Armenian Gencoide in Turkey
In April 1915 the Ottoman government started a systematic extermination of its civilian Armenian population. The persecutions continued with varying results until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless refugees. By 1923 virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had disappeared.
The Ottoman government was centered in Istanbul (Constantinople) and was headed by a sultan who had absolute power. The Turks practiced Islam and were a warlike people. The Armenians, a Christian minority, lived as second class citizens and did receive protection from the law. Neither their lives nor their properties were guaranteed security. As non-Muslims they were also obligated to pay extra taxes and denied voting rights.
Armenians wanted representation and participation in the government. This aroused suspicions among the Muslim Turks who had never shared power in their country with any minority. The government was determined to keep the status quo, with the Muslim Turks on top and the Christian Armenians on the bottom.
During the reign of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909), a series of mass killings throughout the empire were put into operation. These were meant to frighten Armenians and lessen their want for equal rights. These massacres cost up to three hundred thousand lives by some estimates and inflicted enormous material losses on a majority of Armenians.
Eventually the Sultan was replaced by a group of three men nicknamed the Young Turks. After these men seized power by revolution in 1908, they dreamed of creating a nation composed of only Muslim Turks.
When World War I broke out in August 1914, the Ottoman Empire made became allies with Germany and Austria-Hungary, and it declared war on Russia and its Western allies, Great Britain and France.
It was during WWI that the Young Turks waged a campaign of destruction against the civilian Armenian population. Through the spring and summer of 1915 the Armenian population was ordered deported from their homes. Convoys consisting of tens of thousands including men, women, and children were driven hundreds of miles toward the Syrian desert.
The deportations were disguised as a resettlement program. But the brutal treatment of the Armenians, most of whom were made to walk to their destinations, made it clear that the deportations were mainly intended as death marches. The new government took advantage of the deportations and confiscated all of their material wealth belonging to the Armenians.
There was also evidence by the mass killings in addition to the deportations. Armenian men were forced to join the military, but they were disarmed and either worked to death in labor battalions or executed in small batches. Now that all the able-bodied men had been eliminate from the Armenian population, the deportations happened with little resistance.
The convoys were frequently attacked by bands of killers specifically organized for the purpose of slaughtering the Armenians. As its tool of extermination, the government formed gangs of “butchers”—mostly criminals released from prison and organized in units called the Teshkilâti Mahsusa.. A sizable portion of the deportees, including women and children, were randomly killed in massacres along the deportation routes.
The killing process was frequently carried out by the sword in terrifying episodes of bloodshed. Furthermore, for the survivors, their witnessing of the murder of friends and relatives with the mass of innocent persons was the source of serious trauma. Many younger women and some orphaned children were also abducted and placed in bondage in Turkish and Muslim homes resulting in another type of trauma characterized by the shock of losing both family and one's sense of identity. These women and children were frequently forbidden to grieve, were made, into slaves, and were required to used the language and religion of their captors.
The government had made no provisions for the feeding of the deported population. Starvation took an enormous toll much as exhaustion felled the elderly. Deportees were denied food and water in a deliberate effort to cause death. The survivors who reached northern Syria were collected at a number of concentration camps while others were sent further south to die under the scorching sun of the desert.
Through very organized deportation, systematic massacre, deliberate starvation and dehydration, and continuous brutalization, the Turkish government reduced its Armenian population to a frightened mass of famished individuals whose families and communities had been destroyed in a single stroke.
In all, it is estimated that up to a million and a half Armenians perished at the hands of Ottoman and Turkish military forces and through crimes intentionally inflicted to eliminate the Armenian presence in Turkey. As a result of this process, the Armenian population, who had lived in Turkey for three thousand years, was wiped out forever.
The Ottoman government was centered in Istanbul (Constantinople) and was headed by a sultan who had absolute power. The Turks practiced Islam and were a warlike people. The Armenians, a Christian minority, lived as second class citizens and did receive protection from the law. Neither their lives nor their properties were guaranteed security. As non-Muslims they were also obligated to pay extra taxes and denied voting rights.
Armenians wanted representation and participation in the government. This aroused suspicions among the Muslim Turks who had never shared power in their country with any minority. The government was determined to keep the status quo, with the Muslim Turks on top and the Christian Armenians on the bottom.
During the reign of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909), a series of mass killings throughout the empire were put into operation. These were meant to frighten Armenians and lessen their want for equal rights. These massacres cost up to three hundred thousand lives by some estimates and inflicted enormous material losses on a majority of Armenians.
Eventually the Sultan was replaced by a group of three men nicknamed the Young Turks. After these men seized power by revolution in 1908, they dreamed of creating a nation composed of only Muslim Turks.
When World War I broke out in August 1914, the Ottoman Empire made became allies with Germany and Austria-Hungary, and it declared war on Russia and its Western allies, Great Britain and France.
It was during WWI that the Young Turks waged a campaign of destruction against the civilian Armenian population. Through the spring and summer of 1915 the Armenian population was ordered deported from their homes. Convoys consisting of tens of thousands including men, women, and children were driven hundreds of miles toward the Syrian desert.
The deportations were disguised as a resettlement program. But the brutal treatment of the Armenians, most of whom were made to walk to their destinations, made it clear that the deportations were mainly intended as death marches. The new government took advantage of the deportations and confiscated all of their material wealth belonging to the Armenians.
There was also evidence by the mass killings in addition to the deportations. Armenian men were forced to join the military, but they were disarmed and either worked to death in labor battalions or executed in small batches. Now that all the able-bodied men had been eliminate from the Armenian population, the deportations happened with little resistance.
The convoys were frequently attacked by bands of killers specifically organized for the purpose of slaughtering the Armenians. As its tool of extermination, the government formed gangs of “butchers”—mostly criminals released from prison and organized in units called the Teshkilâti Mahsusa.. A sizable portion of the deportees, including women and children, were randomly killed in massacres along the deportation routes.
The killing process was frequently carried out by the sword in terrifying episodes of bloodshed. Furthermore, for the survivors, their witnessing of the murder of friends and relatives with the mass of innocent persons was the source of serious trauma. Many younger women and some orphaned children were also abducted and placed in bondage in Turkish and Muslim homes resulting in another type of trauma characterized by the shock of losing both family and one's sense of identity. These women and children were frequently forbidden to grieve, were made, into slaves, and were required to used the language and religion of their captors.
The government had made no provisions for the feeding of the deported population. Starvation took an enormous toll much as exhaustion felled the elderly. Deportees were denied food and water in a deliberate effort to cause death. The survivors who reached northern Syria were collected at a number of concentration camps while others were sent further south to die under the scorching sun of the desert.
Through very organized deportation, systematic massacre, deliberate starvation and dehydration, and continuous brutalization, the Turkish government reduced its Armenian population to a frightened mass of famished individuals whose families and communities had been destroyed in a single stroke.
In all, it is estimated that up to a million and a half Armenians perished at the hands of Ottoman and Turkish military forces and through crimes intentionally inflicted to eliminate the Armenian presence in Turkey. As a result of this process, the Armenian population, who had lived in Turkey for three thousand years, was wiped out forever.