Anti-Armenian sentiment

Sketch by an eyewitness of the massacre of Armenians in Sasun in 1894

Anti-Armenian sentiment, also known as anti-Armenianism and Armenophobia, is a diverse spectrum of negative feelings, dislikes, fears, aversion, racism, derision and/or prejudice towards Armenians, Armenia, and Armenian culture.

Historically, anti-Armenianism has manifested itself in several ways, ranging from expressions of hatred or of discrimination against individual Armenians to organized pogroms by mobs or state-sanctioned genocide. Notable instances of persecution include the Hamidean massacres (1894-1897), the Adana massacre (1909), the Armenian genocide (1915), the Sumgait pogrom (1988), and Operation Ring (1991).

Modern anti-Armenianism frequently consists of expressions of opposition to the actions or existence of an Armenian state, aggressive denial of the Armenian genocide or belief in an Armenian conspiracy to fabricate history and manipulate public and political opinion for political gain.[1] Anti-Armenianism has also manifested as extrajudicial killing or intimidation of people of Armenian heritage and destruction of cultural monuments.

  1. ^ Black Garden, by Thomas De Waal (Aug 25, 2004), page 42