Country: Turkey

Group: Armenian

Date: 10/06/2022

Team: James Driscoll (lead), Natasha Chandra, Lacey Hurst, Isabella Boker, Jocelyn Chen and Hannah Lux

Content Warning: genocide,  sexual assault

Approximate Time Period: 1894 – present

The Armenians are an ethnic group originally from Armenia, which is now northeastern Turkey and the Republic of Armenia (Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d.). The region exists in what used to be the Ottoman or Turkish Empire, a multicultural regime which included Christians, Greeks, Assyrians, Muslims and an estimated two million Armenians (Sindelar 2015). The majority of Armenians are Christian (Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d.).

Lethal violence against Armenians began in response to calls for Armenian autonomy in the late nineteenth-century. After a failed Armenian rebellion to take over the National Bank in Constantinople, the Ottomans conducted a series of massacres which killed at least 80,000 Armenians from 1894-1896 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire lost most of its European land-holdings. The Ottoman government became fearful that invasions by Christian soldiers might spark anti-government sentiments from Christain Armenians (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). In August 1915, the Ottoman military, supported by Turkish Muslim civilians, began exterminating the Armenian population (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The Turkish employed special mobile units to raid homes, kill men, and rape girls and women. Authorities kidnapped children and forced them to convert to Islam (World Without Genocide). The Ottomans killed Armenians in mass shootings and forced deportations which caused death due to starvation, dehydration and disease (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.). From 1915 to 1916, at least 664,000 and up to 1.2 million Armenians died in the genocide (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.).

To this day, the Turkish government denies the Armenian genocide, calling genocide allegations Islamaphobic (Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs, n.d.). Conflict continues between Armenia and Turkey. The Armenian Republic and Azerbaijan have fought over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1988 (International Crisis Group). Turkey has backed Azerbaijan in the skirmish. Since the conflict began and as of September 2022, Turkey has conducted drone strikes against Armenians in the region (Zaman 2022).

Data Quality: The data quality is a 3/3 because the sources come from reputable government websites, international organizations and independent, regional news sources.

Sources

  1. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Armenian. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Armenian-people
  2. International Crisis Group. (2022, November 16). The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: A visual explainer. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from https://www.crisisgroup.org/content/nagorno-karabakh-conflict-visual-explainer
  3. Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (n.d.). The Armenian allegation of genocide: The issue and the Facts. Enterprising and Humanitarian Foreign Policy. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from https://www.mfa.gov.tr/the-armenian-allegation-of-genocide-the-issue-and-the-facts.en.mfa
  4. Sindelar, D. (2015, April 23). 1915: The crumbling of an empire, and the massacre that ensued. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from https://www.rferl.org/a/crumbling-ottoman-empire-and-armenian-massacres/26974721.html
  5. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE (1915-16): IN DEPTH. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-in-depth
  6. World Without Genocide. (n.d.). Genocide of the Armenians. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/armenian-genocide
  7. Zaman, A. (2022, September 14). Turkey backs Azerbaijan in deadly attacks against Armenia. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/09/turkey-backs-azerbaijan-deadly-attacks-against-armenia