Armenian genocide 1914-1918 Mass deportation and extermination of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other regions of the Ottoman Empire in 1914-1918. The biggest wave of the Armenian Genocide Hayots Mets Yeghern, which was organized and implemented ruling circles Turkey - the Young Turks under the cover of the First World War. The Turkish policy of exterminating the Armenians was determined by a number of factors, among which the most important is the ideology of pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism, which were professed by the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire since the middle of the 19th century. The aggressive ideology of pan-Islamism was characterized by intolerance towards non-Muslims, promoted overt nationalism, and called for the Turkification of all non-Turkish peoples.

Entering the war, the Young Turk government of Turkey had far-sighted programs to implement the “Great Turan”. In particular, it was planned to annex Transcaucasia, the North Caucasus, Central Asia, Crimea and the Volga region to the empire. And on the way to implementing this program, the government had to first of all destroy the Armenian people, who had a Russian orientation and resisted the aggressive programs of Pan-Turkism. The Young Turks began to develop a program to destroy the Armenian people even before the start of the First World War. And already in the decisions of the congress
parties "Unity and Progress" in 1911 in Thessaloniki a demand was made for the forced Turkification of the non-Turkish peoples of the empire. Immediately after this, the military and political circles of Turkey came to the idea of ​​the complete destruction of the Armenian population of the empire. At the beginning of 1914, the government sent a special order on measures taken against the Armenians. And the very fact that the order was sent before the start of the war undoubtedly indicates that the extermination of the Armenians was a planned step and was not dictated specifically by the military situation. In October 1914, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Foreign Minister Taleat, during which a special body was formed - the “Executive Committee of Three”, which was entrusted with carrying out the massacre of the Armenian population. It included Young Turk leaders - Nazim, Behaeddi Shakir and Shukri. Having conceived this brutal crime, the leaders of the Young Turks were sure that the war was a convenient excuse for its implementation. Nazim directly stated that such a convenient occasion may no longer exist “the intervention of major powers, as well as the protests of newspapers will not have any consequences, since they will be faced with a realized fact and thereby the issue will be resolved... Our actions will have to be aimed at destroying Armenians in such a way that not a single one of them survives.”

Having undertaken the extermination of the Armenian people, the ruling circles of Turkey pursued several goals - first of all, to eliminate the Armenian question, which would put an end to the interference of European powers in the affairs of Turkey, the Turks would thereby be freed from economic competition, and all the property of the Armenians would be transferred to them, there would be the path is open to the conquest of the entire Caucasus, towards the “implementation of the lofty ideas of Turanism.” "Executive Committee of Three" received broad powers, weapons and money. The authorities began to organize special detachments, mainly formed from criminals released from prisons and other criminal elements, who would take part in mass pogroms of the Armenian population.

From the very first day of the war, unrestrained anti-Armenian propaganda unfolded in Turkey. The Turkish people were instilled with the idea that the Armenians did not want
serve in the ranks of the Turkish army, and they are ready to assist the enemy. False information was spread about the mass desertion of Armenian soldiers, about Armenian uprisings that threatened the rear of the Turkish army. This unbridled nationalist propaganda directed against the Armenians especially intensified after the first serious defeats of the Turkish army on the Caucasian front. In February 1915 military ordered the destruction of all Armenians serving in the ranks of the Turkish army (at the beginning of the war, about 60 thousand Armenians aged 18 to 45 years were drafted into the ranks of the Turkish army, i.e. the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population). This order was carried out with unprecedented cruelty.

Soon the Armenian intelligentsia also received a blow. On April 24 and the following days, about 800 writers, journalists, doctors, scientists, priests, including members of the Turkish Parliament, were arrested in Constantinople and deported to the depths of Anatolia. Those arrested without trial or investigation were taken into exile; some of them died on the way, others upon arrival at their destination. The victims of the Genocide were writers Grigor Zohrap, Daniel Varuzhan, Siamanto, Ruben Zardaryan, Ruben Sevak, Artashes Harutyunyan, Tlkatintsi, Yerukhan, Tigran Chekyuryan, Smbat Byurat, publicists and editors Nazaret Tadavarian, Tiran Kelekyan, Gagik Ozanyan and others. Among those deported were also great Armenian composer Komitas, who, unable to resist heavy emotional
experiences, lost his mind. Through influential intervention, he was returned to a psychiatric clinic in Constantinople, then to Paris, where he died. In June 1915, 20 well-known representatives of the intelligentsia, members of the Hunchak party, were hanged in one of the squares of Constantinople. By exterminating the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople, the Turkish authorities effectively beheaded the Armenian population of Turkey. In May-June 1915, mass eviction and extermination of the population of Western Armenia began (the regions of Van, Erzurum, Bitlis, Kharberd, Sebastia, Diyarbekiri), Cilicia, Armenia. Anatolia and other places. The eviction of the Armenian population already pursued the goal of its destruction.

The US Ambassador to Turkey noted: “The true purpose of the deportation was robbery and destruction. It was new method murders. If the Turkish authorities issued an eviction order, it meant that they had passed a death sentence on an entire nation. They were clearly aware of this and when talking to me, they did not particularly try to hide this fact.” (“Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire”, 1991, p. 11): The true purpose of the eviction was also known to Germany, Turkey’s ally. The German Ambassador to Turkey G. Wangenheim in July 1915 informed his government that if the deportations of Armenians initially affected only the areas adjacent to the Caucasian Front, then later the Turkish authorities began to extend these actions even to those parts of the country that were not threatened with invasion enemy. These actions, as well as the method of deportation, the ambassador summarized, indicate that the Turkish government was pursuing the goal
extermination of the Armenian population within the Turkish state. The German consuls located in different regions of Turkey gave the same assessment of Turkey's actions. In July 1915, the German deputy consul of Samsun reported that the deportation carried out in the vilayets of Anatolia was aimed at either destroying or Islamizing the entire Armenian population. The German consul of Trapizon at the same time reported on the eviction of the Armenian population and emphasized that by doing so the Young Turks wanted to put an end to

Armenians deported from their permanent place of residence were sent in caravans to the depths of the empire, to Mesopotamia and Syria, where special camps were created for them. Armenians were exterminated both at their place of residence and on the route of deportation. Their caravans were attacked by Turkish and Kurdish bandits, as a result of which only a part of the unfortunate exiles reached the place. Very often, thousands of people who reached the deserts of Mesopotamia were taken out of the camps and killed in the sands. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of people died from hunger, disease and epidemics. The actions of the Turkish murderers were particularly cruel; this was what the Young Turk leaders demanded of them. Thus, Interior Minister Taleat, in a secret telegram sent to the governor of Aleppo, demanded an end to the existence of Armenians, regardless of gender or remorse, and these demands were strictly fulfilled. Eyewitnesses of these events, survivors of the Genocide and deportation, left numerous descriptions of the suffering that befell the Armenian people. English newspaper correspondent "Times" in September 1915 reported “From Samsun and Trabizon, Ordu and Aintap, Marash and Erzurum, the same information comes about these atrocities: men who were mercilessly shot, crucified, strangled and taken to
labor battalions, about children captured and forcibly Islamized, about women who were raped and sold into slavery in the outback of the country, killed on the spot, or deported along with their children to the desert, west of Mosul, where there is neither food nor water... Many of these unfortunate victims did not reach their destination...". One Iranian, who delivered weapons using camels for the Turkish army from Yerznka to Erzurum, testified: “One day in June 1915, when I approached the Khoturi bridge, I saw a terrifying picture. Under the 12 arches of the bridge, everything was filled with corpses and the water, having changed its course, flowed in the other direction... However, from the bridge to the road everything was filled with corpses: women, old people, children.” In October 1916, one correspondence was published in the newspaper “Caucasian Word”, which spoke about the massacre of Armenians in the village of Baska (Vardo Valley), the author cited an eyewitness account... “We saw how all the valuable items were first torn off from the unfortunates, then their clothes were taken off and some were killed on the spot, others were taken to remote places and killed there. We saw three women who hugged each other out of fear, and it was impossible to separate them from each other, all three were killed. Inexpressible crying and screaming engulfed the mountains and valleys, we were horrified, the blood ran cold in our veins.” Also subjected to barbaric destruction most of Armenian population of Cilicia.

The massacre of Armenians continued in subsequent years. Thousands of Armenians were killed in camps Ras st Aini, Deir ez Zori and others. The Young Turks sought to organize pogroms of Armenians in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to the local population, a large number of refugees from Western Armenia had accumulated. Having launched a campaign against Transcaucasia in 1916, Turkish troops organized massacres and pogroms of the Armenian population in many places in Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan. In September 1918, having conquered Baku, the Turkish invaders, together with Azerbaijani nationalists, organized a pogrom of the local Armenian
population. In October 1918, the newspaper “Caucasian Word” published an article by a famous doctor, who was an eyewitness to the pogroms of Armenians in Baku, which said: “On Sunday, September 15, at 9 am, the Turks attacked us from the mountains... Starting from Shamkhinki , Vorontsovskaya and other main routes of the city - Torgovaya, Telefonnaya, everywhere there was robbery to the last thread, barbaric destruction of property, laboratories, shops, pharmacies and apartments... Almost only Armenians were killed... In total, about 30 thousand Armenians were killed. The corpses of Armenians were scattered throughout the city, which decomposed for several days until they were all collected. The Mikhailovskaya hospital was full of raped girls and women. All military hospitals were filled with wounded Armenians. This barbarity lasted three days, and their goal was to kill and plunder the Armenians.

During the Turkish campaign of 1920, Turkish troops captured Alexandrapol. In Alexandrapol and in the villages of the region, Turkish invaders committed atrocities, destroyed civilians, and plundered property. One report received from the Revolutionary Committee of Armenia stated: “In the area of ​​Alexandrapol and Akhlkalak, 30 villages were killed, and the survivors were in the most deplorable condition. Other reports described the condition of other villages in the Alexandrapol region: “All the villages were plundered, there was no grain, no clothing, no fuel. The streets of the village were filled with bodies, hunger and cold were becoming stronger and there were more and more victims... In addition, the criminals mocked their captives, trying to punish the people in an even worse way, and again, not feeling satisfied, they inflicted various tortures on them, forced their parents give your 8-9 year old daughters to the executioners...”

In January 1921, the government of Soviet Armenia complained to the Commissioner for Foreign Affairs of Turkey that Turkish troops in Alexandrapol “constantly commit murder, violence and robbery against the peaceful working people...”. (“The Great October Socialist Revolution and the victory of Soviet power in Armenia.” Collection of documents. 1960, pp. 438, 447, 455). Tens of thousands of Armenians became victims of Turkish barbarity. The invaders also caused enormous material damage to the Alexandrapol region.

In 1918-1820 the center became the site of pogroms and massacres of Armenians Karabakh Shushi. On September 25, 1918, Turkish troops, with the support of Azerbaijani
The Musavatists conquered Shushi, but soon, after the defeat of Turkey in the First World War, they were forced to leave Shushi. In December 1918, the British entered Shushi. Lieutenant Governor of Karabakh was appointed Musavatist Khosrow-bek Sultanov. With the help of Turkish military instructors, he created Kurdish shock troops, which, together with Musavat military units, were stationed in the Armenian part of Shushi. The forces of the pogromists were constantly replenished and there were many Turkish officers in the city. In June 1919, the first pogroms took place in Shushi; on the night of June 5, about 500 people were killed in the city and neighboring villages. On March 23, 1920, Turkish-Musavat gangs organized a terrible massacre of the Armenians of Shushi, the victims of which were 30 thousand people, and the Armenian part of the city was also burned. Survivors after Genocide 1915-1916 Armenians of Cilicia who took refuge in Arab countries, after the defeat of Turkey, they began to return to their homeland. By agreement between the allies, Cilicia was included in the zone of influence of France. In 1919, about 120-130 thousand Armenians lived in Cilicia; by the 1920s. this number reached 160 thousand. The command of the French troops distributed in Cilicia did not take any measures to ensure the safety of the Armenian population, Turkish power remained in some places, the Muslims did not disarm, which the Kemalists took advantage of and committed violence against the Armenians. In January 1920, during 20 day battles in Marash, about 11 thousand Armenians died, the rest crossed into Syria. Then the Turks defeated Achin, where there were 6 thousand Armenians. The Armenians of Achyn stubbornly resisted for 7 months, but in October the enemy managed to conquer the city.

At the beginning of 1919, the remnants of the Armenians reached Allepo Urfa, about 6 thousand people. On April 1, 1920, Kemalist troops defeated Aintap, thanks to 15 days of self-defense they managed to avoid pogroms. However, when French troops left Cilicia, the Armenians of Ayntap at the end of 1920 were forced to leave Cilicia and go to Syria. In 1920, the Kemalists destroyed the remaining Armenians in Zeytun. Thus, the Kemalists completed the work of the Young Turks to destroy the Armenian population of Cilicia. The last of the Armenian Genocide was the killing of Armenians in the western regions of Turkey during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). In August-September 1921, Turkish troops made a turning point in the war and launched a general attack against the Greek army. On September 9, 1922, the Turks entered and organized a massacre of the local Armenian and Greek population, sinking ships with Armenian and Greek refugees docked in the port of Izmir.

As a result of the Armenian Genocide organized by the Turkish authorities, about 1.5 million Armenians died, about 600 thousand Armenians became refugees, they scattered across many countries of the world, replenishing existing communities and creating new ones. Due to the Genocide Western Armenia lost its native Armenian population. The Young Turk leaders did not hide their satisfaction at the implementation of this crime. German diplomats accredited in Turkey reported to their government that already in August 1915, the Minister of the Interior Taleat brazenly declared that “actions regarding the Armenians have already been practically completed and no longer exist.” This relative ease with which the Turkish murderers managed to carry out the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire can be explained by the unpreparedness of the Armenian parties and the Armenian population in the face of the growing threat of annihilation. The actions of the pogromists were also simplified after the mobilization of the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population - men, as well as the liquidation of the intelligentsia of Constantinople. Obedience to the deportation order also played a certain role; in the opinion of some public and clerical circles, disobedience would only increase the number of victims. However, in some places the Armenian population offered heroic resistance to the Turkish pogromists. The Armenians of Van, turning to self-defense, successfully repelled the enemy’s attacks and held the city in their hands until the arrival of Russian troops and Armenian volunteer detachments. The Armenians of Shapin Garagisar, Musha, Sasun, and Shatakh offered armed resistance to an enemy several times superior in strength. The heroic battle of the defenders of Mount Sasa in Suediei continued for 40 days and nights.( "40 days of Musa Dagh." F. Werfel). The self-defense battles of the Armenians in 1915 are heroic pages of the national liberation struggle of the Armenian people, which contributed to the salvation and revival of some of the Armenian people.

The Armenian genocide was organized by the ruling circles of Turkey; they are the perpetrators of the first genocide of the 20th century. Part of the responsibility also lies with the government of Kaiser Germany, which was not only aware of the impending crime, but also contributed to its implementation. Representatives of the progressive intelligentsia of Germany noted the complicity of German imperialism J. Lepsius, A. Wegner, K. Liebknecht etc.. The Armenian Genocide carried out by the Turks caused enormous damage to the material and spiritual culture of the Armenian people.

In 1915-16 and in subsequent years, thousands of manuscripts stored in Armenian churches and temples were destroyed, hundreds of historical and architectural monuments were destroyed, and the shrines of the people were desecrated. The destruction of historical and architectural monuments in Turkey continues to this day.

This tragedy experienced by the Armenian people left a deep mark on all aspects of life and social behavior, and received a firm place in historical memory. The impact of the Genocide was felt by both the generation of direct victims and subsequent generations. The progressive world community condemned the brutal crime of the Turkish murderers (who tried to destroy one of the oldest civilized nations). Social, political, cultural figures, scientists from many countries condemned the genocide, characterizing it as a grave crime against humanity, and also provided humanitarian assistance to the Armenian people, in particular to refugees who have found refuge in many countries of the world. After Turkey's defeat in World War I, Young Turk leaders were accused of dragging Turkey into a disastrous war and were put on trial. Among the charges brought against war criminals were also the organization and implementation of the Armenian Genocide. However, some Young Turk leaders were sentenced in absentia, since after the defeat of Turkey they were allowed to flee the country. The verdict of some of them ( , Said Galim and others.) was later carried out by the hands of the Armenian national avengers.

After World War II, the Genocide was characterized as a grave crime against humanity. The principles that formed the basis of the legal documents on the Genocide were developed by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal. Later, the UN adopted a number of decisions on Genocide, the main of which are the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and Convention on the Inapplicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, which was adopted in 1968.

In 1989 Supreme Council of the ASSR passed the Genocide Law, according to which the Armenian Genocide in Western Armenia and Turkey was condemned as a crime against humanity. The Supreme Council appealed to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a request to adopt a resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. The Declaration of Independence of Armenia, adopted by the Supreme Council of the ASSR on August 23, 1990, states:“The Republic of Armenia supports the cause of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.”

Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire

Massacres in 1894-1896 consisted of three main episodes: the Sasun massacre, the killings of Armenians throughout the empire in the fall and winter of 1895, and the massacres in Istanbul and in the Van region, the reason for which was protests by local Armenians.

In the Sasun region, Kurdish leaders imposed tribute on the Armenian population. At the same time, the Ottoman government demanded payment of arrears of state taxes, which had previously been forgiven, given the facts of Kurdish robberies. At the beginning of 1894, there was an uprising of the Armenians of Sasun. When the uprising was suppressed by Turkish troops and Kurdish detachments, according to various estimates, from 3 to 10 or more thousand Armenians were massacred.

The peak of the Armenian pogroms occurred after September 18, 1895, when a protest demonstration took place in Bab Ali, an area of ​​the Turkish capital Istanbul where the Sultan's residence was located. More than 2,000 Armenians died in the pogroms that followed the dispersal of the demonstration. The massacre of the Armenians of Constantinople, begun by the Turks, resulted in a total massacre of Armenians throughout Asia Minor.

The following summer, a group of Armenian militants, representatives of the radical Dashnaktsutyun party, attempted to draw European attention to the intolerable plight of the Armenian population by seizing the Imperial Ottoman Bank, the central bank of Turkey. The first dragoman of the Russian embassy, ​​V. Maksimov, took part in resolving the incident. He assured that the great powers would put the necessary pressure on the Sublime Porte to carry out reforms, and gave his word that the participants in the action would be given the opportunity to freely leave the country on one of the European ships. However, the authorities ordered attacks on the Armenians even before the group of Dashnaks left the bank. As a result of the three-day massacre, according to various estimates, from 5,000 to 8,700 people died.

During the period 1894–1896 In the Ottoman Empire, according to various sources, from 50 to 300 thousand Armenians were destroyed.

Establishment of the Young Turk regime and Armenian pogroms in Cilicia

In order to establish a constitutional regime in the country, a secret organization was created by a group of young Turkish officers and government officials, which later became the basis of the Ittihad ve Terakki (Unity and Progress) party, also called the “Young Turks”. At the end of June 1908, Young Turk officers launched a rebellion, which soon grew into a general uprising: Greek, Macedonian, Albanian, and Bulgarian rebels joined the Young Turks. A month later, the Sultan was forced to make significant concessions, restore the Constitution, grant amnesty to the leaders of the uprising and follow their instructions in many matters.

The restoration of the Constitution and new laws meant the end of the traditional superiority of Muslims over Christians, in particular Armenians. At the first stage, the Armenians supported the Young Turks; their slogans about universal equality and brotherhood of the peoples of the empire found the most positive response among the Armenian population. In the Armenian-populated regions, celebrations took place on the occasion of the establishment of a new order, sometimes quite stormy, which caused additional aggression among the Muslim population, which had lost their privileged position.

New laws allowed Christians to carry weapons, which led to the active arming of the Armenian part of the population. Both Armenians and Muslims accused each other of mass armament. In the spring of 1909, a new wave of anti-Armenian pogroms began in Cilicia. The first pogroms took place in Adana, then the pogroms spread to other cities in the Adana and Aleppo vilayets. The troops of the Young Turks from Rumelia sent to maintain order not only did not protect the Armenians, but together with the pogromists took part in robberies and murders. The result of the massacre in Cilicia was 20 thousand dead Armenians. Many researchers are of the opinion that the organizers of the massacre were the Young Turks, or at least the Young Turk authorities of the Adanai vilayet.

From 1909, the Young Turks began a campaign of forced Turkification of the population and banned organizations associated with non-Turkish ethnic causes. The Turkification policy was approved at the Ittihad Congresses of 1910 and 1911.

World War I and the Armenian genocide

According to some reports, the Armenian genocide was being prepared before the war. In February 1914 (four months before the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo), the Ittihadists called for a boycott of Armenian businesses, and one of the Young Turk leaders, Dr. Nazim, went on a trip to Turkey to personally oversee the implementation of the boycott.

On August 4, 1914, mobilization was announced, and already on August 18, reports began to arrive from Central Anatolia about the looting of Armenian property carried out under the slogan of “raising funds for the army.” At the same time, in different parts of the country, authorities disarmed Armenians, even taking away kitchen knives. In October, robbery and requisitions were in full swing, arrests of Armenian political figures began, and the first reports of murders began to arrive. Most of the Armenians drafted into the army were sent to special labor battalions.

At the beginning of December 1914, the Turks launched an offensive on the Caucasian front, but in January 1915, having suffered a crushing defeat in the battle of Sarykamysh, they were forced to retreat. The victory of the Russian army was greatly helped by the actions of Armenian volunteers from among those living in Russian Empire Armenians, which led to the spread of opinions about the betrayal of Armenians in general. The retreating Turkish troops brought down all the anger of defeat on the Christian population of the front-line areas, slaughtering Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks along the way. At the same time, arrests of prominent Armenians and attacks on Armenian villages continued throughout the country.

At the beginning of 1915, a secret meeting of the Young Turk leaders took place. One of the leaders of the Young Turk party, Doctor Nazim Bey, made the following speech during the meeting: “The Armenian people must be destroyed radically, so that not a single Armenian remains on our land, and this very name is forgotten. Now there is a war, such an opportunity will not happen again. The intervention of the great powers and the noisy protests of the world press will go unnoticed, and if they find out, they will be presented with a fait accompli, and thus the question will be settled.". Nazim Bey was supported by other participants in the meeting. A plan was drawn up for the wholesale extermination of Armenians.

Henry Morgenthau (1856-1946), US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1913-1916), later wrote a book about the Armenian genocide: "The real purpose of the deportations was plunder and destruction; this is indeed a new method of massacre. When the Turkish authorities ordered these deportations, they were in effect pronouncing the death sentence on an entire nation.".

The position of the Turkish side is that there was an Armenian rebellion: during the First World War, Armenians sided with Russia and signed up as volunteers Russian army, formed Armenian volunteer squads that fought on the Caucasian front along with Russian troops.

In the spring of 1915, the disarmament of the Armenians was in full swing. In the Alashkert Valley, detachments of Turkish, Kurdish and Circassian irregular troops slaughtered Armenian villages, near Smyrna (Izmir) Greeks conscripted into the army were killed, and the deportation of the Armenian population of Zeytun began.

In early April, massacres began in the Armenian and Assyrian villages of the Van vilayet. In mid-April, refugees from surrounding villages began arriving in the city of Van, reporting what was happening there. The Armenian delegation invited to negotiate with the administration of the vilayet was destroyed by the Turks. Having learned about this, the Armenians of Van decided to defend themselves and refused to surrender their weapons. Turkish troops and Kurdish detachments besieged the city, but all attempts to break the resistance of the Armenians were unsuccessful. In May, advanced detachments of Russian troops and Armenian volunteers drove back the Turks and lifted the siege of Van.

On April 24, 1915, several hundred of the most prominent representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia: writers, artists, lawyers, and representatives of the clergy were arrested and then killed in Istanbul. At the same time, the liquidation of Armenian communities throughout Anatolia began. April 24 went down in the history of the Armenian people as a black day.

In June 1915, Enver Pasha, the Minister of War and de facto head of the government of the Ottoman Empire, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Talaat Pasha, instruct the civil authorities to begin the deportation of Armenians to Mesopotamia. This order meant almost certain death - the lands in Mesopotamia were poor, there was a serious shortage of fresh water, and it was impossible to immediately settle 1.5 million people there.

The deported Armenians of the Trebizond and Erzurum vilayets were driven along the Euphrates valley to the Kemakh gorge. On June 8, 9, 10, 1915, defenseless people in the gorge were attacked by Turkish soldiers and Kurds. After the robbery, almost all the Armenians were slaughtered, only a few managed to escape. On the fourth day, a “noble” detachment was sent out, officially to “punish” the Kurds. This detachment finished off those who remained alive.

In the autumn of 1915, columns of emaciated and ragged women and children moved along the country's roads. Columns of deportees flocked to Aleppo, from where the few survivors were sent to the deserts of Syria, where most of them died.

The official authorities of the Ottoman Empire made attempts to hide the scale and final goal actions, but foreign consuls and missionaries sent messages about the atrocities taking place in Turkey. This forced the Young Turks to act more cautiously. In August 1915, on the advice of the Germans, Turkish authorities prohibited the killing of Armenians in places where American consuls could see it. In November of the same year, Jemal Pasha tried to put on trial the director and professors of the German school in Aleppo, thanks to whom the world became aware of the deportations and massacres of Armenians in Cilicia. In January 1916, a circular was sent out prohibiting photographs of the bodies of the dead.

In the spring of 1916, due to the difficult situation on all fronts, the Young Turks decided to speed up the process of destruction. It included previously deported Armenians, located, as a rule, in desert areas. At the same time, the Turkish authorities are suppressing any attempts by neutral countries to provide humanitarian assistance to the Armenians dying in the deserts.

In June 1916, the authorities dismissed the governor of Der-Zor, Ali Suad, an Arab by nationality, for refusing to destroy the deported Armenians. Salih Zeki, known for his ruthlessness, was appointed in his place. With the arrival of Zeki, the process of extermination of the deportees accelerated even more.

By the fall of 1916, the world already knew about the massacre of Armenians. The scale of what had happened was unknown, and reports of Turkish atrocities were received with some distrust, but it was clear that something hitherto unseen had happened in the Ottoman Empire. At the request of the Turkish Minister of War Enver Pasha, the German ambassador Count Wolf-Metternich was recalled from Constantinople: the Young Turks felt that he was protesting too actively against the massacre of the Armenians.

US President Woodrow Wilson declared October 8 and 9 as Days of Relief for Armenia: on these days, the entire country collected donations to help Armenian refugees.

In 1917, the situation on the Caucasian front changed dramatically. February Revolution, failures on Eastern Front, the active work of Bolshevik emissaries to disintegrate the army led to a sharp decrease in the combat effectiveness of the Russian army. After the October coup, the Russian military command was forced to sign a truce with the Turks. Taking advantage of the subsequent collapse of the front and the disorderly withdrawal of Russian troops, in February 1918, Turkish troops occupied Erzurum, Kars and reached Batum. The advancing Turks mercilessly exterminated the Armenians and Assyrians. The only obstacle that somehow restrained the advance of the Turks were the Armenian volunteer detachments covering the retreat of thousands of refugees.

On October 30, 1918, the Turkish government signed the Mudros Truce with the Entente countries, according to which, among other things, the Turkish side pledged to return deported Armenians and withdraw troops from Transcaucasia and Cilicia. The articles, which directly affected the interests of Armenia, stated that all prisoners of war and interned Armenians should be collected in Constantinople so that they could be handed over to the allies without any conditions. Article 24 had the following content: "In the event of unrest in one of the Armenian vilayets, the allies reserve the right to occupy part of it".

After the signing of the treaty, the new Turkish government, under pressure from the international community, began trials against the organizers of the genocide. In 1919–1920 Extraordinary military tribunals were formed in the country to investigate the crimes of the Young Turks. By that time, the entire Young Turk elite was on the run: Talaat, Enver, Dzhemal and others, taking the party cash, left Turkey. They were sentenced to death in absentia, but only a few lower-ranking criminals were punished.

Operation Nemesis

In October 1919, at the IX Congress of the Dashnaktsutyun party in Yerevan, on the initiative of Shaan Natali, a decision was made to carry out the punitive operation “Nemesis”. A list of 650 persons involved in the massacre of Armenians was compiled, from which 41 people were selected as the main culprits. To carry out the operation, a Responsible Authority (headed by the Envoy of the Republic of Armenia to the USA Armen Garo) and a Special Fund (headed by Shaan Satchaklyan) were formed.

As part of Operation Nemesis in 1920-1922, Talaat Pasha, Jemal Pasha, Said Halim and some other Young Turk leaders who fled from justice were hunted down and killed.

Enver was killed in Central Asia in a skirmish with a detachment of Red Army soldiers under the command of the Armenian Melkumov (a former member of the Hunchak Party). Dr. Nazim and Javid Bey (Minister of Finance of the Young Turk Government) were executed in Turkey on charges of participating in a conspiracy against Mustafa Kemal, the founder of the Turkish Republic.

The situation of Armenians after the First World War

After the Truce of Mudros, Armenians who survived the pogroms and deportations began to return to Cilicia, attracted by the promises of the allies, primarily France, to assist in the creation of Armenian autonomy. However, the emergence of the Armenian state entity ran counter to the plans of the Kemalists. The policy of France, which feared that England would become too strong in the region, changed towards greater support for Turkey as opposed to Greece, which was supported by England.

In January 1920, Kemalist troops began an operation to exterminate the Armenians of Cilicia. After heavy and bloody defensive battles that lasted in some areas for more than a year, the few surviving Armenians were forced to emigrate, mainly to French-mandated Syria.

In 1922–23 A conference on the Middle East issue was held in Lausanne (Switzerland), in which Great Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and a number of other countries participated. The conference ended with the signing of a series of treaties, among which was a peace treaty between the Republic of Turkey and the Allied Powers, defining the borders of modern Turkey. In the final version of the treaty, the Armenian issue was not mentioned at all.

Data on the number of victims

In August 1915, Enver Pasha reported 300,000 Armenian dead. At the same time, according to the German missionary Johannes Lepsius, about 1 million Armenians were killed. In 1919, Lepsius revised his estimate to 1,100,000. According to him, only during the Ottoman invasion of Transcaucasia in 1918, from 50 to 100 thousand Armenians were killed. On December 20, 1915, the German consul in Aleppo, Rössler, informed the Reich Chancellor that, based on the general estimate of the Armenian population of 2.5 million, the death toll could very likely reach 800,000, possibly higher. At the same time, he noted that if the estimate is based on the Armenian population of 1.5 million people, then the number of deaths should be proportionally reduced (that is, the estimate of the number of deaths will be 480,000). According to estimates by British historian and cultural critic Arnold Toynbee, published in 1916, about 600,000 Armenians died. The German Methodist missionary Ernst Sommer estimated the number of deportees at 1,400,000.

Modern estimates of the number of victims vary from 200,000 (some Turkish sources) to over 2,000,000 Armenians (some Armenian sources). American historian of Armenian origin Ronald Suny indicates as a range of estimates figures from several hundred thousand to 1.5 million. According to the Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, the most conservative estimates indicate the number of victims is about 500,000, and the highest is the estimate of Armenian scientists at 1. 5 million. The Encyclopedia of Genocide, published by Israeli sociologist and specialist in the history of genocides Israel Charney, reports the extermination of up to 1.5 million Armenians. According to American historian Richard Hovhannisyan, until recently the most common estimate was 1,500,000, but recently, as a result of political pressure from Turkey, this estimate has been revised downwards.

Additionally, according to Johannes Lepsius, between 250,000 and 300,000 Armenians were forcibly converted to Islam, which led to protests from some Muslim leaders. Thus, the Mufti of Kutahya declared the forced conversion of Armenians to be contrary to Islam. Forced conversion to Islam had the political goals of destroying Armenian identity and reducing the number of Armenians in order to undermine the basis for demands for autonomy or independence on the part of Armenians.

Recognition of the Armenian genocide

UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights 18 June 1987 - European Parliament decided to recognize the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire of 1915-1917 and to appeal to the Council of Europe to put pressure on Turkey to recognize the genocide.

18 June 1987 - Council of Europe decided that the refusal of today's Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915, carried out by the government of the Young Turks, becomes an insurmountable obstacle to Turkey's accession to the Council of Europe.

Italy - 33 Italian cities recognized the genocide of the Armenian people in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. The city council of Bagnocapaglio was the first to do this on July 17, 1997. To date, these include Lugo, Fusignano, S. Azuta Sul, Santerno, Cotignola, Molarolo, Russi, Conselice, Camponozara, Padova and others. The issue of recognition of the Armenian genocide is on the agenda of the Italian parliament. It was discussed at a meeting on April 3, 2000.

France - On May 29, 1998, the French National Assembly adopted a bill recognizing the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

On November 7, 2000, the French Senate voted for the resolution on the Armenian genocide. The senators, however, slightly changed the text of the resolution, replacing the original “France officially recognizes the fact of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey” with “France officially recognizes that the Armenians were victims of the 1915 genocide.” On January 18, 2001, the French National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution according to which France recognizes the fact of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1923.

December 22, 2011 lower house of parliament of France approved the draft law on criminal penalties for denying the Armenian genocide . On January 6, incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent the bill to the Senate for approval . However, the constitutional commission of the Senate on January 18, 2012 rejected the bill on criminal liability for denying the Armenian genocide , considering the text unacceptable.

On October 14, 2016, the French Senate passed a bill to criminalize the denial of all crimes committed against humanity, listing among them the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Belgium - in March 1998, the Belgian Senate adopted a resolution according to which the fact of the Armenian genocide in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey was recognized and appealed to the government of modern Turkey to also recognize it.

Switzerland - in the Swiss parliament the issue of recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915 was periodically raised by a parliamentary group headed by Angelina Fankewatzer.

On December 16, 2003, the Swiss parliament voted to officially recognize the killing of Armenians in eastern Turkey during and after World War I as genocide.

Russia - On April 14, 1995, the State Duma adopted a statement condemning the organizers of the Armenian genocide of 1915-1922. and expressing gratitude to the Armenian people, as well as recognizing April 24 as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Canada - On April 23, 1996, on the eve of the 81st anniversary of the Armenian genocide, on the proposal of a group of Quebec parliamentarians, the Canadian Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. “The House of Commons, on the occasion of the 81st anniversary of the tragedy that claimed the lives of almost one and a half million Armenians, and in recognition of other crimes against humanity, decides to consider the week from April 20 to 27 as the Week of Remembrance for the Victims of Inhumane Treatment of Man to Man,” the resolution states.

Lebanon - On April 3, 1997, the National Assembly of Lebanon adopted a resolution recognizing April 24 as the Day of Remembrance of the Tragic Massacre of the Armenian People. The resolution calls on the Lebanese people to be united with the Armenian people on April 24. On May 12, 2000, the Lebanese Parliament recognized and condemned the genocide committed against the Armenian people by the Ottoman authorities in 1915.

Uruguay - On April 20, 1965, the Main Assembly of the Uruguayan Senate and the House of Representatives adopted the law “On the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide.”

Argentina - On April 16, 1998, the Buenos Aires legislature adopted a memorandum expressing solidarity with the Armenian community of Argentina commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. On April 22, 1998, the Argentine Senate adopted a statement condemning genocide of any kind as a crime against humanity. In the same statement, the Senate expresses its solidarity with all national minorities who were victims of genocide, especially emphasizing its concern about the impunity of the perpetrators of the genocide. At the basis of the statement, examples of the massacre of Armenians, Jews, Kurds, Palestinians, Roma and many peoples of Africa are given as manifestations of genocide.

Greece - On April 25, 1996, the Greek Parliament decided to recognize April 24 as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Armenian People carried out by Ottoman Turkey in 1915.

Australia - On April 17, 1997, the parliament of the South Australian state of New Wales adopted a resolution in which, meeting the local Armenian diaspora, condemned the events that occurred on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, qualifying them as the first genocide in the 20th century, recognized April 24 as the Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Victims and called on the Australian government to take steps towards official recognition of the Armenian genocide. On April 29, 1998, the Legislative Assembly of the same state decided to erect a memorial obelisk in the parliament building to perpetuate the memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

USA - On October 4, 2000, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the US Congress adopted resolution No. 596, recognizing the fact of the genocide of the Armenian people in Turkey in 1915-1923.

At various times, 43 states and the District of Columbia recognized the Armenian genocide. The list of states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington , Wisconsin, Indiana.

Sweden - On March 29, 2000, the Swedish Parliament approved the appeal of the Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Relations, insisting on condemnation and recognition of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

Slovakia - On November 30, 2004, the National Assembly of Slovakia recognized the fact of the Armenian genocide .

Poland - On April 19, 2005, the Polish Sejm recognized the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. The parliament statement noted that “respecting the memory of the victims of this crime and condemning it is the responsibility of all humanity, all states and people of good will.”

Venezuela- On July 14, 2005, the Venezuelan Parliament announced its recognition of the Armenian genocide, noting: “It is 90 years since the first genocide in the twentieth century was committed, which was pre-planned and carried out by the Pan-Turkist Young Turks against the Armenians, resulting in the death of 1, 5 million people."

Lithuania- On December 15, 2005, the Seimas of Lithuania adopted a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. “The Sejm, condemning the genocide of the Armenian people committed by the Turks in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, calls on the Turkish Republic to recognize this historical fact,” the document said.

Chile - On July 6, 2007, the Chilean Senate unanimously called on the country's government to condemn the genocide carried out against the Armenian people. “These terrible actions became the first ethnic cleansing of the twentieth century, and much earlier than such actions received their legal formulation, the fact of a gross violation of the human rights of the Armenian people was registered,” the Senate statement noted.

Bolivia - On November 26, 2014, both houses of the Bolivian parliament recognized the Armenian genocide. “On the night of April 24, 1915, the authorities of the Ottoman Empire, the leaders of the Union and Progress party began the arrests and planned expulsion of representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia, political figures, scientists, writers, cultural figures, clergy, doctors, public figures and specialists, and then massacre of the Armenian civilian population on the territory of historical Western Armenia and Anatolia,” the statement said.

Germany - On June 2, 2016, members of the German Bundestag approved a resolution that recognizes the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. On the same day, Türkiye recalled its ambassador from Berlin.

Roman Catholic Church- On April 12, 2015, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis, during mass , dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, called the massacres of Armenians in 1915 the first genocide of the 20th century: “In the last century, humanity experienced three massive and unprecedented tragedies. The first tragedy, which many consider as the “first genocide of the 20th century,” hit the Armenian people.”

Spain- the Armenian genocide was recognized by 12 cities in the country: on July 28, 2016, the city council of Alicante adopted an institutional declaration and publicly condemned the genocide of the Armenian people in Ottoman Turkey; On November 25, 2015, the city of Alsira was recognized as genocide.

Denial of genocide

Most countries in the world have not officially recognized the Armenian genocide. The authorities of the Republic of Turkey actively deny the very fact of the Armenian genocide; they are supported by the authorities of Azerbaijan.

The Turkish authorities categorically refuse to acknowledge the fact of genocide. Turkish historians note that the events of 1915 were in no way ethnic cleansing, and as a result of the clashes, a large number of Turks themselves died at the hands of the Armenians.

According to the Turkish side, there was an Armenian rebellion, and all operations to resettle Armenians were dictated by military necessity. The Turkish side also disputes the numerical data on the number of Armenian deaths and emphasizes the significant number of casualties among Turkish troops and the population during the suppression of the rebellion.

In 2008, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed that the Armenian government create a joint commission of historians to study the events of 1915. The Turkish government has stated that it is ready to open all archives of that period to Armenian historians. To this proposal, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan responded that the development of bilateral relations is a matter for governments, not historians, and proposed the normalization of relations between the two countries without any preconditions. Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian noted in a response statement that “outside Turkey, scientists - Armenians, Turks and others - have studied these problems and made their own independent conclusions. The most famous among them is a letter to Prime Minister Erdogan from the International Association of Genocide Scholars in May 2006 year in which they together and unanimously confirm the fact of genocide and appeal to the Turkish government with a request to recognize the responsibility of the previous government."

In early December 2008, Turkish professors, scientists and some experts began collecting signatures for an open letter apologizing to the Armenian people. “Conscience does not allow us not to recognize the great misfortune of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915,” the letter says.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan criticized the campaign. The head of the Turkish government said that he “does not accept such initiatives.” "We did not commit this crime, we have nothing to apologize for. Whoever is guilty can apologize. However, the Republic of Turkey, the Turkish nation, does not have such problems." Noting that such initiatives by the intelligentsia hinder the settlement of issues between the two states, the French Prime Minister made the following conclusion: “These campaigns are wrong. Approaching issues with good intentions is one thing, but apologizing is something else entirely. This is illogical.”

The Republic of Azerbaijan has shown solidarity with Turkey's position and also denies the fact of the Armenian genocide. Heydar Aliyev stated, speaking about genocide, that nothing like this happened, and all historians know this.

In French public opinion, tendencies also prevail in favor of initiating the organization of a commission to study the tragic events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire. French researcher and writer Yves Benard, on his personal resource Yvesbenard.fr, calls on impartial historians and politicians to study Ottoman and Armenian archives and answer the following questions:

• What was the number of Armenian casualties during the First World War?
• What is the number of Armenian victims who died during the resettlement, and how did they die?
• How many peaceful Turks were killed by Dashnaktsutyun during the same period?
• Was there genocide?

Yves Benard believes that there was a Turkish-Armenian tragedy, but not genocide. And calls for mutual forgiveness and reconciliation between two peoples and two states.

Notes:

1. Genocide // Online Etymology Dictionary.
2. Spingola D. Raphael Lemkin and the Etymology of "Genocide" // Spingola D. The Ruling Elite: Death, Destruction, and Domination. Victoria: Trafford Publishing, 2014. pp. 662-672.
3. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, December 9, 1948 // Collection of international treaties. T.1, part 2. Universal contracts. UN. N.Y., Geneve, 1994.
4. Armenian genocide in Turkey: a brief historical overview // Genocide.ru, 06.08.2007.
5. Berlin Treatise // Official website of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University.
6. Cyprus Convention // "Academician".
7. Bénard Y. Génocide arménien, et si on nous avait menti? Essai. Paris, 2009.
8. Kinross L. The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire. M.: Kron-press, 1999.
9. Armenian genocide, 1915 // Armtown, 04/22/2011.
10. Jemal Pasha // Genocide.ru.
11. Reds. Part twenty-nine. Between the Kemalists and the Bolsheviks // ArAcH.
12. Switzerland recognized the killings of Armenians as genocide // BBC Russian Service, 12/17/2003.
13. International Affirmation of the Armenian Genocide // Armenian National Institute. Washington; The US state of Indiana recognized the Armenian Genocide // Hayernaysor.am, 11/06/2017.
14. Who recognized the Armenian genocide of 1915 // Armenika.
15. Decision of the Parliament of the Slovak Republic // Genocide.org.ua .
16. Poland Parliament Resolution // Armenian National Institute. Washington.
17. National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Resolution A-56 07.14.05 // Genocide.org.ua
18. Lithuania Assembly Resolution // Armenian National Institute. Washington.
19. The Chilean Senate adopted a document condemning the Armenian genocide // RIA Novosti, 06.06.2007.
20. Bolivia recognizes and condemns the Armenian genocide // Website of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, 12/01/2014.
21. Türkei zieht Botschafter aus Berlin ab // Bild.de, 02.06.2016.
22. The Prime Minister of Turkey is not going to apologize for the Armenian genocide // Izvestia, 12/18/2008.
23. Erdogan called the position of the Armenian diaspora “cheap political lobbying” // Armtown, 11/14/2008.
24. L. Sycheva: Türkiye yesterday and today. Are claims to the role of leader of the Turkic world justified // Central Asia, 06.24.2010.
25. Armenian genocide: not recognized by Turkey and Azerbaijan // Radio Liberty, 02.17.2001.

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I want to live in a big country
There is no such thing, you need to create it
There is a desire, the main thing is to manage
And I will surely get tired of exterminating the people.
Timur Valois "The Mad King"

Euphrates Valley…Kemah Gorge. This is a deep and steep canyon, where the river turns into a rapid. This insignificant piece of land, under the scorching desert sun, became the last stop for hundreds of thousands of Armenians. Human madness lasted three days. Satan showed his bestial grin; he ruled the roost at that time. Hundreds of thousands human lives, thousands of children, women...
These events took place in 1915, when the Armenian people were subjected to genocide, about 1.5 million people were killed. The defenseless people were torn to pieces by the Turks and bloodthirsty Kurds.
The bloody drama was preceded by a whole chain of events, and until very recently the poor Armenian people still hoped for salvation.

"Unity and Progress"?

The Armenian people lived in the valleys, were engaged in agriculture, were successful businessmen, and had good teachers and doctors. They were often attacked by the Kurds, who played a terrible role in all the Armenian pogroms, including in 1915. Armenia is a strategically important country. Throughout the history of wars, many conquerors have tried to capture the North Caucasus as an important geographical object. The same Timur, when he moved his army to the North Caucasus, dealt with the peoples living in those territories where the great conqueror set foot; many peoples fled (for example, Ossetians) from their ancestral places. Any forced migration of ethnic groups in the past will lead to armed ethnic conflicts in the future.
Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire, which, like a colossus with feet of clay, lived out its last days. Many contemporaries of that time said that they had not met a single Armenian who did not know Turkish. This only shows how closely the Armenian people were tied to the Ottoman Empire.
But what were the Armenian people guilty of, why were they subjected to such terrible trials? Why does the dominant nation always try to infringe on the rights of national minorities? If we are realistic, then always interested people there was a class that had money and was rich, for example, the Turkish effendi were the richest caste of that time, and the Turkish people themselves were illiterate, typical Asian people of that time. It is not difficult to create the image of an enemy and incite hatred. But every nation has the right to its existence and survival, the preservation of its culture and traditions.
The saddest thing is that history has taught nothing, the same Germans condemned the massacre of Armenians, but in the end, there is no need to describe what happened on Kristallnacht and in the Auschwitz and Dachau camps. Looking back, we find that already in the 1st century AD, about a million Jews were subjected to genocide, when Roman troops took Jerusalem; according to the laws of that time, all residents of the city had to be killed. According to Tacitus, about 600 thousand Jews lived in Jerusalem, according to another historian Josephus, about 1 million.
The Armenians were not the last on the “list of the chosen ones”; the same fate was prepared for the Greeks and Bulgarians. They wanted to exterminate the latter as a nation through assimilation.
At that time, in all of Western Asia there were no people who could resist Armenian education; they were engaged in crafts, trade, built bridges to European progress, were excellent doctors and teachers. The empire was falling apart, the sultans were unable to govern the state, their reign turned into agony. They could not forgive the Armenians that their prosperity was growing, that the Armenian people were getting richer, that the Armenian people were increasing the level of education in European institutions.
Turkey was indeed very weak at that time, it was necessary to abandon old methods, but most of all, national dignity was hurt that the Turks were not able to show independence for creation. And then there are the people who constantly declare to the whole world that they are being exterminated.
In 1878, at the Berlin Congress, under pressure from the West, Turkey was supposed to provide a normal life for the Christian population within the empire, but Turkey did nothing.
The Armenians expected extermination every day; the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid was bloody. When internal political crises occur in a country, in fact, uprisings were expected in some parts of the country, so that they did not happen, the people did not raise their heads too high, the empire was constantly shaken by repressions. You can, if you want to draw an analogy with Russia, in order to distract people from economic and political problems, Jewish pogroms were organized. To incite religious hatred, sabotage was attributed to the Armenians; the Muslim people went into a frenzy when many “brothers in faith” were killed as a result of sabotage. Again I would like to give an example from Russian history, when there was the so-called “Beilis Case”, when the Jew Beilis was accused of the ritual murder of a 12-year-old boy.
In 1906, a revolution broke out in Thessaloniki, uprisings broke out in Albania and Thrace, the peoples of these regions sought to free themselves from the Ottoman yoke. The Turkish government has reached a dead end. And in Macedonia, young Turkish officers rebelled, and they were joined by generals and many spiritual leaders. The army was marched into the mountains, and an ultimatum was issued that if the government did not resign, the troops would enter Constantinople. What is most remarkable is that Abdul-Hamid failed and became the head of the revolutionary committee. This military mutiny is rightly called one of the most amazing. The rebel officers and the entire movement itself are usually called the Young Turks.
At that bright time, the Greeks, Turks and Armenians were like brothers; together they rejoiced at new events and looked forward to changes in life.

Thanks to his financial capabilities, Abdul Hamid raised the country against the Young Turks in order to discredit their rule, the first mass genocide in the history of the Armenian people was committed, which claimed the lives of more than 200 thousand people. Men had their meat torn out and thrown to dogs, and thousands were burned alive. The Young Turks were forced to flee, but then an army came out under the command of Mehmet Shovket Pasha, which saved the country, it moved to Constantinople and captured the palace. Abdul Hamid was exiled to Thessaloniki, his place was taken by his brother Mehmed Reshad.
An important point is that the terrible extermination contributed to the formation of the Armenian party "Dushnaktsutyun", which was guided democratic principles. This party had a lot in common with the Young Turks “Unity and Progress” party; rich Armenian leaders helped those who, in fact, as history will show, were simply eager for power. It is also important that the Armenian people helped the Young Turks; when Abdul Hamid’s people were looking for revolutionaries, the Armenians hid them among themselves. By helping them, the Armenians believed and hoped for better life, subsequently the Young Turks will thank them... in the Kemakh gorge.
In 1911, the Young Turks deceived the Armenians and did not give them the promised 10 seats in parliament, but the Armenians accepted this, even when Turkey entered the First World War in 1914, the Armenians considered themselves defenders of the Turkish fatherland.
The parliament was formed only from Turks, there were no Arabs, no Greeks, and even less Armenians. No one could know what was going on in the Committee. A dictatorship began in Turkey, and nationalist sentiments grew in Turkish society. The presence of incompetent people in the government could not give the country development.

Extermination according to plan

- The gray of your hair inspires confidence,
You know a lot, you reject ignorance.
I have a problem, can you tell me the answer?
- Get rid of the problem, there will be no headache!
Timur Valois "The Wisdom of Gray Hair"

What else can you call the craving for the birth of an empire, the conquest of the world? I use the lexical richness of the Russian language, you can choose a lot of words, but we will focus on the generally accepted ones - imperial ambitions or great-power chauvinism. Unfortunately, if a person has a desire to create an empire, even if he does not create one, then many lives will be laid on the foundation of an initially fragile building.
Germany already had its own thoughts about Turkey, but the incessant massacres forced it to send its representatives in order to reason with the Turkish government. Anvar Pasha, the leader of the Young Turks, amazed everyone by showing what an amateur he was in political affairs, and he saw nothing more than conquering the world. The Turkish Alexander the Great already saw the borders of the future Turkey next to China.
Mass agitation and calls for ethnic revival began. Something from the Aryan Nation series, only starring the Turks. The struggle for national revival began with enthusiasm, poets were commissioned to write poems about the power and strength of the Turkish people, company signs in European languages, even German, were removed in Constantinople. The Greek and Armenian press were punished with fines, and then they were closed altogether. They wanted to make the city a kind of sacred place for all Turks.
The Armenians, as the most defenseless people, were the first to face reprisals, then the turn had to come to the Jews and Greeks. Then, if Germany loses the war, expel all the Germans. They didn’t forget about the Arabs either, but after thinking they decided to forget anyway, because even though they were amateurs in politics, having analyzed that the Arab world would not allow impudent treatment of itself and could put an end to the emerging ghostly empire of the Turks, they decided not to touch the Arabs. Of course, the religious issue also played a role, the Koran forbids Muslims from war with each other, the war of brother against brother, the one who hits his brother will burn forever in hell. It is not possible to abolish the laws of religion; if you give up religion and neglect it, then all your plans will fail, especially in the Muslim world, where for many there are only laws written in the Koran. Thus, leaving the Arabs alone, deciding once and for all to put an end to the presence of the Christian religion in their country, the authorities decided to deport the Armenians. By arresting 600 Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople and expelling everyone from Anatolia, the Turkish government deprived the Armenian people of leaders.
On April 21, 1915, a plan for the extermination of Armenians had already been drawn up, and both military and civilians received it.

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§ 1. Beginning of the First World War. Progress of military operations on the Caucasian front

On August 1, 1914, the First World War. The war was fought between coalitions: the Entente (England, France, Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey) for the redistribution of spheres of influence in the world. Most states of the world took part in the war, voluntarily or forcedly, which is why the war got its name.

During the war, Ottoman Turkey sought to implement the “Pan-Turkism” program - to annex territories inhabited by Turkic peoples, including Transcaucasia, the southern regions of Russia and Central Asia to Altai. In turn, Russia sought to annex the territory of Western Armenia, seize the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and access the Mediterranean Sea. Fighting between the two coalitions unfolded on many fronts in Europe, Asia and Africa.

On the Caucasian front, the Turks concentrated an army of 300 thousand, led by Minister of War Enver. In October 1914, Turkish troops launched an offensive and managed to capture some border territories, and also invaded the western regions of Iran. In the winter months, during the battles near Sarykamysh, Russian troops defeated superior Turkish forces and drove them out of Iran. During 1915, military operations continued with varying success. At the beginning of 1916, Russian troops launched a large-scale offensive and, having defeated the enemy, captured Bayazet, Mush, Alashkert, the large city of Erzurum and an important port on the Black Sea coast of Trapizon. During 1917, there were no active military operations on the Caucasian Front. The demoralized Turkish troops did not attempt to launch a new offensive, and the February and October revolutions of 1917 in Russia and changes in government did not give the Russian command the opportunity to develop an offensive. On December 5, 1917, a truce was concluded between the Russian and Turkish commands.

§ 2. Armenian volunteer movement. Armenian battalions

The Armenian people took an active part in the First World War on the side of the Entente countries. In Russia, about 200 thousand Armenians were drafted into the army. More than 50,000 Armenians fought in the armies of other countries. Since the aggressive plans of tsarism coincided with the desire of the Armenian people to liberate the territories of Western Armenia from the Turkish yoke, the Armenian political parties conducted active propaganda for the organization of volunteer detachments with a total number of about 10 thousand people.

The first detachment was commanded by the outstanding leader of the liberation movement, national hero Andranik Ozanyan, who later received the rank of general of the Russian army. The commanders of other detachments were Dro, Hamazasp, Keri, Vardan, Arshak Dzhanpoladyan, Hovsep Argutyan and others. The commander of the VI detachment subsequently became Gayk Bzhshkyan - Guy, a later famous commander of the Red Army. Armenians - volunteers from various regions of Russia and even from other countries - signed up for the detachments. Armenian troops showed courage and participated in all major battles for the liberation of Western Armenia.

The tsarist government initially encouraged the volunteer movement of the Armenians in every possible way, until the defeat of the Turkish armies became obvious. Fearing that the Armenian detachments could serve as the basis for a national army, the command of the Caucasian Front in the summer of 1916 reorganized the volunteer detachments into the 5th rifle battalion of the Russian army.

§ 3. Armenian genocide of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire

In 1915-1918 The Young Turk government of Turkey planned and carried out the genocide of the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the forced eviction of Armenians from their historical homeland and massacres, 1.5 million people died.

Back in 1911 in Thessaloniki, at a secret meeting of the Young Turk party, it was decided to Turkify all subjects of the Muslim faith, and destroy all Christians. With the outbreak of World War I, the Young Turk government decided to take advantage of the favorable international situation and carry out its long-planned plans.

The genocide was carried out according to a specific plan. Firstly, men liable for military service were drafted into the army in order to deprive the Armenian population of the possibility of resistance. They were used as work units and were gradually destroyed. Secondly, the Armenian intelligentsia, which could organize and lead the resistance of the Armenian population, was destroyed. In March-April 1915, more than 600 people were arrested: parliament members Onik Vramyan and Grigor Zokhrap, writers Varuzhan, Siamanto, Ruben Sevak, composer and musicologist Komitas. On the way to their place of exile, they were subjected to insults and humiliation. Many of them died along the way, and the survivors were subsequently brutally murdered. On April 24, 1915, the Young Turk authorities executed 20 Armenian political prisoners. An eyewitness to these atrocities, the famous composer Komitas lost his mind.

After this, the Young Turk authorities began to evict and exterminate already defenseless children, old people and women. All property of the Armenians was plundered. On the way to the place of exile, the Armenians were subjected to new atrocities: the weak were killed, women were raped or kidnapped for harems, children died from hunger and thirst. Of the total number of exiled Armenians, barely a tenth reached the place of exile - the Der el-Zor desert in Mesopotamia. Of the 2.5 million Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, 1.5 million were destroyed, and the rest scattered throughout the world.

Part of the Armenian population was able to escape thanks to the help of Russian troops and, abandoning everything, fled from their homes to the borders of the Russian Empire. Some Armenian refugees found salvation in Arab countries, Iran and other countries. Many of them, after the defeat of the Turkish troops, returned to their homeland, but were subjected to new atrocities and destruction. About 200 thousand Armenians were forcibly Turkified. Many thousands of Armenian orphans were rescued by American charitable and missionary organizations operating in the Middle East.

After the defeat in the war and the flight of the Young Turk leaders, the new government of Ottoman Turkey in 1920 conducted an investigation into the crimes of the previous government. For planning and carrying out the Armenian genocide, the military tribunal in Constantinople convicted and sentenced to death in absentia Taleat (Prime Minister), Enver (Minister of War), Cemal (Minister of Internal Affairs) and Behaeddin Shakir (Secretary of the Central Committee of the Young Turks Party). Their sentence was carried out by Armenian avengers.

The Young Turk leaders fled Turkey after their defeat in the war and found refuge in Germany and other countries. But they failed to escape vengeance.

Soghomon Tehlirian shot Taleat on March 15, 1921 in Berlin. The German court, having examined the case, acquitted Tehlirian.

Petros Ter-Petrosyan and Artashes Gevorkyan killed Dzhemal in Tiflis on July 25, 1922.

Arshavir Shikaryan and Aram Yerkanyan shot Behaeddin Shakir on April 17, 1922 in Berlin.

Enver was killed in August 1922 in Central Asia.

§ 4. Heroic self-defense of the Armenian population

During the genocide of 1915, the Armenian population of some regions, through heroic self-defense, was able to escape or die with honor - with arms in hand.

For more than a month, the residents of the city of Van and nearby villages heroically defended themselves against regular Turkish troops. Self-defense was led by Armenak Yekaryan, Aram Manukyan, Panos Terlemazyan and others. All Armenian political parties acted in concert. They were saved from final death by the Russian army's offensive on Van in May 1915. Due to the forced retreat of Russian troops, 200 thousand residents of the Van vilayet were also forced to leave their homeland along with Russian troops to escape new massacres.

The highlanders of Sasun defended themselves against regular Turkish troops for almost a year. The siege ring gradually tightened, and most of the population was slaughtered. The entry of the Russian army into Mush in February 1916 saved the people of Sasun from final destruction. Of the 50 thousand population of Sasun, about a tenth was saved, and they were forced to leave their homeland and move within the Russian Empire.

The Armenian population of the town of Shapin-Garaisar, having received an order to relocate, took up arms and fortified themselves in a nearby dilapidated fortress. For 27 days, the Armenians repelled attacks by regular Turkish forces. When food and ammunition were already running out, it was decided to try to break out of the encirclement. About a thousand people were saved. Those who remained were brutally killed.

The defenders of Musa-Lera showed an example of heroic self-defense. Having received an order to evict, the 5 thousand Armenian population of seven villages in the Suetia region (on the shore Mediterranean Sea, near Antioch) decided to defend itself and fortified itself on Mount Musa. Self-defense was led by Tigran Andreasyan and others. For a month and a half there were unequal battles with Turkish troops armed with artillery. The French cruiser Guichen noticed an Armenian call for help, and on September 10, 1915, the remaining 4,058 Armenians were transported to Egypt on French and English ships. The story of this heroic self-defense is described in the novel “40 Days of Musa Dagh” by the Austrian writer Franz Werfel.

The last source of heroism was the self-defense of the population of the Armenian quarter of the city of Edesia, which lasted from September 29 to November 15, 1915. All the men died with weapons in their hands, and the surviving 15 thousand women and children were exiled by the Young Turk authorities to the deserts of Mesopotamia.

Foreigners who witnessed the genocide of 1915-1916 condemned this crime and left descriptions of the atrocities carried out by the Young Turk authorities against the Armenian population. They also refuted the false accusations of the Turkish authorities about the alleged uprising of the Armenians. Johann Lepsius, Anatole France, Henry Morgenthau, Maxim Gorky, Valery Bryusov and many others raised their voices against the first genocide in the history of the 20th century and the atrocities taking place. Nowadays, the parliaments of many countries have already recognized and condemned the genocide of the Armenian people committed by the Young Turks.

§ 5. Consequences of genocide

During the 1915 Genocide, the Armenian population was barbarously exterminated in its historical homeland. Responsibility for the Genocide of the Armenian population lies with the leaders of the Young Turks party. Turkish Prime Minister Taleat subsequently cynically declared that the “Armenian Question” no longer existed, since there were no more Armenians, and that he had done more in three months to resolve the “Armenian Question” than Sultan Abdul Hamid had done in 30 years of his reign. .

Kurdish tribes also actively participated in the extermination of the Armenian population, trying to seize Armenian territories and plunder the property of the Armenians. The German government and command are also responsible for the Armenian genocide. Many German officers commanded Turkish units that took part in the genocide. The Entente powers are also to blame for what happened. They did nothing to stop the mass extermination of the Armenian population by the Young Turk authorities.

During the genocide, more than 2 thousand Armenian villages, the same number of churches and monasteries, and Armenian neighborhoods in more than 60 cities were destroyed. The Young Turk government appropriated the valuables and deposits plundered from the Armenian population.

After the Genocide of 1915, there was practically no Armenian population left in Western Armenia.

§ 6. Culture of Armenia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries

Before the Genocide of 1915, Armenian culture experienced significant growth. This was associated with the rise of the liberation movement, the awakening of national self-awareness, and the development of capitalist relations both in Armenia itself and in those countries where a significant number of the Armenian population lived compactly. The division of Armenia into two parts - Western and Eastern - was reflected in the development of two independent directions in Armenian culture: Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian. The major centers of Armenian culture were Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tiflis, Baku, Constantinople, Izmir, Venice, Paris and other cities, where a significant part of the Armenian intelligentsia was concentrated.

Armenian educational institutions made a huge contribution to the development of Armenian culture. In Eastern Armenia, in the urban centers of Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus and in some cities of Russia (Rostov-on-Don, Astrakhan) at the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 300 Armenian schools, male and female gymnasiums. In some rural areas there were primary schools where they taught reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as the Russian language.

About 400 Armenian schools of various levels operated in the cities of Western Armenia and large cities of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian schools did not receive any state subsidies either in the Russian Empire, much less in Ottoman Turkey. These schools existed thanks to the material support of the Armenian Apostolic Church, various public organizations and individual philanthropists. The most famous among Armenian educational institutions were the Nersisyan school in Tiflis, the Gevorkian theological seminary in Etchmiadzin, the Murad-Raphaelian school in Venice and the Lazarus Institute in Moscow.

The development of education greatly contributed to the further development of Armenian periodicals. At the beginning of the 20th century, about 300 Armenian newspapers and magazines of various political trends were published. Some of them were published by Armenian national parties, such as: “Droshak”, “Hnchak”, “Proletariat”, etc. In addition, newspapers and magazines of socio-political and cultural orientation were published.

The main centers of Armenian periodicals at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries were Constantinople and Tiflis. The most popular newspapers published in Tiflis were the newspaper “Mshak” (ed. G. Artsruni), the magazine “Murch” (ed. Av. Arashanyants), in Constantinople - the newspaper “Megu” (ed. Harutyun Svachyan), the newspaper “Masis” (ed. . Karapet Utujyan). Stepanos Nazaryants published the magazine “Hysisapail” (Northern Lights) in Moscow.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Armenian literature experienced rapid flowering. A galaxy of talented poets and novelists appeared in both Eastern and Western Armenia. The main motives of their creativity were patriotism and the dream of seeing their homeland united and free. It is no coincidence that many of the Armenian writers in their work turned to the heroic pages of the rich Armenian history, as an example for inspiration in the struggle for the unification and independence of the country. Thanks to their creativity, two independent literary language: Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian. Poets Rafael Patkanyan, Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, Vahan Teryan, prose poets Avetik Isahakyan, Ghazaros Aghayan, Perch Proshyan, playwright Gabriel Sundukyan, novelists Nardos, Muratsan and others wrote in Eastern Armenian. Poets Petros Duryan, Misak Metsarents, Siamanto, Daniel Varudan, poet, prose writer and playwright Levon Shant, short story writer Grigor Zokhrap, great satirist Hakob Paronyan and others wrote their works in Western Armenian.

An indelible mark on Armenian literature of this period was left by the prose poet Hovhannes Tumanyan and the novelist Raffi.

In his work, O. Tumanyan reworked many folk legends and traditions, glorified national traditions, life and customs of the people. His most famous works are the poems “Anush”, “Maro”, the legends “Akhtmar”, “The Fall of Tmkaberd” and others.

Raffi is known as the author of the historical novels “Samvel”, “Jalaladdin”, “Hent” and others. His novel “Kaytser” (Sparks) enjoyed great success among his contemporaries, where the call was clearly heard for the Armenian people to stand up in the fight for the liberation of their homeland, not really hoping for help from powers.

The social sciences have made significant progress. Professor of the Lazarev Institute Mkrtich Emin published ancient Armenian sources in Russian translation. These same sources in French translation were published in Paris at the expense of the famous Armenian philanthropist, Prime Minister of Egypt Nubar Pasha. A member of the Mkhitarist congregation, Father Ghevond Alishan, wrote major works on the history of Armenia, gave a detailed list and description of the surviving historical monuments, many of which were subsequently destroyed. Grigor Khalatyan published for the first time full story Armenia in Russian. Garegin Srvandztyan, traveling through the regions of Western and Eastern Armenia, collected enormous treasures of Armenian folklore. He has the honor of discovering the recording and the first edition of the text of the Armenian medieval epic “Sasuntsi David”. Research in the field folklore and ancient Armenian literature was studied by the famous scientist Manuk Abeghyan. The famous philologist and linguist Hrachya Acharyan studied the vocabulary of the Armenian language and made comparisons and comparisons of the Armenian language with other Indo-European languages.

The famous historian Nikolai Adonts in 1909, wrote and published in Russian a study on the history of medieval Armenia and Armenian-Byzantine relations. His major work, “Armenia in the Age of Justinian,” published in 1909, has not lost its significance to this day. The famous historian and philologist Leo (Arakel Babakhanyan) wrote works on various issues of Armenian history and literature, and also collected and published documents related to the “Armenian Question”.

Armenian musical art developed. The creativity of folk gusans was raised to new heights by gusan Jivani, gusan Sheram and others. Armenian composers who received a classical education appeared on the stage. Tigran Chukhajyan wrote the first Armenian opera “Arshak the Second”. Composer Armen Tigranyan wrote the opera “Anush” on the theme of the poem of the same name by Hovhannes Tumanyan. The famous composer, musicologist Komitas laid the foundation scientific research folk musical folklore, recorded the music and words of 3 thousand folk songs. Komitas gave concerts and lectures in many European countries, introducing Europeans to the original Armenian folk musical art.

The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries were also marked by the further development of Armenian painting. The famous painter was the famous marine painter Hovhannes Aivazovsky (1817-1900). He lived and worked in Feodosia (in Crimea), and most of his works are devoted to marine themes. His most famous paintings are “The Ninth Wave”, “Noah Descends from Mount Ararat”, “Lake Sevan”, “Massacre of Armenians in Trapizon in 1895” and etc.

Outstanding painters were Gevorg Bashinjagyan, Panos Terlemezyan, Vardges Surenyants.

Vardges Surenyants, in addition to easel painting, was also engaged in mural painting; he painted many Armenian churches in different cities of Russia. His most famous paintings are “Shamiram and Ara the Beautiful” and “Salome”. A copy of his painting “The Armenian Madonna” today adorns the new Cathedral in Yerevan. Forward

Translation from Armenian

1. Persian Meshali Haji Ibrahim said the following:

“In May 1915, Governor Takhsin Bey summoned the Chebashi Amvanli Eyub-ogly Gadyr and, showing him the order received from Constantinople, said: “I entrust the local Armenians to you, bring them unharmed to Kemakh, there the Kurds will attack them and other. For the sake of appearances, you will show that you want to protect them, you will even use weapons once or twice against the attackers, but in the end you will show that you cannot cope with them, you will leave and return.” After thinking a little, Gadyr said: “You order me to take the sheep and lambs tied hand and foot to the slaughter; this is cruelty unbecoming of me; I am a soldier, send me against the enemy, let him either kill me with a bullet and I will fall bravely, or I will defeat him and save my country, and I will never agree to stain my hands in the blood of the innocent.” The governor was very insistent that he carry out the order, but the magnanimous Gadyr flatly refused. Then the governor called Mirza-bey Veransheherli and made him the above proposal. This one also argued that there is no need to kill. Already, he said, you are putting the Armenians in such conditions that they themselves will die along the way, and Mesopotamia is such a hot country that they will not be able to stand it, they will die. But the governor insisted, and Mirza accepted the offer. Mirza fully fulfilled his cruel obligation. Four months later he returned to Erzurum with 360 thousand lire; He gave 90 thousand to Tahsin, 90 thousand to the corps commander Mahmud Kamil, 90 thousand to the defterdar, and the rest to the meherdar, Seifulla and accomplices. However, during the division of this booty, a dispute arose between them, and the governor arrested Mirza. And Mirza threatened to make such revelations that the world would be surprised; then he was released.” Eyub-ogly Gadyr and Mirza Veransheherli personally told this story to the Persian Mashadi Haji Ibrahim.

2. Persian camel driver Kerbalay Ali-Memed said the following: “I was transporting ammunition from Erzincan to Erzurum. One day in June 1915, when I approached the Khotursky Bridge, a stunning sight appeared before my eyes. A countless number of human corpses filled the 12 spans of the large bridge, damming the river so that it changed its course and ran past the bridge. It was terrible to watch; I stood with my caravan for a long time until these corpses floated by and I was able to cross the bridge. But from the bridge to Dzhinis, the entire road was littered with the corpses of old men, women and children, who had already decomposed, swollen and stinking. The stench was so terrible that it was impossible to walk along the road; my two camel drivers got sick and died from this stench, and I was forced to change my path. These were victims and traces of an unheard of and terrible crime. And all these were the corpses of Armenians, unfortunate Armenians.”

3. Alaftar Ibrahim Efendi said the following: “On the eviction of Armenians from Constantinople, a very strict and urgent order was received with the following content: to slaughter without mercy all men from 14 to 65 years of age, do not touch children, old people and women, but leave and convert into Mohammedanism."

TsGIA Arm, SSR, f. 57, op. 1, d, 632, l. 17-18.

based on “The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire”, edited by M.G. Nersisyan, M. 1982, pp. 311-313