The Roles of Realism and Constructivism in the 1915 Armenian Genocide

Torossian 1
Jérôme Torossian
Martin Claar
PLSC 300B
April 28, 2017
The Roles of Realism and Constructivism in the 1915 Armenian Genocide
Genocide, often referred as the crime of crimes, is a misconduct that has been undertaken
by many people throughout the centuries. However, it was not until the twentieth century that
such kind of mass slaughter was given a proper name: Genocide. Indeed, the world has
experienced during the twentieth century tremendous horrors that many scholars even describe it
as the century of genocide. This barbarous crime was not only committed during times of
conflict but also when empires and countries faced a state of great disturbance and uncertainty.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
defines genocide as to be “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or
religious group.” This paper will primarily focus on why the 1915 Armenian Genocide occurred
in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. This question will mainly be investigated by looking at
the roles of national interests via realism and moral norms via constructivism. The goal will be to
distinguish which of the two theories played a major role in this crime against humanity.
Realism is this international relations theory that argues that the world is an unsecured
place where states compete among themselves so to gain and keep power in other to maintain
their survival.1 Realists believe that nations are rational entities that primarily focus on their
national interests as well as their political autonomy and territorial integrity. Moral values have
no place in realists’ minds as acting morally in an anarchic environment could undermine the
1
Dunne, Tim; Kurki,Milja;Smith,Steve. International Relations Theories: Disciple and Diversity. Oxford: Oxford
University Press,2013,p.78-79

Torossian 2
safety of their state. Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat, is a world known realist who
advised rulers to use violence so to seize and preserve power. On the other hand, constructivism
is this international relations theory that argues that no subjects and objects would exist in nature
without the actions of human creations.2 That is to say, that sovereignty or national identity are
socially constructed. Constructivists also emphasize that power is not controlled by states
themselves, but instead, they are within people’s ideas and values. They believe that although
social phenomena, like countries or alliances, are built and developed by human nature, they still
can change whenever someone feels like it. The reason is because states, just like human beings,
are constantly learning, thus, they may change their minds and build new norms.
In order to understand why the 1915 Armenian Genocide occurred, I argue that a general
review of the history of Armenia and the Armenian people is more than necessary. Armenia is
considered to be one of the oldest nations worldwide whose population historically inhabited the
region known has the Armenian Highlands. This territory was vast as it stretched from the Black,
Caspian, and Mediterranean seas.3 The history of the Armenian people was formed with diverse
successes and defeats in which they were both able to enjoy their independence or forced to live
under foreign subjugation.4 Ancient Armenian lands were located in one of the most strategic
crossroads in history, therefore, it was particularly difficult for this civilization to maintain them.
It is also worth to mention that Armenia is the world’s first nation to adopt Christianity as a state
religion.5 As a result, the Armenian people suffered greatly from oppression whenever they were
conquered by non-Christian invaders. Yet, they always showed to foreign rulers their willingness
2
Dunne, Tim; Kurki,Milja;Smith, Steve. International Relations Theories: Disciple and Diversity. Oxford: Oxford
University Press,2013,p.189
3 Hovanissian,Richard. TheArmenian Genocide in Perspective. New Brunswick:Transaction Publishers,1986,p.19
4
Ibid.,p.19
5 Shelton, Dinah. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Thomson Gale,2005, p.68

Torossian 3
to keep their national identity.6 In the early fifteenth century, Armenia completely lost its
independence and saw its territories divided among foreign peoples.7 Indeed, Armenia was now
occupied by the Turks in the West, while its Eastern regions first fell under Persian rule before
becoming part of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century.8
The Armenians who used to live in the provinces of Western Armenia were now
absorbed into a multiethnic and multireligious state known as the Ottoman Empire. As most of
the Ottoman leaders and subjects were Muslims, the Armenians were not only the target of
discrimination but they were also treated as second class citizens.9 Turks did not see the empire’s
multiethnic and multireligious diversity to be good, which is the reason why the Ottoman
government relied heavily on the principles of the Islamic Sacred Law.10 This law was used by
Ottoman leaders so to not only govern their large domain but also to officially announce the
Muslims’ superiority status over their non-Muslim counterparts.11 Therefore, inequalities
between Muslims and non-Muslims were particularly high within the empire. For instance, non-
Muslims were forced to pay special taxes, prohibited from speaking their own language, and
denied from their right to bear arms or even ride horses.12 Although unsuccessful, such kind of
unfair treatment towards non-Muslims provoked wide reactions from Western representatives.
They considered this law to be a threat to non-Muslims as it increased their vulnerability in the
empire.13 Despite their secondary status, the Armenians were able to thrive within the Ottoman
8 Ibid.,p.20
10 Ibid.p.69
11 Ibid.,p.69
13 Shelton, Dinah.Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Thomson Gale,2005, p.69

Torossian 4
society, especially by holding high positions in foreign affairs, finances, or in the medical field.14
However, this constant growth in terms of job, education and wealth was perceived badly among
the Muslim community. In fact, they saw the Armenian positions to challenge the traditional
hierarchy of the Ottoman society as Armenians were supposed to be inferior to Muslims.15
Widespread dissatisfaction of the Armenians started to grow as many of them began to be tired
of their unfair treatment. Armenians protested in many provinces so to ask the government to
make reforms concerning their civil status.16 Yet, Abdul Hamid II, the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire, responded with the Hamidian massacres, which cost the lives of 300,000 Armenians
from 1894 to 1896.17
In 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid was overthrown and replaced by a new government called
the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), popularly known as the Young Turks.18 The
Young Turks aspired to radically reform the regime by establishing a more modern constitutional
government.19 The Armenians were particularly in favor of this new regime as it wanted subject
peoples to enjoy equal rights and equal duties.20 However, these democratic aspirations quickly
disappeared after being replaced by the idea of Pan-Turkism.21 Pan-Turkism was a xenophobic
movement whose supporters not only wished to Turkify the empire but also to unite it with all
the other Turkic tribes. This ideal represented a great threat to Armenia, a little island of
14 Hovanissian,Richard. Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide. Detroit: Wayne State
University Press,1999,p.26
15 Bartrop, Paul;Totten, Samuel. The Genocide Studies Reader. Routledge, 2009,p.235
16 Akçam, Taner. A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility. Picador,2007,
p.40-41
18
Peterson, Merril.Starving Armenians: American and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After. University of
Virginia Press,2004,p.28
20
Morgenthau, Henry. Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story: A Personal Account of the Armenian Genocide. Cosimo
Classics,2007, p.195
21 Ibid.,p.197

Torossian 5
Christians surrounded by Muslim people.22 However, the Ottoman government refused to lose
more territories, thus, it decided that the annihilation of the Armenians was necessary for the
sake of the empire.
Realism has played a significant role in the 1915 Armenian Genocide. In fact, one of the
motivations for genocides to occur is to eliminate a specific group that represents a potential
threat to a nation. Such action is usually planned and undertaken by a government with the intent
to end the existence of the targeted people. Realism did play a major role in the Armenian
Genocide as the Young Turks pursued their genocidal act so to not only “protect the Ottoman
Empire’s territorial integrity,” but also to achieve their Pan-Turkism goal. Like I said earlier, the
Ottoman Empire was a vast territory that comprised of many different peoples with diverse
traditions, religions, and languages. In the early twentieth century, it faced a period of great
disturbance. Indeed, Austria-Hungary took away their control over Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Bulgarians proclaimed their own independence, Crete announced its unification with Greece, and
Italy claimed the lands in Libya.23 Therefore, the Turks slowly began to witness the dissolution
of their empire.
The Armenian people was totally different from Turks as they saw themselves as
Europeans through their language, religion, and racial origin.24 The Turks knew that Armenians
always kept their eyes westward and hoped that one day their European brothers would rescue
them from their murderous leaders.25 The Russian Empire was the Turk’s greatest fear, and they
were particularly afraid that Armenians living on the other side would push Western Armenians
22 Morgenthau, Henry. Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story: A Personal Account of the Armenian Genocide. Cosimo
25 Ibid.,p.198-199

Torossian 6
to fight against the Ottomans.26 This scare especially follows Machiavelli’s ideas on how to rule
mixed principalities. Actually, Machiavelli declared that anyone who rules a foreign nation
should be careful against foreign rulers who may seek to conquer it when circumstances are
favorable.27 He added that foreign states are always assisted in their invasions by unhappy people
as they usually fear their current ruler.28 The Turks tried to convince Armenians to go to Russian
Armenia and make a revolution against the Russian government.29 Yet, the Armenians refused,
which greatly irritated the Young Turks. In Winter 1915, the Turks failed an offensive against
the Russians on the eastern front. This defeat was interpreted as to be the fault of the Armenians
and to be the signal for the final solution.30
To be wiped out, Armenia needed to be defenseless, especially by depriving Armenian
soldiers of their arms and by eliminating the elite.31 The night of April 24, 1915, is the time when
250 Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople were arrested and executed.32 This night marked
the beginning of the murder of the Armenian nation. Talaat Pasha, the Minister of Interior,
commonly referred by Armenians as the Turkish Hitler, made it clear that there was no room for
Armenians in Turkey and that they would pay the price for their betrayal.33 The Allies were well
aware of the Turkish horrors against the Armenians, and thus did little to deny the genocide. On
the other hand, Germany, a Turkish ally, not only did nothing to prevent the slaughters, but also
Classics,2007, p.87
27
Brown, Chris;Nardin,Terry; Rengger, Nicholas. International Relations in Political Thought. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press,2002, p.260
28 Ibid.,p.260
30 Hovanissian,Richard. TheArmenian Genocide in Perspective. New Brunswick:Transaction Publishers,1986, p.28
32 Powers, Samantha. A Problem From Hell. New York: Basic Books,2002,p.2

Torossian 7
was an advocate for the crimes and deportations.34 Actually, the Turks got inspired by the
Germans as deportation en masse was exclusively Germanic at that time.35 One can see once
again how realism truly played a major role in the Armenian Genocide. Indeed, at the time, the
Germans were building the Bagdad railroad in the Mesopotamian desert in order to found a new
Great German Empire, stretching from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf.36 Yet, their plan would not
succeed if there was no population to help the project. Therefore, the Germans suggested that
Armenians be evacuated in the direction of Mesopotamia. Moreover, the National German policy
was to stay indifferent from the sufferings of the Armenians because what Germans had in mind
was their own great future.37 Although eyewitnesses provided the German Chancellor with
numerous testimonies, Berlin still preferred to reject them so to no offend its Turkish ally.38 This
realist policy was even further announced by Hans Wangenheim, the German Ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire, as he emphasized to Henry Morgenthau Sr, the U.S. Ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire, that “our one aim is to win this war […] I shall do nothing for the
Armenians.”39
While realism was a factor that pushed for the Armenian Genocide, moral norms via
constructivism actually sought to prevent it. On May 24, 1915, the Allies made a joint
declaration condemning the crimes undertaken by Turks.40 This declaration warned Turkey that
35 Ibid.,p.251
37 Ibid.,p.254

Torossian 8
the Turkish government and the perpetrators would be held responsible for this crime.41
Washington did not join this declaration as it wanted to stay away from problems that did not
concern the U.S. One of the most prominent figures who denounced and condemned the
Armenian Genocide was Henry Morgenthau Sr. As the Armenian Genocide began, American
consuls and missionaries throughout the Ottoman Empire regularly sent reports and pictures to
Henry Morgenthau Sr so to inform him on the atrocities.42 For instance, Leslie Davis, the
American Consul in Harput, described in a report that Armenians were “in rags and
many…almost naked…emaciated, sick, diseased, filthy […] driven along for many weeks like
herds of cattle.”43 Likewise, the American Consul in Aleppo, Jesse Jackson, said that he saw
Armenians being marched away by armed guards and that thousands were being “scattered over
the desert to starve or die of disease in the burning heat.”44 Faced with facts, the ambassador
informed back to Washington and asked the American government to intervene “as it appears
that a campaign of race extermination is in progress.”45 Yet, Morgenthau Sr had to face two
constraints. First, the Wilson administration, which pursued an isolationist policy so to stay away
from World War I. Secondly, the diplomatic protocol asked Morgenthau Sr to show respect to
his host government.46 However, he contested the role of America as a bystander as he knew that
the moral power of the United States was the only way of saving 2,000,000 Armenians.47 He was
well aware that under the principle of sovereignty he had no right to intervene unless American
42 Ibid.,p.214
43
Armenian Genocide Museum Institute. American Archives: US Consul Leslie Davis Describing Armenian
“Deportees” Passing Through The Harput Plain On Their Way To Der Zor. Web.
44
White, Edward. The Great Crime. The Paris Review,2017. Web
45
Armenian Genocide Museum Institute. American Archives:Confidential Telegram, Ambassador Morgenthau To
Secretary of State. Web.

Torossian 9
lives or interests were affected.48 In fact, he once declared to Washington that “it is difficult for
me to restrain myself from doing something to stop this attempt to exterminate a race, but I
realize that I […] must abide by the principles of non-interference with the internal affairs of
another country.”49 But, Morgenthau Sr actually considered both humanitarianism and justice to
be stronger than self-interest, thus, he decided that it was wiser to act unilaterally on the matter.50
Henry Morgenthau Sr has done greatly to save Armenians from annihilation. Indeed, he
regularly had meetings with the Turkish instigators so to complain and warn them that
Americans will never forget these massacres.51 In addition, Morgenthau Sr used his connection
with the owner of The New York Times so to increase awareness on the fate of the Armenians.52
In fact, solely in 1915, 145 stories were published with numerous titles like “1,500,00 Armenians
Starve,” “Million Armenians Killed or in Exile,” or “Allies To Punish Turks Who Murder.”53
This press coverage allowed people worldwide to become informed on Turkish atrocities. In one
of them entitled “Tales of Armenian Horrors Confirmed,” members of the Committee on
Armenian Atrocities confirmed through an investigation that the hunt of the Armenians was truly
taking place and that “500,000 Armenians have already been murdered or forced to the desert.”
Henry Morgenthau Sr, like many governmental and non-governmental officials, believed that
“the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this.”54 He once again
asked Washington to officially intervene on behalf of humanity and civilization and to pressure
49 Ibid.,p.8
51Ibid.,p.230
53 Ibid.,p.9

Torossian 10
the Turkish government to allow humanitarian aid for the Armenians.55 Even shamed Germans,
like the Adviser of the German Embassy, begged America to step in as they knew that Germany
would not.56 Again, no action was undertaken by the U.S., but American officials suggested
Morgenthau Sr to seek funds from private organizations. Morgenthau Sr thus founded with other
Americans a public fund-raising committee named the Committee on Armenian Atrocities.57
Quickly, the Committee received $100,000 from diverse churches like the Roman Catholic
Church.58 The Rockefeller foundation gave by itself $290,000 in 1915.59 The goal of this
committee was to provide refugees with humanitarian relief, such as food, clothes, hospitals or
shelters. Moreover, Morgenthau Sr tried to convince Washington to accept Armenians in
America by arguing that “Armenians are moral, hard working race, and would make good
citizens.”60 However, the Turks blocked this idea by preventing Armenian refugees from leaving
to the United States.61 In 1916, Henry Morgenthau decided to resign from his position as his
failure to prevent the Armenian Genocide made Turkey a horrible place to be. Likewise, he
could not stand anymore meeting with people that had on them the blood of million human
beings.
Ultimately, one can see how realism has played a greater role in the Armenian Genocide.
Indeed, both Turks and Germans have used the principles of realism so to go forward in their
national interests and fight for power. In fact, the Turkish government has repeatedly declared
that the Armenians were representing a threat to the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire as
Classics,2007, p.255-256
58 Ibid.,p.11
59 Ibid.,p.11
60 Ibid.,p.12
61
Ibid.,p.11

Torossian 11
many of them sympathized with the Allies. In addition, they were afraid that Armenians living in
the Russian Empire would convince Western Armenians to create a revolution so to destabilize
Turkey. Moreover, the fact that Armenians have been treated so badly for centuries created a
stress among Turks as they worried that they would help Russia in case of an invasion. Germany
also used realism as they thought that a stronger Turkey would make a mightier German Empire.
Therefore, Germans did not want to intervene for the Armenians as it would be purely against
their national interests. In terms of moral constructivism, it did play a great role, but
unfortunately far less than realism. Yet, thanks to moral individuals, the international community
was able to become informed about the Turkish atrocities. Also, many Armenians were not only
able to escape the genocide, but also to be provided with humanitarian aids from diverse Western
countries. But at last, realism still played a more significant role in the 1915 Armenian Genocide
as 1.5 million Armenians perished due to this theory.

Torossian 12
Bibliography
Akçam, Taner. A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish
Responsibility. Picador, 2007. Web.
Armenian Genocide Museum Institute. American Archives: US Consul Leslie Davis Describing
Armenian “Deportees” Passing Through The Harput Plain On Their Way To Der Zor.
Web.
Armenian Genocide Museum Institute. American Archives: Confidential Telegram, Ambassador
Morgenthau To Secretary of State. Web.
Bartrop, Paul; Totten, Samuel. The Genocide Studies Reader. Routledge, 2009. Print.
Brown, Chris; Nardin, Terry; Rengger, Nicholas. International Relations in Political Thought.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.
Dunne, Tim; Kurki, Milja; Smith, Steve. International Relations Theories: Disciple and
Diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Hovanissian, Richard. The Armenian Genocide in Perspective. New Brunswick: Transaction
Publishers, 1986. Print.
Hovanissian, Richard. Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide. Detroit:
Wayne State University Press, 1999. Print.
Morgenthau, Henry. Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story: A Personal Account of the Armenian
Genocide. Cosimo Classics, 2007. Print.

Torossian 13
Peterson, Merril. Starving Armenians: American and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and
After. University of Virginia Press, 2004. Web.
Powers, Samantha. A Problem From Hell. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Web.
Shelton, Dinah. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Thomson Gale, 2005.
Web.
White, Edward. The Great Crime. The Paris Review, 2017. Web

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