Genocide Monuments

Genocide Photos

Genocide Maps

The National Geographic Magazine October, 1915

Genocide News

http://www.theforgotten.org/intro.html

http://www.homepage-link.to/turkey/morgenthau.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av86NirLkZI

http://www.hr106.com/

http://www.genocide.am/

http://www.armeniangenocidemuseum.org/

http://www.Thegenocide.com

http://www.Armeniangenocide.com

http://www.Armenocide.am

http://www.24april.org

http://www.Teachgenocide.com

http://www.April24.com

http://www.Museumofamnesia.org

http://www.Armeniangenocideposters.org

http://www.Genocideevents.com

http://www.Genocideofarmenians.com

http://www.Genocide1915.info

http://www.Genocide.org

http://www.Genocidewatch.org

http://www.April24timessquare.com

Somewhat surprisingly to many, Armenians and Turks lived in relative harmony in the Ottoman Empire for centuries. Armenians were known as the "loyal millet". During these times, although Armenians were not equal and had to put up with certain special hardships, taxes and second class citizenship, they were pretty well accepted and there was relatively little violent conflict. Things began to change for a number of reasons. Nationalism, a new force in the world, reared its head and made ethnic groupings self-conscious, and the Ottoman Empire began to crumble. It became known as "the sick man of Europe" and the only thing holding it together was the European powers' lack of agreement on how to split it up.

As other Christian minorities gained their independence one by one, the Armenians became more isolated as the only major Christian minority. Armenians and

Turks began to have conflicting dreams of the future. Some Armenians began to call for independence like the Greeks and others had already received, while

some Turks began to envision a new Pan-Turkic empire spreading all the way to Turkic speaking parts of Central Asia. Armenians were the only ethnic group in between these two major pockets of Turkish speakers and the nationalist Turks wanted to get rid of them altogether.

As European powers began to ask for assurances that Armenians receive better treatment, the government began to treat the Armenians worse and worse. From

1894-6 hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in the Hamidian Massacres ordered by Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

A coup by 'progressive' Young Turks in 1908 replacing the Sultans government was supported by Armenians. Unfortunately, promised reforms never came, and

in fact a triumvirate of extreme Turkish nationalists took complete dictatorial control, Enver, Jemal and Talat. It was they who masterminded the plan to completely

eradicate the Armenian race in a step towards fulfilling their pan-Turkic dreams.

The Turkish massacres of Armenians in 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1909 were still fresh in their minds.

World War One gave the Young Turk government the cover and the excuse to carry out their plan. The plan was simple and its goal was clear. On April 24th 1915, commemorated worldwide by Armenians as Genocide Memorial Day, hundreds of Armenian leaders were murdered in Istanbul after being summoned and gathered.

The now leaderless Armenian people were to follow. Across the Ottoman Empire (with the exception of Constantinople, presumably due to a large foreign

presence), the same events transpired from village to village, from province to province.

The remarkable thing about the following events is the virtually complete cooperation of the Armenians. For a number of reasons they did not know what was

planned for them and went along with "their" government's plan to "relocate them for their own good." First, the Armenians were asked to turn in hunting

weapons for the war effort. Communities were often given quotas and would have to buy additional weapons from Turks to meet their quota. Later, the

government would claim these weapons were proof that Armenians were about to rebel. The able bodied men were then "drafted" to help in the wartime effort.

These men were either immediately killed or were worked to death. Now the villages and towns, with only women, children, and elderly left were systematically

emptied. The remaining residents would be told to gather for a temporary relocation and to only bring what they could carry. The Armenians again obediently

followed instructions and were "escorted" by Turkish Gendarmes in death marches.

The death marches led across Anatolia, and the purpose was clear. The Armenians were raped, starved, dehydrated, murdered, and kidnapped along the way.

The Turkish Gendarmes either led these atrocities or turned a blind eye. Their eventual destination for resettlement was just as telling in revealing the Turkish governments goal: the Syrian Desert, Der Zor. Those who miraculously survived the march would arrive to this bleak desert only to be killed upon arrival or to

somehow survive until a way to escape the empire was found. Usually those that survived and escaped received assistance from those who have come to be

known as "good Turks," from foreign missionaries who recorded much of these events and from Arabs.

After the war ended, the Turkish government held criminal trials and found the triumvirate guilty in abstentia. All three were later executed by Armenians. Turkey

agreed to let the US draw the border between the newly born Republic of Armenia and the Turkish government. What is now called Wilsonian Armenia included

most of the six western Ottoman provinces as well as a large coastline on the Black Sea. Cilicia, a separate Armenian region on the Mediterranean, was to be a

French mandate. Mustafa Kemal's forces pushed the newly returned Armenian refugees and forces from these lands and forced a new treaty to be written which

was an insult to Armenian victims. They were basically told never to return and that they would never receive compensation. The Kars and Ardahan provinces of Armenia were taken as well in an agreement with the Soviet Union.