Armenian genocide
In the 1890s, Ottoman authorities unleashed widespread massacres that killed at least 100,000 Armenians. Sultan Abdul Hamid II created the Hamidiye regiments from Kurdish tribes in 1891 to act with impunity against Armenian communities. These units operated under state sanction to violently restore a social order where Christians accepted Muslim supremacy. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 had promised reforms and physical safety for Armenian subjects, but no enforcement mechanism existed. Conditions worsened as the empire ceded territory following Russia's decisive victory in the 1877, 1878 war. By 1895, mobs let loose by authorities killed Armenians primarily through direct action by Ottoman soldiers. Many villages were forcibly converted to Islam during this period of intense violence. The Ottoman state bore ultimate responsibility for these killings, which aimed to decrease the Armenian population through emigration and death.
The Committee of Union and Progress seized power in 1908 through a series of assassinations of leading officials in Macedonia. Mehmed Talaat emerged as a charismatic conspirator within this secret revolutionary faction based in Salonica. In early 1909, an unsuccessful countercoup led to armed Muslims attacking the Armenian quarter in Adana. Between 20,000 and 25,000 people died in Adana and nearby towns, mostly Armenians. Unlike earlier massacres, these events were instigated by local officials and Islamic clerics rather than organized by the central government. The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 resulted in the loss of almost all European territory for the empire. CUP leaders like Enver Pasha blamed non-Muslim populations for the empire's problems, concluding by mid-1914 that they were internal tumors to be excised. During its war preparations, the Ottoman government recruited thousands of prisoners to join the paramilitary Special Organization. This group initially focused on stirring up revolts among Muslims behind Russian lines before the empire officially entered World War I.
On the 24th of April 1915, 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. Survivors were dispersed into concentration camps where disease spread rapidly. In 1916, another wave of massacres was ordered, leaving about 200,000 deportees alive by the end of the year. The Directorate for the Settlement of Tribes and Immigrants coordinated the deportation and resettlement of Muslim immigrants in vacant houses. A dual-track system communicated orders; those for annihilation were sent through party channels and destroyed upon receipt. Execution sites were chosen for proximity to major roads and rugged terrain to facilitate the concealment or disposal of corpses. Thousands of Armenians passed through Erzindjan from June 1915, where transit camps controlled the flow of victims to killing sites like Kemah gorge.
An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Armenian women and children were forcibly converted to Islam and integrated into Muslim households. Talaat Pasha personally authorized conversion of Armenians and carefully tracked the loyalty of converted individuals until the end of the war. Young women and girls were often appropriated as house servants or sex slaves during the journey. Some boys were abducted to work as forced laborers for Muslim individuals while others were sold or given up by parents to save their lives. Special state-run orphanages were set up with strict procedures intending to deprive charges of an Armenian identity. The campaign to Turkify the economy began in June 1914 with a law that obliged many non-Muslim merchants to hire Muslims. Following deportations, businesses of victims were taken over by Muslims who were often incompetent, leading to economic difficulties. The Ottoman and Turkish governments passed Abandoned Properties Laws to manage confiscated property without provision to return them to owners. In 2006, the National Security Council ruled that property records from 1915 must be kept closed to protect national security.
On the 24th of May 1915, the Triple Entente formally condemned the Ottoman Empire for crimes against humanity and civilization. German diplomats approved limited removals of Armenians in early 1915 but took no action against the genocide. Between 1915 and 1930, Near East Relief raised $110 million for refugees from the Ottoman Empire. People in 49 countries organized Golden Rule Sundays during which they consumed the diet of Armenian refugees to raise money for humanitarian efforts. Following the armistice, Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha publicly recognized that 800,000 Ottoman citizens of Armenian origin had died as a result of state policy. The postwar Ottoman government held the Ottoman Special Military Tribunal to pin the genocide onto CUP leadership while exonerating the empire as a whole. Eighteen perpetrators including Talaat, Enver, and Djemal were sentenced to death, though only three were ultimately executed. On the 15th of March 1921, Talaat was assassinated in Berlin as part of a covert operation by the ARF to kill the perpetrators of the genocide.
The victorious nationalists subsequently declared the Republic of Turkey in 1923 after the Turkish War of Independence. CUP war criminals were granted immunity and the Treaty of Lausanne established Turkey's current borders. In 1920, Kâzım Karabekir, a Turkish general, invaded Armenia with orders to eliminate it physically and politically. Nearly 100,000 Armenians were massacred in Transcaucasia by the Turkish army during this period. Between 1922 and 1929, Turkish authorities eliminated surviving Armenians from southern Turkey, expelling thousands to French-mandate Syria. The Turkish government maintains that the mass deportation of Armenians was a legitimate action to combat an existential threat to the empire. Turkey's official denial continues to rely on the CUP's justification of its actions. In 2007, Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist known for his advocacy of reconciliation, was assassinated. Turkey's century-long effort to prevent any recognition or mention of the genocide has included millions of dollars in lobbying as well as intimidation and threats.
Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in 1944 while studying the fate of the Armenians. Almost all historians and scholars outside Turkey recognize the destruction of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. From the 1970s onward, many countries avoided recognition to preserve good relations with Turkey. As of recent counts, 34 UN member states have formally recognized the genocide along with the Holy See and the European Parliament. On the 24th of April 1965, 100,000 Armenians protested in Yerevan and diaspora Armenians demonstrated across the world in favor of recognition. A memorial was completed two years later at Tsitsernakaberd above Yerevan. More than 200 memorials have been erected in 32 countries to commemorate the event. The genocide is extensively documented in archives of Germany, Austria, the United States, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom despite systematic purges by Turkey. Austrian, Jewish writer Franz Werfel published The Forty Days of Musa Dagh in 1933 as a fictionalized retelling of Armenian resistance.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When did the Ottoman authorities begin massacring Armenians in the 1890s?
Ottoman authorities unleashed widespread massacres that killed at least 100,000 Armenians during the 1890s. Sultan Abdul Hamid II created the Hamidiye regiments from Kurdish tribes in 1891 to act with impunity against Armenian communities.
Who ordered the deportation of Armenians on death marches in 1915 and 1916?
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. The Directorate for the Settlement of Tribes and Immigrants coordinated the deportation and resettlement of Muslim immigrants in vacant houses.
What happened to Armenian women and children who were forcibly converted to Islam?
An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Armenian women and children were forcibly converted to Islam and integrated into Muslim households. Special state-run orphanages were set up with strict procedures intending to deprive charges of an Armenian identity.
When did the Triple Entente formally condemn the Ottoman Empire for crimes against humanity?
On the 24th of May 1915, the Triple Entente formally condemned the Ottoman Empire for crimes against humanity and civilization. German diplomats approved limited removals of Armenians in early 1915 but took no action against the genocide.
Who coined the term genocide while studying the fate of the Armenians in 1944?
Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in 1944 while studying the fate of the Armenians. Almost all historians and scholars outside Turkey recognize the destruction of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.