The Armenian genocide by the Turks in 1915. Why did the Turks destroy the Armenians and why do they not recognize the genocide now?

About crimes and information war after 102 years

Isabella Muradyan

On these beautiful spring days, when nature awakens and blossoms, in the heart of every Armenian, young or adult, there is a place that will not bloom again... All Armenians, not excluding those whose ancestors did not suffer during a series of Genocides perpetrated by the Turks and their patrons in 1895-1896, 1909, 1915-1923 carry this pain within themselves...

And everyone is tormented by the question - why, why, why...?! Despite the fact that so little and so much time has passed at the same time, most of the Armenians, and not only others, have little idea of ​​the answers to these questions.

This is happening because since the end of the 19th century there has been a large-scale information war- and the majority of the Armenian elite of the Republic of Armenia and the Diaspora does not understand this.

The sacred duty of every Armenian parent, especially the mother, in the name of love and in the name of the life she has given, is not only to provide for the child normal conditions for growth and development, to provide knowledge about the terrible danger that can find him everywhere, its name is the Unpunished Armenian Genocide...

Within the framework of this article, I will only have the opportunity to lift the veil on this issue and make you want to know more...

Feral Wolf Effect

In order to better understand the problems of the peoples living under the Turkish yoke, one should take a closer look at the Turks themselves and their legislation and customs. These nomadic tribes came to our region around the 11th century, following their herds during the terrible drought that reigned in Altai and the Volga steppes, but this was not their homeland. The Turks themselves and most scientists in the world consider the steppes and semi-deserts that are part of China to be the ancestral homeland of the Turks. Today this is the Xinjiang Uyghur region of China.

Widely worthy of mention famous legend about the origin of the Turks, which is told by the TURKIC scientists THEMSELVES. A certain young boy survived after an enemy raid on his village in the steppe. But they cut off his arms and legs and left him to die. The boy was found and nursed by a wild wolf.

Then, having matured, he copulated with the she-wolf who fed him, and from their connection eleven children were born, who formed the BASIS OF THE ELITE OF THE TURKIC TRIBES (the Ashina clan).

If you visit the ancestral homeland of the Turks at least once - in the Xinjiang Uyghur region of China and come across Uyghurs en masse - comparatively pure form Turks, you will see their way of life and everyday life, you will immediately understand a lot - and the main thing is that the Turkic legends were right... For a couple of centuries now, the Chinese have been trying to ennoble the Uyghurs with a firm hand / train them, build modern houses, create infrastructure, provide the latest technologies, etc./. However, even today the relations between the Chinese and the Uyghurs are quite ambiguous, based on the support of the “brotherly Turkish government.” Turkey officially funds terrorist Uyghur organizations that advocate secession from the PRC and organize numerous terrorist attacks in China. One of the brutal ones was in 2011, when in Kashgar, Uyghur terrorists first threw an explosive device into a restaurant, and then began to finish off the fleeing customers with knives... As a rule, in all terrorist attacks, the majority of the victims are Han (ethnic Chinese).

The centuries-old processes of abduction and mixing of Turks determined their external distance from their Uyghur relatives, but as you can see, their essence is one. Despite today's deceptive external resemblance of the Turks / inc. Azeri-Turks / with the peoples of our region it does not change, which is dispassionately evidenced by the terrible statistics of their inhuman crimes against the Armenians (Greeks, Assyrians, Slavs, etc.), in 1895-96, in 1905 or 1909, in 1915- 1923, 1988 or 2016 / slaughtered family of Armenian elders and abuse of corpses Armenian soldiers, 4-day war/…

One of the reasons is our lack of understanding of the Turkish essence. It’s interesting, but being very practical people in everyday life and business, Armenians become “incorrigible romantics” (the words of the father of Zionism T. Herzel) in politics and operate in advance with categories that are failed from the very beginning. Instead of distancing themselves from the feral “wolf” or trying to isolate/destroy it, the majority tries to “establish cooperation”, “induce feelings of guilt”, “get offended” or seek mediators for negotiations.” Needless to say, at any opportunity this “wolf” will try to deal with you - a favorite Turkish proverb even today is “if you can’t cut off an outstretched hand, kiss it while you can...”. Let’s also imagine that a feral wolf has partial human thinking and is aware that he lives on land stolen from you, in a house stolen from you, eats fruits stolen from you, sells valuables stolen from you... It’s not that he’s bad, it’s just different - a completely different subspecies, and that’s your problem since you don’t understand it...

Another very important aspect is The causes of the Armenian Genocide should be sought primarily in the geopolitical and economic planes.

On the topic of the causes of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey there is a huge amount archival documents, historical, scientific and other literature, but even the broad masses of the Armenian people and their elite (including the Diaspora) are still captive of a number of misconceptions specifically carried out by Turkish propaganda and its patrons - and this a significant part of the information war against Armenians.

I'll bring you 5 of the most common misconceptions:

The genocide was a consequence of the First World War;

Mass deportations of the Armenian population were carried out from the Eastern front zone deep into Ottoman Empire and were caused by military expediency so that the Armenians would not help the enemy (mainly the Russians);

Numerous casualties among the Armenian civilian population of the Ottoman Empire were random and not organized;

The basis of the Armenian Genocide was the religious difference between Armenians and Turks - i.e. there was a conflict between Christians and Muslims;

The Armenians lived well with the Turks as subjects of the Ottoman Empire and only Western countries and Russia destroyed their friendly relations two peoples - Armenian and Turkish.

Giving brief analysis Let us immediately note that none of these statements has any serious basis. This a well-thought-out information war that has been going on for decades.

It's meant to hide real reasons The Armenian Genocide, which lie on the economic and geopolitical planes and are not limited to the framework of the 1915 Genocide. There was precisely a desire to physically destroy the Armenians, to take them away material goods and territory, and that nothing would interfere with the creation of a new pan-Turkic empire led by Turkey - from Europe (Albania) to China (Xinjiang province).

Exactly pan-Turkic component and the economic defeat of the Armenians(and then the Pontic Greeks) were one of the main ideas of the Genocide of 1909, 1915-1923, carried out by the Young Turks.

(The planned pan-Turkic empire is marked in red on the map, its further advancement is marked in pink). And today a small part of our homeland is the Republic of Armenia (about 7% of the original, see map Armenian Highlands) cuts through the supposed empire with a narrow wedge.

MYTH 1st. The 1915 genocide was a consequence of the First World War.

It's a lie. The decision to exterminate the Armenians has been discussed in certain political circles in Turkey (and especially the Young Turks) since the end of the 19th century, especially intensely since 1905, when there was no talk of the First World War. With the participation and support of Turkish emissaries to Transcaucasia in 1905. The first Turkic/Tatar-Armenian clashes and pogroms of Armenians were prepared and carried out in Baku, Shushi, Nakhichevan, Erivan, Goris, Elisavetpol. After the suppression of the Turkic/Tatar rebellion by the tsarist troops, the instigators fled to Turkey and joined the central committee of the Young Turks (Ahmed Agayev, Alimardan-bek Topchibashev, etc.) In total, there were from 3,000 to 10,000 people killed.

As a result of the pogroms, thousands of workers lost their jobs and livelihoods. The Caspian, Caucasian, “Petrov”, Balakhanskaya and other Armenian-owned oil companies, warehouses, and the Beckendorf Theater were burned. The damage of the pogroms reached about 25 million rubles - about 774,235,000 US dollars today ( gold content 1 ruble was 0.774235 grams. pure gold) the Armenian campaigns especially suffered, since the fires were directed specifically against the Armenians (for comparison, the average monthly earnings of a worker in 1905 in the Russian Empire was 17 rubles 125 kopecks, beef shoulder blade 1 kg - 45 kopecks, fresh milk 1 liter - 14 kopecks, premium wheat flour 1 kilogram - 24 kopecks, etc.

We should not forget the Armenian Genocide, provoked by the Young Turks in 1909. in Adana, Marash, Kessab (massacre on the territory of the former Armenian kingdom-Cilicia, Ottoman Turkey). 30,000 Armenians were killed. The total damage inflicted on the Armenians was about 20 million Turkish lira. 24 churches, 16 schools, 232 houses, 30 hotels, 2 factories, 1,429 summer houses, 253 farms, 523 shops, 23 mills and many other objects were burned.

For comparison, the Ottoman debt to creditors after the First World War under the Treaty of Sèvres was fixed at 143 million golden Turkish lira.

So First World War was for the Young Turks only a screen and decoration for the well-thought-out and prepared extermination of Armenians in their area of ​​​​residence - on the historical land of Armenia...

MYTH 2nd. Mass deportations of the Armenian population were carried out from the Eastern front zone into the depths of the Ottoman Empire and were caused by military expediency so that the Armenians would not help the enemy (mainly the Russians). It's a lie. The Ottoman Armenians did not help their enemies - and the same Russians. Yes, in Russian army in 1914 there were Armenians from among the subjects of the Russian Empire - 250 thousand people, many were mobilized into the war and fought on the fronts, incl. against Turkey. However, also on the Turkish side, according to official data, there were Ottoman subjects Armenians - about 170 thousand (according to some sources about 300 thousand) who fought as part of the Turkish troops (whom the Turks drafted into their army and then killed). The very fact of the participation of Armenian subjects of the Russian Empire did not make the Ottoman Armenians traitors, as some Turkish historians are trying to prove. On the contrary, when Turkish troops under the command of Enver Pasha (Minister of War), after the attack on the Russian Empire, they were repulsed and suffered brutal defeat near Sarikamysh in January 1915, then exactly Ottoman Armenians helped Enver Pasha escape.

The thesis about the deportation of Armenians from the frontline zone is also false, since the first deportations of Armenians were not carried out in eastern front, and from the center of the empire - from Cilicia and AnatoliaVSyria. And in all cases, the deportees were doomed to death in advance.

MYTH 3rd. Numerous casualties among the Armenian civilian population of the Ottoman Empire were random and not organized. Another LIE - a single mechanism for the arrest and murder of Armenian men, and then the deportation of women and children under escort of gendarmes and the organized extermination of Armenians throughout the empire directly indicate government structure in the organization of the Genocide. Killing those called into Ottoman army Armenian subjects, regulations, numerous testimonies, including from the Turks themselves, speak of the personal participation of Turkish government officials of various ranks in the Armenian Genocide.

This is evidenced by the inhumane experiments carried out on Armenians (including women and children) in state institutions of the Ottoman Empire. These and many other facts of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 ORGANIZED BY THE TURKISH AUTHORITIES. revealedTurkish military tribunal 1919-1920And many still do not know that one of the first countries to recognize the Armenian Genocide, after the endThe First World War was TURKEY. Among the general cruelty and savagery, the methods of extermination of Armenians by TURKISH OFFICIALS in 1915, which subsequently were only partially used by the fascist executioners in the Second World War and recognized as crimes against humanity. For the first time in the history of the 20th century and on a similar scale, it was To was applied to the Armeniansso-called lower“biological status” .

According to the indictment announced on Turkish military tribunal, the deportations were not dictated by military necessity or disciplinary reasons, but were conceived by the central Young Turk Ittihad committee, and their consequences were felt in every corner of the Ottoman Empire. By the way, the Young Turk regime was one of the successful “color revolutions” of that time; there were other projects that were not successful - the Young Italians, the Young Czechs, the Young Bosnians, the Young Serbs, etc.

In evidence Turkish military tribunal 1919-1920. mostly relied on documents, and not for testimony. The Tribunal considered the fact of the organized murder of Armenians by the leaders of Ittihat (Turkish) to be proven. taktil cinayeti) and found Enver, Cemal, Talaat and Dr. Nazim, who were absent from the trial, guilty. They were sentenced by the tribunal to death penalty. By the beginning of the tribunal, the main leaders of Ittihat - denme Talaat, Enver, Jemal, Shakir, Nazim, Bedri and Azmi - fled with the help of the British outside Turkey.

The killings of Armenians were accompanied by robberies and thefts. For example, Asent Mustafa and the governor of Trebizond, Cemal Azmi, embezzled Armenian jewelry worth from 300,000 to 400,000 Turkish gold pounds (at that time about $1,500,000, with the average salary of a worker in the United States during this period being about $45.5 per month). The American consul in Aleppo reported to Washington that a “giant plunder scheme” was operating in Turkey. The Consul in Trebizond reported that he daily observed how "a crowd of Turkish women and children followed the police like vultures and seized everything they could carry," and that the house of Commissioner Ittihat in Trebizond was full of gold and jewelry, which constituted his share of the plunder, and etc.

MYTH 4th. The basis of the Armenian Genocide was the religious difference between Armenians and Turks - i.e. there was a conflict between Christians and Muslims. And this is also a LIE. During the Genocide of 1915 were exterminated and robbed not only Christian Armenians, but also Muslim Armenians who converted to Islam from the 16th to 18th centuries - Hamshenians (Hemshils). During the Genocide of 1915-1923. Armenians were not allowed to change their religion, many agreed to this just to save their loved ones - Talaat's directive “On a change of faith” dated December 17, 1915 directly insisted on the deportation and actual murder of Armenians, REGARDLESS OF THEIR FAITH. And we should not forget that the difference in religion did not become an obstacle and the bulk of Christian Armenian refugees found shelter and conditions for organizing a new life EXACTLY IN NEIGHBORING MUSLIM COUNTRIES . So, the factor of Islamo-Christian confrontation was only a background/cover.

MYTH 5th. The Armenians lived well with the Turks as subjects of the Ottoman Empire, and only Western countries and Russia, through their intervention, destroyed the friendly relations of the two peoples - the Armenian and Turkish. This statement can be considered the apotheosis of lies and a visual aid of information propaganda, since the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, not being Muslims, were considered second-class subjects - dhimmis (submissive to Islam), and were subject to many restrictions:

- Armenians were forbidden to carry weapons and ride horses(On horse);

- murder of a Muslim - incl. in self-defense and protection of loved ones - punishable by death;

- Armenians paid higher taxes, and in addition to the official ones, they were also subject to taxes from various local Muslim tribes;

- Armenians could not inherit real estate(for them there was only lifetime use, heirs had to get permission again for the right to use property),

- Armenians' testimony was not accepted in court;

In a number of areas Armenians were forbidden to speak their native language under pain of having their tongues cut out(for example, the city of Kutia is the birthplace of Komitas and the reason for his ignorance of his native language in childhood);

- Armenians had to give part of their children to the harem and to the Janissaries;

- Armenian women and children were constantly targets of violence, kidnappings and the slave trade and much more…

For comparison: Armenians in the Russian Empire. They were equal in rights to Russian subjects, including the possibility of entering the service, representation in noble assemblies, etc. In serf Russia, serfdom did not apply to them, and Armenian settlers, regardless of class, were allowed to freely leave the Russian Empire. Among the benefits provided to Armenians was the establishment of an Armenian court in 1746. and the right to use the Armenian code of law in Russia, permission to have their own Magistrates, i.e. granting full self-government. The Armenians were freed for ten years (or forever, like, for example, the Grigoriopol Armenians) from all duties, billets, and recruitment. They were given sums without repayment for the construction of urban settlements - houses, churches, magistrates' buildings, gymnasiums, installation of water pipes, baths and coffee houses (!). Saving fiscal legislation was implemented: “after 10 preferential years have passed, pay them to the treasury from merchant capital 1% of the ruble, from guilds and burghers 2 rubles per year from each yard, from villagers 10 kopecks. for a tithe." See Decree of Empress Catherine II of October 12, 1794.

During the organization of the Armenian Genocide in 1915, at the beginning of 1914-1915. The government of the Young Turks declared war on the infidels - jihad, organizing numerous gatherings in mosques and public places, at which Muslims were called upon to kill ALL Armenians as spies and saboteurs. According to Muslim law, the property of the enemy is a trophy for the first one who kills him. Thus, murders and robberies were carried out everywhere, because after the mass declaration of Armenians as enemies, this was considered a LEGAL and financially ENCOURAGED act. A fifth of the loot from the Armenians OFFICIALLY went to the Young Turks’ party treasury.

The speed and scale of the 1915 Genocide carried out by the Young Turks is terrifying. Within a year, about 80% of the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were exterminated - in 1915. About 1,500,000 Armenians were killed as of today, in 2017. The Armenian community in Turkey is about 70,000 Christian Armenians, there are also Islamized Armenians - the number is unknown.

Geopolitical and legal aspects Armenian Genocide

IN 1879 Ottoman Türkiye officially declared itself BANKRUPT- the size of Turkey’s external debt was considered astronomical and reached a nominal value of 5.3 billion francs in gold. Central State Bank of Turkey "Imperial Ottoman Bank" was a concession enterprise established in 1856. and was sentenced to 80 years English and French financiers (including those from the Rothschild clan) . Under the terms of the concession, the Bank serviced all operations related to accounting financial income to the state treasury. The bank had the exclusive right to issue banknotes (i.e., issue Turkish money) valid throughout the Ottoman Empire.

Let us note that it was in this bank that the valuables and funds of the majority of Armenians were kept, which were then confiscated from ALL of them AND WERE NOT RETURNED TO ANYONE, and so did branches of foreign banks.

Map of murders and pogroms of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire for 1915.

Türkiye quickly sold off its existing assets, includinggave concessions to foreign companies(mainly Western) land, rights to build and operate large infrastructures (railway), mining, etc. This is an important detail; in the future, the new owners were not interested in changing the status of the territories and their loss to Turkey.

Map of mineral resources of Western Armenia /Türkiye today/.

For reference: The territory of Western Armenia is rich in various useful things, incl. ore minerals: iron, lead, zinc, manganese, mercury, antimony, molybdenum, etc. There are rich deposits of copper, tungsten, etc.

Living on my own historical homeland Armenians and Pontic Greeks also participated in economic legal relations within the empire - especially after a series of internal Turkish reforms (1856, 1869), which took place under pressure from the Western powers (France, Great Britain) and Russia and were significant part financial and industrial elite of Turkey.

Having centuries-old corresponding civilizational potential and powerful connections with compatriots from outside, including the possibility of attracting (turnover) national capital, the Armenians and Greeks represented serious competition and therefore were exterminated by the Young Turks of the Denme.

Legal levers that the Young Turks operated during the deportation and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. (the most important acts).

1. The totality of a number of aspects of the Ottoman Islamic law, which legitimized the seizure of the property of Armenians by declaring them en masse to be “Western and Russian spies.” Important step V in the indicated direction- declaration of a holy war - jihad with infidels from the Entente countries and their allies on November 11, 1914. The seized property of the Armenians/"harbi", according to the legal custom established and applied in Turkey, passed to the murderers. By order of the Young Turks, a fifth of it was officially transferred to their party treasury.

2. Decisions of the congresses of the party “Unity and Progress” 1910-1915. ( The extermination of Armenians has been considered since 1905. ), incl. Secret decision of the “Unity and Progress” committee at the congress in Thessaloniki on the Turkification of non-Turkish peoples of the empire. Final decision on the implementation of the Armenian Genocide was adopted at a secret meeting of the Ittihadists on February 26, 1915. with the participation of 75 people.

3. Decision on special education. organ - executive committee of three, consisting of the Young Turks-Denme Nazim, Shakir and Shukri, October 1914, who was supposed to be responsible for organizational issues of the extermination of the Armenians. Organization of special detachments of criminals “Teshkilat-i Makhsuse” ( Special organization), in aid of the Executive Committee of the Three, numbered up to 34,000 members and was largely composed of "chettes" - released criminals.

4. The order of War Minister Enver in February 1915 on the extermination of Armenians serving in Turkish army.

7. Temporary Law “On the Disposal of Property” of September 26, 1915 Eleven articles of this law regulated issues related to the disposal of the property of deportees, their loans and assets.

8. Order of the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat dated September 16, 1915 on the extermination of Armenian children in orphanages. IN initial period After the 1915 Genocide, some Turks began to officially adopt Armenian orphans, but the Young Turks saw this as a “loophole to save the Armenians” and a secret order was issued. In it, Talaat wrote: “gather all the Armenian children, ... remove them under the pretext that the deportation committee will take care of them, so that suspicion does not arise. Destroy them and report execution.”

9. Temporary Law “On Expropriation and Confiscation of Property”, dated October 13/16, 1915 Among the many glaring facts:

The unprecedented nature of the confiscation carried out by the Turkish Ministry of Finance, on the basis of this law, of bank deposits and jewelry of Armenians, which they deposited in the Ottoman Bank before deportation;

- official expropriation of money that was received by Armenians when selling their property to local Turks;

Attempts by the government, represented by the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, to receive compensation for the insurance policies of Armenians who insured their lives with foreign insurance companies, based on the fact that they had no heirs left and the Turkish government became their beneficiary.

10. Talaat’s directive “On a change of faith” dated December 17, 1915 etc. Many Armenians, trying to escape, agreed to change their religion; this directive insisted on their deportation and actual murder, regardless of their faith.

Losses from the Genocide for the period 1915-1919. / Paris Peace Conference, 1919 /

Losses of the Armenian people at the end of the 19th century. and the beginning of the 20th century, the culmination of which was the implementation of the 1915 Genocide. - cannot be calculated either by the number of killed or by fixed property damage - they are immeasurable. In addition to those brutally killed by enemies, tens of thousands of Armenians died daily from hunger, cold, epidemics, and stress etc., mostly helpless women, old people and children. Hundreds of thousands of women and children were Turkified and held captive by force, were sold into slavery, the number of refugees amounted to hundreds of thousands, plus tens of thousands of orphans and street children. The population mortality figures also speak of the catastrophic situation. In Yerevan, 20-25% of the population died in 1919 alone. According to expert estimates, for 1914-1919. the population of the current territory of Armenia decreased by 600,000 people, a small part of them emigrated, the rest died from disease and deprivation. There was massive looting and destruction of numerous valuables, incl. destruction of priceless treasures of the nation: manuscripts, books, architectural and other monuments of national and world significance. The unrealized potential of the destroyed generations, the loss of qualified personnel and the failure in their continuity, which has sharply affected the overall level of development of the nation and the global niche it occupies to this day, cannot be replenished, and the list goes on...

Total from 1915-1919 1,800,000 Armenians were killed throughout Western Armenia and Cilicia, part of Eastern Armenia. 66 cities, 2,500 villages, 2,000 churches and monasteries, 1,500 schools, as well as ancient monuments, manuscripts, factories, etc. were plundered and devastated.

Incomplete (recognized) damage at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. amounted to 19,130,932,000 French gold francs, of which:

Let us recall that the size of the external debt of Ottoman Turkey was the largest among the countries of Eurasia and reached a nominal value of 5,300,000,000 French gold francs.

Turkey paid for it and has a lot today precisely due to the robbery and murder of Armenians on Armenian soil...

Since the Armenian Genocide remained an unpunished crime, which brought huge dividends to its organizers, ranging from material to moral and ideological - perpetuating them positive role for the formation of the Turkish state and the implementation of the ideas of pan-Turkism, Armenians will always be a target.

It is the reluctance of the Turkish side to part with the loot and pay the bills of history that makes any negotiations on the issue of the Armenian genocide impossible.

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 is the most important element state security Republic of Armenia, since impunity for the crime and too large dividends clearly lead to an attempt to REPEAT THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE.

The increase in the number of countries that have recognized the Armenian genocide also increases the level of security of Armenia, since international recognition of this crime is a deterrent for Turkey and Azerbaijan.

We do not call for hatred, we call for UNDERSTANDING and ADEQUACY not only of Armenians, but also of all those who consider themselves cultured and civilized people. And even after more than 100 years, crimes against Armenians must be condemned, criminals punished, and what was obtained by criminal means returned to the owners (their loved ones) or the national to the successor state.This is the only way to stop new crimes, new genocide anywherepeace. In distribution meaningful information and the consistent struggle to punish criminals for the salvation of our future generations - look for the fate of nations in the palms of mothers...

Isabella Muradyan - migration lawyer (Yerevan), member of the Association international law, especially for

Genocide(from Greek genos - clan, tribe and Latin caedo - I kill), an international crime expressed in actions committed with the aim of destroying, in whole or in part, any national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Actions qualified by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 as acts of Genocide have been committed repeatedly in human history since ancient times, especially during wars of extermination and devastating invasions and campaigns of conquerors, internal ethnic and religious clashes, during the period of partition peace and education colonial empires European powers, in the process of a fierce struggle for the redistribution of the divided world, which led to two world wars and in the colonial wars after the Second World War of 1939 - 1945.

However, the term "genocide" was first introduced into use in the early 30s. XX century Polish lawyer, Jewish by origin Rafael Lemkin, and after the Second World War received an international legal status, as a concept defining the gravest crime against humanity. R Lemkin, by Genocide, meant the massacre of Armenians in Turkey during the First World War (1914 - 1918), and then the extermination of Jews in fascist Germany in the period preceding the Second World War, and in the countries of Europe occupied by the Nazis during the war.

The first genocide of the 20th century is considered to be the extermination of more than 1.5 million Armenians during 1915 - 1923. in Western Armenia and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, organized and systematically carried out by the Young Turk rulers.

The Armenian Genocide should also include the massacres of the Armenian population in Eastern Armenia and the Transcaucasus as a whole, committed by the Turks who invaded Transcaucasia in 1918, and by the Kemalists during the aggression against the Armenian Republic in September - December 1920, as well as the pogroms of Armenians organized by the Musavatists in Baku and Shushi in 1918 and 1920 respectively. Taking into account those who died as a result of periodic pogroms of Armenians carried out by the Turkish authorities, starting from the end of the 19th century, the number of victims of the Armenian Genocide exceeds 2 million.

The Armenian Genocide 1915 - 1916 - mass extermination and deportation of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces of the Ottoman Empire, carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey during the First World War (1914 - 1918). The policy of genocide against the Armenians was determined by a number of factors.

Leading value among them was the ideology of Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, which from the middle of the 19th century. professed by the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire. The militant ideology of pan-Islamism was characterized by intolerance towards non-Muslims, preached outright chauvinism, and called for the Turkification of all non-Turkish peoples. Entering the war, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire made far-reaching plans for the creation of “Great Turan”. These plans meant the annexation of Transcaucasia, the North Caucasus, Crimea, the Volga region, and Central Asia to the empire.

On the way to this goal, the aggressors had to put an end to, first of all, the Armenian people, who opposed the aggressive plans of the Pan-Turkists. The Young Turks began to develop plans for the destruction of the Armenian population even before the start of the World War. The decisions of the Union and Progress party congress, held in October 1911 in Thessaloniki, contained a demand for the Turkification of the non-Turkish peoples of the empire.

Early 1914 local authorities a special order was sent regarding the measures that were to be taken against the Armenians. The fact that the order was sent before the beginning of the war, irrefutably testifies: the extermination of the Armenians was a planned action, not at all conditioned by a specific military situation. The leadership of the Unity and Progress party has repeatedly discussed the issue of mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population.

In October 1914, at a meeting chaired by the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, a special body was formed - the Executive Committee of Three, which was tasked with organizing the extermination of the Armenian population; it included the leaders of the Young Turks Nazim, Behaetdin Shakir and Shukri. When plotting a monstrous crime, the leaders of the Young Turks took into account that the war provided an opportunity to carry it out. Nazim directly stated that such an opportunity may no longer exist, “the intervention of the great powers and the protest of the newspapers will not have any consequences, since they will be faced with a fait accompli, and thereby the issue will be resolved... Our actions must be directed to exterminate the Armenians so that not a single one of them remains alive."

By undertaking the destruction of the Armenian population, the ruling circles of Turkey intended to achieve several goals:

• the elimination of the Armenian Question, which would put an end to the intervention of European powers;
• the Turks would get rid of economic competition, all the property of the Armenian people would pass into their hands;
• the elimination of the Armenian people will help pave the way for the conquest of the Caucasus, for the achievement of the great ideal of Turanism.

The executive committee of the three received broad powers, weapons, and money. The authorities organized special detachments “Teshkilati and Makhsuse”, consisting mainly of criminals released from prisons and other criminal elements, who were supposed to take part in the mass extermination of Armenians.

From the very first days of the war, rabid anti-Armenian propaganda unfolded in Turkey. The Turkish people were told that Armenians did not want to serve in the Turkish army, that they were ready to cooperate with the enemy. Fabrications were spread about the mass desertion of Armenians from the Turkish army, about uprisings of Armenians that threatened the rear of the Turkish troops, etc. Anti-Armenian propaganda especially intensified after the first serious defeats of the Turkish troops on the Caucasian front. In February 1915, Minister of War Enver gave the order to exterminate the Armenians serving in the Turkish army (at the beginning of the war, about 60 thousand Armenians aged 18-45 years were drafted into the Turkish army, i.e. the most combat-ready part of the male population). This order was carried out with unprecedented cruelty.

On the night of April 24, 1915, representatives of the Constantinople police department burst into the homes of the most prominent Armenians in the capital and arrested them. Over the next few days, eight hundred people - writers, poets, journalists, politicians, doctors, lawyers, lawyers, scientists, teachers, priests, educators, artists - were sent to the central prison.

Two months later, on June 15, 1915, 20 Armenian intellectuals, members of the Hunchak party, were executed in one of the squares of the capital, who were charged with trumped-up charges of organizing terror against the authorities and seeking to create an autonomous Armenia.

The same thing happened in all vilayets (regions): within a few days, thousands of people were arrested, including all famous cultural figures, politicians, and intellectuals. The deportation to the desert regions of the Empire was planned in advance. And this was a deliberate deception: as soon as people moved away from their homes, they were mercilessly killed by those who were supposed to accompany them and ensure their safety. The Armenians who worked in government bodies were fired one after another; all military doctors were thrown into prison.
The great powers were completely drawn into the global confrontation, and they put their geopolitical interests above the fate of two million Armenians...

From May - June 1915, mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population of Western Armenia (vilayets of Van, Erzurum, Bitlis, Kharberd, Sebastia, Diyarbekir), Cilicia, Western Anatolia and other areas began. The ongoing deportation of the Armenian population in fact pursued the goal of its destruction. The US Ambassador to Turkey, G. Morgenthau, noted: “The true purpose of the deportations was robbery and destruction; this is truly a new method of massacre. When the Turkish authorities ordered these expulsions, they were actually passing a death sentence on an entire nation.”

The real goals of the deportation were also known to Germany, Turkey's ally. In June 1915, the German Ambassador to Turkey Wangenheim informed his government that if at first the expulsion of the Armenian population was limited to provinces close to Caucasian Front, then the Turkish authorities now extended these actions to those parts of the country that were not under the threat of enemy invasion. These actions, the ambassador concluded, the ways in which the expulsion is carried out indicate that the Turkish government has as its goal the destruction of the Armenian nation in the Turkish state. The same assessment of the deportation was contained in messages from German consuls from the vilayets of Turkey. In July 1915, the German vice-consul in Samsun reported that the deportation carried out in the vilayets of Anatolia was aimed at either destroying or converting the entire Armenian people to Islam. The German consul in Trebizond at the same time reported on the deportation of Armenians in this vilayet and noted that the Young Turks intended to put an end to the Armenian Question in this way.

The Armenians who were removed from their places of permanent residence were brought into caravans that headed deep into the empire, to Mesopotamia and Syria, where special camps were created for them. Armenians were destroyed both in their places of residence and on the way to exile; their caravans were attacked by Turkish rabble, Kurdish bandits eager for prey. As a result, a small part of the deported Armenians reached their destinations. But even those who reached the deserts of Mesopotamia were not safe; There are known cases when deported Armenians were taken out of the camps and slaughtered by the thousands in the desert. Lack of basic sanitary conditions, famine, and epidemics caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people.

The actions of the Turkish pogromists were characterized by unprecedented cruelty. The leaders of the Young Turks demanded this. Thus, the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, in a secret telegram sent to the governor of Aleppo, demanded an end to the existence of Armenians, not to pay any attention to age, gender, or remorse. This requirement was strictly fulfilled. Eyewitnesses of the events, Armenians who survived the horrors of deportation and genocide, left numerous descriptions of the incredible suffering that befell the Armenian population. A correspondent for the English newspaper The Times reported in September 1915: “From Sasun and Trebizond, from Ordu and Eintab, from Marash and Erzurum, the same reports of atrocities are coming in: of men mercilessly shot, crucified, mutilated or taken to labor battalions, about children kidnapped and forcibly converted to the Mohammedan faith, about women raped and sold into slavery deep behind the lines, shot on the spot or sent along with their children to the desert west of Mosul, where there is neither food nor water... Many of these unfortunate victims did not reach their destination..., and their corpses precisely indicated the path they followed."

In October 1916, the newspaper "Caucasian Word" published correspondence about the massacre of Armenians in the village of Baskan (Vardo Valley); the author cited an eyewitness account: “We saw how the unfortunates were first stripped of everything valuable; then they were stripped, and some were killed on the spot, while others were taken away from the road, into remote corners, and then finished off. We saw a group of three women , who embraced each other in mortal fear. And it was impossible to separate them, to separate them. All three were killed... The screams and wails were unimaginable, our hair stood on end, our blood froze in our veins..." Most of the Armenian population was also subjected to barbaric extermination Cilicia.

The massacre of Armenians continued in subsequent years. Thousands of Armenians were killed, driven into southern regions Ottoman Empire and those held in the camps of Rasul - Aina, Deir - Zora and others. The Young Turks sought to carry out the genocide of Armenians in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to local population, accumulated large masses refugees from Western Armenia. Having committed aggression against Transcaucasia in 1918, Turkish troops carried out pogroms and massacres of Armenians in many areas of Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Having occupied Baku in September 1918, Turkish invaders, together with Azerbaijani nationalists, organized a terrible massacre of the local Armenian population, killing 30 thousand people.

As a result of the Armenian genocide, carried out by the Young Turks in 1915 - 1916, more than 1.5 million people died, about 600 thousand Armenians became refugees; they scattered throughout many countries of the world, replenishing existing ones and forming new Armenian communities. An Armenian diaspora (“Spyurk” - Armenian) was formed.

As a result of the genocide, Western Armenia lost its original population. The leaders of the Young Turks did not hide their satisfaction at the successful implementation of the planned atrocity: German diplomats in Turkey reported to their government that already in August 1915, the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat cynically declared that “actions against the Armenians have been largely carried out and the Armenian Question no longer exists.”

The relative ease with which the Turkish pogromists managed to carry out the genocide of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire is partly explained by the unpreparedness of the Armenian population, as well as the Armenian political parties, for the impending threat of extermination. The actions of the pogromists were greatly facilitated by the mobilization of the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population - men - into the Turkish army, as well as the liquidation of the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople. A certain role was also played by the fact that in some public and clerical circles of Western Armenians they believed that disobedience to the Turkish authorities, who gave orders for deportation, could only lead to an increase in the number of victims.

The Armenian genocide carried out in Turkey caused enormous damage to the spiritual and material culture Armenian people. In 1915 - 1916 and subsequent years, thousands of Armenian manuscripts stored in Armenian monasteries were destroyed, hundreds of historical and architectural monuments, the shrines of the people were desecrated. The destruction of historical and architectural monuments in Turkey and the appropriation of many cultural values ​​of the Armenian people continue to this day. The tragedy experienced by the Armenian people affected all aspects of the life and social behavior of the Armenian people, firmly settled in their historical memory.

Progressive public opinion the world condemned the atrocious crime of the Turkish pogromists who tried to destroy the Armenian people. Social and political figures, scientists, cultural figures from many countries branded genocide, qualifying it as a grave crime against humanity, and took part in the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Armenian people, in particular to refugees who have found refuge in many countries around the world.

After Turkey's defeat in the First World War, the leaders of the Young Turks were accused of dragging Turkey into a disastrous war and put on trial. Among the charges brought against war criminals was the charge of organizing and carrying out the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. However, the verdict against a number of Young Turk leaders was passed in absentia, because after Turkey's defeat they managed to flee the country. The death sentence against some of them (Talaat, Behaetdin Shakir, Jemal Pasha, Said Halim and others) was subsequently carried out by the Armenian people's avengers.

After the Second World War, genocide was qualified as the gravest crime against humanity. The basis legal documents genocide was based on the basic principles developed by the international military tribunal in Nuremberg, which tried the main war criminals Hitler's Germany. Subsequently, the UN adopted a number of decisions regarding genocide, the main of which are the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and the Convention on the Inapplicability of the Statute of Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, adopted in 1968.

Translation from Armenian

1. Persian Meshali Haji Ibrahim said the following:

“In May 1915, Governor Takhsin Bey summoned the Chebashi Amvanli Eyub-ogly Gadyr and, showing him the order received from Constantinople, said: “I entrust the local Armenians to you, bring them unharmed to Kemakh, there the Kurds will attack them and other. For the sake of appearances, you will show that you want to protect them, you will even use weapons once or twice against the attackers, but in the end you will show that you cannot cope with them, you will leave and return.” After thinking a little, Gadyr said: “You order me to take the sheep and lambs tied hand and foot to the slaughter; this is cruelty unbecoming of me; I am a soldier, send me against the enemy, let him either kill me with a bullet and I will fall bravely, or I will defeat him and save my country, and I will never agree to stain my hands in the blood of the innocent.” The governor was very insistent that he carry out the order, but the magnanimous Gadyr flatly refused. Then the governor called Mirza-bey Veransheherli and made him the above proposal. This one also argued that there is no need to kill. Already, he said, you are putting the Armenians in such conditions that they themselves will die along the way, and Mesopotamia is such a hot country that they will not be able to stand it, they will die. But the governor insisted, and Mirza accepted the offer. Mirza fully fulfilled his cruel obligation. Four months later he returned to Erzurum with 360 thousand lire; He gave 90 thousand to Tahsin, 90 thousand to the corps commander Mahmud Kamil, 90 thousand to the defterdar, and the rest to the meherdar, Seifulla and accomplices. However, during the division of this booty, a dispute arose between them, and the governor arrested Mirza. And Mirza threatened to make such revelations that the world would be surprised; then he was released.” Eyub-ogly Gadyr and Mirza Veransheherli personally told this story to the Persian Mashadi Haji Ibrahim.

2. Persian camel driver Kerbalay Ali-Memed said the following: “I was transporting ammunition from Erzincan to Erzurum. One day in June 1915, when I approached the Khotursky Bridge, a stunning sight appeared before my eyes. A countless number of human corpses filled the 12 spans of the large bridge, damming the river so that it changed its course and ran past the bridge. It was terrible to watch; I stood with my caravan for a long time until these corpses floated by and I was able to cross the bridge. But from the bridge to Dzhinis, the entire road was littered with the corpses of old men, women and children, who had already decomposed, swollen and stinking. The stench was so terrible that it was impossible to walk along the road; my two camel drivers got sick and died from this stench, and I was forced to change my path. These were victims and traces of an unheard of and terrible crime. And all these were the corpses of Armenians, unfortunate Armenians.”

3. Alaftar Ibrahim Efendi said the following: “On the eviction of Armenians from Constantinople, a very strict and urgent order was received with the following content: to slaughter without mercy all men from 14 to 65 years of age, do not touch children, old people and women, but leave and convert into Mohammedanism."

TsGIA Arm, SSR, f. 57, op. 1, d, 632, l. 17-18.

based on “The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire”, edited by M.G. Nersisyan, M. 1982, pp. 311-313

Mass extermination and deportation of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces of the Ottoman Empire was carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey in 1915-1923. The policy of genocide against the Armenians was determined by a number of factors. The leading importance among them was the ideology of Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, which was professed by the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire. The militant ideology of pan-Islamism was characterized by intolerance towards non-Muslims, preached outright chauvinism, and called for the Turkification of all non-Turkish peoples. Entering the war, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire made far-reaching plans for the creation of “Great Turan”. It was meant to annex Transcaucasia and the North to the empire. Caucasus, Crimea, Volga region, Central Asia. On the way to this goal, the aggressors had to put an end to, first of all, the Armenian people, who opposed the aggressive plans of the Pan-Turkists.

The Young Turks began to develop plans for the destruction of the Armenian population even before the start of the World War. The decisions of the Congress of the Party "Unity and Progress" (Ittihad ve Terakki), held in October 1911 in Thessaloniki, contained a demand for the Turkification of the non-Turkish peoples of the empire. Following this, the political and military circles of Turkey came to the decision to carry out the genocide of Armenians throughout the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of 1914, a special order was sent to local authorities regarding the measures that were to be taken against the Armenians. The fact that the order was sent out before the start of the war irrefutably indicates that the extermination of the Armenians was a planned action, not at all determined by a specific military situation.

The leadership of the Unity and Progress party has repeatedly discussed the issue of mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population. In September 1914, at a meeting chaired by the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, a special body was formed - the Executive Committee of Three, which was tasked with organizing the beating of the Armenian population; it included the leaders of the Young Turks Nazim, Behaetdin Shakir and Shukri. When plotting a monstrous crime, the leaders of the Young Turks took into account that the war provided an opportunity to carry it out. Nazim directly stated that such an opportunity may no longer exist, “the intervention of the great powers and the protest of the newspapers will not have any consequences, since they will face a fait accompli, and thereby the issue will be resolved... Our actions must be directed to exterminate the Armenians so that not a single one of them remains alive."

By undertaking the extermination of the Armenian population, the ruling circles of Turkey intended to achieve several goals: the elimination of the Armenian Question, which would put an end to the intervention of European powers; the Turks would get rid of economic competition, all the property of the Armenians would pass into their hands; the elimination of the Armenian people will help pave the way for the capture of the Caucasus, to achieve the “great ideal of Turanism.” The executive committee of the three received broad powers, weapons, and money. The authorities organized special units, like “Teshkilat and Makhsuse,” which consisted mainly of criminals released from prison and other criminal elements who were supposed to take part in the mass extermination of Armenians.

From the very first days of the war, rabid anti-Armenian propaganda unfolded in Turkey. The Turkish people were told that Armenians did not want to serve in the Turkish army, that they were ready to cooperate with the enemy. Fabrications were spread about the mass desertion of Armenians from the Turkish army, about uprisings of Armenians that threatened the rear of the Turkish troops, etc.

Unbridled chauvinistic propaganda against the Armenians especially intensified after the first serious defeats of the Turkish troops on the Caucasian front. In February 1915, War Minister Enver gave the order to exterminate Armenians serving in the Turkish army. At the beginning of the war, about 60 thousand Armenians aged 18-45 were drafted into the Turkish army, i.e. the most combat-ready part of the male population. This order was carried out with unprecedented cruelty.

From May - June 1915, mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population of Western Armenia (vilayets of Van, Erzurum, Bitlis, Kharberd, Sebastia, Diyarbekir), Cilicia, Western Anatolia and other areas began. The ongoing deportation of the Armenian population in fact pursued the goal of its destruction. The real goals of the deportation were also known to Germany, Turkey's ally. The German consul in Trebizond in July 1915 reported on the deportation of Armenians in this vilayet and noted that the Young Turks intended to put an end to the Armenian Question.

The Armenians removed from their places of permanent residence were brought into caravans that headed deep into the empire, to Mesopotamia and Syria, where special camps were created for them. Armenians were destroyed both in their places of residence and on the way to exile; their caravans were attacked by Turkish rabble, Kurdish bandits eager for prey. As a result, a small part of the deported Armenians reached their destinations. But even those who reached the deserts of Mesopotamia were not safe; There are known cases when deported Armenians were taken out of the camps and slaughtered by the thousands in the desert.

The lack of basic sanitary conditions, hunger, and epidemics caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people. The actions of the Turkish pogromists were characterized by unprecedented cruelty. The leaders of the Young Turks demanded this. Thus, the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, in a secret telegram sent to the governor of Aleppo, demanded an end to the existence of Armenians, not to pay any attention to age, gender, or remorse. This requirement was strictly fulfilled. Eyewitnesses of the events, Armenians who survived the horrors of deportation and genocide, left numerous descriptions of the incredible suffering that befell the Armenian population. Most of the Armenian population of Cilicia was also subjected to barbaric extermination. The massacre of Armenians continued in subsequent years. Thousands of Armenians were exterminated, driven to the southern regions of the Ottoman Empire and kept in the camps of Ras-ul-Ain, Deir ez-Zor and others. The Young Turks sought to carry out the genocide of Armenians in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to the local population, large numbers of refugees from Western Armenia. Having committed aggression against Transcaucasia in 1918, Turkish troops carried out pogroms and massacres of Armenians in many areas of Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan. Having occupied Baku in September 1918, the Turkish interventionists, together with the Caucasian Tatars, organized a terrible massacre of the local Armenian population, killing 30 thousand people. As a result of the Armenian genocide, carried out by the Young Turks in 1915-16 alone, 1.5 million people died. About 600 thousand Armenians became refugees; they scattered throughout many countries of the world, replenishing existing ones and forming new Armenian communities. The Armenian Diaspora (Spyurk) was formed. As a result of the genocide, Western Armenia lost its original population. The leaders of the Young Turks did not hide their satisfaction at the successful implementation of the planned atrocity: German diplomats in Turkey reported to their government that already in August 1915, the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat cynically declared that “actions against the Armenians have been largely carried out and the Armenian Question no longer exists.”

The relative ease with which the Turkish pogromists managed to carry out the genocide of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire is partly explained by the unpreparedness of the Armenian population, as well as the Armenian political parties, for the looming threat of extermination. The actions of the pogromists were greatly facilitated by the mobilization of the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population - men - into the Turkish army, as well as the liquidation of the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople. A certain role was also played by the fact that in some public and clerical circles of Western Armenians they believed that disobedience to the Turkish authorities, who gave orders for deportation, could only lead to an increase in the number of victims.

However, in some areas the Armenian population offered stubborn resistance to the Turkish vandals. The Armenians of Van, resorting to self-defense, successfully repelled the enemy’s attacks and held the city in their hands until the arrival of Russian troops and Armenian volunteers. The Armenians of Shapin Garakhisar, Musha, Sasun, and Shatakh offered armed resistance to the many times superior enemy forces. The epic of the defenders of Mount Musa in Suetia lasted for forty days. The self-defense of the Armenians in 1915 is a heroic page in the national liberation struggle of the people.

During the aggression against Armenia in 1918, the Turks, having occupied Karaklis, carried out a massacre of the Armenian population, killing several thousand people. In September 1918, Turkish troops occupied Baku and, together with Azerbaijani nationalists, organized the massacre of the local Armenian population.

During Turkish-Armenian War 1920 Turkish troops occupied Alexandropol. Continuing the policies of their predecessors, the Young Turks, the Kemalists sought to organize genocide in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to the local population, masses of refugees from Western Armenia had accumulated. In Alexandropol and the villages of the district, the Turkish occupiers committed atrocities, destroyed the peaceful Armenian population, and plundered property. The Revolutionary Committee of Soviet Armenia received information about the excesses of the Kemalists. One of the reports said: “About 30 villages were cut out in the Alexandropol district and Akhalkalaki region; some of those who managed to escape are in the most dire situation.” Other messages described the situation in the villages of the Alexandropol district: “All the villages have been robbed, there is no shelter, no grain, no clothing, no fuel. The streets of the villages are overflowing with corpses. All this is complemented by hunger and cold, claiming one victim after another... In addition, the askers and the hooligans mock their prisoners and try to punish the people with even more brutal means, rejoicing and getting pleasure from it. They subject parents to various tortures, force them to hand over their 8-9 year old girls to the executioners..."

In January 1921, the government of Soviet Armenia expressed a protest to the Commissioner for Foreign Affairs of Turkey due to the fact that Turkish troops in the Alexandropol district were committing “continuous violence, robberies and murders against the peaceful working population...”. Tens of thousands of Armenians became victims of the atrocities of the Turkish occupiers. The invaders also caused enormous material damage to the Alexandropol district.

In 1918-20, the city of Shushi, the center of Karabakh, became the scene of pogroms and massacres of the Armenian population. In September 1918, Turkish troops, supported by the Azerbaijani Musavatists, moved towards Shushi, ravaging Armenian villages along the way and destroying their population; on September 25, 1918, Turkish troops occupied Shushi. But soon, after Turkey’s defeat in the First World War, they were forced to leave it. On Dec. 1918 The British entered Shushi Soon governor general Musavatist Khosrov-bek Sultanov was appointed to Karabakh. With the help of Turkish military instructors, he formed Kurdish shock troops, which, together with units of the Musavat army, were stationed in the Armenian part of Shushi. The forces of the pogromists were constantly replenished, and there were many Turkish officers in the city. In June 1919, the first pogroms of the Armenians of Shushi took place; On the night of June 5, at least 500 Armenians were killed in the city and surrounding villages. On March 23, 1920, Turkish-Musavat gangs committed a terrible pogrom against the Armenian population of Shushi, killing over 30 thousand people and setting the Armenian part of the city on fire.

The Armenians of Cilicia, who survived the genocide of 1915-16 and found refuge in other countries, began to return to their homeland after the defeat of Turkey. According to the division of zones of influence determined by the allies, Cilicia was included in the sphere of influence of France. In 1919, 120-130 thousand Armenians lived in Cilicia; The return of Armenians continued, and by 1920 their number reached 160 thousand. The command of the French troops located in Cilicia did not take measures to ensure the safety of the Armenian population; Turkish authorities remained in place, Muslims were not disarmed. The Kemalists took advantage of this and began massacres of the Armenian population. In January 1920, during 20-day pogroms, 11 thousand Armenian residents of Mavash died, the rest of the Armenians went to Syria. Soon the Turks besieged Ajn, where the Armenian population by this time numbered barely 6 thousand people. The Armenians of Ajn put up stubborn resistance to the Turkish troops, which lasted 7 months, but in October the Turks managed to take the city. About 400 Ajna defenders managed to break through the siege and escape.

At the beginning of 1920, the remnants of the Armenian population of Urfa - about 6 thousand people - moved to Aleppo.

On April 1, 1920, Kemalist troops besieged Aintap. Thanks to the 15 day heroic defense Ayntap Armenians escaped the massacre. But after the French troops left Cilicia, the Armenians of Aintap moved to Syria at the end of 1921. In 1920, the Kemalists destroyed the remnants of the Armenian population of Zeytun. That is, the Kemalists completed the destruction of the Armenian population of Cilicia, begun by the Young Turks.

The last episode of the tragedy of the Armenian people was the massacre of Armenians in the western regions of Turkey during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-22. In August-September 1921, Turkish troops achieved a turning point in the military operations and launched a general offensive against the Greek troops. On September 9, the Turks broke into Izmir and committed a massacre of the Greek and Armenian population. The Turks sank the ships stationed in the harbor of Izmir, which were carrying Armenian and Greek refugees, mostly women, old people, children...

The Armenian genocide was carried out by the Turkish governments. They are the main culprits of the monstrous crime of the first genocide of the twentieth century. The Armenian genocide carried out in Turkey caused enormous damage to the material and spiritual culture of the Armenian people.

In 1915-23 and subsequent years, thousands of Armenian manuscripts stored in Armenian monasteries were destroyed, hundreds of historical and architectural monuments were destroyed, and the shrines of the people were desecrated. The destruction of historical and architectural monuments in Turkey and the appropriation of many cultural values ​​of the Armenian people continue to this day. The tragedy experienced by the Armenian people affected all aspects of the life and social behavior of the Armenian people and firmly settled in their historical memory. The impact of the genocide was felt both by the generation that was a direct victim and by subsequent generations.

Progressive public opinion around the world condemned the heinous crime of the Turkish pogromists, who tried to destroy one of the most ancient civilized peoples in the world. Social and political figures, scientists, cultural figures from many countries branded the genocide, qualifying it as a grave crime against humanity, and took part in providing humanitarian assistance to the Armenian people, in particular to refugees who have found refuge in many countries of the world. After Turkey's defeat in the First World War, the leaders of the Young Turk party were accused of dragging Turkey into a disastrous war and put on trial. Among the charges brought against war criminals was an accusation of organizing and carrying out the massacre of Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. However, the death sentence against a number of Young Turk leaders was pronounced in absentia, because after the defeat of Turkey they managed to flee the country. The death sentence against some of them (Taliat, Behaetdin Shakir, Jemal Pasha, Said Halim, etc.) was subsequently carried out by the Armenian people's avengers.

After the Second World War, genocide was qualified as the gravest crime against humanity. The legal documents on genocide were based on the basic principles developed by the international military tribunal in Nuremberg, which tried the main war criminals of Nazi Germany. Subsequently, the UN adopted a number of decisions regarding genocide, the main of which are the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and the Convention on the Inapplicability of the Statute of Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, adopted in 1968.

In 1989, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR adopted a law on genocide, which condemned the genocide of Armenians in Western Armenia and Turkey as a crime against humanity. The Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR turned to the Supreme Council of the USSR with a request for making a decision, condemning the Armenian genocide in Turkey. The Declaration of Independence of Armenia, adopted by the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR on August 23, 1990, declares that “The Republic of Armenia supports the cause of international recognition of the Armenian genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.”

Armenian genocide 1914-1918 Mass deportation and extermination of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other regions of the Ottoman Empire in 1914-1918. The most a big wave Armenian Genocide Hayots Mets Yeghern, which was organized and carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey - the Young Turks, under the cover of the First World War. The Turkish policy of exterminating the Armenians was determined by a number of factors, among which the most important is the ideology of pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism, which were professed by the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire starting from half of the 19th century century. The aggressive ideology of pan-Islamism was characterized by intolerance towards non-Muslims, promoted overt nationalism, and called for the Turkification of all non-Turkish peoples.

Entering the war, the Young Turk government of Turkey had far-sighted programs to implement the “Great Turan”. In particular, it was planned to annex Transcaucasia, the North Caucasus, Central Asia, Crimea and the Volga region to the empire. And on the way to implementing this program, the government had to first of all destroy the Armenian people, who had a Russian orientation and resisted the aggressive programs of Pan-Turkism. The Young Turks began to develop a program for the destruction of the Armenian people even before the start of the First World War. And already in the decisions of the congress
parties "Unity and Progress" in 1911 in Thessaloniki a demand was made for the forced Turkification of the non-Turkish peoples of the empire. Immediately after this, the military and political circles of Turkey came to the idea of ​​the complete destruction of the Armenian population of the empire. At the beginning of 1914, the government sent a special order on measures taken against the Armenians. And the very fact that the order was sent before the start of the war undoubtedly indicates that the extermination of the Armenians was a planned step and was not dictated specifically by the military situation. In October 1914, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Foreign Minister Taleat, during which a special body was formed - the “Executive Committee of Three”, which was entrusted with carrying out the massacre of the Armenian population. It included Young Turk leaders - Nazim, Behaeddi Shakir and Shukri. Having conceived this brutal crime, the leaders of the Young Turks were sure that the war was a convenient excuse for its implementation. Nazim directly stated that such a convenient occasion may no longer exist “the intervention of major powers, as well as the protests of newspapers will not have any consequences, since they will be faced with a realized fact and thereby the issue will be resolved... Our actions will have to be aimed at destroying Armenians in such a way that not a single one of them survives.”

Having undertaken the extermination of the Armenian people, the ruling circles of Turkey pursued several goals - first of all, to eliminate the Armenian question, which would put an end to the interference of European powers in the affairs of Turkey, the Turks would thereby be freed from economic competition, and all the property of the Armenians would be transferred to them, there would be the path is open to the conquest of the entire Caucasus, towards the “implementation of the lofty ideas of Turanism.” "Executive Committee of Three" received broad powers, weapons and money. The authorities began to organize special detachments, mainly formed from criminals released from prisons and other criminal elements, who would take part in mass pogroms of the Armenian population.

From the very first day of the war, unrestrained anti-Armenian propaganda unfolded in Turkey. The Turkish people were instilled with the idea that the Armenians did not want
serve in the ranks of the Turkish army, and they are ready to assist the enemy. Spread fake information about the mass desertion of Armenian soldiers, about the uprisings of Armenians that threatened the rear of the Turkish army. This unbridled nationalist propaganda directed against the Armenians especially intensified after the first serious defeats of the Turkish army on the Caucasian front. In February 1915 military ordered the destruction of all Armenians serving in the ranks of the Turkish army (at the beginning of the war, about 60 thousand Armenians aged 18 to 45 years were drafted into the ranks of the Turkish army, i.e. the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population). This order was carried out with unprecedented cruelty.

Soon the Armenian intelligentsia also received a blow. On April 24 and the following days, about 800 writers, journalists, doctors, scientists, priests, including members of the Turkish Parliament, were arrested in Constantinople and deported to the depths of Anatolia. Those arrested without trial or investigation were taken into exile; some of them died on the way, others upon arrival at their destination. The victims of the Genocide were writers Grigor Zohrap, Daniel Varuzhan, Siamanto, Ruben Zardaryan, Ruben Sevak, Artashes Harutyunyan, Tlkatintsi, Yerukhan, Tigran Chekyuryan, Smbat Byurat, publicists and editors Nazaret Tadavarian, Tiran Kelekyan, Gagik Ozanyan and others. Among those deported were also great Armenian composer Komitas, who, unable to resist heavy emotional
experiences, lost his mind. Through influential intervention, he was returned to a psychiatric clinic in Constantinople, then to Paris, where he died. In June 1915, 20 well-known representatives of the intelligentsia, members of the Hunchak party, were hanged in one of the squares of Constantinople. By exterminating the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople, the Turkish authorities effectively beheaded the Armenian population of Turkey. In May-June 1915, mass eviction and extermination of the population of Western Armenia began (the regions of Van, Erzurum, Bitlis, Kharberd, Sebastia, Diyarbekiri), Cilicia, Armenia. Anatolia and other places. The eviction of the Armenian population already pursued the goal of its destruction.

The US Ambassador to Turkey noted: “The true purpose of the deportation was robbery and destruction. It was new method murders. If the Turkish authorities issued an eviction order, it meant that they had passed a death sentence on an entire nation. They were clearly aware of this and when talking to me, they did not particularly try to hide this fact.” (“Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire”, 1991, p. 11): The true purpose of the eviction was also known to Germany, Turkey’s ally. The German Ambassador to Turkey G. Wangenheim in July 1915 informed his government that if the deportations of Armenians initially affected only the areas adjacent to the Caucasian Front, then later the Turkish authorities began to extend these actions even to those parts of the country that were not threatened with invasion enemy. These actions, as well as the method of deportation, the ambassador summarized, indicate that the Turkish government was pursuing the goal
extermination of the Armenian population within the Turkish state. The German consuls located in different areas Turkey. In July 1915, the German deputy consul of Samsun reported that the deportation carried out in the vilayets of Anatolia was aimed at either destroying or Islamizing the entire Armenian population. The German consul of Trapizon at the same time reported on the eviction of the Armenian population and emphasized that by doing so the Young Turks wanted to put an end to

Those deported from their permanent place During the period of residence, Armenians went in caravans to the depths of the empire, to Mesopotamia and Syria, where special camps were created for them. Armenians were exterminated both at their place of residence and on the route of deportation. Their caravans were attacked by Turkish and Kurdish bandits, as a result of which only a part of the unfortunate exiles reached the place. Very often, thousands of people who reached the deserts of Mesopotamia were taken out of the camps and killed in the sands. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of people died from hunger, disease and epidemics. The actions of the Turkish murderers were particularly cruel; this was what the Young Turk leaders demanded of them. Thus, Interior Minister Taleat, in a secret telegram sent to the governor of Aleppo, demanded an end to the existence of Armenians, regardless of gender or remorse, and these demands were strictly fulfilled. Eyewitnesses of these events, survivors of the Genocide and deportation, left numerous descriptions of the suffering that befell the Armenian people. English newspaper correspondent "Times" in September 1915 reported “From Samsun and Trabizon, Ordu and Aintap, Marash and Erzurum, the same information comes about these atrocities: men who were mercilessly shot, crucified, strangled and taken to
labor battalions, about children captured and forcibly Islamized, about women who were raped and sold into slavery in the outback of the country, killed on the spot, or deported along with their children to the desert, west of Mosul, where there is neither food nor water... Many of these unfortunate victims did not reach their destination...". One Iranian, who delivered weapons using camels for the Turkish army from Yerznka to Erzurum, testified: “One day in June 1915, when I approached the Khoturi bridge, I saw a terrifying picture. Under the 12 arches of the bridge, everything was filled with corpses and the water, having changed its course, flowed in the other direction... However, from the bridge to the road everything was filled with corpses: women, old people, children.” In October 1916, one correspondence was published in the newspaper “Caucasian Word”, which spoke about the massacre of Armenians in the village of Baska (Vardo Valley), the author cited an eyewitness account... “We saw how all the valuable items were first torn off from the unfortunates, then their clothes were taken off and some were killed on the spot, others were taken to remote places and killed there. We saw three women who hugged each other out of fear, and it was impossible to separate them from each other, all three were killed. Inexpressible crying and screaming engulfed the mountains and valleys, we were horrified, the blood ran cold in our veins.” Most of the Armenian population of Cilicia was also subjected to barbaric destruction.

The massacre of Armenians continued in subsequent years. Thousands of Armenians were killed in camps Ras st Aini, Deir ez Zori and others. The Young Turks sought to organize pogroms of Armenians in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to the local population, a large number of refugees from Western Armenia had accumulated. Having launched a campaign against Transcaucasia in 1916, Turkish troops organized massacres and pogroms of the Armenian population in many places in Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan. In September 1918, having conquered Baku, the Turkish invaders, together with Azerbaijani nationalists, organized a pogrom of the local Armenian
population. In October 1918, the newspaper “Caucasian Word” published an article by one famous doctor, who was an eyewitness to the pogroms of Armenians in Baku, which said: “On Sunday, September 15, at 9 am, the Turks attacked us from the mountains... Starting from Shamkhinka, Vorontsovskaya and other main routes of the city - Torgovaya, Telefonnaya, there was robbery everywhere until the last thread, the barbaric destruction of property, laboratories, shops, pharmacies and apartments... Almost only Armenians were killed... In total, about 30 thousand Armenians were killed. The corpses of Armenians were scattered throughout the city, which decomposed for several days until they were all collected. The Mikhailovskaya hospital was full of raped girls and women. All military hospitals were filled with wounded Armenians. This barbarity lasted three days, and their goal was to kill and plunder the Armenians.

During the Turkish campaign of 1920, Turkish troops captured Alexandrapol. In Alexandrapol and in the villages of the region, the Turkish invaders committed atrocities, destroyed civilians, robbed property. One report received from the Revolutionary Committee of Armenia stated: “In the area of ​​Alexandrapol and Akhlkalak, 30 villages were killed, and the survivors were in the most deplorable condition. Other reports described the condition of other villages in the Alexandrapol region: “All the villages were plundered, there was no grain, no clothing, no fuel. The streets of the village were filled with bodies, hunger and cold were becoming stronger and there were more and more victims... In addition, the criminals mocked their captives, trying to punish the people in an even worse way, and again, not feeling satisfied, they inflicted various tortures on them, forced their parents give your 8-9 year old daughters to the executioners...”

In January 1921, the government of Soviet Armenia complained to the Commissioner for Foreign Affairs of Turkey that Turkish troops in Alexandrapol “constantly commit murder, violence and robbery against the peaceful working people...”. (“The Great October Socialist Revolution and Victory Soviet power in Armenia. "Collected documents. 1960, pp. 438, 447, 455). Tens of thousands of Armenians became victims of Turkish barbarity. The invaders also caused enormous material damage to the Alexandrapol region.

In 1918-1820 the center became the site of pogroms and massacres of Armenians Karabakh Shushi. On September 25, 1918, Turkish troops, with the support of Azerbaijani
The Musavatists conquered Shushi, but soon, after the defeat of Turkey in the First World War, they were forced to leave Shushi. In December 1918, the British entered Shushi. Lieutenant Governor of Karabakh was appointed Musavatist Khosrow-bek Sultanov. With the help of Turkish military instructors, he created Kurdish shock troops, which, together with Musavat military units, were stationed in the Armenian part of Shushi. The forces of the pogromists were constantly replenished and there were many Turkish officers in the city. In June 1919, the first pogroms took place in Shushi; on the night of June 5, about 500 people were killed in the city and neighboring villages. On March 23, 1920, Turkish-Musavat gangs organized a terrible massacre of the Armenians of Shushi, the victims of which were 30 thousand people, and the Armenian part of the city was also burned. Survivors after Genocide 1915-1916 Armenians of Cilicia who took refuge in Arab countries, after the defeat of Turkey, they began to return to their homeland. By agreement between the allies, Cilicia was included in the zone of influence of France. In 1919, about 120-130 thousand Armenians lived in Cilicia; by the 1920s. this number reached 160 thousand. The command of the French troops distributed in Cilicia did not take any measures to ensure the safety of the Armenian population, Turkish power remained in some places, the Muslims did not disarm, which the Kemalists took advantage of and committed violence against the Armenians. In January 1920, during 20 day battles in Marash, about 11 thousand Armenians died, the rest crossed into Syria. Then the Turks defeated Achin, where there were 6 thousand Armenians. The Armenians of Achyn stubbornly resisted for 7 months, but in October the enemy managed to conquer the city.

At the beginning of 1919, the remnants of the Armenians reached Allepo Urfa, about 6 thousand people. On April 1, 1920, Kemalist troops defeated Aintap, thanks to 15 days of self-defense they managed to avoid pogroms. However, when French troops left Cilicia, the Armenians of Ayntap at the end of 1920 were forced to leave Cilicia and go to Syria. In 1920, the Kemalists destroyed the remaining Armenians in Zeytun. Thus, the Kemalists completed the work of the Young Turks to destroy the Armenian population of Cilicia. The last thing in the Armenian Genocide was the killing of Armenians in western regions Turkey during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). In August-September 1921, Turkish troops made a turning point in the war and launched a general attack against Greek army. On September 9, 1922, the Turks entered and organized the massacre of local Armenians and Greek population, sank ships with Armenian and Greek refugees stationed in the port of Izmir.

As a result of the Armenian Genocide organized by the Turkish authorities, about 1.5 million Armenians died, about 600 thousand Armenians became refugees, they scattered across many countries of the world, replenishing existing communities and creating new ones. Due to the Genocide Western Armenia lost its native Armenian population. The Young Turk leaders did not hide their satisfaction at the implementation of this crime. German diplomats accredited in Turkey reported to their government that already in August 1915, the Minister of the Interior Taleat brazenly declared that “actions regarding the Armenians have already been practically completed and no longer exist.” This relative ease with which the Turkish murderers managed to carry out the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire can be explained by the unpreparedness of the Armenian parties and the Armenian population in the face of the growing threat of annihilation. The actions of the pogromists were also simplified after the mobilization of the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population - men, as well as the liquidation of the intelligentsia of Constantinople. Obedience to the deportation order also played a certain role; in the opinion of some public and clerical circles, disobedience would only increase the number of victims. However, in some places the Armenian population offered heroic resistance to the Turkish pogromists. The Armenians of Van, turning to self-defense, successfully repelled the enemy’s attacks and held the city in their hands until the arrival of Russian troops and Armenian volunteer detachments. The Armenians of Shapin Garagisar, Musha, Sasun, and Shatakh offered armed resistance to an enemy several times superior in strength. lasted 40 days and nights heroic battle defenders of Mount Sasa in Suediei.( "40 days of Musa Dagh." F. Werfel). The self-defense battles of the Armenians in 1915 are heroic pages of the national liberation struggle of the Armenian people, which contributed to the salvation and revival of some of the Armenian people.

The Armenian genocide was organized by the ruling circles of Turkey; they are the perpetrators of the first genocide of the 20th century. Part of the responsibility also lies with the government of Kaiser Germany, which was not only aware of the impending crime, but also contributed to its implementation. Representatives of the progressive intelligentsia of Germany noted the complicity of German imperialism J. Lepsius, A. Wegner, K. Liebknecht etc.. The Armenian Genocide carried out by the Turks caused enormous damage to the material and spiritual culture of the Armenian people.

In 1915-16 and in subsequent years, those stored in Armenian churches and temples, thousands of manuscripts, hundreds of historical and architectural monuments were destroyed, the shrines of the people were desecrated. The destruction of historical and architectural monuments in Turkey continues to this day.

This tragedy experienced by the Armenian people left a deep mark on all aspects of life and public behavior, has received a firm place in historical memory. The impact of the Genocide was felt by both the generation of direct victims and subsequent generations. The progressive world community condemned the brutal crime of the Turkish murderers (who tried to destroy one of the oldest civilized nations). Social, political, cultural figures, scientists from many countries condemned the genocide, characterizing it as a grave crime against humanity, and also provided humanitarian assistance to the Armenian people, in particular to refugees who have found refuge in many countries of the world. After Turkey's defeat in World War I, Young Turk leaders were accused of dragging Turkey into a disastrous war and were put on trial. Among the charges brought against war criminals were also the organization and implementation of the Armenian Genocide. However, some Young Turk leaders were sentenced in absentia, since after the defeat of Turkey they were allowed to flee the country. The verdict of some of them ( , Said Galim and others.) was later carried out by the hands of the Armenian national avengers.

After World War II, the Genocide was characterized as a grave crime against humanity. The principles that formed the basis of the legal documents on the Genocide were developed by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal. Later, the UN adopted a number of decisions on Genocide, the main of which are the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and Convention on the Inapplicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, which was adopted in 1968.

In 1989 Supreme Council of the ASSR passed the Genocide Law, according to which the Armenian Genocide in Western Armenia and Turkey was condemned as a crime against humanity. The Supreme Council appealed to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a request to adopt a resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. The Declaration of Independence of Armenia, adopted by the Supreme Council of the ASSR on August 23, 1990, states:“The Republic of Armenia supports the cause of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.”