The Starving Armenians
The Starving Armenians
The 1915 genocide, and why we don't talk about it.
My favorite social media keyboard warrior tendency is to say things like, "we need to understand the very complex history," and then proceed to go back about 70 years like that’s when the world began.
With that said, I'm about to commit one of my very own pet peeves, because the true history would require a much more in depth look than a little Substack article can encompass. Also, in the interest of honesty, I have a very bad American habit of thinking everything started when "we" started, and yes, I realize how ridiculous that is. However, we do play a part in this story, and I’ll get back to the above image in a few minutes.
Now that you have had a chance to critique my flaws, I hope this will be informative and helpful in learning about a topic that I had somehow NEVER heard of before a few weeks ago.
So, Here’s a Weird Thing
In 1915, as in my grandparent’s were alive, a genocide of over 1.5 million Christians occurred. Wait. That can’t be right. If that happened it would be in our history books…right? Turns out, we left that chapter out. Because that's exactly what happened to the first Christian nation (declared as such in 301 AD,) Armenia. And yet, somehow, this seems to have fallen out of our consciousness.
As they say, history forgotten is bound to repeat itself, and sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the only topic we are having selective memory loss about. In fact, in a parallel sort of story, a study recently performed on US 18-39 year olds has these concerning results:
- 63% or about 63 million were unaware that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust
- 23% or 23 million said the Holocaust was a myth or exaggerated
- 12% or 12 million said they had definitely not heard of the Holocaust
- 11% or 11 million believe that Jews CAUSED the Holocaust
In case you were wondering if our schools are failing us...well, more thoughts on that here.
Where is Armenia?
This is Armenia, in case you're as bad at geography as I am (man, I'm just throwing a bunch of my flaws out there for you today!)
Keep this in mind for context. It is surrounded on three sides by primarily Muslim countries, Turkey (99%,) Iran (99%,) and Azerbaijan (99%.)
Any country this old has a history of strife and triumph, struggles and victories, I believe it's simply impossible to be any other way with fallen humans at the helm. I'm going to jump in right around WW1.
World War 1
Taking advantage of the mess the war created internationally, Turkish rulers decided to take a chance at implementing their longstanding plan called "The Great Turan." In other words, a unification of Muslim nations in the Middle East, Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia.
For modern day context, this image from 2001 tells us the goalposts haven’t changed a whole lot. This shows a gift that was given to current Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The gift is a map showing a hypothetical Great Turan, including parts of many other countries not currently a part of Turkey. Remember Erdogan for part two of this little series, he’ll be important
Back to WW1. Turkish leaders began the systematic deportation and extermination of Armenians living in Turkey. What better cover than “war casualties” if you plan to commit a genocide?
In February of 1915, Turkish leaders began with Armenian soldiers serving in their very own Turkish Army. All were killed. Next, around 800 representatives of the Armenian intellectual class (writers, doctors, scholars, journalists and clerics, including members of the Turkish parliament) were killed. Finally, they moved on to the general population of Armenians.
On May 24th, the governments of Great Britain, France and Russia issued a joint statement condemning these atrocities. The statement read in part:
For about a month the Kurd and Turkish populations of Armenia has been massacring Armenians with the connivance and often assistance of Ottoman authorities. Such massacres took place in middle April (new style) at Erzerum, Dertchun, Eguine, Akn, Bitlis, Mush, Sassun, Zeitun, and throughout Cilicia. Inhabitants of about one hundred villages near Van were all murdered. In that city Armenian quarter is besieged by Kurds. At the same time in Constantinople Ottoman Government ill-treats inoffensive Armenian population. In view of those new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, the Allied governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible [for] these crimes all members of the Ottoman government and those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres.
This was actually the first use of the phrase "crimes against humanity," that would later become a category of international criminal law after World War II.
While this statement is nice, the genocide was ultimately responsible for the deaths of around 1.5 million Armenians in less than a year, and displacement of many more.
Ethnic Cleansing All Around
During this time frame, Turkey also performed an ethnic cleansing of Greeks from their Gallipoli Peninsula. After just a two hour notice, 22,000 Greeks were reportedly deported. Imagine packing up your entire life in two hours, and being forced on a boat. Enver Pasha, Minister of War for Turkey at the time is said to have boasted to the German military that he would, "solve the Greek problem during the war" just as he had "solved" the Armenian problem.
Seems like a nice guy huh?
But There Must Have Been a Reason, Right?
The "why" of the genocide has been widely speculated, with religious reasons, ethnic cleansing, a desire for the land they occupied, power, a jealousy of their success in business being theories floated around. The most likely answer is all of the above.
I mean, why do any regimes do absolutely inhumane things like this? As Christians who realize that there are evil forces at work in the world, unfortunately evil acts should not surprise us.
Although we seem to have forgotten this genocide, Adolf Hitler did not. In fact, he gave a speech with a nod to the genocide. Be sure to read the last line!
Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter – with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It's a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me. I have issued the command – and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?
History forgotten is bound to repeat itself.
What stopped the genocide?
Well, primarily, it stopped because the Turkish government believed they had essentially exterminated Armenians completely. However, the surviving refugees settled in various countries around the world, and a few refugees held onto about 10% of their original land. This fell under Soviet rule in 1920. More on this in Part 2.
Henry Morgenthau
Believe it or not, an American grassroots effort also had a huge impact on the end of the genocide. American ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau became very concerned at the rise of nationalist rhetoric, and begged the US to intervene as reports of the genocide began trickling in. Our government chose to stay out of it, but Morgenthau didn’t give up. He tried to appeal to the consciences of Ottoman rulers and their German allies; who were unmoved. Even still undeterred, the ambassador drew international media attention to the genocide and began private relief efforts.
In an excerpt from his press release, he detailed some of the horrific details.
Every caravan had a continuous battle for existence… Turkish roughs would fall upon the women, leaving them sometimes dead from their experiences or sometimes ravingly insane.
And thus, as the exiles moved, they left behind them another caravan – that of dead and unburied bodies, of old men and of women dying in the last stages of typhus, dysentery, and cholera, of little children lying on their backs and setting up their last piteous wails for food and water.
The most terrible scenes took place at the rivers, especially the Euphrates. Sometimes, when crossing this stream, the gendarmes would push the women into the water, shooting all who attempted to save themselves by swimming. Frequently the women themselves would save their honor by jumping into the river, their children in their arms… In a loop of the river near Erzinghan… the thousands of dead bodies created such a barrage that the Euphrates changed its course for about a hundred yards.
American Grassroots Effort
Sometimes it feels like Americans can’t all get behind any collective cause anymore, doesn’t it? Well, back in 1915, they did. They came together to feed, clothe and house the Armenian refugees, to quite literally help save a country of people that were on the edge of being extinguished.
The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, later called the Near East Foundation, raised around $116 million (or about $2 billion today.) The ACASR collected the money, managed volunteers to help victims, and distributed aid to Armenians through missionaries and the American embassy in Constantinople (now Istanbul.) Over 1,000 Americans even traveled overseas to help set up refugee camps, and hospitals.
Here are a few of the images I was able to find that advertised for fundraising.
This brings up a few questions. Is personal charity better than government funding? Likely, there is an argument that there is a place for both, although I’m always for less of the government controlling my money. Next question…how did we forget so quickly? This was a bipartisan, America wide endeavor. And yet, slightly over 100 years later, we don’t even know about it.
Have I mentioned that history forgotten is bound to repeat itself? Speaking of which…Part 2 coming soon.