Facing History and Ourselves Name: ____________________________The Armenian Genocide Date: ____________________________Mini Document Based Question

DIRECTIONS: Respond to the following prompt in TWO organized paragraphs. You must write a THESIS that clearly and

directly answers the prompt. You must use AT LEAST FOUR of the documents provided as evidence that supports your thesis. Be sure to frame your evidence, include the source and accurately analyze each document in a way that supports

your thesis. Do not refer to the document as “Document A” etc. Use the title given instead. You must make a full effort to use proper grammar and spelling—this is not a draft that you can edit later.

DBQ PROMPT:

Is it necessary for the Turkish government to acknowledge that the deaths 1.5 million Armenians a century ago was a genocide perpetrated by their nation?

THESIS (CLAIM):

The Turkish government _____________________________________________acknowledge that their nation was

responsible for the Armenian genocide because __________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Document 1: French images depicting the Hamidian massacres of the Armenians (1889)

Document 2: Photograph of Armenians being deported from Constantinople by cattle car to relocation camps (1915)

Document 3: Excerpt from a New York Times article published on October 7, 1915

Document 4: Map of the Armenian Genocide published by the Armenian National Committee in America

Document 5: Excerpt from Talaat Bey’s memoirs published in March 1921

I admit that we deported many Armenians from our eastern provinces, but we never acted in this matter upon a previously prepared scheme. The responsibility for these acts falls first of all upon the deported people themselves… The information that we were receiving from the administrators of these provinces and from the commander of the Caucasian Army gave us details of the most revolting and barbarous activities of the Armenian bandits. It was impossible to shut our eyes to the treacherous acts of the Armenians, at a time when we were engaged in a war which would determine the fate of our country.

Viscount Bryce, former British ambassador to the United States, in the House of Lords today said that such information as had reached him from many quarters showed that the figure of 800,000 Armenians destroyed since May was quite a possible number. Virtually the whole nation had been wiped out, he declared, and he did not suppose there was any case in history of a crime “so hideous and on so large a scale.”

“The death of these people,” said Lord Bryce, “resulted from the deliberate and premeditated policy of the gang now in possession of the Turkish government. Orders for the massacres came in every case direct from Constantinople. In some instances local Governors, being humane, pious men, refused to carry out the orders and at least two Governors were summarily dismissed for this reason.

“The customary procedure was to round up the whole of the population of a designated town. A part of the population was thrown into prison and the remain- der were marched out of town and in the suburbs the men were separated from the women and children. The men were then taken to a convenient place and shot and bayoneted. The women and children were then put under a convoy of the lower kind of soldiers and dispatched to some distant destination.

“They were driven by the soldiers day after day. Many fell by the way and many died of hunger, for no provisions were furnished them. They were robbed of all they possessed, and in many cases the women were stripped naked and made to continue the march in that condition. Many of the women went mad and threw away their children. The caravan route was marked by a line of corpses.

Document 6: Excerpt from speech given by Adolf Hitler on August 22, 1939 before the invasion of Poland

Document 7: Excerpt from TheRoots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence by Ervin Straub (1989)

Document 8: Excerpt from speech given by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan in April 1915

Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter – with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It's a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me. I have issued the command – and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?[

It is indisputable that the last years of the Ottoman Empire were a difficult period, full of suffering for Turkish, Kurdish, Arab, Armenian and millions of other Ottoman citizens, regardless of their religion or ethnic origin.

Any conscientious, fair and humanistic approach to these issues requires an understanding of all the sufferings endured in this period, without discriminating as to religion or ethnicity. Certainly, neither constructing hierarchies of pain nor comparing and contrasting suffering carries any meaning for those who experienced this pain themselves.

The incidents of the First World War are our shared pain. To evaluate his painful period of history through a perspective of just memory is a humane and scholarly responsibility.

Millions of people of all religions and ethnicities lost their lives in the First World War. Having experienced events which had inhumane consequences – such as relocation – during the First World War, should not prevent Turks and Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes among towards one another.

In today’s world, deriving enmity from history and creating new antagonisms are neither acceptable nor useful for building a common future.

The intense need of the Armenians as individuals and as a community to have the genocide be acknowledged and known by the world teaches us something about ourselves as human beings. First, our identities are rooted not only in our group, but in the history of our group. For a complete identity, we must be integrated not only with our individual past, but also with our group’s past. Perhaps, this becomes especially important when our group is partly destroyed and dispersed; our families and ourselves have been deeply affected; and in a physical sense we have at best fragments of our group. Second, we have a profound need for our pain and suffering, especially when it is born of injustice, to be acknowledged, known and respected.