Question
Support Ideas with Evidence How did the war contribute to the mass murder of the Armenian people?Include details from the text.
Solution
4.4
(284 Votes)
Felix
Elite ยท Tutor for 8 years
Answer
The war contributed to the mass murder of the Armenian people through several mechanisms:1. **Political Instability**: The chaos and political instability during World War I provided an opportunity for the Ottoman Empire to carry out their genocidal intentions against the Armenian population. The Young Turk government, seeking to consolidate power and scapegoat minorities, exploited the wartime situation to implement their policy of ethnic cleansing.2. **Dehumanization and Propaganda**: The war created an environment where propaganda against Armenians flourished. Armenians were portrayed as traitors and enemies of the state, making it easier to justify their persecution and eventual extermination. Propaganda campaigns depicted Armenians as collaborators with enemy forces, fueling hatred and violence against them.3. **Resource Scarcity**: The demands of the war led to shortages of resources such as food and fuel within the Ottoman Empire. As a result, Armenians, who were already marginalized and viewed as economic competitors, were scapegoated for these shortages. This provided a pretext for their deportation and mass murder under the guise of relocation for national security reasons.4. **Military Collaboration**: Some Armenian communities had initially sided with the Russian Empire, Ottoman Turkey's enemy in the war. This collaboration, even if limited or coerced, was used by the Ottoman authorities as justification for the collective punishment of the entire Armenian population.5. **Systematic Deportations and Massacres**: The war facilitated the implementation of systematic deportations and massacres of Armenians. Under the cover of military operations and wartime chaos, the Ottoman government orchestrated the forced relocation of Armenians from their ancestral lands to remote regions where they faced starvation, exposure, and outright massacre. These atrocities were carried out with impunity amid the larger turmoil of the war.These factors, compounded by the overall atmosphere of violence and instability during World War I, enabled the Ottoman government to systematically execute its genocidal campaign against the Armenian people, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians.