644 Essay, Research Paper

What Does Genocide Mean? The era of mass murder might be given as a name for the 20th century. Never in the history of the world have so many millions of people been deliberately killed since 1900. These millions weren’t all because of war. They were victims of genocide: the deliberate killings of racial, religious, ethnic, or political groups. The word genocide is from the Greek genos, meaning”race”, or “tribe”, and the Latin cide, meaning “killing.” The First Significant Genocide… The Armenian Genocide was directed against the residents of Asia Minor by the Turkish government. This deliberate slaughter began on April 24, 1915, under the cover of World War 1. The number killed are uncertain. The lowest is 800,000 and the highest more than 2 million. First the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed into battalions, and then killed. Then the Armenian political leaders were rounded up on April 24, 1915, and then killed. Finally, the remaining Armenians were called from thier homes, told they would be relocated, and then marched off to concentration camps in the desert between Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor where they would starve and thirst to death in the sun. On March, often they would be denied food and water, and many were brutalized and killed by their guards. The authorities in Trezbizond, on the Black Sea coast, loaded Armenians on barges and sank them out at sea. The Turkish government has denied that this ever happened, but this event has been carefully recorded by others. My Comment: As I said before the “era of mass murder” should be given the name of the 20th century. This century was when most people for either their race, ethnic, or religion had been killed purposely. From the Jewish Holocaust to the all other genocides. Yet, there is also a reason why this happened. Maybe it was because it was a lesson to show us how easily we are capable of doing such atrocities as this. These past genocides also show us how important it is to be at peace with one another. Without this peace look what it all caused.