 FACT SHEET: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the "Young Turk" government of the
Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916 (with subsidiaries to 1922-23). One and a half
million Armenians were killed, out of a total of two and a half million
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Most Armenians in America are children or grandchildren of the survivors,
although there are still many survivors amongst us.
Armenians all over the world commemorate this great tragedy on April 24, because
it was on that day in 1915 when 300 Armenian leaders, writers, thinkers and
professionals in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) were rounded up, deported
and killed. Also on that day in Constantinople, 5,000 of the poorest Armenians
were butchered in the streets and in their homes.
The Armenian Genocide was masterminded by the Central Committee of the Young
Turk Party (Committee for Union and Progress [Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyet, in
Turkish]) which was dominated by Mehmed Talât [Pasha], Ismail Enver [Pasha], and
Ahmed Djemal [Pasha]. They were a racist group whose ideology was articulated by
Zia Gökalp, Dr. Mehmed Nazim, and Dr. Behaeddin Shakir.
The Armenian Genocide was directed by a Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa)
set up by the Committee of Union and Progress, which created special "butcher
battalions," made up of violent criminals released from prison.
Some righteous Ottoman officials such as Celal, governor of Aleppo; Mazhar,
governor of Ankara; and Reshid, governor of Kastamonu, were dismissed for not
complying with the extermination campaign. Any common Turks who protected
Armenians were killed.
The Armenian Genocide occurred in a systematic fashion, which proves that it was
directed by the Young Turk government.
First the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed into labor battalions, and
then killed.
Then the Armenian political and intellectual leaders were rounded up on April
24, 1915, and then killed.
Finally, the remaining Armenians were called from their homes, told they would
be relocated, and then marched off to concentration camps in the desert between
Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor where they would starve and thirst to death in the
burning sun.
On the march, often they would be denied food and water, and many were
brutalized and killed by their "guards" or by "marauders." The authorities in
Trebizond, on the Black Sea coast, did vary this routine: they loaded Armenians
on barges and sank them out at sea.
The Turkish government today denies that there was an Armenian genocide and
claims that Armenians were only removed from the eastern "war zone." The
Armenian Genocide, however, occurred all over Anatolia [present-day Turkey], and
not just in the so-called "war zone." Deportations and killings occurred in the
west, in and around Ismid (Izmit) and Broussa (Bursa); in the center, in and
around Angora (Ankara); in the south-west, in and around Konia (Konya) and Adana
(which is near the Mediterranean Sea); in the central portion of Anatolia, in
and around Diyarbekir (Diyarbakir), Harpout (Harput), Marash, Sivas (Sepastia),
Shabin Kara-Hissar (þebin Karahisar), and Ourfa (Urfa); and on the Black Sea
coast, in and around Trebizond (Trabzon), all of which are not part of a war
zone. Only Erzeroum, Bitlis, and Van in the east were in the war zone.
The Armenian Genocide was condemned at the time by representatives of the
British, French, Russian, German, and Austrian governments—namely all the major
Powers. The first three were foes of the Ottoman Empire, the latter two, allies
of the Ottoman Empire. The United States, neutral towards the Ottoman Empire,
also condemned the Armenian Genocide and was the chief spokesman in behalf of
the Armenians.
The American people, via local Protestant missionaries, did the most to save the
wretched remnants of the death marches, the orphaned children.
Despite Turkish denial, there is no doubt about the Armenian Genocide. For
example, German ambassador Count von Wolff-Metternich, Turkey's ally in World
War I, wrote his government in 1916 saying: "The Committee [of Union and
Progress] demands the annihilation of the last remnants of the Armenians and the
[Ottoman] government must bow to its demands."
German consuls stationed in Turkey, including Vice Consul Max Erwin von
Scheubner-Richner of Erzerum [Erzurum] who was Adolf Hitler's chief political
advisor in the 1920s, were eyewitnesses. Hitler said to his generals on the eve
of sending his Death's Heads units into Poland, "Go, kill without mercy . . .
who today remembers the annihilation of the Armenians."
Henry Morgenthau Sr., the neutral American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire,
sent a cable to the U.S. State Department in 1915:
"Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from
harrowing reports of eye witnesses [sic] it appears that a campaign of race
extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion."
Morgenthau's successor as Ambassador to Turkey, Abram Elkus, cabled the U.S.
State Department in 1916 that the Young Turks were continuing an ". . .
unchecked policy of extermination through starvation, exhaustion, and brutality
of treatment hardly surpassed even in Turkish history."
Only one Turkish government, that of Damad Ferit Pasha, has ever recognized the
Armenian genocide. In fact, that Turkish government held war crimes trials and
condemned to death the major leaders responsible.
The Turkish court concluded that the leaders of the Young Turk government were
guilty of murder. "This fact has been proven and verified." It maintained that
the genocidal scheme was carried out with as much secrecy as possible. That a
public facade was maintained of "relocating" the Armenians. That they carried
out the killing by a secret network. That the decision to eradicate the
Armenians was not a hasty decision, but "the result of extensive and profound
deliberations."
Ismail Enver Pasha, Ahmed Cemal Pasha, Mehmed Talât Bey, and a host of others
were convicted by the Turkish court and condemned to death for "the
extermination and destruction of the Armenians."
The Permanent People's Tribunal recognized the Armenian Genocide on April 16,
1984.
The European Parliament voted to recognize the Armenian Genocide on June 18,
1987.
President Bush issued a news release in 1990 calling on all Americans to join
with Armenians on April 24 in commemorating "the more than a million Armenian
people who were victims."
President Clinton issued a news release on April 24, 1994, to commemorate the
"tragedy" that befell the Armenians in 1915.
The Russian Duma (the lower house of the bicameral Russian legislature) voted on
April 20, 1994, to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Israel officially condemned the Armenian Genocide as Israeli Deputy Foreign
Minister Yossi Beilin proclaimed on the floor of the Knesset (the Israeli
legislature), on April 27, 1994, in answer to the claims of the Turkish
Ambassador, that "It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide,
something the world must remember."
The Armenian genocide is similar to the Jewish holocaust in many respects. Both
people adhere to an ancient religion. Both were religious minorities of their
respective states. Both have a history of persecution. Both have new
democracies. Both are surrounded by enemies. Both are talented and creative
minorities who have been persecuted out of envy and obscurantism.
Issues:
• The Republic of Turkey must cease to be the only major country in the world to
deny the Armenian Genocide.
• The Republic of Turkey must show good will by allowing American aid to
present-day Armenia to pass through unhindered.
• The Republic of Turkey must cease to train Azerbaijani soldiers in Turkey for
the purpose of attacking Armenia.
April 3, 1996.Reproduced with permission from the Knights of Vartan
Armenian Research Center, The University of Michigan, Dearborn.
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