Armenian genocide

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The Armenian genocide[a] was the systematic

destruction of the Armenian people and identity in
the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and
Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily
through the mass murder of around one million
Armenians during death marches to the Syrian
Desert and the forced Islamization of others,
primarily women and children.

Armenian genocide

Part of World War I

Column of Armenian deportees guarded by

gendarmes in Harput vilayet

Location Ottoman Empire

Date 1915–1917[1][2]

Target Ottoman Armenians

Attack type Genocide, death march,

forced Islamization

Deaths 600,000–1.5 million[3]

Perpetrators Committee of Union and

Progress

Trials Ottoman Special Military

Tribunal

Before World War I, Armenians occupied a

somewhat protected, but subordinate, place in
Ottoman society. Large-scale massacres of
Armenians had occurred in the 1890s and 1909. The
Ottoman Empire suffered a series of military defeats
and territorial losses—especially during the 1912–
1913 Balkan Wars—leading to fear among CUP
leaders that the Armenians would seek
independence. During their invasion of Russian and
Persian territory in 1914, Ottoman paramilitaries
massacred local Armenians. Ottoman leaders took
isolated instances of Armenian resistance as
evidence of a widespread rebellion, though no such
rebellion existed. Mass deportation was intended to
permanently forestall the possibility of Armenian
autonomy or independence.

On 24 April 1915, the Ottoman authorities arrested

and deported hundreds of Armenian intellectuals
and leaders from Constantinople. At the orders of
Talaat Pasha, an estimated 800,000 to 1.2 million
Armenians were sent on death marches to the
Syrian Desert in 1915 and 1916. Driven forward by
paramilitary escorts, the deportees were deprived of
food and water and subjected to robbery, rape, and
massacres. In the Syrian Desert, the survivors were
dispersed into concentration camps. In 1916,
another wave of massacres was ordered, leaving
about 200,000 deportees alive by the end of the
year. Around 100,000 to 200,000 Armenian women
and children were forcibly converted to Islam and
integrated into Muslim households. Massacres and
ethnic cleansing of Armenian survivors continued
through the Turkish War of Independence after
World War I, carried out by Turkish nationalists.

This genocide put an end to more than two

thousand years of Armenian civilization in eastern
Anatolia. Together with the mass murder and
expulsion of Assyrian/Syriac and Greek Orthodox
Christians, it enabled the creation of an
ethnonationalist Turkish state, the Republic of
Turkey. The Turkish government maintains that the
deportation of Armenians was a legitimate action
that cannot be described as genocide. As of 2023,
34 countries have recognized the events as
genocide, concurring with the academic consensus.

Background

Ottoman entry into World War I

Onset of genocide

Systematic deportations

Destination

International reaction

Aftermath

Legacy

Notes

References

External links

Last edited 8 days ago by JJMC89 bot III

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