Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide took place when two million Armenians were deported by force and massacred, thus being removed from their historic homeland by the Turks, in Turkey. In just eight years, 1915-1923, nearly 1.5 million Armenians were lost, during and after World War I. This was known as the first genocide of the 20th century.

• What happened?
• A movement called the Young Turk movement emerged in reaction to the absolutist rule of Sultan Abdul-Hamid. The movement was formed by young military officers who were disturbed by the decline of the Ottoman power and blamed the decline of power on the absence of an environment for change progress.
• Armenia was originally a Christian nation, and by the 1880s they began to demand their freedom from the Muslim Turks of the Ottoman empire. Because of this, relations between the two groups began to decline. 
• Throughout the 1890s, Turkish troops killed tens of thousands of Armenians and when World War I erupted in 1914, the Armenians pledged their support to the enemies of the Turks, which resulted in nearly two million Armenians being deported and over 600,000 died of starvation or were killed by Turkish soldiers. 

• I believe this genocide was atrocious. Armenia was a prosperous community once the nation had converted to Christianity. They were peaceful, they created a distinct alphabet for themselves, flourishing literature, art, and had their own unique style of architecture. Throughout the years, they were ruled by many other countries and nations besides their own and finally, they decided to work for their independence and it all came crashing down on them. They were starved and beaten and sent on death marches during which they were raped and tortured and even if they made it to the end of the march, they would be killed anyways. I think the worst part about this genocide is that the Turks to this day refuse to acknowledge that what they did was a genocide. I also think it's terrible that Hitler quoted this genocide thinking that because no one talked about the Armenian Genocide, that he could get away with the Holocaust. 

"Kill without mercy! Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"      - Adolf Hitler