Charles A.R. Byrne Author Site

Armenian Genocide , April 24 1915-1923
1.5 Million slaughtered

First of all I’d like to apologize to those whom those pictures might disturb.

Some of you may or may not know how sensitive when i start talking about this event in history that doesn’t seem to meet many eyes of the people of the world today.
This event as previously stated is known as the “Armenian Genocide” which is only recognised in 21 countries, 43 states in the USA, 3 regions of spain and 2 states in Australia . Sure when you read those numbers you may think wow that’s a lot when really it’s only 11.8% of the world. Turkey refuses to recognise it after 97 years.

So lets get straight to the questions many seem to ask .

1. What is the Armenian Genocide?
   The Armenian Genocide was centrally planned and administered by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. It was carried out during W.W.I between the years 1915 and 1918. The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation. The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger. Large numbers of Armenians were methodically massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women and children were abducted and horribly abused.
2. How many people died in the Armenian Genocide?
   It is estimated that one and a half million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923. There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of W.W.I. Well over a million were deported in 1915. Hundreds of thousands were butchered outright. Many others died of starvation, exhaustion, and epidemics which ravaged the concentration camps.  
3. Were there any witnesses ?
   There were lots of foreigners in the Ottoman Empire who witnessed the deportations. Foremost among them were U.S. diplomatic representatives and American missionaries.  Also reporting on the atrocities committed against the Armenians were many German eyewitnesses. Many Russians saw for themselves the devastation wreaked upon the Armenian communities when the Russian Army occupied parts of Anatolia. Many Arabs in Syria where most of the deportees were sent saw for themselves the appalling condition to which the Armenian survivors had been reduced. Lastly, many Turkish officials were witnesses as participants in the Armenian Genocide.

Key facts:

• 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 occurred in a systematic fashion, which proves that it was directed by the Young Turk government.
• Most Armenians in America are children or grandchildren of the survivors, although there are still many survivors amongst us.
• 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.
• 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.

• 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.”

 

Victory salute on the roof of Reichstag – Soviet soldiers raise the flag under command of Stepan Neustroev, 1945.
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