The Armenian

Genocide: A Lasting
Political Legacy

Soroush Khadem and Viken Christianian

Senior Division
Group Website
http://91213094.nhd.weebly.com
Process Paper
Before we chose our topic, we knew that we were going to work
together because we had been effective partners in previous projects,
having been to the same elementary and middle schools. We chose our topic
based on Vikens involvement in his familys ancestral history and because
of the ample sources that his family could provide due to his parents
immersion in the Armenian community. The most well-known event
regarding Armenia was the genocide of 1915 and the fact that it still is a
very controversial topic to this day was all the more reason we pursued it
for History Day. We were intrigued by this topic because of its vastness, and
we thought that looking into its impact to todays life in the Republic of
Armenia would make for a compelling viewpoint of the event.
We began researching by burying ourselves in Vikens familys
collection of primary sources of the genocide. We selected a handful of
books, transcripts, and newspapers as a starting point. We looked to
Amazon, Prospector, and Google Books for text sources we didnt already
have, and then we dove in. We started with an informative documentary on
the general overview of the genocide to accurately educate ourselves with
the historical context. Books such as Turkish Atrocities, by James L. Barton
and The Armenian Genocide, by Simon Payaslian painted a clear picture of
the events that actually took place during the genocide. We learned about
the harsh death marches, drownings, burnings, and shootings led by the

CUP and then by a man known as Ataturk. We emailed five experts on the
genocide with interview questions but only a few got back to us, and
furthermore, we were only able to interview one person. This man, named
David Barsamian, walked us through how the genocide has become a
political, economic, social, and geographic legacy.
We knew we wanted to do a website because we believed that
knowing how to create a website would be a useful tool for a future filled
with technology. Building onto that, we knew that websites are very visualbased mediums and Genocides are very graphic and violent. We thought
that the most effective way to show the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide
was going to be through a lot of pictures and videos, so a website seemed
fitting.
Our topic relates to this years theme of both leadership and legacy
because the Armenian Genocide, which was led by the CUP, redrew life for
the Armenians. The driving force of the genocide came from the cruelty of
the CUP, and its impacts were devastating to Armenia. This genocide
created political, economic, and social tensions between the Republic of
Armenia and Turkey and it redrew geographic borders that have withstood
to this day. Turkey, as a nation, still wont take responsibility and admit to
their crimes against humanity in the Armenian Genocide, and this explains
how an event that took place 100 years ago is still a current topic.