Chapter 7 The Armenian Genocide as Precursor and Prototype of the 20th Century Genocide

In this chapter Robert F. Melson introduces us to the Armenian Genocide which was the first total genocide of the 20th century and has served as prototype for genocides that followed. Melson explains, concerning the Armenian Genocide, that between 1915 and the armistice in 1918, 1 million people; out of a population of 2 million were killed. Later, a half-million more Armenians perished as Turkey tried to free itself of foreign occupation and to expel minorities. Both the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide had for goal to destroy in whole an ethno-religious community of ancient provenance. They also differ in multiple ways, the killers of the Armenians relied mostly on massacre and starvation rather than the death camps. The Jews were also despised, feared and hated in most parts of Europe in a way the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were not.