Armenian Reading Notes

11th Century: Seljuk Turks inhabited Anatolia.
1453: The Ottoman Empire was formed.
Armenians were second-class citizens in the Ottoman Empire.
- Allowed to practice Christianity.
- Faced extra taxes and discriminatory laws.
19th Century:
- Ottoman Empire declined, losing territories to Russia, Great Britain, and new independent states.
- Russia gained some eastern Armenian provinces.
- Russian Armenians supported Ottoman Armenians' fight for human rights.
- Armenian political organizations formed in the Ottoman Empire.

Treaty of San Stefano (1878) → Replaced by the Treaty of Berlin (1878):
- Promised more rights for Ottoman Armenians.
- Russia was assigned responsibility for ensuring these rights.
- Great Britain and other "great powers" opposed Russian expansion.
- Sultan Abdul Hamid II ignored the promised rights.
Late 19th Century: Armenians continued protesting discriminatory laws.
- The Sultan responded with violence.
- Hamidian Massacres (1894-1896):
  - 100,000–300,000 Armenians killed.
  - Thousands fled to Europe and the U.S.
  - Some converted to Islam to survive.
  - Near East Relief raised over $100 million for Armenians.

1908:
- Armenians and other minorities celebrated the new era of tolerance under the Young Turks.
- The Young Turks aimed to create a more equal, modern state.
- Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) marched into Constantinople and overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
- A constitutional government was formed, granting equal rights.
1909: Adana Massacre
- Supporters of the overthrown Sultan killed nearly 30,000 Armenians.
- Adana, historically Armenian-populated, was devastated.
- The perpetrators were not punished.
Rise of Pan-Turkism ("Turkey for the Turks") → Nationalist movements grew stronger.
The Ottoman Empire, weakened by territorial losses (Balkan Wars 1912-13), saw Russia as a major enemy.

1914: Ottoman Empire entered WWI against Russia.
- Suffered defeats → Blamed the Armenian community.
1915 (April 24): Beginning of the Armenian Genocide
- CUP leaders Mehmet Talaat, Ismail Enver, and Ahmed Jemal planned to erase the Armenian presence.
- Armenian civil leaders, intellectuals, doctors, businessmen, and artists were executed.
- Using telegraphs and railroads, Ottoman leaders ordered deportations.
- Deportation & Massacres:
  - Armenian women and children forced onto trains to the Syrian desert or sent on death marches.
  - Turkish gendarmes subjected women to sexual violence.
  - Special military groups and released convicts brutalized deportees.
  - Many Armenians were abducted, sold, or forcibly converted.
  - Euphrates and Tigris rivers filled with bodies.
  - Disease spread rampantly in concentration camps.
1918:
- Most Armenians were dead or in the Diaspora.

1918: Armenia gained independence after the Ottoman Empire's defeat in WWI.
1920: Armenia was invaded by the Red Army and became a Soviet state.
1923:
- Under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the remaining Armenians in Cilicia were expelled, along with Greeks and Assyrians.
- 3,000-year-old Armenian civilization ceased to exist.
- 1.5 million Armenians (over half the population) were killed.
Only a small Armenian population remained in Constantinople.

The term "genocide" was coined in 1944 by scholar Raphael Lemkin, influenced by the Armenian case and the Holocaust.
The Turkish government still denies the Armenian Genocide.
2004: Turkey passed Article 305, making it a criminal offense (punishable by up to 10 years in prison) to recognize the genocide.