Sunday, May 3, 2009

Armenian Genocide

The definition of genocide is the deliberate destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Research of Arnold J. Toynbee, an intelligence officer of the British Foreign Office, who estimate that 600,000 Armenians died or were massacred during deportation in the years 1915-1916. Since early times man has invaded other countries, killing people and taking prisoners, in order to add more land to their own, or just to dominate.

Armenia is located in the southern Caucasus and is the smallest of the former Soviet republics. A land of rugged mountains and extinct vollcanoes, its highest point is Mount Aragats and one of the worlds oldest civilizations and the first country to embrace Christianity. Over the centuries Armenian has been conquered by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Mongots, Arabs, Ottoman Turks and Russia. That is a lot of conquering for such a small country.

The cause for their extinction was caused because in the 1860,s to early 1870,s they began to ask for better treatment from the Ottoman government. The Armenian's complained about looting, tax collection, murders and criminal behavior by government officials and the governments refusal to accept Christians as witness at trials. The government promised to look into these complaints and would punish those responsible. The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust refers to deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War II.

It was characterised by the use of deportation involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of Armenians death generally held to have been between one and a half million, it is widely acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides, this was carried out to eliminate the Armenians. The Ottoman military uprooted them from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, also with much abuse. The Armenian Genocide is the second most studied case of genocide after the Holocaust.

The shortest way of disposing of women and children was to either burn them or take them out in boats and throw them overboard, doctors would also inoculate them with blood from typhoid fever patients. However the Republic of Turkey, the successor of the Ottoman Empire, does not accept the word genocide as an accurate description of these events. When I read this article I immediately thought of the Iraq people that Hussian slaughtered and buried them in large pits.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Margaret,
    Thats such an important post, it gives us an insight into an issue of how man is the greatest enemy of man.It just gets my mind back to the days when Hitler coz such a lot of choas.We humans don't need enemies, why re we afraid of ferocious animals, when they don't attack anyone without a reason.Hope peace prevails in this world.
    Thanks for such a thought provoking post!

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  2. This an important post,I agree with the new beginning

    Giving us an insight into issue of how man is the greatest enemy of man.
    cheers!

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  3. Hi, my name is Regina..I ended up here from a comment you made on my dog and cat in The World in B&W -thank you.
    I dated an Armenian back in the mid 70's..he described what his family and mother endured. Interesting how you tied in Iraq at the end. This is the second blog concerning war I came across today. In fact, Hussein's sons raped little Iraqi girls -then when they were finished they had them murdered! I guess they must of had some mentoring huh? Great post-

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  4. "Over the centuries Armenian has been conquered by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Mongots, Arabs, Ottoman Turks and Russia. That is a lot of conquering for such a small country."

    It's gotten small after all these. Otherwise check Tigran The Great's Empire.

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