The Armenian Genocide

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of the Empire, and constituted an element that might not always submit to oppression. Brce report page 1.

While this massacre was largely political as orchestrated by the state, it is arguably just as religious. Many historians believe that that the ottoman empire lasted and thrived for as long as it did because it was one of the most tolerant of other religions. Christian and Jews could not offer monetary tribute (except exorbitant taxes) and as thus, they had to offer their children as slaves to the janissaries. These Christian children would become turkified skilled warriors, swear allegiance to the ottoman sultan, and strict adherents of the Islamic faith. This permitted upward mobility at the time because the empire realized the great gains it reaped from this enterprise. However, at the dawn of the mid nineteenth century, as the empire began to decline, targeted violence against the Christians and Jews became intense and Abdul Hamid the sultan began to systematically exterminate the Armenian population. The goal was to cleanse the empire of these infidels that did not bow to his god and prayed his prayer. The author continues ‘Orders came from Constantinople that all the Armenian Christians in Trebizond were to be killed… Obeying the orders which they had received, they hunted out all the Christians, gathered them together, and drove a great crowd of them down the streets of Trebizond, past the fortress, to the edge of the sea. There they were all put on board sailing boats, carried out some distance on the Black Sea, and there thrown overboard and drowned.’ Pg 1. It is evident that the government in fact had very strong anti-christian sentiments and wanted to homogenify the ottoman empire as an effort to cleanse it. It is noteworthy to mention that puritanism as an ideological framework has gained popularity, hence empires sought to remove elements they deemed unfit by any means necessary, whatever the cost. Professor Dadrian in his book ‘the history of the Armenian genocide: ethnic …’ asserts ‘the liquidation of the christian element was decided upon outside the auspices of official government and the headquarters of the ittihad following deliberations that lasted months.’ (cite) To understand the Armenian gemnocide, one needs to critically question the multi-dimensioanlity of factors that coalesced to this great evil; the intersections of these factors is critical.

Political Reasons?

While this paper maintains that religious differences did play a role, an even greater political machinery was deployed in extermination of the Armenians. Historically, the christains and jews in the ottoman empire were considered the minorities as opposed to the moslems which were the majority population. In the early nineteenth century, the Muslim ottoman empire underwent some radical reforms that would make it even more syncretically diverse. This new reforms gave minorities opportunities to rise in political influence and socio-economic status in the society. This rapid change in political emancipation and social liberation was seen as threat by other groupd in the society, giving rise to anti-armenian sentiment in the empire.