For Armenians in Turkey, it was a difficult time. They were subjected to genocide, this is recognized throughout the world, except for Turkey itself, of course. Reasons: The Ottomans were never particularly friendly. In 1915, the rights of Armenians and the indigenous inhabitants of the empire were not equal. There was a division not just by nationality but also by faith and confession. Armenians are Christians, so they went to church. And the Turks, at that time they were all Sunnis. Armenians were not Muslims, therefore they were subject to high taxes, could not have means of defense, and could not act as witnesses in courts. These people, at that moment, lived rather poorly, worked on the land, I emphasize that on their own. But the Turks did not like Armenians, they considered them calculating and cunning. If you look at the Caucasian places in the Ottoman Empire, the situation there was more sad. The Muslims who lived in those territories often came into conflict with the Armenians. In general, hatred grew.
First World War.
In 1908 there was a revolution. The Young Turks came to power, the basis of the new government was nationalism and pan-Turkism, in short, nothing positive was offered for other nationalities living on these lands. And then in 1914, raids on Armenians began when the Turks entered the First World War by signing a treaty with Germany. The Germans promised that they would help Turkey get out to the Caucasus. The problem was that at that time there were many Armenians living in the lands of the Caucasus. On Turkish territory itself, non-Muslims began to be harassed, property could be taken away, and jihad was declared. As you know, this is a war against infidels, and every infidel is not a Muslim. The beginning. Of course, during the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War, Armenian people were also called up to fight. The bulk of the Armenians fought against Persia and Russia. But Turkey suffered defeats on all fronts, and the Armenians became to blame. They began to deprive all people of this nationality of weapons, confiscations took place, and then the killings began. Those military men of Armenian nationality who did not comply with the new orders were shot. Distorted news spread information that these people are traitors, they are spies, the public learned such news from the media.
Deportations.
April 24, 1915. Today, this day is a day of remembrance, a day that is associated with the genocide of an entire people. The entire Armenian elite was arrested in Istanbuli, and then they were deported. Even before the events in the capital, residents of other settlements were subjected to this procedure. But then, such shipments were covered up by the desire to resettle people to other areas that were not affected by the war. But, in fact, people were sent to deserts, where there was not even water, no food, no living conditions. This was done on purpose, and old people, women and children were sent there. The men were taken under arrest so as not to interfere. In May, Anatolia was persecuted. And on April 12, in a city called Van, the Armenian uprising began. People realized that starvation and painful death awaited them, and they took up arms to defend themselves. They fought for a month, Russian troops came to the rescue and stopped the bloodshed. Then, about 55 thousand people died, and these were only Armenians. During the expulsion campaign, there were several similar clashes, and the Turkish authorities did their best to incite hatred between peoples. In June 15, an order was given to deport almost the entire Armenian population. How everything was done. One region was taken, the number of inhabitants of Muslims and Armenians. It was necessary to deport so that the Armenian population was ten percent of the Muslim population. Of course, the schools of these people were also closed, and they tried to place new settlements as far from each other as possible. Similar actions took place throughout the empire. But in large cities everything did not happen so tragically and en masse; the authorities were afraid of noise. After all, foreign media could find out about what was going on. They killed in an organized, special and en masse manner. People died during the journey, and also in concentration camps. Later, it will become known that on the initiative of the authorities, experiments were carried out on people, a vaccine against typhus was tried. The gendarmes mocked and tortured people every day. Today. This issue is still being actively studied. The number of deaths is still unknown. In the fifteenth year, they talked about three hundred thousand dead. But the German researcher Lepsius gave a different figure of a million dead. Johannes Lepsius studied everything in detail. This scientist also stated that about three hundred thousand people were forcibly converted to Islam. Now, the Turks talk about two hundred thousand dead, but the free press writes about two million. There is a well-known encyclopedia called Britannica, where the numbers range from six hundred thousand to one and a half million. 
Military tribunal.
Of course they wanted to hide all their actions, but abroad found out. And in 1915, the allied countries Great Britain, France, and Russia signed a declaration calling on Istanbul to stop this. Naturally, there was no point, they weren’t going to stop anything. Everything stopped only in 1918, Türkiye lost in the First World War. The country was occupied by the Entente, these are the three countries described above; at that time they had an alliance called the Entente. Of course, the government itself fled. A new government came, and the union of three countries demanded a debriefing. Already in 1818, all documents were studied by a military tribunal. They proved that the killings of the population were planned, organized, and were recognized as an international war crime. Guilty number one was identified, he became Mehmed Talaat Pasha, at the time of the atrocities this man held the post of Minister of Internal Affairs and Grand Vizier. Also, Enver Pasha, he was one of the leaders of the party, Ahmed Jemal Pasha, also a party member. All these people were sentenced to execution, but fled the country. In 19, an Armenian party gathered in Yerevan, which presented a list of those who initiated the events of the fifteenth, there were hundreds of people there. They did not accept legal methods of struggle in Yerevan, they began to look for the culprits and kill. The "Nemesis" campaign has begun. Over the course of four years, various people were killed who were related to the authorities, who were related to the killings of civilians. The main culprit, Talaat Pasha, was killed by a man named Soghomon Tehlirian, this happened in 1921, in March in the city of Berlin. Of course, the man was arrested, but he was better defended by German lawyers, the killer was acquitted, and later moved to the states. The next torturer was killed in Tiflis, this happened in 1922. And Enver died during the fighting; by the way, he fought against the Red Army. This is such a terrible bloody river, a terrible trace in history that will always be in the hands of descendants, residents, and in the hearts of the relatives of the victims.
Of course, it’s difficult to describe the emotions when you return to those historical events. I feel sorry for the people, I feel sorry for the children. There is absolutely no pity for those who were deprived of their lives for actions that led to the deaths of millions. But Turkey itself and its friend Azerbaijan did not recognize the Armenian genocide, apparently they remember that the stigma is in the cannon. Now we can only remember with horror those events based on books and films that are still being filmed. One day a year, we remember and then we move on. Only one day allows you to think about the value of life, including a child’s life. Nothing can ever justify the mass murder of children. This is too much.
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 a large-scale information war has been waged against Armenians - 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 given by her, is not only to provide the child with 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 awaken your desire to learn 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.
Worth mentioning is the well-known 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 encounter en masse the Uyghurs - a relatively pure form of the Turks, see their way of life and everyday life, you will immediately understand a lot - and most importantly, that the Turkic legends were right... Already For a couple of centuries, the Chinese have been trying to ennoble the Uyghurs with a firm hand (they train them, build modern houses, create infrastructure, give them 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 the corpses of 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 moving away 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.
There is a huge amount of archival documents, historical, scientific and other literature on the topic of the causes of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, 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 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);
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, through their intervention, destroyed the friendly relations of the two peoples - Armenian and Turkish.
Giving a brief analysis, we 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 is designed to hide the true causes of the Armenian Genocide, which lie on the economic and geopolitical planes and are not limited to the 1915 Genocide. There was precisely a desire to physically destroy the Armenians, take away their material wealth and territory, and so 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, the Republic of Armenia (about 7% of the original, see map of the Armenian Highlands) cuts the supposed empire like 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 (the gold content of 1 ruble was 0.774235 grams of pure gold) the Armenian campaigns especially suffered, since the fires were directed specifically against the Armenians (for comparison, the monthly average earnings of a worker in 1905 in the Russian Empire was 17 rubles 125 kopecks, beef shoulder 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 The 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 the 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 an attack on the Russian Empire, were repulsed and suffered a severe defeat near Sarikamish in January 1915, it was the Ottoman Armenians who helped Enver Pasha escape.
The thesis about the deportation of Armenians from the front-line zone is also false since the first deportations of Armenians were carried out not on the eastern front, but 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 gendarme escort and the organized extermination of Armenians throughout the empire directly indicate the state structure in the organization of the Genocide. The murder of Armenian subjects drafted into the Ottoman army, regulations, numerous testimonies, including from the Turks themselves, indicate 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 to death by the tribunal. 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 of the 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 the accounting of financial revenues 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 in their historical homeland, the 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 represented a significant part of the 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 Ottoman Muslim law that legitimized the seizure of the property of Armenians by virtue of declaring them en masse as “Western and Russian spies.” An important step in this direction was the 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. The final decision to implement the Armenian Genocide was made 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. The organization of special detachments of criminals, “Teshkilat-i Makhsuse” (Special Organization), to assist the Executive Committee of the Three, numbered up to 34,000 members and largely consisted of “chettes” - criminals released from prison.
4. Order of War Minister Enver in February 1915 on the extermination of Armenians serving in the 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 the initial period of 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 sharply affected the overall level of development of the nation and the global niche it occupies to this day, are irreplaceable, 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 their positive role in the formation of the Turkish state and the embodiment 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 of state security of the 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 the dissemination of meaningful information and the consistent struggle to punish criminals, the salvation of our future generations - in the palms of mothers, look for the fate of nations...
Isabella Muradyan - migration lawyer (Yerevan), member of the International Law Association, especially for
Some historians distinguish two periods in the history of genocide. If at the first stage (1878-1914) the task was to retain the territory of the enslaved people and organize a mass exodus, then in 1915-1922 the destruction of the ethnic and political Armenian clan, which was hindering the implementation of the pan-Turkism program, was put at the forefront. Before the First World War, the destruction of the Armenian national group was carried out in the form of a system of widespread individual murders combined with periodic massacres of Armenians in certain areas where they constituted an absolute majority (the massacre in Sasun, murders throughout the empire in the fall and winter of 1895, the massacre in Istanbul in Van area).
The original number of people who lived in this territory is a controversial issue, since a significant part of the archives was destroyed. It is known that in the mid-19th century in the Ottoman Empire, non-Muslims made up about 56% of the population.
According to the Armenian Patriarchate, in 1878, three million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey estimated the number of Armenians in the country at 1,845,450. The Armenian population decreased by more than a million due to massacres in 1894-1896, the flight of Armenians from Turkey and forced conversion to Islam.
The Young Turks, who came to power after the 1908 revolution, continued their policy of brutally suppressing the national liberation movement. In ideology, the old doctrine of Ottomanism was replaced by no less rigid concepts of pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism. A campaign of forced Turkification of the population was launched, and non-Turkish organizations were banned.
In April 1909, the Cilician Massacre occurred, a massacre of Armenians in the vilayets of Adana and Allepo. About 30 thousand people became victims of the massacre, among whom were not only Armenians, but also Greeks, Syrians and Chaldeans. In general, during these years the Young Turks prepared the ground for a complete solution to the “Armenian question.”
In February 1915, at a special meeting of the government, the Young Turk ideologist Dr. Nazim Bey outlined a plan for the complete and widespread destruction of the Armenian people: “It is necessary to completely exterminate the Armenian nation, without leaving a single living Armenian on our land. Even the word “Armenian” itself must be erased from memory..."
On April 24, 1915, on the day now celebrated as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide, mass arrests of the Armenian intellectual, religious, economic and political elite began in Constantinople, which led to the complete destruction of an entire galaxy of prominent figures of Armenian culture. More than 800 representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia were arrested and subsequently killed, including writers Grigor Zohrab, Daniel Varuzhan, Siamanto, Ruben Sevak. Unable to bear the death of his friends, the great composer Komitas lost his mind.
In May-June 1915, massacres and deportations of Armenians began in Western Armenia.
The general and systematic campaign against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire consisted of the expulsion of Armenians into the desert and subsequent executions, death by bands of marauders or from hunger or thirst. Armenians were subjected to deportations from almost all the main centers of the empire.
On June 21, 1915, during the final act of deportation, its main inspirer, Interior Minister Talaat Pasha, ordered the expulsion of “all Armenians without exception” living in the ten provinces of the eastern region of the Ottoman Empire, with the exception of those who were considered useful to the state. Under this new directive, deportations were carried out according to the "ten percent principle", according to which Armenians were not to exceed 10% of the Muslims in the region.
The process of expulsion and extermination of Turkish Armenians culminated in a series of military campaigns in 1920 against refugees who had returned to Cilicia, and in the Smyrna (modern-day Izmir) massacre in September 1922, when troops under the command of Mustafa Kemal massacred the Armenian quarter in Smyrna and then, under pressure from the Western powers, the survivors were allowed to evacuate. With the destruction of the Armenians of Smyrna, the last surviving compact community, the Armenian population of Turkey practically ceased to exist in their historical homeland. The surviving refugees scattered around the world, forming diasporas in several dozen countries.
Modern estimates of the number of victims of the genocide vary from 200 thousand (some Turkish sources) to more than 2 million Armenians. Most historians estimate the number of victims to be between 1 and 1.5 million. Over 800 thousand became refugees.
It is difficult to determine the exact number of victims and survivors, since since 1915, fleeing murders and pogroms, many Armenian families changed their religion (according to some sources - from 250 thousand to 300 thousand people).
For many years now, Armenians around the world have been trying to ensure that the international community officially and unconditionally recognizes the fact of genocide. The first special decree recognizing and condemning the terrible tragedy of 1915 was adopted by the Parliament of Uruguay (April 20, 1965). Laws, regulations and decisions on the Armenian genocide were subsequently adopted by the European Parliament, the State Duma of Russia, the parliaments of other countries, in particular Cyprus, Argentina, Canada, Greece, Lebanon, Belgium, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Venezuela, Lithuania, Chile, Bolivia, as well as the Vatican.
The Armenian genocide was recognized by over 40 American states, the Australian state of New South Wales, the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario (the city of Toronto inclusive), the Swiss cantons of Geneva and Vaud, Wales (Great Britain), about 40 Italian communes, dozens of international and national organizations, including including the World Council of Churches, the League for Human Rights, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanities, and the Union of Jewish Communities of America.
On April 14, 1995, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a statement “On condemnation of the genocide of the Armenian people in 1915-1922.”
The US government exterminated 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, but refuses to call it genocide.
The Armenian community in the United States has long ago accepted a resolution by Congress recognizing the fact of genocide of the Armenian people.
Attempts to pass this legislative initiative were made in Congress more than once, but they were never successful.
The issue of recognition of genocide in the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey.
Armenia and Turkey have not yet established diplomatic relations, and the Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 on the initiative of official Ankara.
Turkey traditionally rejects accusations of the Armenian genocide, arguing that both Armenians and Turks were victims of the 1915 tragedy, and reacts extremely painfully to the process of international recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
In 1965, a monument to the victims of the genocide was erected on the territory of the Catholicosate in Etchmiadzin. In 1967, construction of a memorial complex was completed on the Tsitsernakaberd hill (Swallow Fortress) in Yerevan. In 1995, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute was built near the memorial complex.
The words “I remember and demand” were chosen as the motto of Armenians around the world for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, and the forget-me-not was chosen as the symbol. This flower in all languages has a symbolic meaning - to remember, not to forget and to remind. The flower's cup graphically depicts the memorial in Tsitserkaberd with its 12 pylons. This symbol will be actively used throughout 2015.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
I want to live in a big country
There is no such thing, you need to create it
There is a desire, the main thing is to manage
And I will surely get tired of exterminating the people.
Timur Valois "The Mad King"
These events took place in 1915, when the Armenian people were subjected to genocide, about 1.5 million people were killed. The defenseless people were torn to pieces by the Turks and bloodthirsty Kurds.
The bloody drama was preceded by a whole chain of events, and until very recently the poor Armenian people still hoped for salvation.
"Unity and Progress"?
The Armenian people lived in the valleys, were engaged in agriculture, were successful businessmen, and had good teachers and doctors. They were often attacked by the Kurds, who played a terrible role in all the Armenian pogroms, including in 1915. Armenia is a strategically important country. Throughout the history of wars, many conquerors have tried to capture the North Caucasus as an important geographical object. The same Timur, when he moved his army to the North Caucasus, dealt with the peoples living in those territories where the great conqueror set foot; many peoples fled (for example, Ossetians) from their ancestral places. Any forced migration of ethnic groups in the past will lead to armed ethnic conflicts in the future.
Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire, which, like a colossus with feet of clay, was living out its last days. Many contemporaries of that time said that they had not met a single Armenian who did not know Turkish. This only shows how closely the Armenian people were tied to the Ottoman Empire.
But what were the Armenian people guilty of, why were they subjected to such terrible trials? Why does the dominant nation always try to infringe on the rights of national minorities? If we are realistic, then the people who were interested were always the wealthy and wealthy class, for example, the Turkish effendi were the richest caste of that time, and the Turkish people themselves were illiterate, typical Asian people of that time. It is not difficult to create the image of an enemy and incite hatred. But every nation has the right to its existence and survival, the preservation of its culture and traditions.
The saddest thing is that history has taught nothing, the same Germans condemned the massacre of Armenians, but in the end, there is no need to describe what happened on Kristallnacht and in the Auschwitz and Dachau camps. Looking back, we find that already in the 1st century AD, about a million Jews were subjected to genocide, when Roman troops took Jerusalem; according to the laws of that time, all residents of the city had to be killed. According to Tacitus, about 600 thousand Jews lived in Jerusalem, according to another historian Josephus, about 1 million.
The Armenians were not the last on the “list of the chosen ones”; the same fate was prepared for the Greeks and Bulgarians. They wanted to exterminate the latter as a nation through assimilation.
At that time, in all of Western Asia there were no people who could resist Armenian education; they were engaged in crafts, trade, built bridges to European progress, were excellent doctors and teachers. The empire was falling apart, the sultans were unable to govern the state, their reign turned into agony. They could not forgive the Armenians that their prosperity was growing, that the Armenian people were getting richer, that the Armenian people were increasing the level of education in European institutions.
Turkey was indeed very weak at that time, it was necessary to abandon old methods, but most of all, national dignity was hurt that the Turks were not able to show independence for creation. And then there are the people who constantly declare to the whole world that they are being exterminated.
In 1878, at the Berlin Congress, under pressure from the West, Turkey was supposed to provide a normal life for the Christian population within the empire, but Turkey did nothing.
The Armenians expected extermination every day; the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid was bloody. When internal political crises occur in a country, in fact, uprisings were expected in some parts of the country, so that they did not happen, the people did not raise their heads too high, the empire was constantly shaken by repressions. You can, if you want to draw an analogy with Russia, in order to distract people from economic and political problems, Jewish pogroms were organized. To incite religious hatred, sabotage was attributed to the Armenians; the Muslim people went into a frenzy when many “brothers in faith” were killed as a result of sabotage. Again I would like to give an example from Russian history, when there was the so-called “Beilis Case”, when the Jew Beilis was accused of the ritual murder of a 12-year-old boy.
In 1906, a revolution broke out in Thessaloniki, uprisings broke out in Albania and Thrace, the peoples of these regions sought to free themselves from the Ottoman yoke. The Turkish government has reached a dead end. And in Macedonia, young Turkish officers rebelled, and they were joined by generals and many spiritual leaders. The army was marched into the mountains, and an ultimatum was issued that if the government did not resign, the troops would enter Constantinople. What is most remarkable is that Abdul-Hamid failed and became the head of the revolutionary committee. This military mutiny is rightly called one of the most amazing. The rebel officers and the entire movement itself are usually called the Young Turks.
At that bright time, the Greeks, Turks and Armenians were like brothers; together they rejoiced at new events and looked forward to changes in life.
Thanks to his financial capabilities, Abdul Hamid raised the country against the Young Turks in order to discredit their rule, the first mass genocide in the history of the Armenian people was committed, which claimed the lives of more than 200 thousand people. Men had their meat torn out and thrown to dogs, and thousands were burned alive. The Young Turks were forced to flee, but then an army came out under the command of Mehmet Shovket Pasha, which saved the country, it moved to Constantinople and captured the palace. Abdul Hamid was exiled to Thessaloniki, his place was taken by his brother Mehmed Reshad. An important point is that the terrible extermination contributed to the formation of the Armenian party "Dushnaktsutyun", which was guided by democratic principles. This party had a lot in common with the Young Turks “Unity and Progress” party; rich Armenian leaders helped those who, in fact, as history will show, were simply eager for power. It is also important that the Armenian people helped the Young Turks; when Abdul Hamid’s people were looking for revolutionaries, the Armenians hid them among themselves. By helping them, the Armenians believed and hoped for a better life; later the Young Turks would thank them... in the Kemakh gorge.
In 1911, the Young Turks deceived the Armenians and did not give them the promised 10 seats in parliament, but the Armenians accepted this, even when Turkey entered the First World War in 1914, the Armenians considered themselves defenders of the Turkish fatherland.
The parliament was formed only from Turks, there were no Arabs, no Greeks, and even less Armenians. No one could know what was going on in the Committee. A dictatorship began in Turkey, and nationalist sentiments grew in Turkish society. The presence of incompetent people in the government could not give the country development.
Extermination according to plan
- The gray of your hair inspires confidence,
You know a lot, you reject ignorance.
I have a problem, can you tell me the answer?
- Get rid of the problem, there will be no headache!
Timur Valois "The Wisdom of Gray Hair"
What else can you call the craving for the birth of an empire, the conquest of the world? I use the lexical richness of the Russian language, you can choose a lot of words, but we will focus on the generally accepted ones - imperial ambitions or great-power chauvinism. Unfortunately, if a person has a desire to create an empire, even if he does not create one, then many lives will be laid on the foundation of an initially fragile building.
Germany already had its own thoughts about Turkey, but the incessant massacres forced it to send its representatives in order to reason with the Turkish government. Anvar Pasha, the leader of the Young Turks, amazed everyone by showing what an amateur he was in political affairs, and he saw nothing more than conquering the world. The Turkish Alexander the Great already saw the borders of the future Turkey next to China.
Mass agitation and calls for ethnic revival began. Something from the Aryan Nation series, only starring the Turks. The struggle for national revival began with enthusiasm, poets were commissioned to write poems about the power and strength of the Turkish people, company signs in European languages, even German, were removed in Constantinople. The Greek and Armenian press were punished with fines, and then they were closed altogether. They wanted to make the city a kind of sacred place for all Turks.
The Armenians, as the most defenseless people, were the first to face reprisals, then the turn had to come to the Jews and Greeks. Then, if Germany loses the war, expel all the Germans. They didn’t forget about the Arabs either, but after thinking about it they decided to forget anyway, because even though they were amateurs in politics, having analyzed that the Arab world would not allow impudent treatment of itself and could put an end to the emerging ghostly empire of the Turks, they decided not to touch the Arabs. Of course, the religious issue also played a role, the Koran forbids Muslims from war with each other, the war of brother against brother, the one who hits his brother will burn forever in hell. It is not possible to abolish the laws of religion; if you give up religion and neglect it, then all your plans will fail, especially in the Muslim world, where for many there are only the laws written in the Koran. Thus, leaving the Arabs alone, deciding once and for all to put an end to the presence of the Christian religion in their country, the authorities decided to deport the Armenians. By arresting 600 Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople and expelling everyone from Anatolia, the Turkish government deprived the Armenian people of leaders.
On April 21, 1915, a plan for the extermination of Armenians had already been drawn up, and both military and civilians received it.
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 detachments such as “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 the Turkish-Armenian War of 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 the Musavatist Khosrov-bek Sultanov was appointed governor-general of 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 a 15-day heroic defense, the Ayntap Armenians escaped 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 appealed to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a request to make 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.”