The Armenian Genocide and Foreign Policy

The slaughter of 200,000 Armenians in a series of massacres committed in the mid-1890s under the despotic rule of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II further crystalized the imperative of what the London Times called a "humanitarian crusade" on behalf of Armenians.5 Former British Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone invoked the "language of humanity, justice and wisdom"6 and used the Berlin treaty to galvanize public and private advocacy organizations on a quest for justice for minority Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the Ottoman Empire and belonging, many experts contended, to a religion that shared a common origin with the Church of England.7 Religious and secular groups alike accepted the charge, raising money and conducting outreach. [...]the 1890s Armenian massacres further confirmed Britain's role as enforcer of humanitarian principles codified in international law in the late 1870s as well as in popular consciousness.8 The campaign appealed to the compassionate disposition to stop "the hugest and foulest crimes that have ever stained the pages of human history. [...]the U.S. distrusted international institutions attempting to enforce human rights norms and, although ambivalent about coming to the fore, struggled with ceding decision-making and sovereignty to them.