Figure 9: The Hanging of Armenians

The Armenian Genocide began in April 1915 with the detainment of over 200 Armenian leaders, most of whom were eventually murdered. The Armenians had experienced massacres throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries and were increasingly targeted due to the perception of their wealth and Christian religion. The 1915 round up was justified over worry that the Armenian minority was not loyal to the Ottoman state during the war and would assist in any Russian invasion of the country. The Ottoman government then targeted Armenian men who were forced into the army, into forced labor battalions, or simply imprisoned. Local populations subjected the Armenian women and children to grueling marches, were they were denied food and water.As a result, many died in the desert. Children were given to local Muslim families, where they were made servants and forced to convert to the Islamic faith. Women were raped and sold as sex slaves, others were shipped in cattle cars to “transit camps” while many were massacred throughout the country. The number of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire decreased from 2,133,190 in 1914 to only about 387,800 by 1922.

Triumphant in its total annihilation of the Armenians and relieved of any obligations to the victims and survivors, the Turkish Republic adopted a policy of dismissing the charge of genocide and denying that the deportations and atrocities had constituted part of a deliberate plan to exterminate the Armenians