The United Nations Should Take Action Against The Genocide In Armenia

There are an infinite number of proposals of action in place for the United Nations to consider concerning the Armenian genocide. In 1915, the genocide in Armenia began on April 24th. This genocide was started by the Turks because they wanted to expel and massacre the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were showing a strong sense of jealousy regarding the relationship that Armenia had created with the Ottomans.

Due to this, the Turkish government arrested and executed several hundred Armenian scholars on their first day of attack. In the many endless and torturous days to follow, the many ordinary Armenians still remaining were forced to leave their homes and belongings behind and were then taken immediately on death marches in the Mesopotamian desert without any food to eat or water to drink. These marches caused many more deaths because of their malnutrition.

The people who needed to take a rest from walking on this march were shot and killed. Due to the serious problems this genocide has caused in Armenia, and as a member of the United Nations Incident Report Committee, a consensus has been made to send in the United Nations soldiers to fight for the end of the Armenia genocide of 1915.

One of the main and rational reasons to send in the United Nations troops to fight against the Turks is to protect the Armenian individuals and families. Many of the citizens of Armenia have either been or will soon be abused, exported, separated from their family, or put to death by the Turks. During the “Turkification” campaign of the genocide, government squads “…kidnapped children, converted them to Islam and gave them to Turkish families” (History.com).

In order to stop the abductions of Armenian children, the United Nations needs to be sent in to fight against those who are capturing them. These innocent children deserve nothing but the best in their lives and are worthy to have their lives fought for. Another reason to send in troops to fight for the lives of Armenians is because fighting for them verbally is having no effect. During a recent conference held in New York it was brought up that representations have been made to the Ottoman Government by the ambassador for humane treatment of Armenia.

However, “Despite these representations, the slaughter of Armenians had continued” (Kloian). Verbalizing the issue in a peaceful way has made no impact on the minds of the Turks or changed their minds about the activities they’ve been taking to rid all Armenians. This is one reason that the UN should be sent in to fight, for the lives of innocent people.

Moving forward, the United Nations needs to be sent in to Armenia to fight in order to obtain equality for Armenia compared to the countries around it. Armenia is generally known to be an outsider country due to its primary religion being Christianity, not Islam, and also because they didn’t accept the Turkish language. Due to these traits, “…Armenians were seen as the ‘ill’ minorities with poor political influence and were portrayed as sub-humans…” (armenocide.am).

Sending the UN troops in would allow the countries around them to realize that they are supported by other places and that they are not outsiders. This could intimidate the Turks, forcing them to back down the genocide. The Armenians are also soloed out by having discrimination rules. Since the Armenians are non-muslims, they “had to pay to sultan, and were demanded to pay additional illegal taxes” (Genocide1915).

Once again, the Turks would be intimidated by the help received by the Armenians, back down their fight, and potentially get rid of the taxes. Bringing in the UN troops will let the Turks know that the Armenians are not alone and that they should not be obligated to pay taxes because of their primary religion differences. Sending in the UN troops is the only way to intimidate the Turks into backing down from continuing the genocide because they believe that they are much more powerful than the Armenians due to economic status.

The least effective way to go about putting the genocide to an end is by only speaking out. On September 23rd, 1915 the “…Foreign Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions visited the State Department…and conferred with Acting Secretary of State Polk and other officials regarding the slaughter of Armenians by Turks…”(Kloian). This was later brought up as a topic in a conference but the slaughtering continued.

Speaking to superior people of the senate does not necessarily mean that any action will take place as seen here. Another example of how verbalizing what needs to be done is not effective is because some places around the world will not describe it as the truth. For example, “The United States has refused to use the term ‘genocide’ to describe what is happening in Armenia until 2004”(Gonchar). The fact that some places still haven’t been able to see it as it is, is the reason that verbalizing what needs to be done, instead of taking action will not work in this situation. Taking physical action is the best way to stop the Armenian genocide.

All in all, the genocide in Armenia needs to be put to an end by sending in the United Nations to fight. The lack of enforcement by speaking out and the terrible actions being done on the Armenians is why the only way to end. There have been many incidents during this event and people around the world want to help the Armenians. Overall, there are many different approaches to stop genocides and each one has a different best choice depending on the situation.