In a broad context, the term “racialization and ethnicization of religion” is associated with religious movements through the prism of racial and ethnic groups of people. This is a process in which certain groups of people interact, contrasting with each other. In the course of such actions, one of the dominant parties attributes racial or ethnic identity to the concept of religious dogmas and beliefs.
The historical period of this term is manifested in the following case. According to the lecture, the process occurs during the First World War, the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, and the Turkish Republic’s consolidation. For example, the racialization and ethnicization of religion were most clearly expressed during the Armenian Genocide, in 1915. This event represented the physical destruction of the Christian ethnic Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Mass extermination of people on a national basis gave rise to the origin of another term “genocide.” The policy that led to the Armenian Genocide was primarily due to the ideology of pan-Turkism that prevailed in the Ottoman Empire, characterized by intolerance towards non-Turkic peoples.
The historical significance of the event correlates with the manifestation of the worst side of human nature in enlightened and civilized countries. The mass extermination and deportation is the most tragic page in the history of the Armenian people, which left a heavy mark not only on its entire subsequent history but also on its national identity. The annihilation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire is considered the first Genocide of the XX century. Torture and reprisals against certain “minorities” demonstrate that some people are characterized by such remnants of the past as savagery and fanaticism.