Armenia is a small country located in the southern Caucasus and the smallest of the former Soviet republics. Armenia is bordered by Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Iran to the south and Turkey to the west. It is a land of rugged mountains and extinct volcanoes. It is a predominantly Christian country and has around 3 million inhabitants. Armenia is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, making it a country full of culture, history and art. However, there is also a dark side to his story; a genocide. Sometimes referred to as the first genocide of the 20th century, Armenians will never forget these horrific years. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Armenian culture is a rich mix of flavors, colors, as well as outside influences and things that are uniquely Armenian. Armenian culture represents its history, way of life and aspirations of this unique country. In Armenia, the “khachkar” symbol is an important and unique symbol that is an integral part of their culture. The khachkar is also known as the "Armenian cross stone" because it resembles a cross seen in modern Christianity, except it is only found in Armenia. Khachkars appeared in the early 4th century, just after the adoption of Christianity. It is a symbol of new eternal life. Armenian music has its own special melodic pattern and it is rich in sounds. This originality is achieved through the use of original Armenian instruments that have survived from the early Middle Ages. Many songs are created by people, about love and marriage, among other things. These songs are usually sung by folk singers, also known as gusans. Songs written for choirs are called sharakans and they were sung during masses and celebrations. Armenian cuisine is closely related to Oriental and Mediterranean cuisine. Various spices, vegetables, fish and fruits are used to create any ordinary Arminian dish. The main aspects of the dishes are the quality of the foods used, not their level of spice. The use of legumes, nuts, fruits and stuffing of a wide variety of leaves are also an important part of Armenian cuisine. The pomegranate, symbolically associated with fertility, represents this nation. The apricot is the national fruit. Every year, many festivals take place in the many corners of Armenia. These festivals include a wide variety of Armenian foods, products, symbols, crafts and music. One of these festivals is called Yerevan Wine Days. It's midday from May 3 to 4, and it's the time when cheese and wine producers display their products on the streets for you to buy. On July 6, the Mulberry Festival takes place. This festival is accompanied by Armenian music and dances. Today, the Armenian genocide, sometimes referred to as "the first genocide of the 20th century", is one of the most famous genocides in history. It was about the physical annihilation of Armenian Christians who lived in the Ottoman Empire. Before the genocide, approximately 1.5 million Armenian Christians lived in the Ottoman Empire. However, after the war, approximately 664,000 and possibly 1.2 million deaths occurred during the various battles and massacres, which left approximately 388,000 Armenians. The causes of death include numerous massacres, individual killings and mistreatment, such as starvation, dehydration and exposure to gas and disease. Tens of thousands of Armenian children wereforcibly removed from their Christian families and converted to Islam. Armenian Christians were one of several ethnic groups residing under the Ottoman Empire. The rulers of the Ottoman Empire at the time, like their subjects, were Muslims. They allowed religious minorities like the Armenians to retain some autonomy, but they also suppressed Armenians, labeling them as "infidels" and treating them unequally compared to Muslims. Christians had to pay higher taxes than Muslims and had very few political and legal rights. You can see that the pattern of "removal" and "taking away the rights of an underclass of people" also manifests itself during the early years of the holocaust, which was also a mass genocide of a nation. Despite these rules put in place against the Armenians, they seemed to prosper. They received better education and most of them found themselves even wealthier than their Turkish neighbors, to which the Turks began to resent their success. Later, Armenians formed political organizations seeking greater autonomy, which only increased the Ottoman Empire's doubts about the loyalty of the Armenian community within its borders. The first recorded Armenian massacre took place between 1894 and 1896, during which there was a state-sanctioned pogrom, which Armenians protested against. In response to these large-scale protests, Turkish military officials, soldiers and ordinary men ransacked Armenian villages and towns and massacred their citizens. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed. In 1908, a new government came to power in Türkiye. A group of reformers who called themselves the "Young Turks" overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid and established a more modern constitutional government. At first, the Armenians hoped that they would have an equal place in this new state, but they soon realized that what the nationalist Young Turks wanted above all was to “Turkify” the empire. According to this way of thinking, non-Turks, and especially Christian non-Turks, posed a serious threat to the new state. On April 24, 1915, the Armenian genocide began. That day, the Turkish government arrested and executed hundreds of Armenians. Ordinary Armenians were driven from their homes and sent on death marches across the Mesopotamian desert, without food or water. Again, you can see a pattern here that is also seen in the holocaust against the Jews. They too were expelled from their homes and forced to go on “death marches” in difficult conditions. Often, protesters were stripped naked and forced to walk under the scorching sun until they dropped dead, and people who stopped to rest were shot. At the same time, the Young Turks created a “Special Organization”, which in turn organized “death squads” to carry out, as one officer put it, “the liquidation of Christian elements”. These death squads were often made up of murderers and other former prisoners. They drowned people in rivers, threw them off cliffs, crucified them and burned them alive. Government squads also kidnapped children, forced them to become Muslims, and then placed them in the care of Turkish families. Women were also raped and forced to join Turkish “harems” or serve as slaves. After the Ottomans surrendered in 1918, the Young Turks' leaders fled to Germany, which promised not to prosecute them for genocide. Since then, the Turkish government has denied the existence of a genocide. They say that).