The Armenian Genocide

Greg Bedian
Genocide Education Network of Illinois

Do Now
1) Name one neighboring country to Armenia
2) What is the majority religion amongst the
Armenians?
3) During what major global conflict did the
Armenian Genocide occur?

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

Armenian Genocide Overview

The first genocide of the 20th Century
Occurred in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1923
Roughly 1.5 million Armenians killed
Roughly 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: Pan-Turkism
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
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

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 readinessfor the
present only in the Eastwith 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 didnt 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 Turkeys 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