The Armenian Genocide
I'm reading Peter Balakian's "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response". It's the second book I've read about the Genocide (or which featured the Genocide as a central event) in the last couple of months, but the descriptions still shock me. I don't understand how it could have happened, or how the Turkish government could still be denying it was a genocide.
I'm going to post some selections from the book of survivor accounts of what happened in what's now Turkey in 1896 (the Armenian Massacre) and 1915 (the Genocide). These are gruesome and upsetting. If you have rape or physical abuse in your past, you might not want to read these. If you have children, you might not want to read these.
1896:
pg. 65: "A lot of women, variously estimated from 60 to 160 in number, were shut up in a church, and the soldiers were 'let loose' among them. Many were outraged [raped] to death, and the remainder dispatched with sword and bayonet. Children were placed in a row, one behind another, and a bullet fired down the line, apparently to see how many could be dispatched with one bullet. Infants and small children were piled one on the other and their heads struck off."
1915:
pg. 315: "Aurora... told Apfel... how her pregnant aunt, who was trying to protect her two-year-old son, was killed. 'The Turks, they took a knife and cut open her abdomen. They said, this is how we are going to end all you people. They pulled out a fetus from her. Put it on a stone. They took the end of the gun that they had, which was heavy, and started to pound and pound and pound her baby.'"
I feel like I might throw up.
I'm going to post some selections from the book of survivor accounts of what happened in what's now Turkey in 1896 (the Armenian Massacre) and 1915 (the Genocide). These are gruesome and upsetting. If you have rape or physical abuse in your past, you might not want to read these. If you have children, you might not want to read these.
1896:
pg. 65: "A lot of women, variously estimated from 60 to 160 in number, were shut up in a church, and the soldiers were 'let loose' among them. Many were outraged [raped] to death, and the remainder dispatched with sword and bayonet. Children were placed in a row, one behind another, and a bullet fired down the line, apparently to see how many could be dispatched with one bullet. Infants and small children were piled one on the other and their heads struck off."
1915:
pg. 315: "Aurora... told Apfel... how her pregnant aunt, who was trying to protect her two-year-old son, was killed. 'The Turks, they took a knife and cut open her abdomen. They said, this is how we are going to end all you people. They pulled out a fetus from her. Put it on a stone. They took the end of the gun that they had, which was heavy, and started to pound and pound and pound her baby.'"
I feel like I might throw up.