Domestic Violence in Moldova - The Advocates for Human Rights

Armenia’s relationship with Turkey has significantly marked its history.Beginning in the 15 th century, Armenia came under Turkish rule. Although Armenianswere treated relatively well at the height of the Ottoman Empire, they were laterpersecuted by their Turkish rulers, and several massacres of Armenians by OttomanTurks were reported in the late 1800s. 22 Armenians who lived in rural areas, however,remained relatively independent of Ottoman influence.In the late Ottoman period of the 19 th century, a nascent feminist movementemerged in urban areas, 23 producing an Armenian “feminist manifesto.” This manifestoincluded such basic human rights as freedom to choose an occupation and elimination ofthe dowry system and other inequalities in marriage. 24 It was not well received;“resistance to women’s rights arose from the need for family solidarity . . . becauseArmenians, as a subject people, had long depended on family networks for protection andsurvival.” 25Seeking security from aggression by the Ottoman Turks, some Armenians turnedfor help to the Russian Empire, which had expanded into the Transcaucasion region inthe early 19 th century. The integration of the Armenian province of the Persian empireinto the Tsarist empire perpetuated a longstanding divide between western and easternArmenia. The eastern portion fared far better under Tsarist rule than the western portion,which was part of the ailing Ottoman Empire.Armenia’s conflicts with the Ottoman Empire culminated in events that have beencalled the 20 th century’s first genocide. These events continue to define Armenia’srelationship with modern day Turkey. 26 From 1915 to 1918, the governing “YoungTurks” organized the murder and deportation of at least one million Armenians. 27Speaking of his observations as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916,Henry Morganthau stated, “the Turks never had . . . the idea of reestablishing theArmenians . . . They knew that the great majority would never reach their destinationand that those who did would either die of thirst and starvation . . . When the Turkishauthorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the deathwarrant to a whole race . . . .” 28 Hitler referred to the Armenian genocide and the world’s22 Meline Karakashian, supra at note 15.23 Lou Ann Matossian, Armenian Women in a Changing World, OFF OUR BACKS 18 (1995).24 Id.25 Id. at 19.26 See, e.g., Diane F. Orentlicher, Genocide, in CRIMES OF WAR: WHAT THE PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW156 (R. Gutman & D. Rieff eds., 1999).27 In 1915, the former British Ambassador to the U.S. reported that as many as 800,000 Armenians hadbeen killed in six months as a result of a “deliberate and premeditated policy of the gang now in possessionof the Turkish Government.” 800,000 Armenians Counted as Destroyed, in NYT, October 7, 1915 at 3-4.28 HENRY MORGENTHAU, AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 307-309 (1919).Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Domestic Violence in Armenia, December 2000 8