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Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Amid the chaos of World War I, the Ottoman Empire turned against its Armenian citizens. Learn how war created the conditions for one of history’s first modern genocides.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
How does this video define genocide?
What were millets?
Why did the Ottoman rulers begin to view Armenians as a threat?
Why did tension between Armenians and the state increase with the establishment of the new Young Turk government?
How did the international community respond to the genocide?
: (music playing)
: Chances are you've heard the word "genocide" before.
: The Holocaust during World War II
: was considered an act of genocide, for example.
: But do you know the full definition?
: The term "genocide" was coined
: by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in his 1944 book
: "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe."
: It comes from the Greek genos--
: race or ethnicity--
: and cide-- murder.
: The United Nations defines genocide
: as the mass extermination of a group of people
: based upon that community's race,
: religion, ethnicity, or nationality,
: with the intent to destroy.
: Between 1915 and 1917, in the middle of World War I,
: the Ottoman Empire waged an internal war
: against a minority group.
: It nearly destroyed the Armenian people.
: The Armenians had lived
: relatively peacefully under Ottoman rule
: for centuries.
: So why did this genocide happen at this time?
: Prior to the early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire was made up
: of different ethnic and religious communities.
: The Ottoman sultan ruled many people.
: They spoke different languages and held diverse beliefs.
: This included Muslims, Christians, Jews, Turks,
: Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs, and many others.
: It was a multicultural,
: multiethnic, and multi-faith empire.
: For centuries, these multiethnic and multi-faith communities
: were divided into millets, or religious communities.
: Non-Muslim communities,
: such as Jewish and Christian millets,
: lived under certain restrictions.
: These Christian and Jewish communities were referred to
: as People of the Book,
: since Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
: all believed in the same God--
: Yahweh, God, or Allah, depending on one's faith.
: These millets could worship in their own way.
: But they could not serve in the military
: and were required to pay additional taxes.
: Many millets kept their own language
: and worshipped as they pleased.
: The level of freedom, however, did vary from ruler to ruler.
: There were periods of unrest and persecution,
: especially during times of war.
: The Armenians were millets.
: They were a largely Christian community that mainly lived
: in the eastern provinces of the Anatolian Peninsula--
: the peninsula that is modern-day Turkey.
: The Armenians had lived in this area
: for over 1,000 years,
: long before the Ottoman Empire existed.
: Founded in about 95 BCE, the Armenian kingdom
: went through periods of stability and invasion.
: According to Movses Khorenatsi,
: known as the father of Armenian history,
: this community was the first to convert to Christianity--
: before the Romans--
: and establish a Christian state.
: They created their own alphabet in the fifth century CE,
: translated the Bible,
: and had a long history
: of shared beliefs, stories, and myths.
: By the 19th century, Ottoman rulers began to view
: Armenian communities along the Russian border
: as a threat.
: Russia was a longtime enemy of the Ottomans.
: The Muslim community believed that the Armenians
: might turn on them if there were a war.
: So, Ottoman rulers attempted to dilute the Armenian community
: by resettling majority Muslim populations among them.
: In addition, some Turks and Kurds envied Armenians.
: They perceived Armenians as better off than themselves,
: with more wealth and higher literacy rates.
: Of course, this tension was based
: more on perception than fact.
: After a period of reform in the 19th century,
: the Young Turk Revolution of 1908
: formed a constitutional government with a parliament.
: Various millets were elected to Parliament.
: Many hoped this would lead to reform and change.
: However, the leading political party of the revolution,
: the Committee of Union and Progress-- C.U.P.--
: did not view millet communities as part
: of a new Turkish nation-state they wished to establish.
: This party began consolidating power
: and trying to transform the empire.
: Tensions were rising.
: The 1914 assassination of the archduke of Austria-Hungary
: and the major war sparked by this assassination
: would only increase this tension.
: After the assassination of the archduke in 1914,
: major European states declared war on each other.
: The Ottoman Empire, under the control of the Turks,
: aligned with Germany and Austria-Hungary.
: They would fight against the Entente, including Russia.
: The war renewed Turkish beliefs
: that Armenians would turn against the Ottomans
: and fight alongside Russia.
: The Turks also believed that the Armenians and Christian groups
: were getting in the way of achieving
: a more Turkic, Muslim empire.
: In the early years of the war,
: Armenians fought alongside Turks and Kurds
: against Russia and the Entente.
: However, after losing a major battle against Russia in 1915,
: the Turks began to blame Armenians for the loss.
: Rumors soon spread that groups of Armenians
: were staging a rebellion.
: This created more hostility towards Armenians,
: both inside and outside of the military.
: In order to prevent rumored revolts,
: the Ottoman government ordered Armenian communities
: to be forcefully relocated
: from border areas and military fronts.
: Armenian soldiers had their weapons confiscated.
: Described as "sitting ducks,"
: some of these men were sent to labor camps.
: Then hundreds were taken out to deserted areas and shot.
: As historian Ronald Grigor Suny wrote
: in "A History of the Armenian Genocide,"
: "What evolved rapidly into genocide
: "began as sporadic massacres
: "that, following a colossal defeat,
: "resulted in political panic, despair,
: and a thirst for vengeance."
: The extermination of the Armenian people had begun.
: Some Turkish officials in Istanbul
: tried to warn their Armenian friends.
: One official quietly told his friend,
: "A new storm is about to break upon the Armenians,
: so I hope that you will save yourself."
: The recommendation was to leave for Europe immediately,
: without regard for property or investments.
: Many managed to escape;
: some fled to Europe and others to America,
: but more horrors were to come.
: The relocation efforts soon turned into mass extermination,
: especially in the areas along the fronts
: and in rural provinces.
: Turkish and Kurdish soldiers forced whole families
: to march away from their homes.
: Their houses and possessions
: were later sold to the highest bidder.
: Bands of Ottoman soldiers
: marched through Armenian villages
: and tortured inhabitants.
: Armenian houses were robbed.
: Churches were stripped
: and religious icons left in the mud.
: Turkish officials attempted to justify this violence
: by stating that these acts
: were in retaliation for Armenian rebellion.
: They claimed that Armenians in the eastern provinces
: must be removed or eliminated.
: Fear and rumors continued to stoke the flames of violence.
: Some Armenians did rebel
: against the slaughtering of their people.
: This allowed Turkish authorities to justify
: increased removals and killings.
: One official ordered
: that all Armenian men over the age of 12
: should be killed.
: Armenian women were raped and murdered
: or taken by Turkish men as wives.
: Small children became orphans.
: Some were adopted by Christian missionaries
: and others by Turkish families.
: Christians in other parts of the world,
: in particular Europe and America,
: heard reports of Armenian persecution.
: Organizations were formed to provide aid
: to a Christian community thousands of miles away.
: Some ambassadors living in Istanbul
: worked to convince Turkish officials
: to stop the violence.
: Nothing seemed to work.
: The American ambassador to Istanbul,
: Henry Morgenthau, Sr.,
: described events as "a campaign of race extermination."
: From 1915 to 1917,
: over one million Armenians died.
: Most were executed as they journeyed to labor camps.
: They were buried in mass graves or burned.
: Some resisted, but any resistance
: provided officials with an excuse to justify their actions.
: After the war,
: some of the Turkish leaders who ordered the killings
: were brought to trial,
: but only a few were punished.
: Others escaped, mainly to Germany.
: In the years that followed,
: some of these men were assassinated
: by Armenians who sought revenge.
: To this day, the Turkish state maintains
: that the mass killing of Armenians
: did not happen or was justified.
: However, most major powers in the world
: recognize and memorialize this period
: as the Armenian Genocide:
: the mass extermination of an ethnic or religious group.