What happened to the Armenians in Ottoman Turkey Objective 2:

Key Terms Millet System Hamidian Massacres Young Turks System of organization in the Ottoman empire based on religion Religious minorities = second class citizens Hamidian Massacres Series massacres against Armenians in the 1890s started by Sultan Abdul Hammid, the last emperor of the Empire Young Turks Political party/group that took over in 1908 Supposed to be more “open”, but actually more nationalist

Who were the Armenians? Ancient peoples, lived on the same land for thousands of years Historically located at the intersection of major trade routes from east to west First Christian nation Most neighboring countries are Islamic

Babylonian clay tablet 600BC Ancient Babylonian map dating back to the 6th century BC, illustrates that Armenians were autonomously living in the region in the 7th century BC

Who were the Ottomans? The Ottoman Turkish state was founded in Anatolia in 1299 Became an empire after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 Armenia was taken over by the Ottomans in the 1500s Height of power during the 16th and 17th centuries controlled most of southeast Europe, West Asia +North Africa

Ottoman Empire Ruled by kings called “sultans” Very large empire spanning 3 continents Lots of minority groups

Ottoman Government Millet system Empire divided into subgroups by religion to make it manageable Christians= minority Armenians= largest group of Christians in the empire Each minority group was led by their religious leader Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Jewish Had some autonomy (ability to rule themselves), but were treated as second class citizen

Ottoman empire at start of WWI At the time of WWI, the empire was crumbling Rise of nationalism led many groups to ask for independence Lost Christian lands in the Balkans (ie Serbia)  Fear of the Christians within the empire

Hamidian Massacres Some Armenians looked to Christian Russia to help free them from Turkish rule “Pogroms” or massacres started by Sultan Abdul Hammid 1896-98---200,000 killed by king’s forces 1909– massacre in Adana 30,000 killed

Young Turks Abdul Hamid= last sultan, 1909, Young Turks take over Ultra nationalist group Wanted a union of all Turkish people in one country that included only Turks Kicked out the “emperor” New government was to be more democratic and open

Recap Armenians lived in the region for thousands of years Ottoman Empire took over Armenia in the 1500s Ottoman empire was at the height of its power in the 16th + 17th centuries, but was crumbling around WWI Armenians + other Christians were considered a threat

“The Armenian Question” Problem: Crumbling Empire Nationalism means: more Christians getting independence= Christians are a threat to the Empire Ottoman Empire losing land + power Armenians= largest group of Christians, largest threat Solution: Armenians are a threat, get rid of them

Over 2 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire at the start of WWI

Execute/ kill all able bodied men

What happened?

Second Class Citizenship As Christians, Armenians were treated as gavours or “infidels” They did not have the same rights as Turkish citizens Things got progressively worse as the empire began to crumble

April 24, 1915 250 community, political, religious, educational, leaders were rounded up in the middle of the night in Istanbul, shot and killed

Because they were considered threats to the empire, they were told to turn in all their weapons to the government Quotas were so high that some families actually bought guns just to turn them in

Execute/ kill all able bodied men

Men were separated from the women, children, and the elderly, escorted out of the villages and killed They were often asked to dig their own graves first Sometimes they were asked to step in a cave, locked in with a giant stone and burnt alive in primitive gas chambers

Armenian women and children were forced to march into the desert, escorted by armed soldiers

Women, children and the elderly were marched into the desert… without any food or water

The Armenian Genocide Most of the deported Armenians starved to death in the desert

The Armenian Genocide Result: By the end of 1915, approximately 1,000,000 Armenians had died

Numbers No one knows exactly how many people died There were about 2+ million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire in 1915… by 1923… only about 200,000 could be officially accounted for and mostly in Istanbul

How do we know?

Primary Source Accounts Corroboration of survivor witness stories/narratives Letters and accounts written by diplomats including the ambassador of the United States to President Wilson Letters and accounts of foreign missionaries Letters, accounts, photos from orphanages Photographs and video footage Turkish archives Etc.

Henry Morgenthau  was a lawyer, businessman and United States ambassador to Turkey Wrote reports to President Woodrow Wilson urging action on behalf of the Armenians

Leslie Davis US consul to Harput personally witnessed how huge clusters of Armenian populations were being marched to the Der Zor desert in Syria, "only to be butchered” Wrote a diary recording his observations in detail Ex: no men in the convoys

Armin T. Wegner A second lieutenant in the German army stationed in the middle east Photography was absolutely forbidden Penalty= death He took these secretly

Wide media coverage

New York Times, December 15, 1915