Editor’s note: Phil Hopkins is a professor of missions at Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Armenia, a small country around the size of Maryland located just north of the Middle East – surrounded by Muslim countries to the east (Azerbaijan), west (Türkiye) and south (Iran) – adopted Christianity as a people in 301 A.D., making it the first Christian nation in the world. Last week, April 24, marked the day that Armenians across the globe commemorated the Armenian Genocide, where in 1915, between 600,000 to 1.5 million Armenians were murdered in Ottoman Turkey.
Before this time, Armenians and Turks mostly lived together in relative peace, but World War I, the crumbling Ottoman and Russian empires and increased nationalism helped lead to these horrific events. Accounts of the genocide vary, but one media outlet described what occurred in and around World War I in this way:
Armenians were sent on death marches through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were stripped naked and forced to walk under the scorching sun until they dropped dead. People who stopped to rest were shot…[K]illing squads drowned people in rivers, threw them off cliffs, crucified them and burned them alive. In short order, the Turkish countryside was littered with Armenian corpses.
The 1915 Armenian Genocide did not happen in a vacuum. The international community was aware of what occurred. Reports from embassies, Christian missionaries and other non-governmental aid organizations flowed from the Ottoman Empire to places like the United States and Europe. However, while there were a couple trials for those accused of participating in the 1915 Armenian Genocide, the international community did not punish or jail anyone.
Currently, only a few countries officially recognize what occurred in 1915 as genocide, but the event not only plays a key role in the psyche of Armenians today, the methods the Ottomans used in the 1915 Armenian Genocide were copied by the Nazis in World War II. Adolf Hitler reportedly asked, “Who today remembers the Armenian extermination?” using the slogan as a means of motivation for the Jewish Holocaust. Hitler saw the indifference the world had toward the Armenians and figured the world would have similar thoughts toward the Jews.
Still today, not many people know about the Armenian Genocide; however, it is a reminder of the atrocities people can commit without saving faith in Christ. Here is what we as Southern Baptists can do:
1. Pray for peace and reconciliation between Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Armenia’s borders are closed with Turkey and Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan and Armenia have yet to sign a peace treaty ending a war that started after the fall of the Soviet Union. Pray for the leaders that God grants them wisdom.
2. Pray for the fledgling churches and missionaries in Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Only through Christ is forgiveness possible and that happens by a biblical Gospel witness. All three countries need spiritual awakening and revival.
3. Take a visit to one of these countries and see for yourself. Connect with the people. Prayer walk through the streets. All three are developing countries, the people are hospitable, and the food is extraordinary.
4. Read up on Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. There are many books and websites that can provide a picture of the history of the area.
5. Do not forget the Armenian Genocide. April 24 is a day to remember and a day to pray.
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