Beginning in 1908, the Ottoman Empire wanted to strengthen their power after it had weakened because of corruption in the late 1800s. This lead to a new government power in Turkey; a assembly of activists, who called themselves “Young Turks”, conquered the power of the Ottoman Empire and established a more current constitutional government. With this government, Armenians were optimistic that they would have an equal status in this new state; however, they quickly realized the nationalistic Young Turks just wanted to “Turkify” the empire. According to the new government officials, non-Turks and Christian non-Turks were a great risk factor to their power. In 1914, World War I began. The Turks entered World War I siding with Germany and the Austria-Hungary. Military leaders began to believe the Armenians were traitors; if they assumed they could receive liberation from the Turks if the Allies were triumphant, the Armenians would be willing to fight for the enemy. As the war
…show more content…
The Turkish government detained and annihilated several hundred Armenians of high status. After that, average Armenians were turned away from their homes and sent to through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were exposed naked and involuntarily forced to walk under the sweltering sun until they fell dead. People who stopped to rest were killed immediately. The memoir written by Turkish Native Fethiye Cetin, simply titled “My Grandmother”, tells of th author’s Grandmother’s firsthand story of the Armenian genocide of 1915. When Fethiye Cetin was growing up in the Turkish town of Maden, she identified her grandmother as a joyful and commonly respected Muslim housewife. Years past before her grandmother told her the truth: she was actually born a Christian and an Armenian, her name was not Seher but Heranush, and that she, along with most of the women and children, had been sent on a death
The Turkish government detained and annihilated several hundred Armenians of high status. After that, average Armenians were turned away from their homes and sent to through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were exposed naked and involuntarily forced to walk under the sweltering sun until they fell dead. People who stopped to rest were killed immediately. The memoir written by Turkish Native Fethiye Cetin, simply titled “My Grandmother”, tells of th author’s Grandmother’s firsthand story of the Armenian genocide of 1915. When Fethiye Cetin was growing up in the Turkish town of Maden, she identified her grandmother as a joyful and commonly respected Muslim housewife. Years past before her grandmother told her the truth: she was actually born a Christian and an Armenian, her name was not Seher but Heranush, and that she, along with most of the women and children, had been sent on a death