1. Political Leaders of the Armenia Genocide The Armenian

1. Political Leaders of the Armenia Genocide
The Armenian Genocide was masterminded by the Central Committee of the Young Turk
Party (Committee for Union and Progress) which was dominated by Mehmed Talât
[Pasha], Ismail Enver [Pasha], and Ahmed Djemal [Pasha]. They were a racist group
whose ideology was articulated by Zia Gökalp, Dr. Mehmed Nazim, and Dr. Behaeddin
Shakir.
The Armenian Genocide was directed by a Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa) set
up by the Committee of Union and Progress, which created special "butcher battalions,"
made up of violent criminals released from prison.
http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts/genocide.html
Mehmed Talaat Pasha
Ismail Enver
Ahmed Djemal
3. Speech of a person who was present during the genocide.
Noyemzar Alexanian
From Armeniapedia.org
The Armenian Genocide:
Noyemzar will never forget
By Linda J.P. Mahdesian
They came looking for rope. On a spring morning in 1915, the villagers of Baghin, Palou
- an Armenian territory occupied by Turkey - awoke to the sight of the Kurdish cavalry
surrounding them. "Nobody knew what was happening at first," says Grandma, my
Armenian grandmother-in-law. "The Kurds were hired by the Turks to do their dirty
work," says Avedis Mahdesian, my Armenian father-in-law. He's doing the tough job of
translating her rapid-fire anguish into English.
Sitting at the edge of the couch in her tiny living room, Grandma's telling me the story of
her life. With only the cloudy afternoon light sifting through the windows, it feels like a
day for which funerals are made. It seems fitting, almost planned. For the life story of an
88-year-old Armenian woman named Noyemzar Alexanian - and for most Armenians of
her generation - is a story of death.
The soldiers went from house to house asking for rope. After that they took the males, 15
and older and collected them. "They used the rope to tie their hands," says Grandma.
The men and teen-aged boys were taken to a distant field and stabbed to death. "I
remember my father and three other people from Baghin being taken away to be killed by
the Kurds, and my mother is yelling, `Please help! Please help!' as they're taking him
away. A friendly Kurd later told my mother that my father begged to be shot, not
butchered," says Grandma. The 6-year-old Noyemzar watched the white shirt of her
father as he was led up a mountainside by the soldiers. The white shirt became a white
dot, and then it was gone.
Baidzar Khimatian took her four children - her daughters Noyemzar, Satenig and Zevart,
her son, Markar - and her mother to a friendly Kurdish family's house in a nearby village.
One day they heard a knock at the door. A Turkish soldier entered and ordered all the
Armenians - women and children - into a caravan to be taken away and killed.
Before being herded into the caravan, Baidzar gave two gold coins to a friendly Kurd and
persuaded him to keep two of her children, Noyemzar and Satenig. In the panic and
confusion, little Zevart disappeared. "She's lost," says Grandma, raising her hands in a
plea.
As the caravan arrived at the village where they were to be killed, Baidzar pleaded with
the Kurdish leader of that village to spare her life and the lives of her son Markar and her
mother. The leader agreed. He spared the lives of many other Armenians, including
numerous families from Baghin.
The Khimatian family was still divided between two villages, almost 10 miles apart.
They could only visit by getting permission from the Kurds. Noyemzar was only 6, yet
she was the mother to her little sister, Satenig, who suffered from chronic stomach
problems. "She died in that Kurdish village," says Grandma, stroking the couch cushion.
One day, her brother, Markar, and his friend, Hovagim Hagopian, came to take
Noyemzar to visit her mother. Along the way, Hovagim told her, "Learn the way so you
can escape from where you are." After a Kurd brought Noyemzar back to where she was
staying, she made up her mind to escape the next day. "It was a cloudy, rainy day, like
this," says Grandma, motioning toward the window. "I ran and ran and ran." This 6-yearold, frightened girl ran for miles across wolf-infested fields and mountainous landscapes
and miraculously reached the village where her mother was staying.
Baidzar's brother, Hovsep, who worked in the village, came to their house one day and
told his sister that the Kurds had beaten him. "My mother gave gold coins to my uncle so
he could escape to Kharpert," says Grandma. Markar also escaped to Kharpert, a town
with orphanages for the children of refugees.
By this time, Noyemzar was about 8 years old. Her mother asked for permission to visit
Markar and Hovsep in Kharpert, and told little Noyemzar to escape to her aunt's house in
another village. Fifteen days later, Noyemzar's aunt found a friendly Kurd to take her
young niece to Kharpert.
The year was 1919 and the Turkish government was relocating the Armenian refugees
out of Turkish-occupied territories, including Kharpert, and into Syria. Noyemzar,
Baidzar, Markar, and Baidzar's mother were herded once again into wagons, bound for
Aleppo, Syria. They stayed only a few weeks before being herded into caravans to
orphanages in the villages near Beirut, Lebanon. Eventually her mother and brother and
grandmother tracked her down, with their sites set on America - via Marseilles, France,
and Havana, Cuba.
Fifteen-year-old Noyemzar and her family arrived in Cuba on Aug. 31, 1924. Before that
year, the United States had no quotas on the numbers of Turkish citizens
4. A list of popular movies at the time period (US)
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Adam and Eve 1918
Battle of Hearts 1918
Crisis, The 1916
Cupid Angling 1918
Heart of My Heart 1912
Male and Female 1919
Peter Pan 1924
Seeing America 1916
Sirens of the Sea 1917
Smouldering Fires 1925
Temple of Venus 1920s
Undine 1915
Wanderer of the Wasteland 1923
The Floorwalker 1916
http://www.rinkworks.com/movies
http://www.movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmorgraphy.html
http://usparks.about.com/cs/movielocations1/l/blmoviesqz.htm#Q
5. Armenian food
Lavash is the type of bread that most Armenians have on their table
when they have food.
Armenian Pizza
Armenian Gata
Armenian Nazook
Baklava
http://www.armenianteens.com/armenian/armenian-food.php
11.Internation communities response to the issue
The international community condemned the Armenian Genocide. In May 1915, Great
Britain, France, and Russia advised the Young Turk leaders that they would be held
personally responsible for this crime against humanity. There was a strong public outcry
in the United States against the mistreatment of the Armenians. At the end of the war, the
Allied victors demanded that the Ottoman government prosecute the Young Turks
accused of wartime crimes. Relief efforts were also mounted to save the starving
Armenians. The American, British, and German governments sponsored the preparation
of reports on the atrocities and numerous accounts were published. On the Other hand,
despite the moral outrage of the international community, no strong actions were taken
against the Ottoman Empire either to sanction its brutal policies or to salvage the
Armenian people from the grip of extermination. Moreover, no steps were taken to
require the postwar Turkish governments to make restitution to the Armenian people for
their immense material and human looses.
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocidefaq.html#What
6. Language(s) spoken in the country/region where the genocide took place:
a. Armenian, an indo-European language spoken predominantly in Armenia.
b. Turkish, a Turkic language spoken by the Turks.
http://www.armenian-genocide.org
7. Wars and Military conflicts occurring during the Armenia Genocide
a. World War1
b. Beginning of the USSR Genocide
c. Italy and Bulgaria war
Summary
The Armenia Genocide
World War One gave the Young Turk government the cover and the excuse to carry out
their plan. The plan was simple and its goal was clear. On April 24th 1915,
commemorated worldwide by Armenians as Genocide Memorial Day, hundreds of
Armenian leaders were murdered in Istanbul after being summoned and gathered. The
now leaderless Armenian people were to follow. Across the Ottoman Empire (with the
exception of Constantinople, presumably due to a large foreign presence), the same
events transpired from village to village, from province to province.
The remarkable thing about the following events is the virtually complete cooperation of
the Armenians. For a number of reasons they did not know what was planned for them
and went along with "their" government's plan to "relocate them for their own good."
First, the Armenians were asked to turn in hunting weapons for the war effort.
Communities were often given quotas and would have to buy additional weapons from
Turks to meet their quota. Later, the government would claim these weapons were proof
that Armenians were about to rebel. The able bodied men were then "drafted" to help in
the wartime effort. These men were either immediately killed or were worked to death.
Now the villages and towns, with only women, children, and elderly left were
systematically emptied. The remaining residents would be told to gather for a temporary
relocation and to only bring what they could carry. The Armenians again obediently
followed instructions and were "escorted" by Turkish Gendarmes in death marches.
The death marches led across Anatolia, and the purpose was clear. The Armenians were
raped, starved, dehydrated, murdered, and kidnapped along the way. The Turkish
Gendarmes either led these atrocities or turned a blind eye. Their eventual destination for
resettlement was just as telling in revealing the Turkish governments goal: the Syrian
Desert, Der Zor. Those who miraculously survived the march would arrive to this bleak
desert only to be killed upon arrival or to somehow survive until a way to escape the
empire was found. Usually those that survived and escaped received assistance from
those who have come to be known as "good Turks," from foreign missionaries who
recorded much of these events and from Arabs.
8. photojournalists/reporters who covered the genocide
a. Dmitiri Baltermants
b. Alexander Rodchenko
c. Boris Ignatovich
http://www.skistudio.com