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Genocide In The American Genocide

Decent Essays

Genocide; “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group” (Oxford, 2017). The origin of the term genocide and codification in international law have roots in the mass murder of Armenians in 1915 to 1916, lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term and was repeatedly stated in newspaper stories about the crimes against the Armenians. In 1915 the Turkish government set a plan to massacre Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. About 2 million Armenians were in the Ottoman Empire at the time of the plan of the mass murders and the deportations, in the end 1.5 million of Turkey’s Armenians were dead or forcefully removed from the country (History Staff, 2010). Although many call this event a genocide the Turkish government does not acknowledge the scope of this event, making it illegal in the country to talk about what happened to the Armenians during that time. The Armenian Genocide also at times is called the first genocide of the twentieth century. (UHMMS,) As told by Robert Melson, the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide were motivated by nationalist ideology. (Melson, 1996) The victims within the Armenian Genocide were territorial ethnic groups …show more content…

With the fear that the invading enemy troops would persuade the Armenians to join them, so in the spring of 1915 the Ottoman government began to deport Armenians and in the following months the deportations spread to all the provinces, regardless of distance from the combat zones. Many Armenians died during the deportations from causes of starvation, dehydration, exposure and disease. In addition to this thousands of children were removed from their families and were forced to convert to

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