their culture by paying special taxes. They were not allowed to own weapons or become government officials.
It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the conditions between the Armenians and Muslims population worsen that made the Ottoman officials in a bind. The Muslims were resentful that the Armenian community was flourishing in culture and economics whiled the Ottoman Empire was experiencing trouble. Armenian leaders wanted more fairer treatments and autonomy within the empire caused the tensions between Muslim and Armenians to rise even further.
During the Revolution of 1908, the committee of Union and Progress also known as Young Turks controlled Turkey. This was also the same group that was responsible for the genocide that occurred in 1915. Overfield stated that jealousy; religious antagonism, political fear and nationalism pushed the group to rid of the Armenians. The Young Turks dreamed of extending the borders of Turkey and an exclusive Turkish state did not have room for two million Armenians along with the Turks (Overfield, …show more content…
The people were robbed of everything; the men were soon taken away from the group as well. The Muslim villagers even robbed the dying. The letter accounted deaths all around the Armenians. The killings of the Armenians included “every male over ten years old (Overfield, 88)” and “woman over fifteen (Overfield, 88).”
Also in the book Sources of Twentieth-Century Global History, the memoir of Talaat Pasha, the Ottoman minister wrote about the deportation of the Armenians. He wrote that the Armenians exaggerated what happened and that the Armenians used propaganda to gain sympathy from the American and European. He claims that Russia had equipped the Armenians with weapons in the eastern provinces. In his memoir, Pasha claims that the bandits were responsible for “blowing up bridges, setting fire to the Turkish towns and villages by killing the innocent Mohammedan inhabitants, regardless of age and sex (Overfield,