Awan1

Mishel Awan
Mrs. Malicki/Mr.DiRienzo
English 10/Global10
17 March 2014

Violations of Rights in the Barbaric Events of the Armenian Massacre and the Genocide in
Darfur, Sudan
A mere person is not born with everything. He is only born with his faith, his religion, his
status, and his skin. These are his rights. The unfortunate reality is that these rights are taken
away, by nobody other than the most intelligent species in the world, humans. These rights are
often violated. Human rights violations have been going on from the beginning of time. The
rights of a man are violated when his right to liberty, life, freedom of thought, expression, and
equality are taken away from him. Some people violate human rights through genocides, to
prove a point. Two similar genocides are the Armenian Massacre, and the genocide in Darfur,
Sudan. The Armenian Massacre was a genocide that took place in 1915-1923. It was a vicious
event that was spurred by differences in religion, chaos going on around the world, and territorial
conflicts. The Genocide in Darfur, Sudan, however, started in 2003 and continues till date. This
genocide was brutal, and was against different tribes. It was produced by trade and territory
conflicts. In both massacres, there are three similar events; People of one group are killed
because of the way the other group was feeling; there is mass death because the groups believe in
different things, or are different; Territory was the reason of most of the fighting; people were
killed mercilessly. You will see other similarities and many other differences here.

"War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who
know each other but don't massacre each other."~ Paul Valery. The Armenian Massacre began in
April 1915; it was a unique and gradual massacre. This event took place in the Ottoman Empire.
The Empire extended from West Asia, North Africa, and Southeast Europe. The Ottoman
Empire revolved around Istanbul (Constantinople) (ANI). The Ottoman Empire was one of the
longest standing empires. The majority of citizens in the empire had Islamic views. Most policies
and laws were based on Muslim perspectives. The Ottoman Empire was always ruled by a single
individual. At this time, the empire was under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid. In A.D 301, St.
Gregory the Illuminator had converted a group of people into Christianity and named them the
Armenians. After being conquered by the Muslims, the Armenians remained Christian. The
Armenians were magnificent under Turkish rule. Armenian men were becoming scholars, there
was a golden age. Technology and Education dominated among the Armenians.
The Turks however were not doing too well. Turkey had confronted a defeat against
British and French forces, in 1915. "Tens of thousands of soldiers died in battles that drew in
Armenian fighters who fought alongside Russian troops in a bid to cast off Ottoman rule."
(World War Root). There were many reasons for hatred toward Armenians. One reason was the
fact that the Armenians were thought to be spies for Russia. Armenians wanted to lose the
Turkish rule. Also, during World War 1, Russia defeated Turkey and Turkish citizens held
prejudice against the "white race" and the "Christian religion". Armenians were like the Russians
and in addition, the Armenians were doing better than the Turkish citizens in their own country.
The Armenian Genocide was planned and carried out by the "young turks" also known
as," The Central Committee of the Young Turk Party (Committee for Union and Progress [Ittihad
ve Terakki Cemiyet, in Turkish]) which was dominated by Mehmed Talt [Pasha], Ismail Enver

[Pasha], and Ahmed Djemal [Pasha]." Killings were not done in secret. The governments of
neighboring countries were well aware of their uncomfortable environments. The government of
the Ottoman Empire publicly showed their enmity to the Armenians, by neglecting their safety,
even though these Armenians were Turkish Citizens. Armenians were a religious minority, along
with the Jews in the Ottoman Empire. This incident, was motivated by World War 1 and other
conflicts going on around the world, along with many other things.
The horrors started on April 24, 1915. On this day, Armenian scholars, were imprisoned.
Armenian men were killed or deported. Women were raped, killed or deported. Children and
elderly were also killed, or deported. The deportation, however, became knows as the Death
March. This was a walk which the deportees had to go through. The Death March was accross
the violent climates of the deserts. Armenians had to go through this walk without food and
water. As this was going on, the Young Turks created an organization called a killing squad for
the liquidation of the Christian elements. It was made up of murders. They drowned, raped,
and burned people alive. Most died but the survivors were tragically moved. Results show that
more than one half of the Armenian civilization was gone.
The Armenians were unheard and there was a lot of political inaction. "The Armenian
Question was completely abandoned, as there was no mention of rehabilitation, restitution, or
compensation, and in fact the words "Armenia" or "Armenian" did not even appear in the treaty.
and nowhere in the treaty. The Armenian victims had become invisible."(sscnet). "And in fact by
the time of the outbreak of World War II, the Armenian calamity had virtually become "the
forgotten genocide." In some ways, it became even more remote as new millions of victims were
claimed in the conflagration of warfare and the Holocaust. The Armenians continued to
remember their terrible losses, but in this they were alone."

"It was the government that should have been told to refrain from its inhuman policy of
violence and massacre, not the African people .... It was further argued that it is wrong and
indefensible for a political Organization to repudiate picketing"~Nelson Mandela. The genocide
in Darfur, Sudan was differeren and similar in its own way. Sudan is known to be the largest
country in Africa, holding more than 100 tribes. The capital of Sudan is Khartoum which lies in
the northeast part of the country. The population of Darfur is estimated at 6,000,000 people. The
Genocide in Darfur, Sudan began in 2003 and continues to this day. The Darfur Genocide refers
to the mass slaughter, and rape of Darfuri men and women. The genocide began in early 2003.
Two rebel groups the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army
(SLA)revolted against the Sudanese government in Khartoum alleging systematic neglect of
the inhabitants of Darfur (SummaryOfTheCrisis). The genocide was done by the Sudanese
government.
Unlike the Armenian Massacre, there is a more simple reason the Darfuri Government
wanted its civilians exterminated. "In Darfur, the Sudanese government is destroying African
Muslim communities because some among them have challenged Khartoum's authoritarian rule.
As in the conflict between north and south, in Darfur ethnic and racial identities have also been
part of the conflict (theNation). Racial and Ethnic conflicts spurred among the Northern and
Southern Sudanese. There was also fighting for limited resources between these two groups. The
Northern Sudanese consisted of mostly Arabic origins. This group were herders. The southern
group, however consisted of non-arabs, such as christians and animists and were farmers.
The Sudanese government used the North and South Sudanese conflict to their
advantage. The government hired Janjaweed, (Arab Militia) and are also called devils on
horseback. Assaults were carried out by these Janjaweeds regularly. There were many air

attacks, which burned down villages. Usually the elderly and disabled are killed in the Janjaweed
attacks, due to their inability to move swiftly. Men and boys were typically killed, and wells
were bombed and food was destroyed by dynamite.Citizens were tortured, raped and abducted.
As a result of all the horrors of this genocide, 30,000 people are already killed and more than a
million are internally displaced. International aid agencies say that even if humanitarian relief
arrives now, 350,000 people may still die."
On March, 4 2009, president Omar al Bashir was imprisoned for mass killing, rape, and
pillage against civilians in Darfur. Not until 2005, and with heavy international influence, did the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement end the two-decade-long civil war that had resulted in more
than 2 million deaths and 4 million displaced persons in the south. In the western region of
Darfur, a rebel group sought to have the same benefits and attacked a government outpost in
2003. The government of Sudan reacted with crushing brutality". (GenocideInTheDarfurRegion).
There were many similarities in the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan and the Armenian
Massacre. Both groups in the massacres, Young Turks in the Armenian, and the Sudanese
government in the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan had violent ways of killing their targeted people.
The Young Turks created an organization called the killing squad to exterminate the
Armenians, and the Sudanese government hired Janjaweeds to exterminate the Darfuri
civilization. Another similarity is the fact that most of the conflict was for the territory. In the
Armenian Massacre, the Turks wanted to expand their empire, and the Armenian home was in
the way. In the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan, the North and the South Darfuri people fought for
territory as well. The Armenian Massacre and the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan are very similar.
Both massacres were horrific and brutal, they were both based on territorial conflicts, and were
both targeted on a specific type of ethnicity. There was a mass amount of international inaction

for both genocides. In conclusion, genocides are very similar and follow a pattern before and
after they are done.