The Armenian Genocide Assessment: Part 3

About This Assessment

In this optional activity, students review what they have learned about the choices and conditions that made Armenians vulnerable to genocide in the Ottoman Empire, and then add new ideas and connections to their Assessment Analysis Organizer.

Since last working with the graphic organizer, students have learned about the stages of the genocide itself and bore witness to the brutality suffered by more than 1 million Armenians. They have also looked at the range of choices people made in response, including those by perpetrators, dissenting members of the Ottoman government, Turkish rescuers, eyewitnesses from other countries, diplomats, foreign governments, and Armenians themselves.

Essential Questions

• What choices and conditions led to the genocide of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire during World War I?
• How can learning about these choices and conditions help us protect the most vulnerable groups in our society today?

Instructions

Activity: Add to the Analysis Organizer

Give students time, working individually or in pairs, to add new information, analysis, and connections to Armenian Genocide Assessment Analysis Organizer, Parts 1-3. Their goal should be to complete four new rows of the organizer.

Encourage students to articulate their responses in their own words. If they need support with this process, you might suggest or guide them toward the responses in the first and third columns in the chart below. Then have them provide their own responses for the second and fourth columns.

Under the column “Choices/Conditions that Made the Armenian Genocide Possible”, some possible responses might be: 

• Ottoman Empire’s military failures in World War I
• The Failure of Other Countries, Like Germany and the U.S., to Intervene
• Armenian resistance, such as their escape at Musa Dagh
• Ottoman government officials who spoke out against the genocide

Under the column “Universal Theme”, some possible responses might be: 

• Failure and humiliation of a dominant group
• A “habit of violence” against an out-group’
• Resistance to oppression
• Dissent

Once students have had some time to work on the organizer, use a strategy such as concentric circles to give them the opportunity to share what they recorded and the connections they are making. Let students know that after hearing their classmates’ ideas they are welcome to revise and strengthen their own responses.