In light of recent events taking place between Armenia and Azerbaijan, this “Did You Know” segment will cover a horrible period in the early 20th century. From 1914 to 1918 the world was caught up in WWI, but in 1915 something else was going on that did not receive much attention. Christians were being persecuted and killed by the millions. The term holocaust finds its’ origins in the Ottoman Empire. Meaning a “whole burnt offering”, the derivation comes from 1895, when Armenian Christians sought sanctuary in a cathedral where they were barricaded and set fire to. During the Armenian genocide Christians throughout the area were slaughtered or deported unless they agreed to convert to Islam. It is estimated that a total of 2 million Christians were killed during this time while many surviving Christians were violently forced to convert to Islam. Even more overshadowed in this is the genocide of around 300,000 Aramaic Christians. This is a group of Christians who still to this day (although dwindling rapidly due to similar treatment at the hands of ISIS) have a very small population in Iraq who can speak and worship in the ancient Aramaic language.
Suggested reading on this topic: The Last Christians by Andreas Knapp
Wilks Wroasting 