The Armenian Genocide
Greg Bedian
Genocide Education Network of Illinois
What we’ll cover today
• Genocide overview
• Armenia overview
• Armenian Genocide
–
–
–
–
–
–
Moving toward genocide
Implementation
Facts and figures
Aftermath
What’s happened since
What’s happening now
• Resource review
Where did the word
Genocide come from?
• Greek genos (race) + Latin -cida (killer)
• Raphael Lemkin coined the word “genocide” in 1943
"I became interested in genocide because it happened so many
times…first to the Armenians, then after the Armenians, Hitler took
action."
• Lemkin was the driving force behind the Genocide
Convention, which was adopted by the UN in 1948
“One million Armenians died, but a law against the murder of peoples
was written with the ink of their blood and the spirit of their sufferings”
Historic Armenia
Present Day Armenia
Republic of Armenia
•
•
•
•
•
Location: Southwestern Asia
29,800 sq km (smaller than Maryland)
Population: 3 million
Capital: Yerevan
Independent nation since 1991
Background on Armenia
•
•
•
•
•
Over 4000 years old
Has its own language, alphabet
Has distinctive architecture
First nation to adopt Christianity, 301 AD
The location of the Garden of Eden and Mt.
Ararat, where Noah’s ark landed
Armenian Genocide Overview
• The first genocide of the 20th Century
• Occurred in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1923
• More than 1.5 million Armenians killed
– 2 million lived in the Ottoman Empire at that time
– Nearly every Armenian lost a family member
• Perpetrated by the Young Turk Government
• Main reason for genocide: “Turkification”
• Pretexts for genocide
– Religious differences
– Economic differences
– Scapegoat for WWI military losses
Seeds of Genocide
• The Ottoman Empire was in decline, losing
territory, wealth, and influence
• Nearly 500,000 Muslim refugees created by
Balkan War settled in and around Constantinople
• Armenians were frequently subjected to
massacres, kidnapping, rape and robbery
• As Christians, Armenians were second class
citizens in Ottoman Turkey
• Some Armenians resisted this mistreatment and
agitated for reforms
Preparation for the Genocide
• Special groups of Turks and Kurds, often made up
of released prisoners, were created to carry out
the massacres
• Most Armenian men were drafted into the army,
then disarmed and put into labor camps
• Government officials, Muslim clerics and others
spread rumors of Armenians betraying Turkey,
calling for punishment of the infidels
• Community leaders arrested on April 24, 1915,
and put to death soon after
Perpetrators of the
Armenian Genocide
Talaat Pasha
Interior Minister
Enver Pasha
Minister of War
Jemal Pasha
Minister of the Navy
Leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress, or Young Turks
April 24, 1915
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• Hundreds of Armenian
intellectuals in Constantinople,
Symrna, and elsewhere are
arrested and later killed
• With its able-bodied men in
the Army, and without its
leadership, the Armenian
population was defenseless
Use of new technologies
• Women, children, and the elderly
were loaded onto trains and
relocated, unable to return to their
homes
• Refugees by the hundreds were
forced into caves, fires were lit at
the entrance and those inside were
killed by asphyxiation in primitive
gas chambers
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Implementing the Genocide
• Armed groups would come to a village, and
take remaining able-bodied males to the
outskirts of town and massacre them
• Women, children and elderly then ordered
to prepare for deportation, valuables were
registered and stored for safe keeping
• Caravans preyed upon by marauding bands,
stole remaining valuables, raped and killed
• Girls carried off, children enslaved or
raised as Kurds or Turks
• Starvation and disease, exposure,
brutality, massacre
• Most of those that make it to the desert
are killed
Map of Deportation Paths
and Killing Zones
Bursa
January 15th, 1916
To the Government of Aleppo:
We are informed that certain orphanages
which have opened also admitted the
children of the Armenians.
Should this be done through ignorance of our
real purpose, or because of contempt of it,
the Government will view the feeding of such
children or any effort to prolong their lives as
an act completely opposite to its purpose,
since it regards the survival of these children
as detrimental.
I recommend the orphanages not to receive
such children; and no attempts are to be
made to establish special orphanages for
them.
Minister of the Interior,
TA
September 16, 1916.
To the Government of Allepo
It was at first communicated to you that
the government, by order of the Jemiet,
had decided to destroy completely all
the Armenians living in Turkey… An
end must be put to their existence,
however criminal the measures taken
may be, and no regard must be paid to
either age or sex nor to the
conscientious scruples.
Talaat Pasha, Minister of the Interior
August 22, 1939.
Accordingly, I have placed my deathhead formation in readiness—for the
present only in the East—with orders to
them to send to death mercilessly and
without compassion, men, women, and
children of Polish derivation and
language. Only thus shall we gain the
living space (Lebensraum) which we
need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of
the annihilation of the Armenians?
Adolf Hitler
Reaction to Genocide
• Armenians
– Most didn’t know what was happening until it was too late
– Church leaders urged villagers not to give in to provocations
– Some organized self-defense or fled
• Turks, Kurds and others
– Many took advantage of the situation - looting, killing, etc.
– Some risked their lives to help save Armenians
• Foreigners
– Many news reports, diplomatic protests
– Some were able to save Armenians
– No real action taken to stop genocide by foreign governments,
neither Turkey’s enemies nor its allies
Over 145 articles
about the genocide
were printed in
1915 alone
Armenian Population by Province
2,000,000
125,000
Pre-Genocide: 1914
Post-Genocide: 1926
Sivas
Erzerum
Mamuret-Ulaziz
Bitlis
Van
Diyarbakir
Sivas
Erzerum
Mamuret-Ulaziz
Bitlis
Van
Diyarbakir
225,000
215,000
204,000
198,000
197,000
124,000
5,100
<100
5,000
<100
<100
<100
Aftermath
• In 1914, there were 2,538 Armenian churches, 451
monasteries, and nearly 2,000 schools
• Today, outside of Istanbul, Armenians possess six
churches, no monasteries, and no schools
• Nearly all moveable property was either confiscated
by the government, looted by mobs or seized during
death marches
“The sum of five million Turkish pounds, (around
33 tons of gold) deposited by the Turkish
government at the ReichsBank in Berlin in 1916 was
… in large part, perhaps wholly Armenian money."
– Sir James Baldwin, the former British prime minister
Post-Genocide
• Armenia to become US Mandate, US did
not accept this mission
• Aid activities to help survivors were
prominent in American society




NEAR EAST RELIEF
First international US Red Cross Mission
$117 Million raised (over $1 Billion today!)
Remember the starving Armenians
Setup orphanages, clinics and schools for the
Armenians
What happened to the
perpetrators?
• Genocide organizers tried in abstentia
and found guilty, but never pursued
• Armenian assassins hunted down and
killed the main perpetrators
• On March 15, 1921, Soghomon Tehlirian
shot and killed Talaat Pasha in Berlin
• During the trial, details of the Armenian Genocide were
discussed and Tehlirian was acquitted
• Intrigued by the case, Raphael Lemkin began studying
what happened to the Armenians. His work later resulted
in the Genocide Convention
Armenian Genocide Today
• Armenians dispersed all over the world
• Only about 55,000 Armenians left in Turkey, most in
Istanbul, far from historic Armenia
• The Armenian names of cities, villages, mountains,
rivers, and even animals have been changed to Turkish
names
• Ancient churches and other historic sites are being
intentionally neglected or destroyed
• Much of Armenian culture has been lost
• Nearly all traces of 4000+ years of Armenian
existence on those lands are being eliminated
Ongoing Genocide
Genocide Denial
• To this day the Turkish Government is actively and
aggressively engaged in Genocide denial
• Turkey passed a law in 2004 known as Article 301
which makes it a criminal offense to mention the
Armenian Genocide in Turkey
– Hrant Dink, Orhan Pamuk, and other prominent Turks have
been arrested for violating Article 301.
• Turkey currently pays millions to US lobbying and PR
firms to plan and implement its denial campaign with
the US government and in the US media
• Turkey has funded Turkish studies chairs at
prestigious universities like U of Chicago and
Princeton to promote the “Turkish view” of the
history
What they say…
• The number of Armenian deaths is grossly inflated
• More Muslims died during the same period
• Armenian American evidence of genocide is derived
from dubious and prejudicial sources
• The Armenian deaths do not constitute genocide
• The British convened the Malta Tribunal to try
Ottoman officials for crimes against Armenians and
all of the accused were acquitted
• The Holocaust bears no meaningful relation to the
Ottoman Armenian experience
Things to Remember
1. Genocide can happen anywhere
2. Genocide usually occurs during times of
crisis or war
3. Genocide denial is a continuation of
genocide, “killing the victims twice”
4. Genocide is a crime against all of
humanity, not just the victims
Learn More About Genocide
Websites
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
www.teachgenocide.org
www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/
www.unitedhumanrights.org/
www.genocide1915.info/history/
www.anca.org
www.cambodian-association.org
www.savedarfur.org
www.genocideintervention.net
www.hmfi.org
20voices.com
Books
•
•
•
•
The Road From Home, by David Kherdian
A Problem from Hell, by Samantha Powers
The Burning Tigris, by Peter Balakian
A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish
Responsibility, by Taner Akcam
The End
Speak Up! Stand Against Genocide!
In Germany, they first came for the communists, and
I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't
speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak
up because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me -- and by that time there was
nobody left to speak up.
– Martin Niemoller
20th Century’s Legacy of Genocide
1915-1923
1932-1933
1938-1945
1975-1979
1994
1995
Turkish Genocide of Armenians, Assyrians,
and Pontian Greeks
Ukrainian Famine-Genocide
Nazi Holocaust of Jews, Poles, Gypsies
Cambodia
Rwanda
Bosnia
Today
Tomorrow
Darfur
????