Khachoyan 1 Harout Khachoyan Professor Vana DerOhanessian English 114B 11 February 2014 Turkish Government Responsible For Armenian

Genocide On April 24,1915 there was a tremendous genocide committed on the innocent people of Armenia. Turks from the Ottoman Empire ruthlessly murdered over 1.5 million Armenians, without notice, and they should be held responsible for the atrocities they have committed. The Turkish government did not only take the lives of innocent Armenians, but also mass amounts of land, which rightfully belongs to the Armenian nation. For almost 100 years Armenians have been fighting for recognition and recuperation, and for years Armenians have been turned down from the truth. Through countless protest, documentaries, and human rights marches, Armenians are still denied from the fact of genocide. Though there is pressure from social justice advocates around the world, it is still illegal in Turkey to talk about what happened to the Armenians back in the early 1900s. The Turkish government needs to be accountable and take responsibility for the harsh, and inhumane crimes they have committed on the Armenian people and nation. Within days, the Armenian nation was torn apart, family members murdered in front of one another, children separated from their loved ones, women raped for pleasure, and men hung in the city square. Turkish soldiers would cut open the belly of pregnant women and bet on the sex of the unborn child. Bodies decapitated and their heard posted on staffs as trophies for viewing. Groups of Armenian men, woman, children, and all would be stripped practically naked and would be sent off to the desert to die without food, water, or shelter. Churches and

Khachoyan 2 homes destroyed, literature burned and left unread, historical artifacts stolen and no longer exist, a race that was on the verge of extinction; all causes by the Ottoman Turks. Once the genocide came to an end many of the surviving Armenians were left homeless. After the Turkish Government had taken over most of the Armenian land the Armenians were left with a very small portion for themselves. Rouben Paul Adalian, from the Armenian National InstituteWashington wrights, When the Red Army Sovietized what remained of Russian Armenia in 1920, the Armenians had been compressed into an area amounting to no more than ten percent of the territories of their historic homeland. Everything Armenians worked for and build was either destroyed or taken away from them by the Ottoman Turks, and they had no choice but to start from the ground up. During World War I (WWI), the Turkish government decided to eliminate the Armenians out of the Ottoman Empire. They used the excuse of war to commit genocide on the Armenian people. Until this day, the Turkish government lives in denial for these accusations, but through a fact sheet published by the University of Michigan-Dearborn, it was revealed that one and a half million Armenians were killed, out of a total of two million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire." Only half a million Armenians survived this tragic event and I myself am a living proof of the Armenian Genocide. Even Adolf Hitler mentioned the Armenians in a letter he wrote to his commander in 1939 before invading Poland, he stated, Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians? This is proof that the Armenian Genocide happened; the extermination of the Armenians is a fact, and the one behind this atrocity is no other then the Ottoman Turks. The Armenians in the Ottoman Empire generally lived better lives then the Turks. They were financially better off, had more intellectuals, and much more resources then

Khachoyan 3 the Turks of that era. This was one of the main reasons the Turks wanted to eliminate that Armenians and committed genocide. In current times this is still an issue, Armenians had hope for recognition when electing President Obama into office back in 2008. During one of his campaigns, Obama promised to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Obama stated, "We honor the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who were brutally massacred or marched to their deaths in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire". He also said, "my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence." Armenians had put hope into Obama and he turned them down. It has been six years that President Obama has been in office, and he has yet to fulfill his promise to the Armenian citizens of the United States. Although the United Stated does not fully recognize the Armenian Genocide, they have just recently passed a law, which allows schools to educate their students about what happened to the Armenians in 1915. In the United Kingdom (UK), France has made it a law that is anyone is to deny the Genocide they will be put into prison and be held for trial. The fight for recognition will not go unnoticed and slowly we are getting to that point; we just have to keep going for what we believe in. Through years of denial Armenians around the world have not forgotten what has happened to their lost ancestors. Turkey has committed a tragic atrocity killing over 1.5 million Armenians during the era of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey cannot keep genocide a secret forever for they are the ones responsible. The crimes committed will not go unnoticed, and the fight will

Khachoyan 4 continue. Though Armenia is a small nation and our race is not at a great scale, we still stand strong together. We will not give up until the government that tried to wipe us of the face of the earth hears our voices. Turkey will not get away with the Armenia Genocide.

Khachoyan 5 Works Cited Knox, Olivier. "Obama Again Breaks Promise to Commemorate Armenian 'genocide'"ABC News. ABC News Network, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. Edison, Robert. "Hitler's Armenian Genocide Quote |." Hitler's Armenian Genocide Quote |. N.p., 04 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. Adalian, Rouben Paul. "Armenian Genocide." Armenian Genocide. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. History.com Staff. "Armenian Genocide." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.