The Impact of Armenian Genocide on Further Development of Armenian Nation - Research Paper Example

THE IMPACT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ON FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF ARMENIAN NATION The Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks is oneof the bleakest chapters of twentieth century history of mankind. It not only pushed the innocent Armenians into destruction, devastation, damages, despair and disappointment, but also gave a go to making further atrocities in almost the same patterns and by applying more cruel forces and weapons to tame the rival communities and opponent states. The American brutalities and Russian atrocities in the soils of Iraq and Bosnia respectively are the examples of shameful genocides of contemporary times. The present study has been conducted by concentrating on revealing the butcheries of the Ottoman Turks on their Armenian subjects during the World War I. The study also signifies the causes, events, impact and consequences of these brutalities on the Armenians for the future years to come. The genocidal incidents left indelible imprints on the frightened minds of the population and still these serve as a horrible nightmare for the Armenians after nearly one century has passed away since the great calamity took place. In addition, the history, geography and cultural traits have also been discussed precisely in the current study. Moreover, the scattered Armenian nation in different parts of the globe has also been mentioned. The Turk views regarding the sorry incident of genocide are also the part of the present study. Lustful Ambitions to Gain Power Originate Human Annihilation Looking at the history of the world at large, it becomes evident that man has always been lustful by nature in respect of governing over his fellow beings and other creatures as well; it is therefore he has refuted noble teachings, moral laws and ethical principles he is bound to abide by for the sustenance of peace, tranquility and justice in the world. Not only this but also he has promulgated the prevailing norms, values, mores and laws in order to subjugate others under his own sway. It is therefore the rule of might is right always prevailed in almost all the human societies, cultures and nations, which have been divided in the name of caste, class, clan, tribe, region, religion, race and ethnic group. The countless battles and horrible wars reflect man’s passion and yearn for dominating over his fellow beings. It is therefore the individuals at the helm and power mostly practice prejudice and biased ness especially towards the people of other groups and communities and inflict cruelties and injustices on the basis of these differences. The same has been the slogan of the people belonging to different regions and religions as well. Most of the disputes have been raised and wars have been fought in the name of religion just to acquire the land and natural resources of the opponents by seizing their territories. Wars, battles, massacre and genocide in various parts of the globe had cost millions of lives since the creation of man on the earth. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are thought to be the Abrahamic religions, which seek inspiration from the same light; yet, all the three remained at daggers drawn since ever and brutally treated one another whenever either of the three got a chance of it ignoring the noble teachings of the holy prophets for the sake of worldly gains. (Zaidi, 2007: 13) The startling catastrophe of Armenian genocide during and soon after the World War I at the hands of Ottoman Turks is a case in point, which is estimated as one of the most thwarting incidents in the history of not only Armenia, but also the history of the world. ARMENIA---BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, Armenia is one of the ancient-most civilizations of the world parallel to the Chinese, Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian and Iraqi civilizations. It is the smallest of the former Soviet Republics, which won its freedom on September 23, 1991 from Russia after the disintegration of the USSR. (Quoted in Information Please.html) Christianity has been the official religion of the country for the last many centuries, which the then King and his people embraced in the beginning of 4th century A. C. (Sarafian, 1958: 447). History reveals the very fact that Armenia had been victim of foreign invasions and had been treated as the playground of warriors’ incursions and adventures since ever even before the beginning of Christian era. The Greek, Romans, Arabs, Mongols, Russians, Persians, Turks and other nations attacked and captured the country and enslaved its inhabitants time and again. (Brunner, 2007: 685) From 16th century A. C. till the defeat of Turkey in World War I in November 1918, Ottoman Turks ruled over Armenia. The long term foreign rule damaged their morale as a nation resulting in frustration and dissatisfaction of the masses in general. The Armenian Christians had been living under the sway of Ottoman Empire as the largest minority in a state of peace and harmony. No serious clashes had ever occurred during more than three and half centuries; yet, the idea of nationalism began haunting in the minds of many especially during the second half of nineteenth century. It was the time when Russia and Ottoman Empire were in constant conflict with one another. Many wars had been fought between the two in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the Christian subjects like Greeks, Albanians, Armenians and others served as sandwich between the expansion-campaigns and war-adventures of Russian Imperialism and Ottoman Empire, both of which contained unquenched thirst for more and more lands and territories. (Mahajan, 1999: 446) There were ideological differences between the two, but the main reason and bone of contention was territorial expansions which cost thousands of lives and other losses both in men and material. The massacre of Ochakov in 1788 in the Russo-Turkish war has restrained its notoriety as an increasingly infrequent example of lust for occupying more and more land in various parts of the world. (Corvisier, 1994:467) The first, second and third partitions of helpless Poland at the hands of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Prussia in eighteenth century also reflect the nefarious designs of the powerful neighboring countries towards small and weak nations where no religious differences or ethnic discriminations involved at all. The Russian Emperors, as well as all other European powers, had least care of the Christian Armenian population; rather, they constantly exploited the religion by declaring wars on the Ottoman Empire to fry their own fish and to have political, economic and strategic gains in the region. The Russian interference through churches, military strategists, religious leaders, scholars, philosophers and intellectuals infused the passion for freedom in the poor Armenian masses, which started thinking of freeing themselves from the slavery of Ottoman Turks. Russia always pretended herself the benefactor and protector of Christianity all over the world, though the betterment and welfare of the Christian community had never been her basic agenda. Her undue intervention in the affairs of neighboring countries constantly created difficulties for the Christians wherever she poked her nose in order to patronize her political and economic benefits. Her advances towards Ottoman Empire also created fuss for the whole community. Consequently, the Christian Armenians had to bear the brunt of Turkish wrath and it pushed them towards leading a miserable life under Turkish sway, where they had no right to participate in political activities even. Social groups and nations demand that their unique existence be acknowledged. They adopt varieties of symbols, which represent their uniqueness and draw attention to their existence. Denial of recognition produces a kind of narcissistic hurt that appears to stimulate wrathful reactions. (Femenia, 2000) Thus, political terrorism movements got their roots in this dynamic. Hence, every Armenian effort to launch a campaign to win a status on equal footings in the country, as a result of the new Russian instigation and interference, was crushed with an iron hand by the government. The government considered the Armenians to be disloyal to the Muslim state as they welcomed the foreign European ideas and invasions that were strictly against the nationalism of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, Sultan Abdul Hamid II got a significant opportunity for pertaining cruelty and trickery to strengthen his own influence by hook or by crook. He not only applied Turkish forces to combat revolts against his governments, but also invited English, German and French services in the Persian Gulf, Mesopotamia and Syria respectively for controlling disturbances and maintenance of law and order situation in the large empire. None of these three Christian states tried to stop and condemn the Sultan on such excruciating brutal policies inflicted on the Christian masses. The massacre of the Armenians from 1896 to 1909 under Sultan Abdul Hamid II was not the reaction to the demand of the Armenians to gain political representation; rather, Turkish high handedness served as a severe rejoinder to the unnecessary Russian intrusion in the internal matters of Turkish Empire. As Russia intended to have an access to hot waters, so he used the Armenians for her own purposes. (Khalid, 1975: 268) Though the Turkish Government intended to teach the Armenians a remarkable lesson due to their links with the enemies of the country, yet it did not want to go to such an extent that could be stated as the horrible annihilation of the whole Armenian nation. Since the Ottoman Empire had estimated its continuous downfall, and its shameful defeat at the hands of four minor Balkan states in the first Balkan War of 1912 had completed its humiliation, the government wanted to take revenge from anyone, who could be treated as the scape-goat in order to conceal the weaknesses of the falling Empire. Hence, the World War I provided it a golden chance to show its strength by exercising atrocities on the helpless Armenian subjects, as the USA forces have been committing the same atrocities with more strength and utilizing more harmful and destructive weapons on the helpless Iraqis in the name of so called War on Terrorism. Unlike the noble teachings of Islam which lay stress on tolerance and kindness towards minorities, the Sultan had become both harsh and ruthless and maintained discriminatory attitude towards the masses. He had announced some relaxations for the Christian minority as well as other Muslim sects provided they embraced the same sect of Muslims followed by the Sultan himself. It is therefore neither Kurds and Hejazis (modern Saudi Arabians) were happy with his strict orthodox policies, nor Iraqis nor Syrians were satisfied with the political strategies launched by him. The same was the condition of Christians and other minorities. Hence, the absence of wise and popular leadership derived towards the disintegration of the whole empire. As soon as the Sultan Abdul Hamid II of Ottoman Empire was deposed in 1909 after the strong and continuous public demand, the Armenians developed great expectations from the Young Turks Revolution in respect of restructuring of constitution and Armenian participation in the legislature. The revolution broke out in 1908 and gave way to the Young Turks for constitutional reformation, but the country could not observe political stability at all. The sudden outbreak of two Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913 aggravated the situation, and the tension between Muslim rulers of Ottoman Empire and their Christian minority subjects increased leading towards the sorrowful genocide of 1915. The Ottoman Empire, during the course of WWI, witnessed the participation of Armenian Volunteers from the Russian side against Turkey. It raised serious Turkish reservations against the Armenian nation as a whole and hence they were determined to eradicate the Armenian Christians who were playing the role of traitors against their own homeland. The most horrendous and dreadful Armenian obliteration took place in April 1915 during World War I, when the Turks ordered the deportation of the Armenian population to the deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia. According to the majority of historians, between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were murdered or died of starvation. The Armenian massacre is considered the first genocide in the 20th century. (Quoted in Information Please.html) The shameful brutal act of genocide of innocent Armenians revealed how cruel and vindictive were the European powers to win the WWI putting aside all moral values and international laws. The Armenian genocide was not committed mere out of sheer hatred for the Christian community of Turkey. Rather, lack of proper administrative structure and poorly planned financial set up of the falling empire forced the government devise such strategies that could escape the government from revolts and conspiracies. Like all European empires, the Ottoman Empire was also a multinational state. At one time, it stretched from the gates of Vienna in the north to Mecca in the south. By the beginning of twentieth century, it had been turned into a shrunken state confined mostly to the Middle East. (Adalian, 1991:2) The culmination of many races and ethnic as well as religious groups is sure to create disturbances and discontentment among the people at large. The same was the case with the vast Ottoman Empire, which was once one of the most powerful Empires, but had lost its command over the areas situated in Africa and Asia. Neither Libyans nor Arabs nor the Armenians felt happy under the rule of the Sultan whose policies and strategies had turned once a global threat into the sick man of Europe, which could be tamed by the tiny Balkan states even. Armenian genocide was not committed on the basis of religion only, as no Christian government mobilized its forces to save and protect the poor Armenians. Instead, all the global powers exercised such butcheries to cow down the rival states without discrimination of religion and ethnicity. During the devastation of the Armenian population by forcing them run away to deserts to save their lives, no single voice could be raised from any of the Christian states of Asia and Europe. They had no care for the poor population dying of starvation; they were just engaged in entering into agreements with the wealthy and influential communities like Jews and others to have maximum shares out of the remains of losing countries in the WWI. (Khalid, 1975, 124) FACTS DISCLOSING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE Hundreds of documents, photographs, research papers, journals and citations of that time prove the authenticity of the Turkish campaign to destroy the Armenians during 1915-16. The facts and figures disclose how many people met with a fateful end clearly indicating the areas and places even. The men, women, the aged and children were killed mercilessly without discrimination. Though media was not very fast that time and television had not got place, yet the government restricted pressmen up to the capital city of Constantinople. Nevertheless, the news of Armenians’ deportation spread everywhere inside and outside of the empire. By 1916, the information regarding Christian obliteration had become the part of European journals, reports and other relevant sources of information. Bryce’s comprehensive report on the topic, published in 1916, reveals the details of the catastrophe in many aspects including the views and comments of eye-witnesses. While discussing the Bohtan region, the report states that there was a general massacre in the Bohtan region, and the helpers, preachers, teachers and the Bible-Women i.e. Christian ladies, with their families, fell victims to it among the rest. The clergymen were the special target of the killers and thus were massacred in bulk. In addition, the Ottoman authorities accompanied by the Kurd community and Turkish soldiers put the Christians of different villages, including Djeziré, to the sword. (McDowell, 1916: Quoted in Bryce, Chapter 41: 2) Many of the religious citizens, including parsons, priests, scholars and pastors were slaughtered in Djeziré. First the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed into labor battalions, and then killed. Then the Armenian political and intellectual leaders were rounded up on April 24, 1915, and then killed. Finally, the remaining Armenians were called from their homes, told they would be relocated, and then marched off to concentration camps in the desert between Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor where they would starve and thirst to death in the burning sun. (University of Michigan-Dearborn, April 3, 1996) Though men, especially ex-military persons and young persons, were the worst victims of the genocidal campaign, yet women and children had also not been left safe. Women met with more startling fate as they were made captives and underwent physical torture too. Many girls and younger women were seized from their families and taken as slave-brides. (Sanasarian, 1989:453) Thousands of the Armenians flew from the major cities especially from the areas near to the capital Constantinople and suburbs, but their departure and deportation could not protect them from becoming the prey to death. In 1915 alone, the New York Times printed 145 articles regarding the Armenian Genocide with the realization that this was a systematic attempt at ethnic cleansing and mass murder. Survivors, journalists, foreign diplomats all attest to the murders, attributing them to “Genocide” with other proofs ranging from photographs to telegrams to newspaper articles. (Quoted in Genocide1915.html) The confiscation of their wealth, business places and properties had urged them to go away far from the main cities and their remains were plundered and captured by the government agencies. In a single year, 1915, the Armenians were robbed of their 3000-year-old heritage. The desecration of churches, the burning of libraries, the ruination of towns and villages—all erased an ancient civilization. (Adalian, 1991:8) The terrible scenes of inhabitants running from their dwellings to protect life and honor had become bleakest nightmare for the survivors and their future generations. The people dying of starvation, hunger and fear portrayed the cruel plans of the Sultan leading towards the downfall of the whole empire. In the aftermath of the genocide, the world drew attention towards the poor community and their cause was presented at international forums. Consequently, the Armenians won freedom from the cruel clutches of the dying empire in November1918. The most regretful and sorrowing consequence of the brutal genocide included the homelessness of the surviving Armenian nation. The loss of nearly one and half million lives and astounding incidents of brutality were enough to support the miserable population. They had turned alien in their own homeland, from where they had to seek shelter and asylum in neighboring and remote countries as refugees. Their future generations could not get acquaintance with their origin where the roots and graves of their forefathers laid to eternal rest. Still a large proportion of them have settled in various countries and states of the globe. The largest population of Armenia lives in Russia, Iran and the USA. The genocide resulted in the death of Armenian society in the former Ottoman Empire, the flight of many Armenians across the border into Russian territory resulted in compressing part of the surviving Armenian population into the smaller section of historic Armenia. (Adalian, 1991: 11) As soon as the WWI came to an end and an armistice was signed between Turkey and the Allies, the winner countries of the Great War were forced to look into the Armenian catastrophe in order to protect the community from further disasters. The Armenia Genocide occurred all over Anatolia (present-day Turkey) and not just in the so called war-zone as claimed by the Turks. (Dear-born University, 1996) And deportation took place in all the desert areas under the Ottoman Empire. The postwar Ottoman government’s policies towards the Armenians were benign. They desisted from further direct victimization, but rendered no assistance to the surviving Armenians to ease recovery from the consequences of their dislocation. (Adalian, 1991:13) Though they got few relaxations, but Armenian tragedy did not end with the wind up of the WWI and the poor nation had been included in the USSR, and thus they became slaves of Russia as soon as they got independence from Turkey. They had to wait for seven more decades till 1991 and after winning independence from the former USSR, the Armenians had again got their motherland where over three million population lives now as a free and independent nation containing its own constitution, laws and foreign and internal policies. THE TURKS’ VIEWS REGARDING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE The Turks did never admit the validity of the so called genocide of the Armenian Christians during the course of World War I. They strictly refute the incident by declaring this statement a part of the disinformation campaign well-knitted, broadcasted and spread by the Allied forces to defame their enemies including Germany and Turkey as well as to fulfill their promises with Jews and other communities as a reward for their financial contributions and moral support to the Allies during the First Great War. The Turks are of the view that in order to protect the country in such a perplexed situation of war, there was no space for the traitors and agents of enemies. Thus, the attempt to deport the Armenian traitors from the Turkish soil included in the precautionary measures to save the soil from falling in the lap of the Allied forces. The deportation of the Allies’ emissaries, agents and supporters was the part of the national cause; and punishing such individuals which were playing in the hands of the Allies against their own motherland was a completely justifiable step. (Khalid, 1975: 209) Turks are of the opinion that even the soldiers of Armenian origin had started conspiring against the country by working for the enemies. It is therefore, the Armenian personnel recruited in the Ottoman army, were terminated from the military. To this day it insists that the deaths occurred in the Turkish attempt to deport the Armenians, attributing the many deaths to the harsh conditions of the desert. The deportation of the ex military men and their families was the slightest of the punishments inflicted and applied by the former Ottoman authorities. Had such act been committed by the followers of Islam, the USA and England had left no stone unturned to make them the worst example of penalty. The people deported and excluded from the sensitive areas at war time voluntarily took shelter in deserts of Arabian Peninsula and Egypt; they were never forced to go their in isolation. Some did die as a result of the harsh conditions of the desert but it was not from deportation, rather from an attempted escape from the onslaught of the Turkish murderers. Thousands of the Armenian military men, conscripted in the royal army were eliminated as soon as the conspiracy was discovered. The rest of the adult population was placed under arrest, taken out of town, and killed in remote locations. (Adalian, 1991:4-5) The Turks call the comments of the US Ambassador in Turkey from 1913 to 1917 mere sign of his hypocrisy and exaggeration who had reported the so called Armenian massacre in his letter to his son. According to the letter the ruins and the devastation of Armenians at the hands of the Turks were heart-rending. He further argued that all the countries had been engaged in war and the Young Turks under the leadership of Tala’t Pasha were slaughtering the Armenians mercilessly. (Bostom, 2007) The Turks emphatically reject the notion and state that if all these facts are true and valid, then why the USA not did anything for the safety of the community and why she played the role of a silent spectator until the German forces destroyed the merchant ship in 1917. They further state that being the silent spectator, the USA is the equal share-holder of all the tragic incident of genocide. (Khalid, 1975: 312) The Armenian genocide, according to Turks, serves as an unspeakable allegation on the part of the USA. The whole story of deportation of the traitors and disloyal stratum had been spun by the anti German elements so that they could win the favor and support of the extremist elements of Jews and Christians. The incident had been wrongly presented in multiple exaggerations as the USA defamed Germany in respect of so called Holocaust after the World War II only for the sake of justifying her condemnable act of participating in both the Great Wars of 1914 and 1939. The Israeli leader and statesman Shimon Peres had also rejected the notion genocide altogether in his recent statement of 2001. In his words: “We reject attempts to create a similarity between the Holocaust and the Armenian allegations. Nothing similar to the Holocaust occurred. What the Armenians went through is a tragedy, but not genocide.” (Quoted in Fein, 2007) The statement from the representative of one of the most influential, well-informed and dominant personalities i.e. ex Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres rectifies the Turks claim that the incidents of the deportation of traitors and spies from the capital city had been presented before the world in an extremely horrible form out of sheer hatred and malice for the German nation and its allies including Turkey in the World War I. The matter of religion never prevailed in any part of the globe at that time that could instigate the Turks to commit the heinous crime of genocide. Arab pagans, to whom Allah first directed His message, were dealt with harshly if they refused to embrace Islam, whereas monotheistic Jews and Christians were treated somewhat better as their religions leant towards Islam. (Corvisier, 1994: 360) It is therefore colonialism was involved in both Russian imperialism and Ottoman crime of genocide and religious differences cannot be blamed for the heinous crimes committed on the humanity. ARMENIA DIASPORA The term Diaspora signifies the individuals who have been migrated to some other country from their fatherland as settled, immigrants or refugees. The term specifically applies for the poor Armenians who underwent severe trials by foreign invaders and their cruelties inflicted on them by the foreigners. Though total population of the Armenians is estimated as between 7.5 million to 7.8 million approximately in the world, yet researches reveal the very fact that only twenty percent of the total Armenian population lives in present day Armenia, while an overwhelming majority i.e. four fifth of the Armenians are living in different countries including Russia, the USA, England, France, Germany and Turkey. According to the research reports of state departments of many countries conducted mostly in 2005, approximately 3.2 million Armenians live in their native land i.e. Armenia, while over two million of the Armenian population lives in Russia, France and Iran. Moreover, an imperative number of them have also been settled in the USA, Georgia, Syria, Lebanon, Argentina, Ukraine, Poland and Turkey. The Armenian population has also been estimated in many thousands living in Jordan, Uzbekistan, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Greece and Australia. (Quoted in Wikipedia Encyclopedia) In the aftermath of the World War I, the world witnessed indescribable perplexity and disturbance everywhere. A large number of deaths and injuries created feelings of hatred, remorse and revenge in the minds of the winning countries i.e. America, England and France as well as the loser countries Germany and Turkey. Grudge, malice and hatred was on the basis of race and nationality that had created unpleasant atmosphere in all corners of the globe. With the passage of time the tensions between Turkey and Armenia mitigated, though could not be declared as near to normalcy. On the other hand, the Armenians always considered Turkey as their enemy, which had inflicted the most harmful atrocities to cow down them leading the future generations of the country into the state of permanent repentance and remorse. They felt themselves extremely insecure in the aftermath of the heart-rending atrocities. The image of running and struggling to escape and dying mercilessness because of fear of life and utter starvation is an infamous blur on the very face of so called cultured and civilized nations of world at large. All such incidents shook the confidence of the whole Armenian community and they always felt them chased by the cruel murderers. The insecurities of life in Diaspora further undermined the confidence of the Armenians in their ability to hang on to some form of national existence. Constant dispersion, the threat of complete assimilation, and the humiliation of such total defeat and degradation contributed to their insecurities. (Adalian, 1991) Based on false statistics presented by American and British statesmen and journalists, the Armenians still consider the Turks one of the most aggressive nations which exercised unspeakable brutalities on all the strata of the innocent Armenians. They strongly believe that the Turkish forces were harsh and haughty towards the largest minority of the country especially during World War I. Armenia got independence from Turkey in 1918, but fell in the hands of the USSR, from where she won liberty in 1991 from the clutches of Soviet Union which was taking her last sighs paving the way for a democratic republic Russian state subsequently. REFERENCES Andrew G. Bostom. Congress Must Recognize the Armenian Genocide American Thinker August 26 2007 Andre Corvisier. A Dictionary of Military History Blackwell Publishers Oxford UK 1994 Borgna Brunner. Time Almanac 2007 ISBN 1933405228 (Quoted in Information Please.com) C. A. Leads. European History 1789-1914 5th Edition M & E Handbooks. 1989 Eliz Sanasarian. Gender Distinction in the Genocidal Process: A Preliminary Study of the Armenian Case. Holocaust and Genocide Studies 4, no. 4 1989 Leod Fein On Armenian Genocide Politics Trumps Truth (Quoted in the Jewish Daily “Forward” August 15, 2007 M. H. Zaidi God, Adam And Serpent Moosa Publications, Urdu Bazaar Lahore Pakistan. 2007 M. S. Anderson. The Eastern Question 4th Edition 1976 Nora Femenia. Foreign Policy Decision-Making. Social Conflicts and Collective Identities, Coy, Patrick G.  and Woehrle, Lynne M.; (Eds.) 2000. Prof Kevork A. Sarafian History of Education Among the Armenians Chapter 46. Quoted in The History of Armenia by Vahan M. Kurkjian Armenian General Benevolent Union of America 1958 Rouben Paul Adalian The Armenian Genocide: Context and Legacy 1991 Shamaila Khalid The Caliphate of Turkey John Publishing House Industrial Area Karachi 1975 Taner Akcam A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility. Metropolitan Books 2006 V. D. Mahajan. International relations Since 1900. S. Chand & Company Limited. Ramnagar India 1999 Viscount Bryce The Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916. New York: G.P. Putnams Sons, 1916. http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocide.html Read More