The Armenian Genocide: From Oppression to Massacre

 

 In the 19th century, Christian Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were treated as second-class citizens. They faced disproportionate taxation, were forbidden from giving testimony in court, and frequently suffered attacks from local Kurdish tribes. In 1878, Armenian activists negotiated a treaty that promised reforms, but Sultan Abdul Hamid II refused to honor these commitments. When an Armenian resistance movement began to form, the sultan responded with brutal violence. From 1894 to 1896, the Hamidian Massacres resulted in the deaths of over 150,000 Armenians, marking the culmination of centuries of oppression. But these massacres were only the beginning of an even greater tragedy—the genocide that would unfold under the cover of World War I, leading to the deportation, forced Islamization, and mass murder of nearly 1 million Armenians.

The Armenian people are among the oldest inhabitants of the region, originating as a collective of tribes in the mountains of Western Asia. By the 6th century BCE, these tribes had united to form Armenia, a nation that would be ruled by various local and invading powers over the next 2,000 years. Throughout this tumultuous history, however, Christianity became a central part of Armenian identity, even as their neighbors increasingly embraced Islam. In what is now eastern Turkey, Christian Armenians coexisted with Muslim Kurds for centuries until Turkic-speaking peoples invaded the region. Four centuries later, the Ottoman Turks claimed these lands as part of their empire. While life for Armenians, Greeks, and Jews under Ottoman rule was difficult due to the empire’s systematic favoritism toward Muslims, by the late 19th century, educated Armenian elites had gained significant influence in banking, commerce, and government. This rise in influence, however, fueled resentment, and many Muslim Ottomans feared that Armenians would eventually betray the empire in favor of an independent state.

This fear partially fueled Sultan Abdul Hamid’s decision to launch the Hamidian Massacres. Although Armenians in the Ottoman Empire fought back against the sultan’s forces, they were not alone. Armenians from neighboring Russia had established resistance organizations that provided refuge and arms to besieged villages. In 1909, after the Young Turk Revolution deposed Sultan Abdul Hamid, the new government initially promised reforms. However, it failed to enact meaningful changes, and a second wave of massacres swept through the Armenian population. The outbreak of World War I only worsened the situation.

During the First Balkan War, thousands of Muslim refugees were sent to the Armenian stronghold of Anatolia, further escalating tensions between Christian and Muslim Ottomans. In the winter of 1914, Ottoman General Enver Pasha blamed a military disaster on “Armenian treachery” and ordered the disarming of all non-Muslims, forcing Armenians into a conflict with their own government. By 1915, the Ottoman Empire turned its focus inward, committing more violence against its Armenian citizens than any foreign enemy.

Talaat Pasha, the de facto leader of the Ottoman Empire, ordered the deportation of all Armenians in eastern Anatolia in the name of national security. New legislation allowed the seizure of Armenian property and businesses, and able-bodied Armenian men were killed to reduce the chances of resistance. Most Armenians were marched to concentration camps in the Syrian desert, where they endured robbery, abduction, and sexual violence. Those who escaped deportation were forcibly converted to Islam, and children were placed in orphanages to be indoctrinated with Muslim culture. When the massacres largely ceased in 1916, the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire had plummeted from 1.5 million to roughly 500,000.

In the years following the genocide, many surviving Armenians scattered across the world. Some eventually settled in eastern Russia, later incorporated into the modern nation of Armenia, which gained independence in 1991. Despite the overwhelming evidence, the Turkish government continues to deny the genocide, acknowledging the violence but describing it as “necessary measures” and attributing Armenian deaths to the unfortunate consequences of war. However, in recent years, some Turkish historians have begun to refute this position and write about the period with less fear of retribution. Meanwhile, Armenians and Armenian-led organizations continue to advocate for global recognition of the genocide and seek accountability for those responsible.