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The Armenian Genocide

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Teacher Resources on the Armenian Genocide

1.

TeachGenocide.org
Published for Teachers by The Genocide Education Project

www.teachgenocide.org

Human Rights and Genocide: Case Study of the First Genocide of the 20th Century.  Comprehensive Lesson Plans for Teachers, 190 pp.
www.teachgenocide.org/lessonplans

Designated by the AGRC as the "Best Site" on the Web for teachers, students and the general public for teaching and learning about the Armenian Genocide. This Online Book and Lesson Plan, underwritten by The Genocide Education Project, was prepared by two world history teachers and sponsored by the San Francisco Unified School District Office of Curriculum Improvement and Professional Development. Newly released for summer 2003 it is a comprehensive 190 pp. study guide on human rights and genocide with complete Lesson Plans on the Armenian Genocide that include a One Day, Two Day, and Ten Day unit with a description of all  materials teachers will need including more than two dozen overheads, classroom exercises and more. Included are discussions on a wide range of topics related to the genocide: history of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, primary source documents, maps, denial issues, legal and international issues.

Registration is free and open to teachers and the general public. Materials can be printed or downloaded online. Other topics covered in the Study Guide  include the Slave Trade, Genocide of the Native Americans, the Great Famine in the Ukraine, the Rape of Nanking, the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Rwandan Genocide.

TeachGenocide.org also includes excerpts from the 1985 U.N. Subcommission Report on Genocide that noted the Armenian Genocide, a chronology of the Genocide, articles on altruism during the genocide, photographs by German medic Armin T. Wegner, a list of videos on the genocide, a 45 pp. Resource Guide, a list of web sites, a bibliography, a collection of New York Times news articles from 1915, and a document, "Hitler and the Armenian Genocide."

Facing History and Ourselves

www.facing.org/facing/fhao2.nsf

www.facinghistory.org

Lesson Plans and Readings on the Armenian Genocide. Facing History and Ourselves is a national teacher training professional development educational organization. Its mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism and prejudice to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development and lessons of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, and other human rights violations, students make the essential connections between history and the moral choices they must confront in their own lives. The web site comprises various sections that include educator resources, research & development info, student sites, regional programs, workshops & scheduled events and will  soon  include a complete online study guide on the Armenian Genocide. 

3.

California State Board of Education

History/Social Science Content Standards Grades K-12

[History-Social Science]. GRADE 10. WORLD HISTORY, CULTURE, AND GEOGRAPHY: 

www.cde.ca.gov/board

www.cde.ca.gov/board/historya.html

www.cde.ca.gov/board/pdf/history.pdf  

www.cde.ca.gov/cdepress/Hist_SocSci_Stnd.pdf

Students will study the cause and course of the two world wars and develop an understanding of current world issues and relate them to their historical, geographic, political, economic, and cultural contexts. [section 10.5, page 54]: "Students analyze the causes and course of the First World War, in terms of: human rights and genocide, including the Ottoman government's actions against its Armenian citizens." See also Section 52740 (b) of the California State Education Code : "It is the intent of the Legislature to provide accurate instructional materials to schools on The Armenian genocide. The Legislature hereby finds and declares that films or video tapes giving a historically accurate depiction of the internment in the United States of persons of Japanese origin during World War II and the Armenian Genocide should be made in order that pupils will recognize these events for the horror they represented. The Legislature hereby encourages teachers to use these video tapes as a resource in teaching pupils about these two important historical events that are commonly overlooked in today's school curriculum."

Republic of Armenia - Armenian Genocide Institute-Museum

www.armenocide.am

A virtual multi-language tour of the Armenian Genocide Museum of Armenia that contains an exposition of historical documentary material, archival documents, and photos on the Armenian Genocide. The Museum collects historical and documentary material on the genocide from the state archives of many countries. Collecting eye-witness accounts of the genocide has been an ongoing project for eventual publication. Many documents have already been translated. Online resources include a historical overview of the genocide, various notable quotations, a map showing areas where Armenians were killed along with the approximate number of victims, tables listing regions affected by the genocide with population figures before and after the genocide, and the number of churches, schools, and settlements destroyed. Includes the unique art of a genocide survivor, the Armenian artist Armiss, who escaped to France and created on canvas a poignant interpretation of his experiences. Included here is a vivid narrative poem that he wrote to complement his artwork.

5.

Armenian National Institute

Dedicated to the Research and Affirmation of the 1915 Armenian genocide, featuring photos, documents, maps, chronology, bibliographies, educational resources, and an extensive outline of facts on the genocide.

www.armenian-genocide.org/index.html
www.armenian-genocide.org/sitemap.htm#resource

The Institute offers an excellent and easily navigable site for teachers, educators, students, and the general public that includes a comprehensive list of resources, sample curricula, a chronology of the genocide, archival documents, a list of international responses to the genocide, press coverage of the genocide, photographs, bibliographies, and much more. The site is divided into several sections and includes maps, historical documents, a photo collection and a site map. A few sections follow:

TEACHING HISTORY: "Best of Web Links for History Teachers."

Links for teaching history, science and technology.

Division of Social Sciences, Emporia State University. www.emporia.edu/socsci/journal/links.htm
www.emporia.edu/socsci/journal/holocaust.htm
www.emporia.edu/socsci/journal/main.htm

A cybrary for teachers of genocide that includes many links on teaching history, including a link to the Armenian Genocide. Includes extensive coverage of all genocides. Includes photographs, readings, articles, maps, and other teaching resources including an extensive list of web links for history teachers. (click on "Genocide and the Holocaust," then click on "The Armenian Genocide")

7.

Institute for the Study of Genocide/International Association of Genocide Scholars

www.isg-iags.org

Do you want to know:
What is genocide? When and why do genocides occur?
What kinds of studies of  historical and contemporary cases are there? What is the role of comparative studies of genocide?
What kinds of explanation have we come up with?
Who is doing research in this area?
Where can you learn more?

What kinds of actions and institutions could prevent such events? The Institute for the Study of Genocide (ISG) and the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) advance and review such research. Besides this, their officers and members advise media, governments and intergovernmental organizations concerned with early warning and prevention. Site includes their archived newsletters, a list of their conferences and papers, and a list of available books to order.

The Zoryan Institute

The Zoryan institute is an international academic center devoted to the documentation, study, and dissemination of information related to the life of the Armenian people in the recent past and the present within the context of larger world affairs. The site includes a list of documents, books and other publications, and offers online full text articles on the Armenian genocide.
www.zoryaninstitute.org

This excellent site for educators, teachers, and students alike offers analytical articles treating many aspects of the Armenian Genocide. The What’s New section presents (1) an overview of a book by Turkish sociologist and Armenian Genocide scholar Taner Akcam on Turkish-Armenian dialogue and its impact on Turkish perceptions of the Genocide and Turkish society; (2) The article, "Turks who Saved Armenians" presents an important yet little known aspect of the Genocide. The Publications section features a collection of important books on the genocide as well as rare posters from the period created by the Near East Relief. The Genocide section offers bibliographies, documents, links, and several important full length articles on the genocide including one by the noted Armenian Genocide scholar Vahakn Dadrian.  The Documents and Articles section has several rare and unique articles full text online: "Kemal Ataturk Admits Reality of the Armenian Genocide in a 1926 Interview," and the monograph "The Key Distortions and Falsehoods in the Denial of the Armenian Genocide, an excellent analysis of and rebuttal to the Memorandum the Turkish  Ambassador sent to members of Congress in 1999; and  "Genocide: The Armenian Experience" a short  overview of the genocide, and "Report to the Canadian Parliament on the Armenian Genocide," by the Zoryan Institute.

9.

Anne Frank Lessons in Educating for Human Rights

www.citizen-times.com/human_rights/chapter14.shtml

By Dr. Joyce Apsel, SPECIAL TO THE CITIZEN-TIMES.
Joyce Apsel is a genocide scholar and Master Teacher, General Studies Program, New York University,  and Director of Rights Works; She is also President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, 2001-2003. Chapter 14 of this online learning center treats the Armenian Genocide with a brief history of the genocide, the role of memory and survivor testimony, with discussions of impunity when perpetrators are unpunished and how this contributes to the process of denial, and its impact on teaching history and moral accountability. "The 20th century has been one of genocide against individuals belonging to targeted groups. War is often a cover for genocide and the genocide against the Armenian took place during World War I.”

Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

University of Minnesota, Director Dr. Stephen Feinstein. This site at the College of Liberal Arts is dedicated to the Memory of Raoul Wallenberg. The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is affiliated with the Institute for Global Studies, the Humanities Institute and the Center for European Studies. Site is comprised of several sections, each offering resources for teachers and students and boasts an extensive list of web links for teaching the Armenian Genocide.

www.chgs.umn.edu

11.

The Learning Network – "For Parents, Teachers, and Kids"  Defining Genocide

www.teachervision.com

www.infoplease.com/spot/genocide1.html

www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107292.html

Teacher Vision is created by teachers for teachers. Millions of teachers rely on the Learning Network’s materials to enhance their curriculum, enrich their students, and make their professional lives a bit easier. Use the Site Map to see the exciting features on Teacher Vision.  After learning the extent of Nazi atrocities against the Jews in World War II, Winston Churchill called it "a crime that has no name." Despite history's numerous precedents, the word genocide as an internationally sanctioned, legal definition did not exist until 1951…"Most historians concur that the greatest unacknowledged genocide in recent history was the massacre of the Armenians in 1894, 1896, and 1915.  It was then "a crime that had no name." The site covers the UN Treaty on genocide and many cases of genocide, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda and the Armenian Genocide, along with an overview of Armenian history and history of the genocide with statistics and maps.

The Genocide Project – Online Exhibit of Eyewitness Survivor Stories

www.genocide-project.org

www.cridder.com/glue/4-22-98/genocide.html

Includes oral testimony by survivors of the Armenian Genocide with survivor photographs. The Genocide Project is an arts and education organization whose mission is to document the catastrophic events of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23, and their aftermath, and expose them to the world through the arts via exhibits and online displays of photographs and text. Through a multi-faceted approach that includes audio oral histories, video documentation, photographic portraits, a collection of genocide survivor accounts is documented for both historical and artistic purposes combined with manuscripts, documents, photos, memorabilia, artworks and other material relating to the genocide and pre-genocide life of  Armenians. See also: cgi-user.brown.edu/Administration/George_Street_Journal/lastword28.html

13.

Armenian Genocide Class Project Ideas from Cobblestone Publishing

www.cobblestonepub.com/pages/TGCOBBArmenia.html
www.cobblestonepub.com/pages/TGFACEArmenia.html

www.cobblestonepub.com/pages/armenianamer.html

Cobblestone Publishing’ Faces booklets are world cultures children’s publications produced by Cobblestone Publishing. The publisher’s mission is to produce publications that provide fascinating and pleasurable reading as well as substantive supplemental educational resources for the study of history, world cultures, and the social sciences. Both the Cobblestone and Faces online teacher’s guides serve as excellent springboards for a wider discussion on the subject of cultural diversity, man’s inhumanity to man, and historic revisionism. Included is a K-12 Teacher's Guide and Lesson Plan for teaching the Armenian Genocide, including a wide assortment of classroom activities, questions for discussion, suggested field trips, and a host of web links for teachers and students. It is based on COBBLESTONE’ Armenian Americans Issue, May 2000. Both online guides are freely available for viewing and downloading.

Documents from German State Archives

www.armenocide.de/armenocide/armgende.nsf

Revised and extended edition of the collection of diplomatic documents published by Johannes Lepsius in 1919 under the title "Germany and Armenia. The Armenian genocide during World War I was the first violent crime against humanity in the 20th century. To further education and awareness of this crime, the genocide can now be verified via the Internet from official German documents, available in German and English, that describe the events in detail. Many of these hitherto secret documents were sent by German officers in Turkey intended only to be read by their superiors in Germany. They include hundreds of documents, detailing graphically, day in and day out, the atrocities that took place in the interior of Turkey during World War I. These were produced by German officials, consuls, vice consuls, and military officers. They reveal that the true intention of Turkish leaders was extermination (Ausrottung).

15.

The Armenian Genocide in the American Press 1915 - A selection of New York Times newspaper articles from 1915 showing the newspaper’ reportage of the genocide as it was taking place.

www.armenian-genocide.org/press/index.html
www.cilicia.com/armo10c.html 

In  1915 the Armenian massacres were the single most riveting human rights issue in the United States that shocked the conscience of an entire nation and became the subject of national discussion, angst and outrage. On these sites one can see many examples of this from among hundreds in the book "The Armenian Genocide-News Accounts from the American Press:1915-1922" compiled from The New York Times on microfilm. These are particularly important as they represent primary source material that came from statements by eyewitnesses or official dispatches by U.S. consular officials and others in Turkey during the genocide. The published book of more than 200 articles from the New York Times and other publications of the day can be purchased from the Armenian Genocide Resource Center by emailing AGRC@jps.net.

Genocide: The Ideology of Evil
Webster University Course on Genocide

ANSO/PSYC 3200 & POLT 3400: Professor Linda M. Woolf, Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of Genocide and Holocaust Studies.

www.webster.edu/~woolflm/genocidecourse.html

www.webster.edu/~woolflm/genocidesyllabi.html

www.webster.edu/~woolflm/index.html

www.webster.edu/~woolflm/charny.html

www.webster.edu/~woolflm/holocaust.html

A web site that provides extensive discussion of all genocides. Topics include: Genocide & Democide; The Holocaust; the Armenian Genocide; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Burma; Cambodia; East Timor; Rwanda & Burundi; and texts related to Holocaust and Genocide Studies. "It is imperative that a greater understanding of the psychological, cultural, political, and societal roots of human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide be developed. We need to continue to examine the factors which enable individuals, collectively and individually, to perpetrate genocide. We also study the impact of apathetic bystanders as fuel for human violence. While an exact predictive model for mass violence and human cruelty is beyond the scope of human capability, we  have an obligation to develop a model that highlights the warning signs and predisposing factors for human violence and genocide. With such information, we can develop policies, strategies, and programs designed to counteract these atrocities." Includes course descriptions, presentations,  a course syllabus, study guide, exams, lecture notes, questions, and much more. Topics include the genocides in Turkey and Cambodia, the disappearances in Argentina, the death squad killings in El Salvador, the killing of the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the list goes on. Violence, torture, the mistreatment of human beings - all of these raise questions about evil. This course examines the psychological, cultural, and societal roots of human cruelty, violence, and genocide. A list of recommended readings is included.

Course Objectives:

17.

Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
White paper by Viscount Bryce 1916.  Bryce's complete report  to Viscount Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on the Armenian massacres in Turkey

www.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce.htm

raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce.htm

zeus.hri.org/docs/bryce/bryce2.htm

Next to Ambassador Morgenthau’s book, this is one of the most important books on the Armenian Genocide. It documents, area by area, town by town, with coincident eyewitness testimony by countless individuals, collected by Viscount Bryce, the destruction of the Armenians in Turkey. He provides an analysis of the material and a description of how Ottoman leaders attempted to prevent news of the events from reaching the outside. He begins his preface with: "In the summer of 1915, accounts, few and scanty at first, but increasing in volume later, began to  find their way out of Asiatic Turkey as to the events that were happening there. These accounts described what seemed to be an effort to exterminate a whole nation, without distinction of age or sex, whose misfortune it was to be the subjects of a Government devoid of scruples and of pity, and the policy they disclosed was one without precedent even in the blood-stained annals of the East." It includes maps, a table of contents, letters, correspondences, and interviews with many witnesses- American, German, teachers, missionaries and others (available for purchase from Gomidas Institute Books, www.gomidas.org).

The Armenian Genocide by Yosef Goell – The Jerusalem Post

www.jpost.com/com/Archive/04.May.1997/Opinion/Article-1.html

From the Jerusalem Post, May 4, 1997: Israeli  television Channel 1's "News Around the World" was devoted almost entirely to the theme of genocide in the modern world. A good part of the program, which was prepared and presented by Ya'acov Ahimeir, recently returned from a stint as Channel 1's correspondent in Washington, and focused on the Armenian genocide of 1915, whose formal memorial date, April 24, comes so close to Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day. On that date, close to a year into World War I, during which the Ottoman Empire was allied with the Kaiser's Germany, several thousand of the intellectual, social, and business elites of the Armenian  minority in the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, were rounded up and force-marched into detention by the Ottoman authorities. That proved to be the beginning of the Armenian genocide, in which, in the ensuing 18 months, about 1.5 million Armenians, at the time one-third of the Armenian people, were annihilated.

19.

Detroit Free Press: "Lessons of Armenian Genocide Relevant to all Nations."

www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/papazian/lesson.html

April is Genocide Month and many people of goodwill are commemorating with solemn observances the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. Others ask why we should remember a genocide carried out during World War I, and a Holocaust that took place during World War II.  Each day's newspaper brings us fresh stories of slaughter and carnage in some corner of the world. What makes these events different and still relevant to our era? First, of course, are the moral arguments. These were evil deeds, systematically carried out on a large scale by unjust governments against defenseless religious minorities. The Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th Century, took the lives of as many as 1.5 million people, yet the Turkish government denies to this day that it happened.

The Turkish Military Tribunal's prosecution of the  authors of The Armenian  Genocide. Four Court-Martial Series.
Excerpted from Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume II, Number 1, Spring 1997.

www.genocide.am/dadrian/content.htm

www.fortunecity.com/business/napier/112/id89.htm

Both sites contain the full text of four important trial series that took place in Turkey in the period after the genocide along with an analysis of the material. "The prosecution of dozens of World War I Turkish war criminals by a Turkish Military Tribunal has yet to engage the attention of scholars of legal history, in particular genocide studies.  The present article attempts to correct this by directing attention to those trial sessions. When analyzed these sessions shed significant light on the issues of prevention and punishment that are the touchstone of the UN Convention on Genocide. These issues continue to impact the contemporary debate on genocide as the ultimate crime. The trials constitute a milestone in Turkish legal history. The post-war Turkish authorities had to reckon with a theocratic system which had an established legacy of severity in dealing with non-Muslim subject nationalities in conflict with Ottoman authorities. The trials challenged this legacy by introducing a novel element in the handling of nationality conflicts. For the first time, Ottoman-Turkish authorities of the highest rank were being held accountable for their crimes against these nationalities. To add emphasis to this novelty, the Sultan and his government did so via a Special Military Tribunal, whose work proceeded under a succession of Ottoman governments in the wake of an exhausting war which had ended with the devastating defeat of the Ottoman army" - Professor  V. Dadrian.

21.

University of Michigan Dearborn – Armenian Research Center

www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts

www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts/answers.html

Site contains articles on Armenia, Armenian history and the genocide, including a Fact Sheet on the genocide, several full text essays including one under Selected Writings of  Dr. Dennis Papazian addressing denial and the distortion of the facts of the genocide: "Misplaced Credulity: Contemporary Turkish Attempts to Refute the Armenian Genocide." Includes links to important articles on a range of topics related to the genocide including the "King-Crane Commission Report on the Near East," (Official United States Government Report) that dealt with the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. Includes a link to the online text of "The Blight of Asia." by George Horton, American Consul in Smyrna in 1922 who was eyewitness to  many events and who also availed himself of the testimony of other diplomats’ accounts of the Turkish massacres of Armenians and Greeks. www.hri.org/docs/horton.  

22.

A chronology of the treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1875-1923

1875 | 1878 | 1879 | 1880 | 1884 | 1886 | 1888 | 1890 | 1891 | 1893 | 1894 | 1895 |

1896 | 1900 | 1904 | 1908 | 1909 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 |

1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 |

www.armenocide.am/gen_chronology.htm

This site provides a brief chronological overview of key events in the Ottoman Empire dealing with Armenians in the period 1875-1923 and is arranged by year so that access to a given year is quick and immediate and shows a series of entries that relate events for that year.

23.

The History Wizard, World History Online
Multimedia Exhibit and teaching guide on the Armenian Genocide and other genocides. "For  students, teachers & lovers of history."

www.historywiz.com/armenia.htm

www.historywiz.com

In association with the History Channel, and featured in Macworld, this site was voted one of the five best history sites on the web for teachers, students, and lovers of history. Includes a Multimedia Exhibit with photographs on the Armenian Genocide: "Armenians had lived in their traditional lands for thousands of years. For much of the last thousand years they had lived as an ethnic and religious minority (Christian) in the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, during the First World War, the Turkish government resolved the "Armenian Question" by eliminating this population from the Ottoman Empire. In February of 1915 the government ordered Armenian men serving in the Turkish army disarmed. They were organized into labor groups and later killed. In April they rounded up and summarily arrested hundreds Armenian community leaders and intellectuals. Nearly all were executed." Other fascinating facts from the History Wizard's archives include material on "Adolf Hitler and the Annihilation of the Armenians." Site includes a Study Skills Guide for teachers and students, exhibits,  books,  and a guide for writing research papers. Photographs and suggested reading material are included as well as links to other sites on the Armenian Genocide.

Teaching Tolerance Magazine
A web site of the Southern Poverty Law Center

www.tolerance.org/teach/expand/mag/features.jsp?p=0&is=30&