The Armenian Genocide: An Unforgotten Adversity

5 Pages 1368 Words

“Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?” This was a chilling comment made by Germany’s Nazi leader Adolf Hitler referring to the Armenian Genocide (Apsel). With a rich, tragic yet triumphant history, Armenians trace their history back to the sixth century B.C. During the past thousands of years, Armenia has been a battlefield for its invaders and opposing empires. However, it has also been a bridge for many cultures and new civilizations.
Armenia was once an empire, and thrived for some 1,700 years under kings and queens. It was during this time where the country developed its rich and beautiful heritage. Architecture, art, and the Armenian national alphabet, are only a few things derived in Armenia at this time. Armenia remains one of the world’s oldest civilizations, as it once included Mount Ararat (now in Modern day Turkey), which, in a biblical translation, identifies that Noah’s Ark once rested upon it. It was the also the first country in the world to embrace Christianity as its religion (AD 301), and the Armenian Church pursued an independent course. Amazingly enough, the beauty and strength of this country had to deal with bloodshed, brutal killings, and overall loss. But it could not be suppressed forever.
Throughout the 1830’s, Armenia was a part of three different empires—the Persian, the Russian, and the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, for political and cultural independence and social and economic reform. These empires led the Armenians to form their own political parties, and it also led to artistic, religious, and educational recovery. Furthermore, it gave them hope for equality and freedom from those empires. Astonishingly enough, Armenians and Turks, as being part of the same empire, got along relatively well during the Ottoman Empire for several hundred years. However, when the Ottoman Empire began to lose its power and fall apart, the Armenians’ hopes of freedom an...