Objective: Oppression and discrimination resulted in the Armenian Genocide during

World War I.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Oppression is when a person or group in a position of power controls the less powerful in cruel and unfair ways

What is oppression?

PARTNER QUESTION

• Describe oppression in your own words. You may use an example.

Discrimination means distinguishing between two or more people or things. Usually, discrimination means an unfair system that treats one group of people worse than another.

What is discrimination?

PARTNER QUESTION

• Describe discrimination in your own words. You may use an example.

OPPRESSION AND DISCRIMINATION RESULTED

IN THE FOLLOWING IN ARMENIA

A starving child in Yerevan, where the Armenians attempted to set up an independent republicafter the War to avoid further massacre by the Turks

Armenians slaughtered by the Turks - 1915

WHERE IS THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE (AND ARMENIA)?

Today’s Borders

Red Outline=Area where Armenian Genocide Occurred

WarFront

PARTNER QUESTION

• What modern day country was the central power of the Ottoman Empire?

FIRST ARMENIAN MASSACRE [LATE 1800S & EARLY 1900S]

• Armenians wanted independence.

• Armenian rebels engaged in acts of violence against the Turks (Government).

• Claims on both sides: 50,000 Armenians killed and 5,000 Turks killed.

• Ottoman government overthrown by Young Turks.

PARTNER QUESTION

• When did the first Armenian Genocide occur?

• A) 1894-1896

• B) 1907

• C) 1914-1923

• D) Both A and B are Correct

MOTIVATION

• When WWI erupted, the Young Turk government, hoping to save the remains of the weakened Ottoman Empire, adopted a policy of Pan Turkism – the establishment of a mega Turkish empire comprising of all Turkic-speaking peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia extending to China, intending also to Turkify all ethnic minorities of the empire.

• The Armenian population became the main obstacle standing in the way of the realization of this policy.

PARTNER QUESTION

•Why was the Armenian Genocide committed?

SECOND ARMENIAN MASSACRE

• Many Armenians supported Russia, the enemy of the Ottoman empire during WWI.

• The Ottoman government feared that these Armenians would help Russia to invade the empire.

• The Ottoman government forced relocation on the Armenians living near the Russian border.

• Armed attacks against Armenian villagers were used only to force armed resisters to obey the evacuation orders, according to the Ottoman government.

PARTNER QUESTIONS

• Which country did many Armenians support during WWI?

• Which country did Armenians live in?

• Why would Armenian support for Russia be a problem?

• What was the solution to the Ottoman Empire’s fear of Armenian support for Russia?

• 2 possible answers

The transportation of villagers

SECOND ARMENIAN MASSACRE

• Example of oppression against Armenians.

• The Ottoman government summoned leading Armenian intellectuals to the capital, Istanbul [Taken 2], and then executed them.

• Many other Armenians were also executed at that time in other parts of the empire.

• Able-bodied Armenian men were taken from their villages and towns.

• Many of the men believed they were being drafted into the army to fight the war.

• Instead, they were executed or forced into hard labor.

Execution of Armenians in Constantinople (Istanbul), June 1915

PARTNER QUESTION

•What are some examples of oppression during the Second Armenian Genocide?

SECOND ARMENIAN MASSACRE• After many armed clashes between Ottoman government troops

and Armenian villagers, the Ottoman government ordered the deportation of all Armenians living in the Turkish part of the Ottoman Empire to Syria and Mesopotamia [Iraq].

• It has been reported that the government troops forced the Armenians to travel to these areas by foot and refused them food or water.

• It was, in effect, a death march, and over a million died of starvation and disease.

• The small number of Armenians who survived this ordeal fled across the border into Russian territory [Soviet Union at the time]—an area that is now independent Armenia.

Deportation Path-Death March

War Front

Deportation of the Armenians in the Baghdad railway

The transportation of villagers-death march

Armenians burnt alive in Sheykhalan by Turkish soldiers, 1915

ARMENIANS TODAY

• There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of WWI. Approximately one and a half million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923. Another half million found shelter abroad.

• Today, there are large Armenian populations living in Egypt, other parts of the Middle East, Canada, the United States, and the independent Armenian state that was once part of Russia [Soviet Union].

• Their parents and grandparents were the survivors of the Armenian genocide.

• Armenians around the world remember the Armenian dead and honor them on April 24th, Genocide Memorial Day.