The Armenian Genocide

An important part of a genocide, on the side of the perpetrator, acts as the structural changes of the society. The perpetrators in genocides use polarization, preparation, and persecution to separate the victims from the rest of society. In the Armenian Genocide, every step taken before the genocide helped the Turks seem justified when the killing of the Armenians began. Therefore, polarization, preparation, and persecution stand very importantly in the formation of the Armenian Genocide.

What do the death of over six million Jews and the death of over one and a half million Armenians have in common? Genocide. Genocide is one of the ultimate crimes in modern society and in humanity. While all genocides are horrible events in history they do have some distinct differences from one to another. Genocides tear apart families, ethnicities, and countries while they are are happening and for many years to come. Genocides have eight stages that cause damage in their own ways: Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination, and lastly denial. The Armenian genocide and Holocaust are very similar, caused seven and a half million deaths, yet are different in their own way.

The Armenian genocide began in 1915 when the Turkish government planned to wipe out Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. About 2 million Armenians were killed and many more were removed from the country by force. [6]

Alienation is when one is segregated from a society that one should or has belonged to. In both genocides, alienation was initiated before the decimation of the targeted groups. For the jews, There were many laws put in place to separate the Jews from the community. One of the first ones was that Jews were forbidden to exit their homes, “under penalty of death.” There were many other things that alienated the Jews from the rest of the community, like the police searchings of their property and being forced to give up valuables (Wiesel 10). Not only that, but the Jews were also forced to wear a star to show their separation from the rest of society. Plus, when the Jews were forced into ghettos, they were so far alienated that they believed that living in these horrible living conditions was a good thing. (Wiesel 10-11). Similarly, the alienation of specific groups of people in the Cambodian genocide was extremely harsh. Pol Pot, a leader in the Cambodian genocide that is similar to Hitler in the Holocaust, filled the people with hate of those “tainted with non-Khmer traits,” such as having an education, speaking a different tongue, or having a minority background (Bergin 33-34). These non-Khmers were given the title of the “old people,” and the rest of the community was called the “new people” (Bergin 29). In addition to this, the rich were displaced from their

In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer came up with the word, “genocide.” However, even seventy-five years later, many people still debate what factors go into making a genocide. Of course, there is mass murder, mistreatment of large groups of people, and difficult life conditions. Take the Cambodian Genocide, for example. People were tortured and killed so much during this genocide that at one of the death camps, “as few as 12 managed to survive” (Pierpaoli). People were robbed, killed, forced to evacuate their homes, and mistreated in many other ways during the Cambodian Genocide. These people had to live in terrible conditions. The same thing goes for what the reader sees of the Holocaust in Elie Wiesel’s Night. Throughout the book, the reader follows the author as he witnesses huge amounts of mass murder, watches as other people are brutally abused, as he, too, is being horribly mistreated, all while he is being forced to live in horrible living conditions. However, there are other factors that go into what make a genocide, well, a genocide. That is the alienation of a specific group of people and the oppression and dehumanization of that same group. These people were greatly impacted by their alienation, facing a lot of oppression, and being dehumanized in both the Cambodian Genocide and the Holocaust in Elie Wiesel 's Night.

How many people really die in a genocide? The answer, millions. The Holocaust, Rwandan Genocide, and Armenian Genocide are among the many genocides which have killed a countless number of people. The Holocaust, one of the biggest genocides in the world killed around 5,900,000 to 11,000,000. The Rwandan Genocide killed from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people, while the Armenian Genocide killed 800,000 to 180,000. Genocides, the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular group or nation, has affected various countries.

The Bosnian Genocide also known as the Bosnian War or Crisis is a direct result from internal and external neglect. In order for an attack to be considered a genocide a systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race must occur. In Bosnia and Herzegovina it did. The overthrow and collapse of governments brought forth new ideas and ideologies that allowed for an extremist goal of power to spread. An international communities miscalculation and oversight, led to disastrous aid that only hurt the country's situation. Along with regional tensions over religious disputes and territorial gains, that sparked the fighting in Bosnia. Domestic Corruption and a failure in international government

When someone hears the word "Genocide", the words killing and death may come to mind. A genocide is defined as, Article II: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:Killing members of the group;Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Over 1.5 million Armenians were

The Armenian Genocide resulted with around 1.5 million Armenians massacred, with only around half a million surviving the genocide. The loss of family, friends and the Armenian community, the genocide had a staggering blow on the Armenian race. The survivors escaped with merely their lives and the horrid memories of the cruel and inhumane nature of the Young Turks. During the genocide there was no pity or discrimination, they were out to destroy the Armenian race out of pure anger.

Genocide is the act of mass murdering groups of people because of someone 's disliking. In other words getting rid of people or stop their existence,mostly because of their religion, ethnic, or race.One of the most atrocious ones was the Armenian Genocide(April 24,1915-1916), in which 1.5 million of the Armenian population, living in the Ottoman Empire were either deported or killed.During this time,the Turkish government had planned the genocide to get rid of the entire Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire(which was one of the largest empires to rule on the border of the Mediterranean Sea) because they feared that the Armenian community would join their enemy troops during WWI in 1915.

Cambodia was the site of a mass murder which occurred from 1975-1979 (Janikowski, 2006). This mass murder is known as the Cambodian Genocide because of the massive amounts of people that died. According to Janikowski (2006), “the country, which was renamed the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea, is thought to have lost between one and two million people—perhaps as much as a quarter of its total population—during the purges, mass executions, and starvation that marked the four years of Pol Pot's rule”. The Cambodian Genocide was carried out by The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot (Janikowski, 2006). Their goal was to purify the nation and extreme measures were taken to meet this goal, and many people ended up losing their lives in terrible ways. The United Nations define genocide as any intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious

The genocides of the Holocaust and Assyrian genocide share many similarities and differences throughout the eight stages of genocide. In both genocides lives were lost because of the actions of those who thought they were superior. The eight stages of genocide start at classification of the group to be exterminated and end at denying the genocide ever happened.

Stanton stated, the process followed a specific set of stages known as “The 8 Stages of Genocide.” Hitler and his Nazi party followed these specific set of stages, and this is a reason the Holocaust should be considered genocide. “ When extermination begins, it quickly becomes the mass killing legally called genocide.” (Stanton 3). At that time we knew nothing about the Nazis' extermination methods. “At that time we knew nothing about the Nazis' extermination methods.” (Wiesel 20). These quotes support the claim of the Holocaust being considered a form of genocide by stating the stages of genocide and the

Notably, the Armenian Genocide targeted an indigenous population: the Armenians. During the 1900s, the Ottoman Empire declined, creating enormous internal political and economic pressures. Armenians in the government saw suspicion in Muslim Turks, and, continually, asked for administrative forms. Sultan Abdul Hamid II became frightened by the Armenians, and believed it would be better to destroy them (Adalian). Ottoman political authorities believed the easiest solution would be to ethically dispose the Armenian population. Is this really right? Imagine someone knocked and opened the door of a house. These individuals, political authorities, killed all males in the family, while, taking the rest of the family to a place of death and terror: this event lead to over a million Armenian deaths. During the Holocaust, the Germans viewed a variety of different ethnicities as political enemies and ethnically weak. Adolf Hitler became obsessed with the concept of a pure, German, Aryan race while wanting to maintain political control and expand an empire. His philosophy caused him to kill anyone who prevented this achievement, commonly targeting Jews, Homosexuals, Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, Afro-Germans, Jehovah’s Witnesses, so-called enemies, and security risks (“Holocaust”). Obsessions are dangerous; Hitler’s obsession is no understatement. To achieve his desires, he did anything to extend the fullest power of the Aryan race; resultantly, millions of innocent people lost their lives. With these targeted populations, political authorities attacked the people in both genocides using various ethnic cleansing approaches. Vahan declared: “The day, which was only a sliver of light, passed without food or water. On the other side of the bars there was food, on the other side of the boards there was water, but the boards could not be broken, and the

War and genocide have historically been closely related and even described as Siamese twins. Genocide can occur without war but war cannot occur without some elements of genocide as the distinction between legitimate war and genocide is not clear. War is defined as an armed conflict between different nations or groups within a nation. Scholars who have studied the relationship between war and genocide have argued that they are one in the same. It is a very convincing argument especially when examining the UN Convention on genocide. The UN Convention defines genocide as “any of the follow acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group” (Jones 13). The wordings of the definition can