1. Armenian Genocide

2. Perpetrators When: 1915 - 1923 Who: The Young Turkish Government
(Nationalism)
In 1908, a group of reformers calling themselves the “Young Turks” overthrew the Ottoman Empire Sultanate and established a more modern constitutional government. At first, the Armenians were hopeful that they would have an equal place in this new state, but they soon learned that what the nationalistic Young Turks wanted most of all was to “Turkify” the empire. According to this way of thinking, non-Turks, and especially Christian non-Turks, were a grave threat to the new state.
In 1914, the Turks entered World War I on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the same time, Ottoman religious authorities declared jihad, or holy war, against all Christians except their allies, opening the door for military leaders to argue that the Armenians were traitors, eager to fight for the enemy. As the war intensified, Armenians organized volunteer battalions to help the Russian army fight against the Turks in the Caucasus region. These events, and general Turkish suspicion of the Armenian people, led the Turkish government to push for the “removal” of Armenians from the war zones along the Eastern Front. Although the decision for the deportation of all Armenians from the Western Armenia (Eastern Turkey) was adopted in late 1911, the Young Turks used WWI as a suitable opportunity for its implementation.
The “Executive Committee of Three” was formed in February 1914, with Doctor Nazim as a core member, to implement the genocide in an organized and merciless manner. The Young Turk Triumvirate operated through this committee, which was responsible for the implementation of the deportation and massacre of all the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. The committee dealt with all issues connected to the deportation and extermination of Armenians– the deportation dates according to region, routes and places, the concentration camps for their ultimate annihilation, etc.
Ismail Enver Pasha ( )
Member of the Young Turk Triumverate
Genocide Organizer
Mehmed Talaat Pasha ( )
Leader of the Party of “Ittihat ve Terakki”
Genocide Organizer
Jemal Pasha
( )
Member of the Young Turk Triumverate
Genocide Organizer
Doctor Nazim ( )
Executive Committee of Three

3. Victims
Dead: 800,000 to 1.5 million (approx. half of the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire)
Causes: Execution, death marches, torture, famine, epidemic diseases
Targets: Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire
Refugees: ~500,000
On April 24, 1915, the Armenian genocide began with the Turkish government arresting and executing several hundred Armenian intellectuals. After that, other civilian Armenians were turned out of their homes and sent on death marches through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were stripped naked and forced to walk under the scorching sun until they dropped dead. People who stopped to rest were shot. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred and drowned in the Euphrates River and Black Sea.
At the same time, the Young Turks created a “Special Organization,” which in turned organized “killing squads” or “butcher battalions” to carry out, as one officer put it, “the liquidation of the Christian elements.” These killing squads were often made up of murderers and other ex-convicts. They drowned Armenians in rivers, threw them off cliffs, crucified them and burned them alive. Soon, the Turkish countryside was covered with Armenian corpses, mostly women, children and elderly.
Records also show that during this “Turkification” campaign, many women were raped and became slaves and sex slaves. Muslim families moved into the homes of deported Armenians and seized their property. In 1922, when the genocide was over, there were just 388,000 Armenians remaining in the Ottoman Empire.
Armenian children returnees to Adana, In 1920 many of them were killed and twice deported.
Armenian woman kneeling beside dead child in field “within sight of help and safety at Aleppo.”

4. Armenian refugee children in 1915 awaiting aid.
Refugees
How many?: ~500,000 refugees
Where did they go?: Refugees resettled mostly in the Russian Empire, the Middle East and North America.
Since 1975, Los Angeles has had the largest Armenian community outside of Armenia, with more than 280,000 Armenians in the area.
How were they treated?: They were mostly ignored and left to their own devices because of World War I.
Who supported them?: The U.S.-based non-profit, Near East Relief, provided assistance to Armenian refugees through funding from the U.S.
government and private donations.
Did they go home?: Armenia officially became an independent state in 1991 and actively supports repatriation through its Department of Repatriations and Investigations.
The violence towards Armenians, as well as forced deportations by the Young Turks, led around 500,000 Armenians to leave the Ottoman Empire. While Armenians fled to countries all over the world, most ended up in the Russian Empire and in Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Egypt. Significant numbers also fled to North America.
Armenian refugees in Russia and the Middle East were offered little in the way of support from their host countries or the international community. Most European countries were occupied with World War I, and though the governments of Syria, Lebanon, and the Russian Empire allowed many Armenians to enter, they did not provide much aid to the refugees. Individual tribal leaders, especially in Syria, did what they could to help Armenian refugees who made it out of Turkey, including adopting them into their tribes. Also, the International Red Cross offered medical and financial aid to thousands of refugees.
The plight of the Armenians triggered an unprecedented public philanthropic response in the United States, involving President Woodrow Wilson, Hollywood celebrities, and many thousands of Americans at the grassroots level who volunteered both domestically and abroad and raised over $110 million (over $1 billion adjusted for inflation) to assist Armenian refugees and orphans. They established a charity called “Near East Relief,” which used these funds to feed and clothe Armenian refugees in the Middle East and Russia.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia became an independent country. Armenia actively encourages repatriation through the Department of Repatriation and Investigations. The department works to help Armenians in the diaspora obtain dual citizenship and immigrate to Armenia. The support of the Armenian government has sparked a repatriation movement among Armenians. Most of the immigrants coming into Armenia come from the same countries that housed Armenian refugees during the genocide, these countries being Iran, Syria, the US, Iraq, and Russia.
Armenian refugee children in 1915 awaiting aid.

5. Death March Routes
On this map you can see massacre sites and the death march routes victims, namely women, children and the elderly, took during the Armenian genocide.
A significant portion of Armenian children succumbed to severe hardships during the Armenian Genocide. On order of the Minister of the Interior of the Ottoman Empire, “All the Armenians in the country who are Ottoman subjects, from five years of age upwards, are to be taken out of the towns and slaughtered.” Some of children were burnt alive while others were poisoned, drowned, died from lack of food, or succumbed to diseases. As a consequence of the Armenian Genocide, hundreds of thousands of Armenian children were left orphaned, and many were converted to Islam. Many of these orphans were given to Turkish families to be raised as Turks, culturally, politically and religiously.

6. Summary of Genocide - Timeline
1915: First violent acts committed towards Armenians under the guise of WWI.
Feb. 1919: A court martial to address war crimes is convened in Constantinople.
1909: Ottoman Empire is overthrown in the Young Turk Revolution.
Sept. 5, 1915: The government orders all Armenian orphans to be given Turkish names.
1922: Lausanne Conference convenes.
1914
1918
1900
1923
Oct. 5, 1915: The Turkish government confiscates the Armenian lands by a provisional law.
April 24, 1915: Selected Armenian elite arrested, deported and killed, followed by ongoing massacres and deportations across villages within Turkish territory.
Jan. 19, 1920: The Allies formally recognize the independence of Armenia.
World War I provided the “distraction” the Young Turks needed to nationalize the new Turkish Republic.
: World War I

7. Countries that Recognize the Armenian Genocide
1. Argentina
2. Belgium
3. Canada
4. Chile
5. Cyprus
6. France
7. Germany
8. Greece
9. Italy
10. Lebanon
11. Lithuania
12. Netherlands
13. Poland
14. Russia
15. Slovakia
16. Sweden
17. Switzerland
19. United States (49 out of 50 states)
19. Uruguay
20. Vatican City
21. Venezuela
22. Austria
23. Bolivia
24. Brazil
25. Czech Republic
26. Denmark
27. Luxembourg
28. Paraguay
The Genocide Convention was built out of the atrocities of World War II. Many countries do not call what happened to the Armenians a genocide for several reasons. Some arguments against the genocide include:
The killings were targeted against enemies of the Ottoman Empire during WWI.
Counter: The majority of victims of the Armenian genocide were women, children and the elderly, who were unable to fight against the Ottomans in WWI.
Muslim Turks also suffered many deaths.
Counter: These deaths were part of World War I and not at the hands of the Armenians.
The Armenian deaths were inadvertent, not intentional destruction but due to lack of food and water.
Counter: Thousands of pages of eye-witness reports from survivors, Allied power officers and Axis power representatives show it was intentional mass murder by starvation.
Armenians burnt alive in Sheykhalan by Turkish soldiers, 1915
Armenian refugees at the pyramid made from the skulls of Armenian martyrs

8. Resources
The History Channel – Armenian Genocide:
The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute: museum.am/eng/index.php
Armenian National Institute:
Museum of Tolerance – Armenian Genocide: 19/k.A02E/Armenian_Genocide.htm
United States Census Bureau: santaanaCaMetroAreaAncestry2000/ Aff-Reports.pdf
Near East Foundation:
Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia:
Migration Policy Centre: nia.pdf