Armenian Genocide: 100 years of conflit in the Caucasian Region

Today (24th of January 2015) we celebrate a century from what is called for many as the first genocide of the 20th century. And it happened in a very turbulent region of the world, very close to the european continent. What happened there was a result of what was happening for centuries and was one reason for many of the conflits that still exist in this area.
But let's go back to 1915 to understand better what occurred there.
The caucasian region map was quite different from the present. In the beggining of the 20th century Armenia was between 3 big nations: Persia, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Armenia is one of the oldest nations in the world but its boards were not defined in the same shape like today.
Being in a territory where many conflits occurred among the centuries and being placed between the East and the West, many cultures, religions and beliefs had been spread in this areas. And also with all the invasions and occupations, the diaspora was a natural consequence of this situation.

It was estimated that 2 million of armenians were living in the Ottoman Empire and after the massacre and deportation, 1.5 million died. In 1915 the Ottoman Empire was participating in the World War I together with the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. At this time, the ottoman religious authorities declared a 'holy war' - jihad - to all the christians, except their enemies: among the enemies were of course the armenias. Many of the military authorites started to accuse the armenians of betrayal, arguing that they were helping the russians. On 24th of April the real massacre started: first the intellectual armenians were arrested and brutally executed, and then the rest of the armenians were forced to leave their homes with nothing and sent to walk in the Mesopotamian dessert with no food or water until they died. They were forced to walk under a extremly hot sun and if they stopped to rest they were immediately dead. At the same time, organizations were formed in the Ottoman Empire in order to eradicate any christian presence in the country, by persecution, destruction and dead. The result was obvious: when the massacre ended in 1922 only 388000 armenians were still living in the Ottoman Empire.
But the tensions did not finish then.

The religions differences

As you already figured the religion is a controversial subject in this area. The crhistians and muslims were co-existing in the same territory for centuries, but this living together is far away from being paceful.
The official religion of the Ottoman Empire were the Islam but they allowed the existence of religious minorities. However, their rights were not tottaly respected and their social status was below the statusof the muslims. Eventhought the armenians lived together with the ottomans. But the religions tensions had been always there and it was a question of time until a conflit based on religious questions get started.
After the genocide the religious issue continued to be a problem. With the end of the Ottoman Empire and later the Soviet Union, many countries were formed in this region besides Armenia: Azerbaijan and Georgia too. Like Armenia, the main religion in Georgia is the christianity. But like Turkey, the main religion is the Islam. There have been some religious tensions in this region in the last decades, especially between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Armenia Genocide memorial in Bikfaya

Conflits between Armenia and Azerbaijan

The problem is far away from being solved. The main issue is the authority in the Nagorno-Karabakh republic, a non-recognized sovereign republic that was part of the soviet republic of azerbaijan when it was integrated in the Soviet Union. After the fall of the comunism in the region, the authority over this territory is being disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The religious freedom is legally recognized in all this countries but over the decades many inccidents and discriminations have occurred.

The lack of civil rights

Besides the religious rights, many other problems related to the civil rights persist in this region, especcially the LGBT ones. The same-sexual activity is recognized in all these countries. But only of them had signed the UN declaration and in none of them the sam-sex relationships or marriages are legally recognized. Not also the adoption. The same for the absense of anti descrimination laws, that only exist in Georgia.
There are also some improvements that need to be done in gender equality between men and women in the domestic and labor worlds.

The Eurasia is a place of tensions and conflits which are far away from being solved. Unfortunately many situations like the armenian massacre could happen again.