PRESENTATION OUTLINE
What it is:
The killing of millions of Armenians, a Christian minority of the Ottomon empire in Turkey. The genocide occurred from 1915-1918.
History:
-The Armenians treated very poorly
in Ottomon Empire
-They thrived
-Their homes were raided
-Thousands were killed from 1894-1896
The Young Turks took over Turkey in 1908
-They wanted to rid the country of all non-Turks
-The Armenians got involved in WWI affairs
Motives:
The genocide of the Armenian people started by the Ottomon Empire's political parties. They wanted to liquidate Turkey of all Armenians.
What Happened to the Armenians:
They were moved
-They were abused, starved, slaughtered, drowned, burned, poisoned, and injected -People were also thrown off cliffs and sent on long walks across deserts
-Children were also kidnapped, converted into Islam, and given away to Turkish families.
-Women were raped and forced to serve as slaves
-Property stolen too.
Her family life/ background:
-She lived in a Boghazlian Village at her grandparents house, right next to her parents house
-Her family worked in agriculture
-Veronika's grandpa was a well known priest
- She had a 20 year old uncle who was a lawyer and a 15 year old uncle
-She was born in 1907 and was young at the time of the genocide (about 8)
Her Family life/ background:
-The Turks' living property was dirtier than the Armenian's
-The Armenians worked mostly in the trade business
- She noticed the Turks were poor
- She lived in a church district of Armenians
-Church was a big part of her life and her culture
-The Turks and Armenians got on fine with each other during her childhood
- The Armenians lived in harmony. They all married, and grew up happily. Even the sick were given a ceremony in church
What she saw:
- Fedayis= Armenian civilians who voluntarily left their families to form self-defense units and armed bands in reaction to the mass murder of Armenians
- The Turks beat the Fedayis when they found their location
-There was a prison under the government building
-“Not a kilogram of Armenian flesh will remain alive: you will butcher all of them.”
- The government killed the villages that were all- Armenian first
- 2 Armenian girls that she knew committed suicide with poison
What she saw:
- Veronika's grandma had a vision that when Veronika's dad was a Turkish soldier, her brought home bones of the dead for them to be found and using in a museum for the genocide later in history
- The Turkish government separated the town's men into Turkish and Armenian to be recruited for the army
- Armenians between the Armenians and Turks were settled by her uncle, a lawyer
- The Turks killed people with axes
- The Armenians brought to serve in the army were slaughtered at night
What She Saw:
- Veronika's grandfather was forced to come outside with the Turkish guards and had his head chopped off. He started partying before the ax hit his head
-The guards played soccer with his head
- They also piled up the heads of the dead
- Armenians were taken from their homes and brought to prison
- Anyone who had an Armenian in their house was brought to prison too
- Women were beaten daily
What she saw:
-People started to use more Turkish traditions
- After 50 days, (March 1916) the government ordered all Armenians to be killed
- The Armenians that escaped went to villages near Veronkia
- The Turks drove away the families without men
- Some people tried to give up their daughters to the Turks save their lives
- The Turks kidnapped the pretty children, raped them, and forced them to change religion
- Veronika's uncle was able to hide from the Turks
What she saw:
- Her uncle was called to shave the governor however, and was not harmed, realized there was no escape from the geoncide, and that families were being split apart, he and his wife drank poison and killed themselfs
- He "saved" 25 people from a terrible life of being forced to be a Turk but didn't make his wife die- made her throw up
- Her grandma's cousin was killed when he refused to take his cousin's (Veronika's grandma's) advise and become a Turk to avoid being shot.
What she saw:
- Veronika's mother and her sister saw people being deported, all of them screaming and wailing
- Her grandmother was killed
- She heard about many mothers having to marry Turkish men to save their own lives as well as their families lives
What she experienced:
-Her family was forced to hide in tunnels/ in their house for months while the government tried to convince them and their neighbors to come out so they could capture/ kill them
-Her father was recruited into the army in 1920. He didn't want to slaughter Armenians, so he was able to escape
-The Turks took away their sheds and such
-There was a massacre, and they had to hide in their home
What she experienced:
- They had to burn many of their books because of the conflict...
- Armenians had to go into the army, the usually didn't before the genocide however. Veronica's dad went into the army in 1912
- Veronika's family dug a passage from their cowshed to their yard and hid all day and all night in them since the Turks walked around trying to slaughter the Armenians
What she experienced:
-They only got a chance to breathe at night
- They hid for 50 days
- The Turks tried to be tricky and convinced some people to come out of their homes, when they did, they were killed
- They helped hold a kidnapped Armenian girl in their home and saved her from the Turks
What she experienced:
- They got on bad terms with the Turks when an Armenian girl being taken care of by a Turkish family, arranged to marry their son leaves for Veronika's house to go and marry Veronika's 16 year old uncle- rumors when around that they had already married so the Turks forced them to leave their house
- They went to another Turk's house, they were taken good care of
- In 1924 Veronika and her family were sent off to Russia and had to live in tents, they finally reunited with her father for a year until he died a year later
Afterward:
- Turkish officials were punished for their deeds after the armistice in 1924
- Veronkia moved to Yerevan
- She met an orphan boy
- In 1927 they got married and built a house- Veronika was 20
- The Turks had remained the same in that village
- They had happy, yet sorrowful lives
-In 1920 she found her father again in Armenia
