Glory of Armenia-Hayasdani Parke- by Ariel Age

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Armenian Folk Music Culture - Gohar Shahbazyan Kanche hetdarci HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sRkGp5uB58

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Canada Enclyclopedia-Armenians

Today Armenia comprises only a portion of historic Armenia, and also includes territories in present-day Turkey.

Armenians

Today Armenia comprises only a portion of historic Armenia, and also includes territories in present-day Turkey. The Republic of Armenia, the Armenian homeland, was created in 1991, but Armenians are dispersed throughout the world, including in the former Soviet Union and the disputed predominantly Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. The 2006 census reported 50 500 people of Armenian origin living in Canada.

Immigration and Settlement

First Wave: To World War I
Armenian movement to Canada began with students, merchants and agriculturalists in the 1880s and 1890s, mostly from territories occupied by Turkey. By 1914 approximately 2000 Armenians, mostly sojourning men from rural areas, entered Canada and settled primarily in southern Ontario.
Many Armenians fled persecution and periodic state-sanctioned massacres by Turkey's Muslim majority. Some Armenians who immigrated to Canada found industrial work in Ontario communities including Brantford, Hamilton and St Catharines. For some, industrial labour became a stepping stone to commercial and trade/craft enterprises.

Second Wave: 1919 to 1950s

From 1915 to 1922 more than 1.5 million Armenians perished as a result of the Turkish government's policy of genocide. Armenians in Canada searched for surviving family to facilitate their coming to Canada, but Canadian immigration restrictions, including the classification of Armenians as Asians, barred all but 1500 survivors.
Most of the refugee newcomers were women and children. They composed a much more heterogeneous group than their predecessors, and their arrival revitalized the Armenian communities, leading to the formation of closely knit Armenian enclaves in Brantford, St Catharines, Hamilton, Galt, Guelph, Windsor, Toronto and Montréal. National survival and family reconstruction became crucial issues prompting endogamous marriages during the 1920s. Entrepreneurial activities expanded, especially in the oriental rug trade.
Among the newcomers were the "Georgetown boys," a group of about 100 orphan boys brought out in the 1920s by the Armenian Relief Association of Canada to live on a farm purchased for them near Georgetown, Ont. After the United Church of Canada took over the farm in 1928, the "Georgetown boys" were dispersed among Ontario farmers either as foster children or as contracted farm labourers.

Third Wave: 1950s to 1990s

Destabilization in the Middle East, liberalization of Canada's immigration laws, and withdrawal of the Asiatic classification of Armenians generated a flow of Armenians to Canada (1950s,1960s). They came largely from urban centres in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries in which Armenians had taken refuge after the genocide, and they settled principally in Montréal and Toronto. In Montréal, settlement moved along Park Avenue to St Laurent and into Laval. In Toronto, Armenians are dispersed throughout the city but have built community structures in northeast Metropolitan Toronto.
Today about 43% of Armenians live in metropolitan Montréal, about 36% in the Toronto-St Catharines-Hamilton area, and the remainder in other urban centres. Many are business owners (jewellery, fine rugs, automotive) or professionals in traditional fields of medicine, nursing and teaching as well as pharmacy, accounting, engineering, law, architecture and computer technology.

Religion

Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as the state religion. The majority of Armenians in Canada belong to the Armenian National Apostolic Church, an autocephalic church with the Mother See in Echmiadzin, Armenia. In 1930 Armenians constructed their first church, St Gregory the Illuminator, in St Catharines, Ont. Following the Communist takeover of Armenia in 1920 and the subsequent subjugation of Echmiadzin, many anti-Communist Armenians in the diaspora split from the Mother Church and looked for religious leadership to the See of Cilicia, located in Beirut, Lebanon. The 2 groups differed only in their political affiliations. Following Armenian independence and the election of Catholicos Karekin II of Cilicia to the Catholicosate of the Mother See in Echmiadzin (1995), there is hope of church reunification.
As does the Apostolic Church, the Armenian Roman Catholic Church uses the classical Armenian language. In 1983 Armenian Catholics in Montréal constructed their first church, Notre Dame de Nareg. As does the church in Toronto (1993), it falls under the jurisdiction of the exarchate for Armenian Roman Catholics of North America (New York), who ultimately comes under the authority of the pope in Rome.
In 1960 Montréal and Toronto Evangelicals founded their first churches. Though some Evangelical congregations are affiliated with the United Church of Canada, they are autonomous and have services in the Armenian vernacular language.

Politics

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Tashnag) has been the dominant nationalist political force in Canada for almost 100 years (established in Brantford, 1902-04) and today ranks as the largest political organization in Canada with 9 chapters. The second largest political group in Canada is the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (Ramgavar), which upholds a conservative, pro-church ideology. Ramgavars established in Montréal in 1963 and have chapters in Toronto and Vancouver. The Social Democrat Hunchagian party started branches in Canada before 1914 but succumbed to Communist attacks in the 1920s. A small group reorganized in Montréal and Toronto in 1979-80.

Education

To improve their general level of learning, Armenian pioneers organized reading rooms in Canada. They also founded Armenian supplementary schools to give their children a rudimentary knowledge of Armenian language and culture. More recently Armenians have built schools in Montréal and Toronto. Some Armenian churches operate Armenian-language Sunday schools, and many organizations provide day-care centres, summer camps, Saturday schools and publicly subsidized heritage-language classes. The 2006 census reported 31 330 people who described their mother tongue (first language learned) as Armenian.

Culture

Genocide and the fear of national extinction have spurred Armenians to preserve and enhance their ethnic heritage in Canada. Much of Armenian-Canadian culture focuses on the genocide, particularly in the light of the Turkish government's continued denial of the genocide. Each year Armenians gather at solemn services to pay tribute to the genocide martyrs and remember a lost homeland. Even as a unique Armenian-Canadian culture blossomed, the legacy of the genocide affected its artistic endeavours. Armenian cultural associations and the Armenian language press, including several trilingual newsletters such as Abaka [Future] (Ramgavar, established in Montréal, 1975) and Horizon (Tashnag, established in Montréal, 1979) played a major role in linguistic and cultural maintenance. Cultural activities include choirs, theatre, concerts, literary events, music, dancing, national feasts and picnics. Many exceptional artists of Armenian heritage contribute their talents to the Canadian cultural scene, notably Atom EGOYAN, the award-winning filmmaker, and photographer Michael Torosian.

Charitable, Athletic and Youth Groups

A branch of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) was formed in Brantford in 1910. The principal objective of the ARS, the largest women's group in Canada, is to aid Armenians in distress and enhance Armenian education and culture. The Armenian General Benevolent Union has a similar purpose, and since its revival in Canada in the 1970s it, too, has made outstanding contributions to the consolidation of Armenian community life. Most institutions and organizations have sports and youth programs, including scouts and guides.

Armenia's Independence

For more than 100 years Armenians in Canada have had 2 major agendas: community development in Canada and assistance to the homeland. Turmoil in the Armenian and Karabagh republics has rallied the community. An earthquake (1988), a blockade by Azerbaijan (1989) and Turkey, and a drawn-out war with Azerbaijan over the disputed Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh (1988) set in motion a vast variety of activities to help the beleaguered homeland, attesting to the diversity and vibrancy of the Armenian-Canadian community.

Armenia

A mountainous region of Western Asia occupying a somewhat indefinite area to the southeast of the Black Sea. Although the name "Armenia" occurs twice in the Vulgate, the regular biblical designation of the country is "Ararat", a name which is doubtless identical with the "Urartu" of the cuneiform inscriptions. Not being delimited by permanent natural boundaries, the territory covered by Armenia has varied at different epochs of the world's history, and even as early as the time of the ancient Romans there was recognized a Lesser as well as a Greater Armenia, the former embracing a portion of Asia Minor. Politically Armenia has been partitioned between Turkey, Iran, and (formerly) the Soviet Union, the largest share being possessed by Turkey. The country comprises a total area of about 120,000 square miles and consists in the main of an elevated plateau traversed by several mountain ranges which run parallel to the Caucasian mountains on the north. A few of the principal peaks, the most noted of which is Ararat, the "holy mount", rise above the line of perpetual snow. Among the important rivers that take their rise in Armenia are the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Araxes. There are many lakes, chief among which are Lake Sevanga and Lake Van. The latter is seventy miles in length and about twenty-eight in breadth, and is probably the "Upper Sea of the Nairi" mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions. The climate is severe, including the extremes of heat and cold. There are practically but two seasons, summer and winter, the latter lasting from October to May, and the transition from one to the other is abrupt. The peculiarities of the climate, among which may be noted a considerable degree of humidity, are due in part to the proximity of the Black Sea, partly to the high elevation of the region, most of the inhabited localities being from 5,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea level. Scarcely any trees are to be found on the Armenian mountains, but those planted in the inhabited localities thrive well. Grapes are successfully cultivated in the valleys and around Lake Van. Wheat, barley, hemp, cotton, and tobacco are also raised. Pre-eminent among the domestic animals are the horse and buffalo. The mountainous tracts yield excellent pasturage, and in consequence, the rearing of live stock is more extensively carried on than agriculture. On account of the various subjugations of the country, the inhabitants of Armenia belong to different races. The native Armenians and Kurds form each about a quarter of the entire population; the Turkish and Turcoman elements constitute the major part of the remaining half. Greeks, Jews, and Gypsies are scattered throughout the country. The Armenians themselves, most of whom live outside of Armenia, are a commercial people par excellence.

Ancient political constitution

The name Armenia appears for the first time in the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius Hystaspis. Much obscurity obtains as to the derivation of the word. Some would refer it back to the Vannic word Armani-lis, a stela, while others would connect it with Arman, a district lying to the south of Lake Van. Armenia is the name given to a mountainous strip of land situated in the southwestern portion of Asia. One one side it touches the Black Sea, on the other the Caspian, while on the north and on the south it is enclosed respectively by the Caucasus and the Taurus Mountains. Within its confines is the celebrated Lake Van. In shape it much resembles a quadrangle. As far as is known, the earliest inhabitants of Armenia were a white race, whose capital, Dhuspa, stood on the site of the present city of Van. An Aryan race replaced it and it is from this latter stock that the modern Armenians have sprung. They style their ancestors the Haïk and make allusion to their country as Haísdan. They claim that the father of their race, Haïk was the son of Thogorma, whom in Genesis we find to the third son of Gomer. This belief has given rise to many beautiful legends. Be this as it may, it was about the end of the seventh or the beginning of the sixth century B.C. that this new race took possession of the country. In number and social condition it was superior to its predecessor, but this new people also was subject to the Medes and the Persians. With the victory of Alexander the Great over the Persians in 328 B.C. Armenia fell into Greek hands. The Seleucidae of Syria, under whose control the land soon passed, allowed it the choice of its rulers. When in 190 B.C. the Romans over threw Antiochus the Great, Artaxias and Zariadris, who were then ruling the land, declared themselves kings, the former in Armenia proper, the latter in Sophene. Thus began the national dynasty of the Arsacides, which became famous under Tigranes the First. Later the Romans and the Parthians made a plaything of the country, which soon chose as its ruler Tiridates, the brother of the Parthian king. When the Arsacides lost the Persian throne to the Sassanides (A.D. 226) Armenia declared itself against the new house and there ensued a bloody combat between the two countries, which lasted for several centuries.

Conversion to Christianity

The nature and characteristics of the paganism which preceded Christianity in Armenia are practically unknown to us. Attempts have been made to identify its gods with those of Greece, but all we know are the names and the sanctuaries of its pagan deities.
Obscurity likewise shrouds the beginnings of Christianity in the country. Native historians of a rather late period would have us believe that several of the Apostles preached in Armenia, and that some of them, as St. Bartholomew and St. Thaddeus, died there. A popular legend ascribes to the latter the evangelization of the land. Although the very ancient writers of the country, such as Korioun, Agathangelus, etc., do not even mention the name of Thaddeus, yet the legend, which apparently came at a late period from a Greek source, has so prevailed that even today the head of the Armenian Church claims to be occupying the "throne of St. Thaddeus." Although legendary, this tradition witnesses that Christianity at a rather early date passed from Syria over into Armenia.
The letter of Meruzan to Dionysius of Alexandria (A.D. 248-265) confirms us in the belief that Christianity had already penetrated into Armenia before the time of St. Gregory the Illuminator. However, it is around St. Gregory that the story of Christianity's growth in Armenia centres; for in him Armenia had its apostle. Born of the royal stock of the Arsacides, and brought in early infancy to Cæsarea of Cappadocia because of a Persian persecution of the Armenians, he was there instructed in the Christian Faith. About 261 he returned to Armenia and after much persecution brought the king and a large number of the people over to Christianity. Consecrated Metropolitan of Armenia (according to Cardinal Hergenröther) in 302, by Leontius, Archbishop of Cæsarea, he took up his residence at Achtichat. Under his influence the Faith began to spread throughout the land. Priests from the Greek Empire aided him in the work of conversion. When Christianity had gained a good headway in the country, the metropolitan turned his attention to the organization of the Church. The national language replaced the Syriac in the liturgy. To win over the converted pagan priests more fully, he chose from their sons, after educating them, the occupants of a dozen episcopal sees created by himself. Thus the high dignities were given to the sacerdotal families, which retained them for some time. The office of catholicos or patriarch was for a considerable period confined to the family of St. Gregory. A beautiful legend, lacking, however, a historic basis, tells of a trip by him to Rome. His missionaries went as far north as Georgia and Albania.
In 311 Maximinus began war on the struggling Church of Armenia, but met with many repulses. About this time St. Gregory passed away, having spent the last years of his life in solitude. After his death we find the progress of the infant Church stayed by internal dissensions. At the time apostates were numerous and, in their eagerness to subjugate the country, the Persians lent every encouragement to perversion. Meanwhile, successors filled the office of metropolitan once held by St. Gregory. His youngest son, Aristaces, took the post of his father and was present at the Council of Nicaea. In 363 and 872 the Armenian episcopate took an active part in the affairs of the Christian world. St. Basil of Cesarea visited a great part of Armenia and corrected many abuses. Led on by his example, the Catholicos Nerses in the Synod of Achtichat (c. 365), the first authentic Armenian synod, laid the foundations of the first hospitals and other charitable institutions for the country. He gave an impetus to monastic life and promulgated numerous laws on marriage and the observance of fasts. These reforms, showing a Greek influence, arrayed against the catholicos the king and the nobles, and thus we meet the first recorded instance of that spirit of national independence and intolerance of foreign influence which is so important a factor in the history of the Armenian Church. An anti-catholicos was appointed by the king, and soon Nerses died a violent death. Then a fierce anti-religious reaction set in. State endowments were in part withdrawn, numbers of the clergy fell away, and charitable institutions were allowed to crumble to ruins. Pagan practices came into use everywhere and the Christianity of but a few years before seemed to have died out. The vacant see of the catholicos was filled by the king, and the coveted position went to Housik, of the family of the Aghbianos, rival to that of St. Gregory. St. Basil clamoured for the rights of his Cæsarean see, but, though supported by the older clergy of Armenia, his claims were not allowed, and the consecration of the Armenian catholicos was thus lost forever to the Church of Cæsarea.
The religious autonomy of the Armenian Church was begun thus. Shortly after this event occurred the death of Manuel the Mamikonian, which was the signal for Rome and Persia to divide Armenia between them. Of the country, which both had lost and reconquered, and were now parceling out (387) four-fifths went to Persia. As a consequence, persecution was immediately raised against the Christian Church, and the Christians were forced to take to the mountains. The man of the hour for the Christian cause was the catholicos, Isaac the Great, the son of Nerses. About him rallied all parties. Even during his exile the people remained attached to him. Beneath his care the Armenian Church flourished in spite of difficulties, ecclesiastical discipline was enforced, and the intellectual standard of the people raised. His death in 439 was a great loss to the cause of Christianity in Armenia. The Persian masters continued to leave no stone unturned to stifle Christianity and to replace it by Parseeism. The Armenians, however, remained constant in the face of persecution. Another foe attacked them, and that was heresy. Gnosticism in the second century and Paulicianism in the sixth and seventh centuries had adherents among the Armenians, but the chief heresies to be mentioned in this connection are Nestorianism and Monophysitism. The works of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus of Tarsus, which were filled with Nestorian ideas, were translated into Armenian, and through them endeavours were made to disseminate the teachings of Nestorius. Rabulas of Edessa and Acacius warned the bishops against these writings. A synod was held and two priests were dispatched to Constantinople to ask of Proclus what was the right position in the matter. In reply came the famous "Document for the Armenians" which was held in high honour by the Armenian ecclesiastical authorities, and which exerted a powerful influence on their theology. Henceforth the Armenians were bitter opponents of Nestorianism. But where Nestorianism failed, Monophysitism succeeded. The Council of Chalcedon, which condemned that error, was held while the Armenians were fighting against the Persians' endeavour to crush out Christianity. As soon as they heard of the council and of the action it had taken, opposition arose against it, and the charge of the Monophysites that Chalcedon had but renewed the Nestorian error was readily believed. Monophysitism was accepted, and the decrees of Chalcedon rejected. The attitude of the Armenians in this entire matter was dictated not so much by a love of orthodoxy as by the desire of promoting the welfare of their country; for, by receiving Monophysitism, they hoped that Greek favour would be gained and Persian domination more easily thrown off. Writings were published in Armenia against Chalcedon and appeals were urged for a return to Apostolic doctrine. The Catholicos Papken in the Synod of Vagharchapat (491) solemnly condemned in the presence of the Armenian, Iberian, and Albanian bishops the Council of Chalcedon. Within half a century, this condemnation was reaffirmed by the two Councils of Tvin, the second of which was held in 552, and fixed 11 July 552, as the beginning of the Armenian era. The Greeks, having returned to orthodoxy, tried several times to lead back the Armenians also from Monophysitism. In 571 the Catholicos John went with part of his clergy to Constantinople, where he died, after making an act of fidelity to orthodoxy. This incident had no effect on Armenia. When in 591 the Greek emperor Maurice, having taken most of Armenia from the Persians, invited the Catholicus Moses I, to convoke at Constantinople the bishops and nobles of Armenia, his request met with a refusal, Then the emperor had the Armenian bishops in the Roman territory assemble and recognize the Council of Chalcedon. He chose for the office of patriarch a bishop named John, with residence at Avan. Thus in 593 the Armenian Church found itself divided into two sections. Soon after the Iberians fell away, with their Catholicos Kiouron at their head, rejecting Monophysitism and the authority of the Armenian patriarch. For a time the Albanians also declared themselves independent, but soon came back. When Heraclius had conquered the country and thus deprived the Persians of their control for the second time (629), he obtained from the Catholicos Ezr the condemnation of Nestorius and all heretics, without any mention being made of Chalcedon. The union with the Greeks thus effected lasted during the lifetime of Heraclius. But in the Synod of Tvin (645) Chalcedon was again condemned. Meanwhile, the Arabs had attacked the country, which fell, an easy victim, before them, and so Armenia, which once had its own rulers and was at other times under Persian and Byzantine control, passed into the power of the Caliphs.

Literature, early, medieval and modern

Of the literature of pagan Armenia only few fragments have come down to us. The foundation of what we know as Armenian literature must therefore be sought in Christian times. Very rich in itself, Christian Armenian literature dates from the invention of the national alphabet by Mesrob. In these first years of the fifth century were composed some of the apocryphal works which, like the Discourses attributed to St. Gregory and the History of Armenia said to have come from Agathangelus, are asserted to be the works of these and other well-known men. Connected with early Armenian literature are the names of such illustrious persons as Isaac the Great and Mesrob, by whom an impetus was given to the literature of the country. They translated the Bible from a Syriac version and revised their translation by means of the Septuagint of the Hexapla, and the Greek text of the New Testament. There followed various other translations which for the most part are of great importance, since the originals of many have been lost. Of these we may mention the "Homilies" of St. John Chrysostom, two works of Philo on "Providence", together with some of his Biblical commentaries, the "Chronicle" of Eusebius, and the works of St. Ephrem. This early period of Armenian literature also produced original compositions. Eznik of Kolb wrote a "Refutation of the Sects", and Koroun the "History of the Life of St. Mesrob and of the Beginnings of Armenian Literature". These men, both of whom were disciples of Mesrob, bring to an end what may be called the golden age of Armenian literature.
The medieval period opens with comparative sterility. The first name of importance is met with in the eighth century, that of John Otznetzi, surnamed the "Philosopher". A "Discourse against the Paulicians", a "Synodal Discourse", and a collection of the canons of the councils and the Fathers anterior to his day, are the principal works of his now extant. About the same time appeared the translations of the works of several of the Fathers. particularly of Sts. Gregory of Nyssa and Cyril of Alexandria, from the pen of Stephen, Bishop of Siounik. It was two centuries later that the celebrated "History of Armenia" by the Catholicos John VI came forth, covering the period from the origin of the nation to the year A.D. 925. A contemporary of his, Annine of Mok, an abbot and the most celebrated theologian of the time, composed a treatise against the Thondrakians, a sect imbued with Manicheism. The name of Chosrov, Bishop of Andzevatsentz, is honoured because of his interesting commentaries on the Breviary and Mass-Prayers. Gregory of Narek, his son, is the Armenian Pindar from whose pen came elegies, odes, panegyrics, and homilies. Stephen Asoghtk, whose "Universal History" reaches down to A.D. 1004, and Gregory Magistros, whose long poem on the Old and New Testaments displays much application, are the last writers worthy of mention in this period.
The modern period of Armenian literature can well be dated from the renaissance of letters among the Armenians in the twelfth century. The Catholicos Nerses surnamed the Gracious, is the most brilliant author in the beginning of this period. Besides his poetic works, such as the "Elegy on the Taking of Edessa", there are prose works including a "Pastoral Letter", a "Synodal Discourse", and his "Letters". This age gave us also a commentary on St. Luke and one on the Catholic Epistles. Of note, too, is the Synodal Discourse of Nerses of Lampron, Archbishop of Tarsus, delivered at the Council of Hromcla in 1179, which is anti-Monophysite in tone. The thirteenth century gave birth to Vartan the Great, whose talents were those of a poet, an exegete, and a theologian, and whose "Universal History" is extensive in the field it covers. Gregory of Datev in the next century composed his "Question Book", which is a fiery polemic against the Catholics. The sixteenth century saw Armenia in the hands of Persia, and a check was for the time put on literature. However, in scattering the Armenians to all parts of Europe; the Persian invasion had its good effects. They established printing shops in Venice and Rome, and in the following century (the seventeenth) in Lemberg, Milan, Paris, and elsewhere. Old works were republished and new ones given forth. The Mechitarists of Venice have been the leaders in this movement; but their publications, although numerous, have been often uncritical. Their brothers, the Mechitarists of Vienna, have been likewise active in this work and it is to their society that Balgy and Catergian belong, two well-known writers on Armenian topics. Russia, Constantinople and Etchmiadzin are the other centres of Armenian literary efforts and the last-named place is especially worthy of note, imbued as it is today with German scientific methods and taste. Looking back over the field of Armenian literature, we note a trait the national character displayed in the bent Armenians have had for singing the glories of their land in history and chronicles. Translations have ever been an important part of Armenian literature. Again, the standpoint is religious, and even history seems to have been written rather for its doctrines than for the facts themselves. A last feature is that the golden age came early and with the passing of centuries the Armenian writers grew fewer and fewer.

The Crusades

Although the native dynasty of the Bagratides to which the Arabs gave the royal crown of Armenia, was founded under favourable circumstances, yet the feudal system by gradually weakening the country, brought about its ruin. Thus internally enfeebled, Armenia proved an easy victim for the Seldjukid Turks under Alp-Arian in the latter half of the eleventh century. To escape death or servitude at the hands of those who had assassinated his relative, Kakig II, King of Ani, an Armenian named Roupen with some of his countrymen went into the gorges of the Taurus Mountains and then into Tarsus of Cilicia. Here the Byzantine governor of the place gave them shelter. Soon after the members of the first Crusade appeared in Asia Minor. Hostile as they were to the Turks, and unfriendly to the Greeks, these Armenian refuges joined forces with the crusaders. Valiantly they fought with the Christians of Europe, and for their reward, when Antioch had been taken (1097), Constantine, the son of Roupen, received from the crusaders the title of baron. Within a century, the heirs of Roupen were further rewarded by the grant of a kingdom known as Cilicia or Lesser Armenia, to be held as a vassal government of the Holy See and of Germany. This kept them in touch with the crusaders. No doubt the Armenians aided in some of the other crusades. This kingdom lasted till 1375, when the Mamelukes of Egypt destroyed it.

To the end of the seventeenth century

The establishment of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia created more frequent relations between the Armenians and the Holy See. On the occasion of the crowning of King Leo II, the union of the union of the Armenian Church with Rome was proclaimed under Catholicos Gregory VI. Only southern Armenia was affected by this. In 1251 however there took place at Sis at the order of Pope Innocent IV a council of Armenians to witness to their belief in the procession of the Holy Ghost. In strange contrast we find James I refusing to send representatives to the Council of Lyons. Yet, when Pope Boniface VIII began his pontificate, Catholicos Gregory VII sent to him an expression of filial attachment. A little latter (1307) a council was held by the Armenians in which the old error of Monophysitism was repudiated, and two natures acknowledged in Christ. The bonds of union which united Rome and Armenia during this period gave way more or less after the fall of Lesser Annarea in 1375. Harassed from without by the Turks, and weakened by the internal strifes that divided it into so many independent patriarchates, Armenia had after that date but spasmodic relations with Rome. Which of the patriarchs during this period remained united to the West is hard to determine. Yet, even in the darkest days, there were always some Armenians who remained attached to Rome. The Dominican missionaries in founding houses in Armenian territory were instrumental in the training of native missionaries called the "United Brothers", whose sole aim was to procure union with Rome. Their founder, John of Kerni, went too far in his zeal, so that Pope Benedict XII was forced to have the Armenians assemble in council in 1342 and repudiate the errors ascribed to these monks. These cries of unorthodoxy did much to estrange Armenia from the West. The Fathers of the Council of Basle (1433) asked the catholicos to attend, but the invitation was not accepted. However, in the Council of Florence (1439) Armenia was represented and here a last attempt was made to bring about reunion. It was at the behest of Eugenius IV that Catholicos Constantine V had dispatched his delegates. The decree "Exsultate Deo", which was to affect the union, was published in 1439, containing among other things the Nicene Creed, the definitions of Chalcedon, and the Letter of Pope Leo I. Meanwhile Constantine died. A few years later a rent occurred in the Armenian Church which gave a setback to the plan of union. Armenia was divided into two large jurisdictions, that of Sis in Cilicia and that of Etchmiadsin in Greater Armenia, each with its own catholicos. The latter of the two patriarchates was looked upon as devoted to the cause of union with Rome. Its Catholicos, Stephanos V, paid a visit to the Eternal City, and in 1680 Aghob IV, just before his death, made a profession of Catholic faith, an example followed by many of his successors. Some of the patriarchs of Sis were friendly to Rome, such as Gregory IX, while others were hostile.

Catholic missions in the nineteenth century

The action of Count Ferriol, minister of Louis XIV at Stamboul (1689-1709), in carrying off to Paris the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, who evinced strong anti-Catholic tendencies served to bring persecution upon the Armenian Catholics in the Turkish Empire, which lasted till 1830. The declaration of religious liberty at that time caused the Catholic missions in Armenia to become more energetic than ever before. In 1838, Eugène Boré, still a layman, founded at Tabriz and Ispahan two schools for Armenians, which the French Lazarists have since, conducted. Within twenty years this order had three other missions. The barefooted Carmelites with Bagdad as their centre are labouring for the Armenians in that city and Bassorah. Since 1856 the French Dominicans have been active in the provinces of Mossoul, Bitlis, and Van. The Capuchins are also represented in this field and are working with Diarbekir as their headquarters. Lesser Armenia is a field cultivated chiefly by Jesuit missionaries, and, unlike the rest, their efforts are confined to the Armenians. The Oblate Sisters of the Assumption and the Sisters of St. Joseph from Lyons are effectively aiding them in their work, in which some 31 Fathers and Brothers are engaged.
When we come to statistics, we find that most Armenians belong to the Gregorian or non-Catholic Church of Constantinople. There is a small Catholic and Protestant minority. Of the Catholic Armenians, the greater part are under the patriarch, whose full title is "the Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians", and whose residence is at Constantinople. Under his jurisdiction are 3 other Armenian archbishops, 12 bishops, 1 being at Alexandria in Egypt, 9 patriarchal vicars, one of whom resides at Jerusalem. In Rome there is a titular bishop for the Armenians, whose chief function is that of ordaining. The Armenian patriarch is assisted in the work of tending to the flock by a vicar who is a titular archbishop, by an ecclesiastical council composed of 12 priests, by a civil council and by two other councils, one of which is for the national hospital. Directly under his charge are 3 large churches, that of St. Gregory the Illuminator at Leghorn, those of St. Blaise and St. Nicholas in Rome, the 2 seminaries of Zmar and Rome, and finally the 16 churches and the 16 schools of Constantinople. In the Armenian Archbishopric of Lemberg there are about 5,000 faithful, the greater part being in Galicia, the rest in Bukowina. The religious orders among the Armenians are of but comparatively recent origin and are not very prosperous. The Mechitarists of Venice, the most flourishing, have but 60 priests and some lay-brothers. Among the women the Armenian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception have flourishing schools at Constantinople and Angora.

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APA citation. Driscoll, J.F. (1907). Armenia. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01736b.htm

MLA citation. Driscoll, James F. "Armenia." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01736b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Carl H. Horst.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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Zahhak's Dream, from Armenian History in Italian Art

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ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANIA (I grew up on and Canada's ) -

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE- Turkey/Armenian History

Alternative title: Armenian massacre of 1915

Armenian Genocide, campaign of deportation and mass killing conducted against the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire by the Young Turk government during World War I (1914–18). Armenians charge that the campaign was a deliberate attempt to destroy the Armenian people and, thus, an act of genocide. The Turkish government has resisted calls to recognize it as such, contending that, although atrocities took place, there was no official policy of extermination implemented against the Armenian people as a group.

Armenians in Eastern Anatolia

For centuries the great mountain plateau of Eastern Anatolia—in present-day eastern Turkey—was inhabited primarily by Christian Armenians who shared the area with Muslim Kurds. In antiquity and the Middle Ages the area was ruled by a succession of Armenian dynasties, although it often faced incursions by outside powers. Armenian political independence was largely brought to an end by a wave of invasions and migrations by Turkic-speaking peoples beginning in the 11th century, and in the 15th and 16th centuries the region was secured by the Ottoman Turks and integrated into the vast Ottoman Empire. Armenians retained a strong sense of communal identity, however, embodied in the Armenian language and the Armenian Church. That sense of distinctiveness was fostered by the Ottoman millet system, which accorded non-Muslim minorities significant administrative and social autonomy.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 2.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire, mostly concentrated in the six provinces of Eastern Anatolia. A significant number of Armenians also lived beyond the eastern border of the Ottoman Empire, in territory held by Russia. In Eastern Anatolia Armenians lived intermixed with the dominant Kurdish nomads. Armenians did not constitute a majority in any of the regions in which they lived, although they often resided in homogeneous villages and neighborhoods within towns and cities.
Life for Armenian villagers and townspeople in the Ottoman Empire was difficult and unpredictable, and they often received harsh treatment from the dominant Kurdish nomads. Because local courts and judges often favoured Muslims, Armenians had little recourse when they were the victims of violence or when their land, livestock, or property was taken from them.
The great majority of Armenians were poor peasants, but a few found success as merchants and artisans. Armenians’ involvement in international trade led in the 17th and 18th centuries to the establishment of significant Armenian settlements in Istanbul and other Ottoman port cities and as far away as India and Europe. Although Ottoman society was dominated by Muslims, a small number of Armenian families were able to attain prominent positions in banking, commerce, and government. For several generations in the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, the chief architects of the Ottoman court were in the Armenian Balian family. The prominence and influence of the well-educated and cosmopolitan Armenian elite had a drawback, however, in that it became a source of resentment and suspicion among Muslims. In the 19th century Armenians struggled against the perception that they were a foreign element within the Ottoman Empire and that they would eventually betray it to form their own independent state.
Young Armenian activists, many of them from Russian Caucasia, sought to protect their compatriots by agitating for an independent state. They formed two revolutionary parties called Hënchak (“Bell”) and Dashnaktsutyun (“Federation”) in 1887 and 1890. Neither one gained wide support among Armenians in Eastern Anatolia, who largely remained loyal and hoped instead that sympathizers in Christian Europe would pressure the Ottoman Empire to implement new reforms and protections for Armenians. The activities of the Armenian revolutionaries, however, did stoke fear and anxiety among the Muslims.
Anti-Armenian feelings erupted into mass violence several times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When, in 1894, the Armenians in the Sasun region refused to pay an oppressive tax, Ottoman troops and Kurdish tribesmen killed thousands of Armenians in the region. Another series of mass killings began in the fall of 1895, when Ottoman authorities’ suppression of an Armenian demonstration in Istanbul became a massacre. In all, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed in massacres between 1894 and 1896, which later came to be known as the Hamidian massacres. Some 20,000 more Armenians were killed in urban riots and pogroms in Adana and Hadjin in 1909.

The Young Turks and World War I

Talat Paşa [Credit: George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: LC-DIG-ggbain-31323)]

Talat PaşaGeorge Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: LC-DIG-ggbain-31323)In 1908 a small group of Ottoman revolutionaries—the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), popularly referred to as the “Young Turks”—came to power. Armenians welcomed the restoration of the Ottoman constitution, and the promise of elections led Armenians and other non-Turks within the empire to cooperate with the new political order. Over time, however, the ambitions of the Young Turks became more militant, less tolerant of non-Turks, and increasingly suspicious of their Armenian subjects, whom they imagined were collaborating with foreign powers. Increasingly authoritarian, the Young Turks consolidated power and sidelined their more-liberal opponents, and in January 1913 the most-militant members of the party, Enver Paşa and Talat Paşa, came to power in a coup d’état.
Antipathy toward Christians increased when the Ottoman Empire suffered a humiliating defeat in the First Balkan War (1912–13), resulting in the loss of nearly all its remaining territory in Europe. Young Turk leaders blamed the defeat on the treachery of Balkan Christians. Furthermore, the conflict sent hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees streaming eastward into Anatolia, intensifying conflict between Muslims and Christian peasants over land.
Fearful Armenians capitalized on the Ottoman defeat to press for reforms, appealing to the European powers to force the Young Turks to accept a degree of autonomy in the Armenian provinces. In 1914 the European powers imposed a major reform on the Ottomans that required supervision by inspectors in the east. The Young Turks took that arrangement as further proof of the Armenians’ collusion with Europe to undermine the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire.
As World War I began in the summer of 1914, the Young Turks joined the Central Powers (Germany and Austro-Hungary) against the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France, and Russia). Because Armenians and Assyrians lived along the Russian-Ottoman front, both the Russians and the Ottomans attempted to recruit the local Christians in their campaigns against their enemies. The Young Turks proposed to the Dashnaktsutyun, by then the leading Armenian political party, that it convince Russian Armenians as well as those in Ottoman lands to fight for the Ottoman Empire. The Dashnaks replied that Armenian Russian and Ottoman subjects would remain loyal to their respective empires. That was seen by powerful Young Turks as an act of treachery.
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire fought alongside the Ottomans, while Armenian volunteer units made up of Russian subjects fought on the Russian side. In the areas where Ottoman and Russian troops faced each other, there were massacres of both Christians and Muslims.

Genocide

In January 1915 Enver Paşa attempted to push back the Russians at the battle of Sarıkamış, only to suffer the worst Ottoman defeat of the war. Although poor generalship and harsh conditions were the main reasons for the loss, the Young Turk government sought to shift the blame to Armenian treachery. Armenian soldiers and other non-Muslims in the army were demobilized and transferred into labour battalions. The disarmed Armenian soldiers were then systematically murdered by Ottoman troops, the first victims of what would become genocide. About the same time, irregular forces began to carry out mass killings in Armenian villages near the Russian border.
Armenian resistance, when it occurred, provided the authorities with a pretext for employing harsher measures. In April 1915 Armenians in Van barricaded themselves in the city’s Armenian neighborhood and fought back against Ottoman troops, On April 24, 1915, citing Van and several other episodes of Armenian resistance, Talat Paşa ordered the arrest of approximately 250 Armenian intellectuals and politicians in Istanbul, including several deputies to the Ottoman Parliament. Most of the men who were arrested were killed in the months that followed.
Soon after the defeat at Sarıkamış, the Ottoman government began to deport Armenians from Eastern Anatolia on the grounds that their presence near the front lines posed a threat to national security. In May the Ottoman Parliament passed legislation formally authorizing the deportation. Throughout summer and autumn of 1915, Armenian civilians were removed from their homes and marched through the valleys and mountains of Eastern Anatolia toward desert concentration camps. The deportation, which was overseen by civil and military officials, was accompanied by a systematic campaign of mass murder carried out by irregular forces as well as by local Kurds and Circassians. Survivors who reached the deserts of Syria languished in concentration camps, many starved to death, and massacres continued into 1916. Conservative estimates have calculated that some 600,000 to more than 1,000,000 Armenians were slaughtered or died on the marches. The events of 1915–16 were witnessed by a number of foreign journalists, missionaries, diplomats, and military officers who sent reports home about death marches and killing fields.

Causes and consequences of the genocide

Armenian refugees in the Caucasus [Credit: George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 27082)]

Armenian refugees in the CaucasusGeorge Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 27082)The Armenian Genocide laid the ground for the more-homogeneous nation-state that eventually became the Republic of Turkey. By the end of the war, more than 90 percent of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were gone, and many traces of their former presence had been erased. The deserted homes and property of the Armenians in Eastern Anatolia were given to Muslim refugees, and surviving women and children were often forced to give up their Armenian identities and convert to Islam. Tens of thousands of orphans, however, found some refuge in the protection of foreign missionaries.
The Armenian Genocide had both short- and long-term causes. Although the expulsion and murder of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in 1915–16 was an immediate response to the crisis of World War I and not the result of a long-held plan to eliminate the Armenian people, its deeper causes go back to Muslims’ resentment of Armenians’ economic and political successes—a reversal of traditional Ottoman social hierarchies that had Muslims superior to non-Muslims—and to a growing sense on the part of Young Turk leaders and ordinary Muslims that Armenians were an alien and dangerous element within their society.
Turkey has steadily refused to recognize that the events of 1915–16 constitute a genocide, even though most historians have concluded that the deportations and massacres do fit the definition of genocide—the intentional killing of an ethnic or religious group. While the Turkish government and allied scholars have admitted that deportations took place, they maintain that the Armenians were a rebellious element that had to be pacified during a national security crisis. They acknowledge that some killing took place, but they contend that it was not initiated or directed by the government. Major countries—including the United States, Israel, and Great Britain—have also declined to call the events a genocide, in order to avoid harming their relations with Turkey. In 2015 government officials in Turkey offered condolences to the Armenian victims, but Armenians remained committed to having the killings during World War I recognized as a genocide.
Ronald Grigor Suny

http://www.britannica.com/event/Armenian-Genocide

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The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century

The first genocide of the 20th Century occurred when two million Armenians living in Turkey were eliminated from their historic homeland through forced deportations and massacres.
For three thousand years, a thriving Armenian community had existed inside the vast region of the Middle East bordered by the Black, Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. The area, known as Asia Minor, stands at the crossroads of three continents; Europe, Asia and Africa. Great powers rose and fell over the many centuries and the Armenian homeland was at various times ruled by Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Mongols.
Despite the repeated invasions and occupations, Armenian pride and cultural identity never wavered. The snow-capped peak of Mount Ararat became its focal point and by 600 BC Armenia as a nation sprang into being. Following the advent of Christianity, Armenia became the very first nation to accept it as the state religion. A golden era of peace and prosperity followed which saw the invention of a distinct alphabet, a flourishing of literature, art, commerce, and a unique style of architecture. By the 10th century, Armenians had established a new capital at Ani, affectionately called the 'city of a thousand and one churches.'
In the eleventh century, the first Turkish invasion of the Armenian homeland occurred. Thus began several hundred years of rule by Muslim Turks. By the sixteenth century, Armenia had been absorbed into the vast and mighty Ottoman Empire. At its peak, this Turkish empire included much of Southeast Europe, North Africa, and almost all of the Middle East.
But by the 1800s the once powerful Ottoman Empire was in serious decline. For centuries, it had spurned technological and economic progress, while the nations of Europe had embraced innovation and became industrial giants. Turkish armies had once been virtually invincible. Now, they lost battle after battle to modern European armies.
As the empire gradually disintegrated, formerly subject peoples including the Greeks, Serbs and Romanians achieved their long-awaited independence. Only the Armenians and the Arabs of the Middle East remained stuck in the backward and nearly bankrupt empire, now under the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid.
By the 1890s, young Armenians began to press for political reforms, calling for a constitutional government, the right to vote and an end to discriminatory practices such as special taxes levied solely against them because they were Christians. The despotic Sultan responded to their pleas with brutal persecutions. Between 1894 and 1896 over 100,000 inhabitants of Armenian villages were massacred during widespread pogroms conducted by the Sultan's special regiments.
But the Sultan's days were numbered. In July 1908, reform-minded Turkish nationalists known as "Young Turks" forced the Sultan to allow a constitutional government and guarantee basic rights. The Young Turks were ambitious junior officers in the Turkish Army who hoped to halt their country's steady decline.
Armenians in Turkey were delighted with this sudden turn of events and its prospects for a brighter future. Jubilant public rallies were held attended by both Turks and Armenians with banners held high calling for freedom, equality and justice.
However, their hopes were dashed when three of the Young Turks seized full control of the government via a coup in 1913. This triumvirate of Young Turks, consisting of Mehmed Talaat, Ismail Enver and Ahmed Djemal, came to wield dictatorial powers and concocted their own ambitious plans for the future of Turkey. They wanted to unite all of the Turkic peoples in the entire region while expanding the borders of Turkey eastward across the Caucasus all the way into Central Asia. This would create a new Turkish empire, a "great and eternal land" called Turan with one language and one religion.
But there was a big problem. The traditional historic homeland of Armenia lay right in the path of their plans to expand eastward. And on that land was a large population of Christian Armenians totaling some two million persons, making up about 10 percent of Turkey's overall population.
Along with the Young Turk's newfound "Turanism" there was a dramatic rise in Islamic fundamentalist agitation throughout Turkey. Christian Armenians were once again branded as infidels (non-believers in Islam). Anti-Armenian demonstrations were staged by young Islamic extremists, sometimes leading to violence. During one such outbreak in 1909, two hundred villages were plundered and over 30,000 persons massacred in the Cilicia district on the Mediterranean coast. Throughout Turkey, sporadic local attacks against Armenians continued unchecked over the next several years.
There were also big cultural differences between Armenians and Turks. The Armenians had always been one of the best educated communities within the old Turkish empire. Armenians were the professionals in society, the businessmen, lawyers, doctors and skilled craftsmen. And they were more open to new scientific, political and social ideas from the West (Europe and America). Children of wealthy Armenians went to Paris, Geneva or even to America to complete their education.
By contrast, the majority of Turks were illiterate peasant farmers and small shop keepers. Leaders of the Ottoman Empire had traditionally placed little value on education and not a single institute of higher learning could be found within their old empire. The various autocratic and despotic rulers throughout the empire's history had valued loyalty and blind obedience above all. Their uneducated subjects had never heard of democracy or liberalism and thus had no inclination toward political reform. But this was not the case with the better educated Armenians who sought political and social reforms that would improve life for themselves and Turkey's other minorities.
The Young Turks decided to glorify the virtues of simple Turkish peasantry at the expense of the Armenians in order to capture peasant loyalty. They exploited the religious, cultural, economic and political differences between Turks and Armenians so that the average Turk came to regard Armenians as strangers among them.
When World War I broke out in 1914, leaders of the Young Turk regime sided with the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). The outbreak of war would provide the perfect opportunity to solve the "Armenian question" once and for all. The world's attention became fixed upon the battlegrounds of France and Belgium where the young men of Europe were soon falling dead by the hundreds of thousands. The Eastern Front eventually included the border between Turkey and Russia. With war at hand, unusual measures involving the civilian population would not seem too out of the ordinary.

Related Maps

The Ottoman Empire and areas of influence at its peak in the mid-1500s, including the historic Armenian Homeland (shown in orange).

The Land of Turan as planned by the Young Turks to create a new empire in the East, but blocked by Historic Armenia.

Present day map of Turkey and Armenia, showing an outline of Historic Armenia and Cilicia (little Armenia).

As a prelude to the coming action, Turks disarmed the entire Armenian population under the pretext that the people were naturally sympathetic toward Christian Russia. Every last rifle and pistol was forcibly seized, with severe penalties for anyone who failed to turn in a weapon. Quite a few Armenian men actually purchased a weapon from local Turks or Kurds (nomadic Muslim tribesmen) at very high prices so they would have something to turn in.
At this time, about forty thousand Armenian men were serving in the Turkish Army. In the fall and winter of 1914, all of their weapons were confiscated and they were put into slave labor battalions building roads or were used as human pack animals. Under the brutal work conditions they suffered a very high death rate. Those who survived would soon be shot outright. For the time had come to move against the Armenians.
The decision to annihilate the entire population came directly from the ruling triumvirate of ultra-nationalist Young Turks. The actual extermination orders were transmitted in coded telegrams to all provincial governors throughout Turkey. Armed roundups began on the evening of April 24, 1915, as 300 Armenian political leaders, educators, writers, clergy and dignitaries in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) were taken from their homes, briefly jailed and tortured, then hanged or shot.
Next, there were mass arrests of Armenian men throughout the country by Turkish soldiers, police agents and bands of Turkish volunteers. The men were tied together with ropes in small groups then taken to the outskirts of their town and shot dead or bayoneted by death squads. Local Turks and Kurds armed with knives and sticks often joined in on the killing.
Then it was the turn of Armenian women, children, and the elderly. On very short notice, they were ordered to pack a few belongings and be ready to leave home, under the pretext that they were being relocated to a non-military zone for their own safety. They were actually being taken on death marches heading south toward the Syrian desert.
Most of the homes and villages left behind by the rousted Armenians were quickly occupied by Muslim Turks who assumed instant ownership of everything. In many cases, young Armenian children were spared from deportation by local Turks who took them from their families. The children were coerced into denouncing Christianity and becoming Muslims, and were then given new Turkish names. For Armenian boys the forced conversion meant they each had to endure painful circumcision as required by Islamic custom.
Individual caravans consisting of thousands of deported Armenians were escorted by Turkish gendarmes. These guards allowed roving government units of hardened criminals known as the "Special Organization" to attack the defenseless people, killing anyone they pleased. They also encouraged Kurdish bandits to raid the caravans and steal anything they wanted. In addition, an extraordinary amount of sexual abuse and rape of girls and young women occurred at the hands of the Special Organization and Kurdish bandits. Most of the attractive young females were kidnapped for a life of involuntary servitude.
The death marches, involving over a million Armenians, covered hundreds of miles and lasted months. Indirect routes through mountains and wilderness areas were deliberately chosen in order to prolong the ordeal and to keep the caravans away from Turkish villages.
Food supplies being carried by the people quickly ran out and they were usually denied further food or water. Anyone stopping to rest or lagging behind the caravan was mercilessly beaten until they rejoined the march. If they couldn't continue they were shot. A common practice was to force all of the people in the caravan to remove every stitch of clothing and have them resume the march in the nude under the scorching sun until they dropped dead by the roadside from exhaustion and dehydration.
An estimated 75 percent of the Armenians on these marches perished, especially children and the elderly. Those who survived the ordeal were herded into the desert without a drop of water. Others were killed by being thrown off cliffs, burned alive, or drowned in rivers.
The Turkish countryside became littered with decomposing corpses. At one point, Mehmed Talaat responded to the problem by sending a coded message to all provincial leaders: "I have been advised that in certain areas unburied corpses are still to be seen. I ask you to issue the strictest instructions so that the corpses and their debris in your vilayet are buried."
But his instructions were generally ignored. Those involved in the mass murder showed little interest in stopping to dig graves. The roadside corpses and emaciated deportees were a shocking sight to foreigners working in Turkey. Eyewitnesses included German government liaisons, American missionaries, and U.S. diplomats stationed in the country.
The Christian missionaries were often threatened with death themselves and were unable to help the people. Diplomats from the still neutral United States communicated their blunt assessments of the ongoing government actions. U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, reported to Washington: "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race..."
The Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia) responded to news of the massacres by issuing a warning to Turkey: "...the Allied governments announce publicly...that they will hold all the members of the Ottoman Government, as well as such of their agents as are implicated, personally responsible for such matters."
The warning had no effect. Newspapers in the West including the New York Times published reports of the continuing deportations with the headlines: Armenians Are Sent to Perish in the Desert - Turks Accused of Plan to Exterminate Whole Population (August 18, 1915) - Million Armenians Killed or in Exile - American Committee on Relief Says Victims of Turks Are Steadily Increasing - Policy of Extermination (December 15, 1915).
Temporary relief for some Armenians came as Russian troops attacked along the Eastern Front and made their way into central Turkey. But the troops withdrew in 1917 upon the Russian Revolution. Armenian survivors withdrew along with them and settled in among fellow Armenians already living in provinces of the former Russian Empire. There were in total about 500,000 Armenians gathered in this region.
In May 1918, Turkish armies attacked the area to achieve the goal of expanding Turkey eastward into the Caucasus and also to resume the annihilation of the Armenians. As many as 100,000 Armenians may have fallen victim to the advancing Turkish troops.
However, the Armenians managed to acquire weapons and they fought back, finally repelling the Turkish invasion at the battle of Sadarabad, thus saving the remaining population from total extermination with no help from the outside world. Following that victory, Armenian leaders declared the establishment of the independent Republic of Armenia.
World War I ended in November 1918 with a defeat for Germany and the Central Powers including Turkey. Shortly before the war had ended, the Young Turk triumvirate; Talaat, Enver and Djemal, abruptly resigned their government posts and fled to Germany where they had been offered asylum.
In the months that followed, repeated requests were made by Turkey's new moderate government and the Allies asking Germany to send the Young Turks back home to stand trial. However all such requests were turned down. As a result, Armenian activists took matters into their own hands, located the Young Turks and assassinated them along with two other instigators of the mass murder.
Meanwhile, representatives from the fledgling Republic of Armenia attended the Paris Peace Conference in the hope that the victorious Allies would give them back their historic lands seized by Turkey. The European Allies responded to their request by asked the United States to assume guardianship of the new Republic. However, President Woodrow Wilson's attempt to make Armenia an official U.S. protectorate was rejected by the U.S. Congress in May 1920.
But Wilson did not give up on Armenia. As a result of his efforts, the Treaty of Sevres was signed on August 10, 1920, by the Allied Powers, the Republic of Armenia and the new moderate leaders of Turkey. The treaty recognized an independent Armenian state in an area comprising much of the former historic homeland.
However, Turkish nationalism once again reared its head. The moderate Turkish leaders who signed the treaty were ousted in favor of a new nationalist leader, Mustafa Kemal, who simply refused to accept the treaty and even re-occupied the very lands in question then expelled any surviving Armenians, including thousands of orphans.
No Allied power came to the aid of the Armenian Republic and it collapsed. Only a tiny portion of the easternmost area of historic Armenia survived by being becoming part of the Soviet Union.
After the successful obliteration of the people of historic Armenia, the Turks demolished any remnants of Armenian cultural heritage including priceless masterpieces of ancient architecture, old libraries and archives. The Turks even leveled entire cities such as the once thriving Kharpert, Van and the ancient capital at Ani, to remove all traces of the three thousand year old civilization.
The half-hearted reaction of the world's great powers to the plight of the Armenians was duly noted by the young German politician Adolf Hitler. After achieving total power in Germany, Hitler decided to conquer Poland in 1939 and told his generals: "Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my 'Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?"

· Author/Bibliography

· Genocide Index Page

· The History Place Main Page

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/armenians.htm

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Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia (Q2657718)

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2657718

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