1. Armenia has a rich and rather depressing history of 2780 years including being ruled by the Ottomans, Persians, and Soviet Union.
2. Current day Armenia is only 1/10 of the geographic territory they once controlled.
3. It is famous for its massive diaspora with a population of only 3 million in the country itself and 7 million Armenians living around the world.
Eternal flame at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan.
4. The Armenian Genocide took place in 1915 in modern day Turkey or what was considered Western Armenia. The Turkish killed around 1.5 million innocent Armenians in order to carry out their ideals of “pan-Turkey” (Turkey for Turkey only) and ethnic cleansing.
5. The genocide was carried out in three stages: The first stage targeted young boys aged 18-45. They were called to join the army for World War I; 60,000 able bodied men were not given any weapons, were separated from the other soldiers going to war and then were killed in the deserts by Turks and Kurds. The second stage was against Armenian intellectuals and rich people educated in Europe (bankers, doctors, professors, etc.) who actually did a lot for the improvements of Turkey (ex. Created schools for women, grew the economy, etc.) — 600 of them were collected one night on April 24, 1915 and all killed. The last stage was against the peaceful population. This was the cruelest because it included old people, women, and children. The remainder of the population was asked to move temporarily to deserts “due to the war”, but little did they know, they would never return.
6. Con men were hired to carry out the killings in order to be more cruel, evil and not show mercy towards women and children.
7. Turkey has not only refused to apologize, but also has still not acknowledged the fact that the genocide ever happened. Till this day, they still claim that the deaths were due to usual and inevitable casualties during World War I.
Panoramic view of the capital, Yerevan, from the top of The Cafesjian Center for the Arts.
8. Armenia houses the third largest American embassy in the world.
9. Yerevan used to be called the “Pink Capital” because most of the buildings are constructed of the country’s natural stones.
10. The majority of the population’s last names end in “–ian” (ex. Kim Kardashian) ☺
No comments:
Post a Comment