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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Along with Constantinople and Baku, what was considered one of the three cosmopolitan centers of Armenian culture?

2. In what year was Morgenthau appointed ambassador to Turkey?

3. In what year did the UN declare genocide a crime against humanity?

4. In what year was Ambassador Morgenthau's Story published?

5. Who wrote The Nazi Doctors?

Short Essay Questions

1. How has Turkey's denial of the genocide affected its development as a modern nation?

2. According to Aunt Gladys, why did the Armenians in America never talk about the genocide?

3. Why did Balakian question his failure to ask questions as a child when he saw the names of the dead listed on his grandmother's compensation documents?

4. How did Balakian feel about claims that the Turkish denials fall under free speech?

5. What was the deeper significance of the way in which Dovey's father was killed?

6. Why did Balakian take the bones from the memorial site at Der Zor?

7. What were the Young Turks like in terms of personality and education?

8. Why was Balakian so affected by his visit to Aleppo, Syria?

9. How did American Ambassador Morgenthau attempt to help the Armenians?

10. How did Balakian's aunts justify the family's inability to talk about the genocide when he was a child?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Balakian's grandmother initially sought compensation from the Turkish government for her family's sufferings. How important is compensation to the victims of state-sponsored terror? Can any compensation be sufficient or does the compensation have a deeper, more symbolic meaning? Did the grandmother's filing of the documents help her process the events? Can there ever be sufficient compensation for the Armenian people, especially almost a century after the genocide?

Essay Topic 2

Before the massacres began, the Turkish government rounded up and executed 250 Armenian intellectuals. How did this serve as a precursor for the mass killings to follow? Why would a genocidal government first kill a community's intellectuals? Did it make it easier to commit mass murder by eliminating those who would be most articulate in denouncing the crimes? Have there been other genocides preceded by the rounding up of a certain subset of the victim population?

Essay Topic 3

Even after the genocide was over, the Armenian people continued to suffer, not least because there was no acknowledgment of their suffering. Write an essay exploring how they continued to suffer at the hands of the Turks in the aftermath. How did the Turks prevent them from reestablishing a free nation? Why did the world stand by as they continued to lose land? What is the current situation of Armenia and how has that nation provided Armenians around the world with some hope?

(see the answer keys)

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