Beginning in 1915, an estimated 800,000 to 1.5 million people were killed in what is known as the Armenian Genocide. The genocide was carried out during and after World War 1 by Ottoman authorities. Armenians were a Christian community living as second-class citizens in a Muslim world. They were considered gavours, meaning "infidel" or "unbeliever" and were subject to the whims of their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors, who often subjected them to bondage and kidnapping and forced them to convert to Islam. This genocide should not have come by surprise to any nations of the world, the persecution and massacres started much earlier then 1915.
From 1894 to 1896 some 100,000 to 300,000 Armenians were killed in what was known as the Hamidian massacres. After the Russo-Turkish war from 1877-1877, the Armenians looked to the Russian Empire as the guarantor of their security, and won some reforms in the Treaty of Berlin. But immediately after the Treaty of Berlin was signed, Abdul Hamid attempted to forestall any implementation of reforms. After a series of rebellions and massacres, the Great Powers (Russia, Germany, Great Brittan) forced Abdul Hamid to sign a new reform package, but it was never implemented. Then on October 1, 1895, 2,000 Armenians assembled in Constantinople to petition for the implementation of the reforms, but Ottoman police units converged on the rally and violently broke it up. Further massacres occurred, and some historians place the figure as high as 300,000 killed. The Great Powers vowed to take action and enforce reforms, but they never followed through due to economic and political interests.
Grover Cleveland in his 1896 address had hoped to announce the success of these reforms, but instead he had to report on a "softened disposition" which led to "the bloody butchery" of Christians.
"At the outset of a reference to the more important matters affecting our relations with foreign powers it would afford me satisfaction if I could assure the Congress that the disturbed condition in Asiatic Turkey had during the past year assumed a less hideous and bloody aspect and that, either as a consequence of the awakening of the Turkish Government to the demands of humane civilization or as the result of decisive action on the part of the great nations having the right by treaty to interfere for the protection of those exposed to the rage of mad bigotry and cruel fanaticism, the shocking features of the situation had been mitigated. Instead, however, of welcoming a softened disposition or protective intervention, we have been afflicted by continued and not unfrequent reports of the wanton destruction of homes and the bloody butchery of men, women, and children, made martyrs to their profession of Christian faith."President Cleveland then announced, America's intentions of protecting our own missionary citizens and other refugees, and left the nation with a false hope of the end to the massacres.
"I do not believe that the present somber prospect in Turkey will be long permitted to offend the sight of Christendom. It so mars the humane and enlightened civilization that belongs to the close of the nineteenth century that it seems hardly possible that the earnest demand of good people throughout the Christian world for its corrective treatment will remain unanswered."Looking back, it is difficult to understand how the Christians and the world, could sit back and watch as things go from bad to worse. Common sense would dictate that Grover Cleveland would be right, and that enlightened civilization would demand corrective treatment. Yet today, many are quiet as 600,000 Christians have fled Syria being driven out by terrorist groups like the Nusra Front and ISIS.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29537
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.in.middle.east.facing.worst.persecution.as.population.drops.sharply/60044.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Armenia22hamidian.jpg
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