Armenia is much like other Caucasus countries, in that for centuries conquering forces have swept over it from all directions. Mongols, Tamer Lane, Persians, Ottomans, Russians (Romanovs), independence then Russians (Communist) again. In 1921 Armenia lost a lot of land (including Mount Ararat) to Turkey in an agreement between the Russians and the Turks, stranding millions of Armenians in Turkey.
By the mid 1890’s the Turks had begun their persecution of Armenians within their borders, with systematic massacres. Under the noise of World War One, they began a full genocide of Armenians within their territories. With death marches to Syria, massacring of the intellectual and religious classes and massive concentration camps, over 1.5 million Armenians were killed. We visited the genocide museum and to this day, I do not understand people who take pictures at these places, but the below stood out to me:
A German soldier called Armin Wegner captured photos of the atrocities and at huge personal risk smuggled them out of the county to tell the world of the Turkish crimes. in the 1930’s he also wrote public letters to Hitler criticising him for his treatment of the Jewish people. He was of course thrown into a concentration camp for his efforts. He escaped Germany in 1934 and continued to lobby against Hitler and others. He’s a very interesting and brave guy and worth reading more about (if you want to, you can check him out here).
To this day, the Turkish government has not recognised the persecution of the Armenians in 1894-1923 (as well as Christian Greeks etc) and diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia remain strained.
