A bloodbath , massacre , massacre are terms with a pronounced negative (condemning) connotation that are used to describe the massacre of a relatively defenseless population for political reasons.
Mass bloodsheds have been known since antiquity (see, for example, the beating of infants , the massacre of the Latins , Sicilian Vespers ). The French term massacre (lit. "slaughter of animals") is widely used in English and other European languages ​​to refer to the mass carving of the Huguenots on Bartholomew’s night of 1572. This term is evaluative and emotionally colored; its use emphasizes the lack of a valid moral justification for executions [1] .
Professor Robert Melson , examining the relationship between massacre and genocide in relation to the extermination of Armenians by the Turks at the end of the 19th century, emphasizes that the term “massacre” or “slaughter” implies the intentional destruction of a significant number of relatively defenseless people for political reasons [2] . Moreover, the motives for bloodshed are not necessarily rational: for example, it may be a spontaneous reaction to false rumors and misinformation [2] .
In recent times, mass violent acts directed against a certain religious or ethnic group are also called pogroms . The intent of the rioters, as a rule, is not specified and consists in causing all kinds of damage to the victims - by mutilation, robbery , destruction of property, sexual violence , etc. [3]
Notes
- ↑ Mark Levene, Penny Roberts. The Massacre in History . Berghahn Books, 1999. ISBN 9781571819345 . P. 90.
- ↑ 1 2 Melson, Robert. "Theoretical Inquiry into the Armenian Massacres of 1894-1896." Comparative Studies in Society and History. July 1982. 24 (3): 482–3.
- ↑ Shekhtman I. B. The history of the pogrom movement in Ukraine 1917–1921. T. II. Pogroms of the Volunteer Army in Ukraine . - M.-Berlin: Directmedia, 2015 .-- S. 108