Speech #960336183

For hundreds of years. the Ottomans considered the Armenians to be inferior citizens and. therefore. they taxed them unfairly and limited their freedom and mobility. The Russians made life difficult for the Armenians in the 19th century. Centuries of oppression against the Armenians came to a head earlier in this century. On the pretense that Armenian traitors were responsible for the Russian victories against Turkey during the First World War. the Turks began to systematically destroy the Armenian population. Armenians were arrested. deported. tortured. and eventually slaughtered. Well over a million people were exterminated simply because they were different. Mr.