The Armenian Genocide
1915 - 1923
Amy
Ben
Karen
The Armenian Genocide
1. Pictures and names of key political leaders involved and explanation of roles.
Three figures from the CUP controlled the government; Mehmet
Talaat, Minister of the Interior in 1915 and Grand Vizier (Prime
Minister) in 1917; Ismail Enver, Minister of War; Ahmed Jemal,
Minister of the Marine and Military Governor of Syria. This Young
Turk triumvirate relied on other members of the CUP appointed to
high government posts and assigned to military commands to carry out
the Armenian Genocide.
In addition to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior, the
Young Turks also relied on a newly-created secret outfit which they
manned with convicts and irregular troops, called the Special
Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa). Its primary function was the
carrying out of the mass slaughter of the deported Armenians. In
charge of the Special Organization was Behaeddin Shakir, a medical
doctor. Moreover, ideologists such as Zia Gokalp propagandized
through the media on behalf of the CUP by promoting Pan-Turanism,
the creation of a new empire stretching from Anatolia into Central Asia
whose population would be exclusively Turkic.
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocidefaq.html
The Armenian Genocide
2. Headlines from the Newspapers
Armenians Are Sent to Perish in the Desert Turks Accused of Plan to Exterminate Whole
Population (New York Times, August 18, 1915)
Million Armenians Killed or in Exile - American
Committee on Relief Says Victims of Turks Are
Steadily Increasing - Policy of Extermination (New
York Times, December 15, 1915).
The Armenian Genocide
3. From the Mouth of Witnesses and Victims
87 years old Armenian survivor, Kosrov Derebegian.
“I saw so many horses, so many people, so many children. Many Armenian villages
evacuated. My father disappeared with a lot of other men. I remember people
panicking. I see we are in the water. I saw a Turk kill a woman with a large knife
and a naked man stabbed fatally. Swollen, dead bodies. Flies all over the place.”
Joint Commemorative committee, Joyce Matz.
“As in the Holocaust, Armenians were tattooed, men separated from their
families, women were violated and children impaled upon Turkish bayonets,”
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Newsday_Article_-_Genocide_Survivor_Accounts
The Armenian Genocide
4. Map of the Victimized Region
The Armenian Genocide
5. Food
Currently many Amenian foods are
the same as those in Turkey. The
Turks claim they came up with all
these foods, and the Amenians claim
they created them. But this is what
that region of the world eats.
Kabab
Baklava
Olives
The Armenian Genocide
6. Languages spoken in the Region
Turkish
Armenian
The Armenian Genocide
7. Photojournalists and Reporters who covered the Genocide
Armin T. Wegner:
The photos of Armin T. Wegner are among the few
that capture the bleak struggle to survive facing
Armenian deportees. As a second-lieutenant in the
German army stationed in the Ottoman empire in
April 1915, Wegner took the initiative to investigate
reports of Armenian massacres. Disobeying orders
intended to stifle news of the massacres, he collected
information on the genocide and took hundreds of
photographs of Armenian deportation camps,
primarily in the Syrian desert.
Wegner was eventually arrested, but not before he had
succeeded in channeling a portion of his research
material to Germany and the United States through
clandestine mail routes. When he was transferred to
Constantinople in November 1916, he secretly took
with him photographic plates of images he and other
German officers recorded.
The Armenian Genocide
7. Photojournalists and Reporters who covered the Genocide
John Elder:
The pictures taken by John Elder between 1917 and 1919 constitute a
rare photo documentation of the conditions in Armenia during some of
the most trying years in the history of the Armenian people.
John Elder was a witness of the Ottoman invasion of Armenia in 1918
and experienced the trials of the Armenian people during the month of
May when the struggle for survival reached its critical moment. His
photographs capture the conditions of the Armenian population,
especially those of the refugees to whose care he committed his
energies. Elder traveled throughout Armenia and took photographs in all
major points of refugee concentration and where relief work was being
conducted. His images of the destitute and of the orphans are specially
compelling. Captured unobtrusively, they testify to John Elder's sincerity
as a humanitarian.
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/photo_wegner.html
The Armenian Genocide
7. Photojournalists and Reporters who covered the Genocide
Alexander Rodchenko
Dmitri Baltermants
Boris Ignatovich
The Armenian Genocide
10. The International Response
“The international community condemned the Armenian Genocide. In May
1915, Great Britain, France, and Russia advised the Young Turk leaders
that they would be held personally responsible for this crime against
humanity. There was a strong public outcry in the United States against the
mistreatment of the Armenians. At the end of the war, the Allied victors
demanded that the Ottoman government prosecute the Young Turks
accused of wartime crimes. Relief efforts were also mounted to save "the
starving Armenians." The American, British, and German governments
sponsored the preparation of reports on the atrocities and numerous
accounts were published. On the other hand, despite the moral outrage of
the international community, no strong actions were taken against the
Ottoman Empire either to sanction its brutal policies or to salvage the
Armenian people from the grip of extermination. Moreover, no steps were
taken to require the postwar Turkish governments to make restitution to the
Armenian people for their immense material and human losses.”
www.armenian-genocide.org
The Armenian Genocide
Summary
It was the first genocide of the 20th century, starting in 1915.
Approximately two million Armenians were eliminated by the Ottoman
Turks. Massacres, starvation, and deportations, were some of the terrible
things that Turkish people did to Armenians since the genocide
started until the end of it in 1923.
The Armenian Genocide
Bibliography
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/photo_wegner.html
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Newsday_Article__Genocide_Survivor_Accounts
http://www.ourararat.com/eng/e_1915.htm
www.armenian-genocide.org