The Armenian Genocide

This paper will explore the extent to which our primary sources allow us to identify the causes and effects of the Armenian genocide. Our study of Power’s “A Problem from Hell,” Jones’ Genocide, and Kiernan’s Blood and Soil, reveals a range of causes of the Armenian genocide, including the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the humiliation of the Ottoman leadership, the scapegoating of the vulnerable Armenian religious minority, racist ideology, dehumanizing hate speech, and the failure of the U.S. to intervene. Further, our reading of Power, Jones, and Kiernan, and our study of the film Ararat allows us to document the catastrophic effects of the Armenian genocide, including eliticide, the deportation or “death marches,” violence against women, and cultercide. The conclusion will first address the thesis, and then reflect on the value of the identification of the causes and the effects of the Armenian genocide for education of genocide prevention.
The first cause of the Armenian Genocide was the decline of the Ottoman Empire. In Genocide by Jones, he states “out of a total area of approximately 1,153,000 square miles and from a population of about 24 million, by 1911 the Turks had lost about 424,000 square miles and 5 million people; and by 1913, only a narrow strip of European territory remained in their grasp" (J, 153). The loss of land and people brought humiliation to the Turks and it provoked a violent reaction. With the end of the Ottoman Empire came a new ideology amongst the Young Turks, these new Young Turks were led by modernization-minded military officers. Jones states “the decline of the Ottoman empire, which provoked desperation and humiliation among Turkey’s would be revolutionary modernizers and eventually violent reactions” (J, 151). The decline of the Ottoman Empire humiliated the leadership of the Ottoman Empire and they sought a reason for its demise.
In the late nineteenth century the largest non-Muslim population in eastern Anatolia was the Ottoman Armenians. Armenian nationalist societies formed an “Armenian Renaissance,” this Renaissance began to gain momentum during the middle of the nineteenth century and on. These societies demanded full equality within the empire; the societies would attempt to appeal to outside powers for protection and power. This can be seen in Jones’ Genocide when he says “the situation within the shrinking empire was ripe for nativist backlash.” The first event that began the genocide occurred on April 24th, 1915, when the Turkish government executed and arrested several hundred Armenian artists, clergy, poets, and intellectuals. The post-Ottoman Turks had taken power and because of the humiliation that came with losing an Empire they created a Turkification campaign. Jones states, “pan-Turkism was bound up in grandiose romantic nationalism and a ‘mystical vision of blood and race’” (J, 153). Under the new leadership, those who were deemed not native were considered dangerous to the state.
Without an explanation for the fall of their empire the Turks needed somebody to blame. The Christian Armenian’s being the minority were therefore an easy target to which the Turkish leadership placed the blame. It was this reason that the Armenian religious minority became the scapegoat for the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Jones states, “Three factors combined to produce the genocide of Christian minorities: (2) Christians’ vulnerable position in the Ottoman realms” (J, 151). Humiliation of the Turkish leaders combined with the vulnerable position of the Christian minority worked together to give the Turkish leaders a hostile mentality against the Christians. It is because of this newfound mentality that the Armenians were targeted and executed as a means of bringing the Turkish leadership a sense of redemption for the fall of their Empire.
With the new mentality in place the Turkish leadership needed a way to express their hatred towards the Armenians. This developed into a new racist ideology that the Turkish leadership used to spread their message. One of the ways in which this message was spread was through referring to the Armenians as tubercular microbes. This is supported in Kiernan’s Blood and Soil when he states, “two physician-politicians called Armenian’s ‘tubercular microbes’ that were contaminating the state” (K, 401). This expanded the ideas that not only were the Armenians inferior to the Turks but that they were a biological threat to the Turks. By creating an ideology that the Armenians are a biological threat it then became easier to warrant the extermination of the Armenians as it now can be considered protecting the Turkish people. The effect that dehumanizing hate speech has on people is a powerful one. It allowed for the message that the Turks wanted to spread to become the new way of thinking among the Turkish people. It places the importance of protecting the Turkish people by exterminating the Armenian minority.
The final cause that will be discussed in this paper is the failure of the United States to intervene. The United States knew a great deal of what was occurring at the time however there was never an effort to step in and stop the atrocities from happening. As Power states, “The New York Times gave the Turkish horrors steady coverage, publishing 145 stories in 1915” (P, 9). There was wide coverage in the press about the genocide but that did not cause the United States government to intervene. By not making an effort to prevent the genocide from continuing it can be argued that the United States allowed it to continue. With the resources that the U.S. had at the time there could have been an effort made to stop the genocide from continuing or even stop it from happening it altogether.
One of the effects of the genocide was eliticide. Eliticide is the killing of the elite like clergymen, scholars, artists, and intellectuals. This occurred during the Armenian genocide and on multiple occasions. As described above on April 24th, 1915, several hundred of Armenian’s elite were arrested and executed. This was an example of eliticide. Kiernan describes eliticide further when he says, “scores of Constantinople’s Armenian leaders and intellectuals were rounded up, deported, and killed” (K, 409”. Along with eliticide there were massive deportations, these deportations took form in death marches. Armenians were told they were being deported however they were then forced to walk long distances sometimes with no actual destination. Many people died along the way either from starvation, hunger, or were killed. In the film Ararat there is a scene that depicts a death march taking place. In the scene it shows people walking in the desert with guards on horses alongside them. Many people were being dragged along by those in that were less tired. A woman is seen collapsing to the ground where she is then beaten by the guards on horses.
There was violence inflicted upon women during the Armenian genocide. The Turkish people took advantage of the vulnerable Armenian women and in many cases raped and abused them. Power states, “The gendarmes said to be protecting the convoy first dragged Tehlirian’s sisters off behind the bushes to rape them” (P, 3). This is only one example of the ways in which women were taken advantage. The final effect of the Armenian genocide is cultercide. Cultercide is the destruction of a culture’s architecture and artifacts as a means of erasing anything associated with a certain race or people. This was done to the Armenians during the genocide. The Turks wanted to erase the existence of not only the Armenian people, but also the items and buildings associated with the Armenians. Jones states “Looting and pillaging were accompanied by a concerted campaign to destroy the Armenian cultural heritage” (J, 157).
The purpose of this essay was to identify the extent to which our primary sources allow us to identify the causes and effects of the Armenian genocide those being the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the humiliation of the Ottoman leadership, seeking a scapegoat for the decline of the Empire, a new racial thinking, dehumanizing hate speech, and the failure of the U.S. to intervene. The effects of the genocide were also discussed in this paper and those were eliticide, deportations, violence against women, and cultercide. It is important to review and learn the causes and effects of the Armenian genocide so we can provide education for the prevention of future genocides. It is said that the importance of knowing history is so atrocities committed in the past will not be committed again in the future. It is therefore important to not only know about the genocide but also the causes and effects. By knowing the causes of the genocide it provides us with things to look out for when we believe genocide is occurring. After all what is the point of educating and learning about genocide if we are not going to try and prevent it.