Turkish-Armenian Genocide Study the beginning

PART I, OTTOMAN EMPIRE CRUMBLES.

Genocide

The united Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide gives to the word its legal definition in 19481) the mental element, meaning the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such", and2) the physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d and e.A crime must include both elements to be called "genocide."In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:(a) Killing members of the group;  (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.Under these guide lines, and if the law is retroactive, then the Spanish's massacre of the Incas, the English and Netherlands massacres in north and south African, the Americans deliberate campaign of extermination of the native Indians just to name a few are genocides . Was the Armenians massacre during WW a genocide?The element of controversy in this case is war. The Ottoman government claims, they were at war, fighting on all front of the Empire and the Armenian's rebellion. Like in every legal matter pros and cons can be argued for the Armenian genocide. An accusation of genocide is not to be made lightly. To be an act of genocide, intent and planning to eliminate an entire group must be proven. Was the Ottoman government with its German allies, deliberately and systematically intending to eliminate the Armenian people as a whole? I do not claim to be an historian or a scholar on the subject but I did spend a long time studying the events and reading all the literature I could find on the subject. I will not attempt to answer these questions for anyone but for myself and maybe by the same token help some to better understand the question of the Armenian genocide.Armenistan became a province of the Ottoman Empire under Selim II ( 1524-1574) . Under the Ottoman rule Christians and Jews were a religious minorities. They were subjected to elevated taxation, but in return they were granted autonomy within their religious communities and were exempt from military service.By the time Sultan Abdul Hamid II came to power ( 1876-1909) the Ottoman Empire were in its final days.In 1828-29 at the end of the Russo-Turkish war Armenia was divided in  Eastern Armenia to Russia and Western Armenia remained under the Ottoman. Faced with years of segregation and injustice, the Turkish Armenians looked towards Tsarist Russia as the guarantors of their security. It is in 1877-78 at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War, that during the negotiations between Russia and the Ottoman that Armenian leaders stated that they sought their total autonomy. The treaty of the Congress of Berlin on June 13, 1878 gave them partial satisfaction. The treaty stipulates that Russian forces will remain in the occupied territories and the Ottoman government was to implement reforms and report periodically to the Great Powers ((England, France, Russia). Sultan Abdul Hamid II was outraged that Russia and Great Britain meddled in the Empires political and National policy. The government stall any implementation of reforms, instead in 1890, Sultan Abdul Hamid II created a paramilitary outfit known as the Hamidiye which was made up of Kurdish irregulars whose tasks were to deal with the Armenians uprising often due to over-taxation, corruptions and injustice.In 1889 a small group of Armenian nationalists from the Russian Armenia supported by the Armenian nationalist launch an armed expedition across the border into the Ottoman Empire. Between 1890 and 1895 activists encouraged resistance and rebellion and established new branches of Armenian resistance. In 1894 the Sassoun Resistance, in 1895 the Zeitun Resistance, in 1896 Sassoun resistance and in 1986 the take over of the Ottoman Bank by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Each one of these uprising were met with monumental force and blood sheds. Europe was well aware of the massacre of the Armenian and the policy of terror pursuit by the government.In October 1885 reports of the massacre brought the Great Powers to force Sultan Abdul Hamid II to sign a new reform package designed to curtail the powers of the Hamidiye which like the Berlin treaty, was never implemented. the same month 2,000 Armenians assembled in Constantinople to petition for the implementation of the reforms Sultan Abdule Hamid II severe retaliation all over Constantinople, then engulfed the rest of the Armenian populated provinces of Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Harput, Sivas, Trabzon and van to one and for all silenced the rebels. At every instance thousands of innocent civilians were killed. The worst atrocity was when The cathedral of Urfa was burn with thousand of Armenians who had taking refuge.. Estimates differ on how many Armenians were killed during these dark period but European documentation of the violence, which became known as the Hamidian massacres, placed the figures from anywhere between 80,000–300,000 Armenians.In 1907, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation attempted to assassinate Sultan Abdul Hamid during his pray at the Filtiz mosque. He survived the assassination attempt and resolve to the final solution to the Armenian question.In 1908 a group of intellectual and military officers named the Young Turks came to power. These young intellectuals were for Turkey for Turks policy. By 1914 at the eve of WW the Ottoman Empire was unstable with different Turkish National groups seeking power and fighting several foreign wars. Plan to draw the Persians, Kurd, Tatars and Georgians into a holy war against the Allies was in preparation. The Tsar taking advantage of the turmoils in the empire promised autonomy for Russian Armenia and Turkish Armenian if they fought on Russia's side. The Armenians National council (resistance) accepted the offer, 200.000 Armenians volunteer units served under the Russian colors. That single act adding the Nationalist political ideologies of the Young Turks, the crash of the economic after years of war, and religious differences sealed the Armenians faith. Fighting the English in the Dardanelles and the Russians with the Armenians in the Caucasus. The government of the Young Turk began a campaign beyond repression but of systematic extermination of the Armenian population who became a serious trait to the security and stability of the Empire.  Armenians from every town of Turkey were rounded up and transported by cattle train or forced marched for hundreds of miles to Syria, the troops escorting them allowed others to rob, kill and rape the Armenian, the death rate from starvation and sickness was staggering and is increased by the brutal treatment of the authorities. No facilities, shelters or supply were extended. PART II , MILLIONS OF ARMENIANS DEPORTEE

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