The destruction of the Armenian population in eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Turks in the early years of this century raises a number of ethical issues not only in terms of the ethical breach by the Turks in instituting such a policy but in terms of the inadequate response of the rest of the world to reports of what was taking place. Indeed, the world has tended to ignore this story ever since, leaving the remaining Armenian population in the world feeling victimized and ill-treated by the world community. At the same time, these circumstances had the ironic effect of strengthening the sense of national unity among the Armenian people. The shameful behavior of the rest of the world toward the genocide in Armenia arguably contributed to the coming of the worst case of genocide in history, the attempted extermination of the Jews by the Nazis in World War II, showing clearly that unethical behavior has consequences which may not be foreseen at the time but which can be devastating just the same.
From the end of the last century to World War I, a deadly wave of Turkish fanaticism swept over Armenian towns and villages. The horror of that time was so terrible that the world dismissed the memories, though some did not:
The universal indifference to these horrendous events made such a lasting impression on an obscure Austrian corporal in World War I that he later cited it as a justification for his own genocidal policies.
Hitler stated explicitly in 1931 that he wanted Germany to have more living space, so there would have to be a mass reduction in population. He cited the extermination of the Armenians as a model. The Armenian massacres were the last spasm of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks killed 1.5 million people and decimated a nation. The story began at the end of the nineteenth century when Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II defied the governments of Europe when they protested his despotic rule. He then proceeded to ven...