The Armenian Genocide is acknowledged by most scholars as one of the first genocides of the modern era. The events that unfolded in the Ottoman Empire during World War I killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians. These events were an extension of a persecution that extended from the 1500s and was an accumulation of massacres that started in the 1890s.The deaths also extended to the mass killings of Assyrians and Greeks whom resided in the Ottoman Empire. Despite these atrocities, the Ottoman Empire’s successor state of Turkey’s denial of the usage of the term genocide in describing the massacre of millions of Armenians had long term effects such as the allowance of future mass killings such as the Holocaust of the 1930s and the ISIS murders
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The conditions in Russia as opposed to the Ottoman Empire were far more liberal and favorable as Armenians were in the midst of fellow Christians without prejudice. Eventually, a population of Armenians still residing in the Ottoman Empire believed that Russian rule was their best chance at autonomy and freedom from their Ottoman Muslim superiors. An intellectual class also emerged among the Armenians in the 1800s that began to question their supposed inferiority to the Ottoman Muslims. Along with the lobbying of non-Ottoman Armenians, they began to call for religious equality and autonomy from the Ottoman state. In contrast, many ethnic groups such as the Greeks and the Balkan states fought for complete independence and often achieved their goals through violent uprisings with the help of Western nations, the Armenians only wished for equality and the ability to fully preside over themselves while still being under Ottoman rule as a semi-separate sovereignty. However, the Armenian hope for social equality was met with reluctance and sometimes violence. On October 1, 1890, a peaceful demonstration of 2000 Armenians in Istanbul grew violent and snowballed into what is now known as Hamidian Massacres. An estimated 300,000 Armenians were killed and despite promises by the Sultan Abdul Hamid II for changes toward the treatment of Armenians and other minorities, none …show more content…
Similarly, rumors of Ottoman Armenians defecting to Russia and the Allies in WWI angered many Ottoman military leaders. Many military leaders would conscript abled body Armenian men into the armed forces as logistical troops but would then subsequently execute them under the context of protecting Ottoman secrets from Russian Armenians. Tensions rose to a frenzy in April of 1915. Armenians in the city of Van were asked by Ottoman officials to submit 4000 men for conscription. The Armenians in Van, scared by the massacres occurring in other Armenian-dominant cities, barricaded themselves against an Ottoman siege. The protectors of Van were able to starve off Ottoman attacks to Van’s 50000 inhabitants until Russian troops came to Van’s
The conditions in Russia as opposed to the Ottoman Empire were far more liberal and favorable as Armenians were in the midst of fellow Christians without prejudice. Eventually, a population of Armenians still residing in the Ottoman Empire believed that Russian rule was their best chance at autonomy and freedom from their Ottoman Muslim superiors. An intellectual class also emerged among the Armenians in the 1800s that began to question their supposed inferiority to the Ottoman Muslims. Along with the lobbying of non-Ottoman Armenians, they began to call for religious equality and autonomy from the Ottoman state. In contrast, many ethnic groups such as the Greeks and the Balkan states fought for complete independence and often achieved their goals through violent uprisings with the help of Western nations, the Armenians only wished for equality and the ability to fully preside over themselves while still being under Ottoman rule as a semi-separate sovereignty. However, the Armenian hope for social equality was met with reluctance and sometimes violence. On October 1, 1890, a peaceful demonstration of 2000 Armenians in Istanbul grew violent and snowballed into what is now known as Hamidian Massacres. An estimated 300,000 Armenians were killed and despite promises by the Sultan Abdul Hamid II for changes toward the treatment of Armenians and other minorities, none …show more content…
Similarly, rumors of Ottoman Armenians defecting to Russia and the Allies in WWI angered many Ottoman military leaders. Many military leaders would conscript abled body Armenian men into the armed forces as logistical troops but would then subsequently execute them under the context of protecting Ottoman secrets from Russian Armenians. Tensions rose to a frenzy in April of 1915. Armenians in the city of Van were asked by Ottoman officials to submit 4000 men for conscription. The Armenians in Van, scared by the massacres occurring in other Armenian-dominant cities, barricaded themselves against an Ottoman siege. The protectors of Van were able to starve off Ottoman attacks to Van’s 50000 inhabitants until Russian troops came to Van’s