Turkish genocide of Armenians 1915 causes. Definition and reasons. Failed Call to Arms in the West

Karen Vrtanesyan

HISTORY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 1853-1923

The date of April 24, 1915 occupies a special place not only in the history of the Armenian genocide, but also in the history of the Armenian people as a whole. It was on this day that mass arrests of the Armenian intellectual, religious, economic and political elite, which led to the complete destruction of a whole galaxy of prominent figures of Armenian culture. The lists of those subject to arrest included people of different political views and professions: writers, artists, musicians, teachers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, businessmen, political and religious leaders; the only thing they had in common was their nationality and position in society. Arrests of prominent figures of the Armenian community continued in the Turkish capital with short breaks until the end of May, while no charges were brought against the detainees.

Back in February-March, information began to come from the provinces about the arrests and murders of Armenian leaders, but it was with the arrests in Constantinople that the full-scale annihilation of the Armenian elite throughout the country began. Thus, according to the Americans, in April-May, Armenian professors and cultural figures were arrested in Van; in Harput, the first (in June-July of the same year) were the representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia who fell under the blow of the genocidal machine. The purpose of the action was to decapitate the Armenians, to deprive the people of even the slightest chance to organize themselves in the face of the danger of complete extermination. The scheme was simple but effective: the representatives of the elite were liquidated first, after that the destruction of the rest began.

In Constantinople, they tried to carry out arrests without too much fuss: a policeman in civilian clothes usually came and asked the owner of the house to go to the police station “literally for five minutes to answer a few questions.” Others were visited at night, lifted out of bed and taken straight in their pajamas and slippers to the central prison of the city. Many people who had nothing to do with politics and who considered themselves loyal subjects of the Ottoman Empire could not even imagine what awaited them in the very near future. There were cases when those whom the police did not find at home came to the police themselves, wondering what the authorities suddenly needed from them.

Arrested on April 24, Dr. Tigran Allahverdi, for example, was himself a member of the Young Turks party. He repeatedly organized fundraising actions and transferred large sums of money to the party fund. Among those arrested was also Professor Tiran Kelejyan, who taught all his life in Turkish educational institutions and published the Turkish-language newspaper Sabah. Being taken to the internment camp, Kelejyan recognized the head of the camp as one of his former students. He secretly warned the professor that an order had been received signed by Talaat to exterminate the prisoners, and advised him to get out of the camp at any cost. Later, Kelejyan, who failed to do anything to save himself, was killed on the way to Sivas, where he was allegedly sent to face a military tribunal. Of the 291 prisoners of the camp, only forty people survived.

Among these forty was the great Armenian composer and musicologist Komitas. According to rumors, after his arrest, he was allowed to return to Constantinople thanks to the personal intervention of Prince Majid, whose wife he once taught music. However, the upheavals experienced by him during the exile were not in vain: uncertainty about tomorrow, the atmosphere of constant fear that filled the city in those days, an involuntary feeling of guilt for the friends who remained in the camp for certain death, loneliness - all this soon caused Komitas to cloud his mind. He died in 1935 in Paris, having spent the last nineteen years of his life in psychiatric clinics.

In just a few weeks, about 800 prominent Armenians were arrested in Constantinople alone, of which, by the end of the summer, few were left alive. Writers Daniel Varuzhan, Siamanto, Ruben Zardaryan, Ruben Sevak, Artashes Harutyunyan, Tlkatintsi, Yerukhan, Tigran Chekuryan, Levon Shant and dozens of others became victims of the Young Turk terror.

A little later, deputies from the Dashnaktsutyun party in the Ottoman parliament were arrested and killed: Vardges, Khazhak, writer and publicist Grigor Zohrab... The Armenians, who sacrificed so many lives on the altar of liberating Turkey from the sultan's despotism, were now mercilessly exterminated by yesterday's comrades-in-arms in the revolutionary struggle.

Thousands of clergy perished in the flames of the genocide: from simple priests to archbishops. “... Bishop Smbat Saadetyan from Karin, driven away with his flock towards Mesopotamia, was killed by robbers near Kamakh. Archimandrite Gevorg Turyan of Trebizond, exiled by the military court of Karin, was killed on the way; ... Archimandrite Bayberd Anania Azarapetyan was hanged by decision of the local authorities; Archimandrite Musha Vartan Hakobyan died in prison, beaten with sticks; Archimandrite Tigranakert Mkrtich Chlkhatyan died in prison from torture ... ”- the patriarch reports on December 28, 1915 Western Armenians Archbishop Zaven, head of the diocese in America, Archimandrite Veguni.

The blow inflicted on the Armenian people by the Young Turk regime in the spring and summer of 1915 was unprecedented in its destructiveness. That is why Armenians scattered all over the world today celebrate April 24 as the day of commemoration of the victims of the genocide. In Armenia, on this day, tens of thousands of people ascend to the Genocide Memorial on Tsitsernakaberd Hill in Yerevan, mourning services are held in Armenian churches around the world.

List of used literature:

“The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire” - a collection of documents and materials edited by M. G. Nersisyan, 2nd edition. Yerevan: "Hayastan", 1983.
Kirakosyan John, “The Young Turks before the Judgment of History” . Yerevan: "Hayastan", 1989.
Balakian, P., The Burning Tigris. The Armenian Genocide and America's Response. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2003.
Soulahian Kuyumjian, R., Archeology of Madness. Komitas. second edition. Princeton, NJ: Gomidas Institute, 2001.

Every year on April 24, the world celebrates the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide in memory of the victims of the first ethnic extermination in the 20th century, which was carried out in the Ottoman Empire.

On April 24, 1915, representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia were arrested in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, from which the mass extermination of Armenians began.

At the beginning of the 4th century AD, Armenia became the first country in the world in which Christianity was established as the official religion. However, the centuries-old struggle of the Armenian people against the conquerors ended with the loss of their own statehood. For many centuries, the lands where Armenians historically lived were not just in the hands of conquerors, but in the hands of conquerors who professed a different faith.

In the Ottoman Empire, Armenians, not being Muslims, were quite officially treated as second-class people - “dhimmi”. They were forbidden to carry weapons, they were subject to higher taxes and were deprived of the right to testify in court.

Complex inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relations in the Ottoman Empire escalated significantly by late XIX century. A series of Russian-Turkish wars, mostly unsuccessful for the Ottoman Empire, led to the appearance on its territory of a huge number of Muslim refugees from the lost territories - the so-called "Muhajirs".

The Muhajirs were extremely hostile towards Armenian Christians. In turn, by the end of the 19th century, the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, tired of their lack of rights, demanded more and more loudly equalization of rights with the rest of the inhabitants of the empire.

These contradictions were superimposed by the general decline of the Ottoman Empire, which manifested itself in all spheres of life.

Armenians are to blame

The first wave of massacres of Armenians on the territory of the Ottoman Empire took place in 1894-1896. The open resistance of the Armenians to the attempts of the Kurdish leaders to impose tribute on them turned into massacres not only of those who participated in the protests, but also of those who remained on the sidelines. It is generally accepted that the murders of 1894-1896 were not directly sanctioned by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, their victims, according to various estimates, were from 50 to 300 thousand Armenians.

Massacre at Erzurum, 1895 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Public Domain

Periodic local outbreaks of reprisals against Armenians also occurred after the overthrow of the Sultan of Turkey Abdul-Hamid II in 1907 and the Young Turks came to power.

With the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the First world war in the country, slogans began to sound louder and louder about the need for "unity" of all representatives of the Turkish race to oppose the "infidels". In November 1914, jihad was declared, which fueled anti-Christian chauvinism among the Muslim population.

To all this was added the fact that one of the opponents of the Ottoman Empire in the war was Russia, on whose territory a large number of Armenians. The authorities of the Ottoman Empire began to consider their own citizens of Armenian nationality as potential traitors who could help the enemy. Such sentiments were strengthened as more and more failures on the eastern front took place.

After the defeat committed by the Russian troops of the Turkish army in January 1915 near Sarykamysh, one of the leaders of the Young Turks, Ismail Enver, aka Enver Pasha, declared in Istanbul that the defeat was the result of Armenian treason and that it was time to deport the Armenians from the eastern regions, who were threatened with Russian occupation.

As early as February 1915, extraordinary measures were taken against the Ottoman Armenians. 100,000 soldiers of Armenian nationality were disarmed, the right of civilian Armenians to bear arms, introduced in 1908, was abolished.

Destruction technology

The government of the Young Turks planned to carry out the mass deportation of the Armenian population to the desert, where people were doomed to certain death.

Deportation of Armenians along the Baghdad railway. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

On April 24, 1915, the implementation of the plan began from Istanbul, where about 800 representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia were arrested and killed within a few days.

On May 30, 1915, the Majlis of the Ottoman Empire approved the "Law on Deportation", which became the basis for the massacre of Armenians.

The deportation tactic was to initially separate from total number Armenians in one or another settlement of adult men who were taken out of the city to deserted places and destroyed in order to avoid resistance. Young Armenian girls were handed over as concubines to Muslims or simply subjected to massive sexual violence. Old men, women and children were driven in columns under the escort of gendarmes. Columns of Armenians, often deprived of food and drink, were driven into the desert regions of the country. Those who fell without strength were killed on the spot.

Despite the fact that the disloyalty of the Armenians on the eastern front was declared the reason for the deportation, repressions against them began to be carried out throughout the country. Almost immediately, the deportations turned into massacres of Armenians in their places of residence.

A huge role in the massacres of the Armenians was played by the paramilitary formations of the “chettes” - criminals specially released by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire to participate in massacres.

In the city of Hynys alone, the majority of whose population was Armenian, about 19,000 people were killed in May 1915. 15,000 Armenians became victims of the massacre in the city of Bitlis in July 1915. The most cruel methods of reprisals were practiced - people were cut into pieces, nailed to crosses, driven onto barges and drowned, burned alive.

Those who reached alive the camps around the desert of Der Zor, the massacre overtook there. Within a few months of 1915, about 150,000 Armenians were massacred there.

Disappeared forever

A telegram from US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to the State Department (July 16, 1915) describes the extermination of the Armenians as a "campaign of racial extermination." Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Henry Morgenthau Sr

Foreign diplomats received evidence of the large-scale destruction of Armenians almost from the very beginning of the genocide. In the joint Declaration of May 24, 1915 of the Entente countries (Great Britain, France and Russia), the massacres of Armenians for the first time in history were recognized as a crime against humanity.

However, the powers involved in a major war were unable to stop the mass destruction of people.

Although the peak of the genocide occurred in 1915, in fact, the massacres of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire continued until the end of the First World War.

The total number of victims of the Armenian genocide has not been finally established to this day. The most frequently heard data is that from 1 to 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated in the Ottoman Empire in the period from 1915 to 1918. Those who could survive the massacre left their native lands en masse.

According to various estimates, from 2 to 4 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire by 1915. Between 40,000 and 70,000 Armenians live in modern Turkey.

Most of the Armenian churches and historical monuments associated with the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire were destroyed or turned into mosques, as well as utility rooms. Only at the end of the 20th century, under pressure from the world community, the restoration of some historical monuments began in Turkey, in particular the Church of the Holy Cross on Lake Van.

Map of the main areas of destruction of the Armenian population. concentration camps

The Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915, organized on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, became one of the most terrible events of its era. Representatives were deported, during which hundreds of thousands or even millions of people died (depending on estimates). This campaign to exterminate Armenians is today recognized as genocide by most countries of the entire world community. Turkey itself does not agree with this wording.

Prerequisites

The massacres and deportations in the Ottoman Empire had different backgrounds and reasons. 1915 was due to the unequal position of the Armenians themselves and the ethnic Turkish majority of the country. The population was discredited not only by nationality, but also by religion. The Armenians were Christians and had their own independent church. The Turks were Sunnis.

The non-Muslim population had the status of a dhimmi. People who fell under this definition were not allowed to carry weapons and to appear in court as witnesses. They had to pay high taxes. Armenians, for the most part, lived in poverty. They were mainly engaged agriculture in their native lands. However, among the Turkish majority, the stereotype of a successful and cunning Armenian businessman was widespread, etc. Such labels only aggravated the hatred of the townsfolk towards this ethnic minority. These complex relationships can be compared to the widespread anti-Semitism in many countries of that time.

In the Caucasian provinces of the Ottoman Empire, the situation worsened also due to the fact that these lands, after the wars with Russia, were filled with Muslim refugees, who, due to their everyday disorder, constantly came into conflict with local Armenians. One way or another, but the Turkish society was in an excited state. It was ready to accept the forthcoming Armenian genocide (1915). The reasons for this tragedy were a deep split and hostility between the two peoples. All that was needed was a spark that would ignite a huge fire.

Start of World War I

As a result of an armed coup in 1908, the Ittihat (Unity and Progress) party came to power in the Ottoman Empire. Its members called themselves the Young Turks. The new government hastily began to look for an ideology on which to build their state. Pan-Turkism and Turkish nationalism were taken as the basis - ideas that did not presuppose anything good for Armenians and other ethnic minorities.

In 1914, the Ottoman Empire, in the wake of its new political course, entered into an alliance with Imperial Germany. According to the treaty, the powers agreed to provide Turkey with access to the Caucasus, where numerous Muslim peoples lived. But there were also Armenian Christians in the same region.

Assassinations of Young Turk leaders

On March 15, 1921, in Berlin, in front of many witnesses, an Armenian killed Talaat Pasha, who was hiding in Europe under an assumed name. The shooter was immediately arrested by the German police. The trial has begun. Tehlirian volunteered to defend the best lawyers in Germany. The process led to a wide public outcry. Numerous facts of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire were again voiced at the hearings. Tehlirian was sensationally acquitted. After that, he emigrated to the United States, where he died in 1960.

Another important victim of Operation Nemesis was Ahmed Jemal Pasha, who was killed in Tiflis in 1922. In the same year, another member of the triumvirate Enver died during the fighting with the Red Army in present-day Tajikistan. He fled to Central Asia, where for some time he was an active participant in the Basmachi movement.

Legal assessment

It should be noted that the term "genocide" appeared in the legal lexicon much later than the events described. The word originated in 1943 and originally meant the mass murder of Jews by the Nazi authorities of the Third Reich. A few years later, the term was officially fixed in accordance with the convention of the newly created UN. Later, the events in the Ottoman Empire were recognized as the Armenian genocide in 1915. In particular, this was done by the European Parliament and the UN.

In 1995, the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was recognized as genocide in Russian Federation. Today the majority of states of the USA, almost all countries of Europe and South America adhere to the same point of view. But there are also countries where the Armenian Genocide (1915) is denied. The reasons, in short, remain political. First of all, the list of these states includes modern Turkey and Azerbaijan.

It has been 100 years since the beginning of one of the most terrible events in world history, crimes against humanity - the genocide of the Armenian people, the second (after the Holocaust) in terms of the degree of study and the number of victims.

Before the First World War, Greeks and Armenians (mostly Christians) made up two-thirds of the population of Turkey, directly Armenians - a fifth of the population, 2-4 million Armenians out of 13 million people living in Turkey, including all other nations.

According to official reports, about 1.5 million people became victims of the genocide: 700,000 were killed, 600,000 died during deportation. Another 1.5 million Armenians became refugees, many fled to the territory of modern Armenia, part to Syria, Lebanon, America. According to various sources, 4-7 million Armenians now live in Turkey (with a total population of 76 million people), the Christian population is 0.6% (for example, in 1914 - two-thirds, although the population of Turkey was then 13 million people ).

Some countries, including Russia, recognize the genocide, Turkey, on the other hand, denies the fact of the crime, which is why it has hostile relations with Armenia to this day.

The genocide carried out by the Turkish army was aimed not only at the extermination of the Armenian (in particular the Christian) population, but also against the Greeks and Assyrians. Before start of the war(in 1911-14) an order was sent to the Turkish authorities from the Unity and Progress party that measures should be taken against the Armenians, that is, the killing of the people was a planned action.

“The situation escalated even more in 1914, when Turkey became an ally of Germany and declared war on Russia, which the local Armenians naturally sympathized with. The government of the Young Turks declared them a “fifth column”, and therefore a decision was made to deport them all to hard-to-reach mountainous regions” (ria.ru)

“The mass destruction and deportation of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces of the Ottoman Empire were carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey in 1915-1923. The policy of genocide against Armenians was conditioned by a number of factors. Leading among them was the ideology of Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, which was professed by the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire. The militant ideology of pan-Islamism was distinguished by intolerance towards non-Muslims, preached outright chauvinism, and called for the Turkification of all non-Turkish peoples.

Entering the war, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire made far-reaching plans for the creation of the "Big Turan". It was meant to attach Transcaucasia, North to the empire. Caucasus, Crimea, Volga region, Central Asia. On the way to this goal, the aggressors had to put an end, first of all, to the Armenian people, who opposed the aggressive plans of the Pan-Turkists. In September 1914, at a meeting chaired by Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, a special body was formed - the Executive Committee of the Three, which was instructed to organize the massacre of the Armenian population; it included the leaders of the Young Turks Nazim, Behaetdin Shakir and Shukri. The executive committee of the three received wide powers, weapons, money. » (genocide.ru)

The war became an opportunity for the implementation of cruel plans, the goal of the bloodshed was the complete extermination of the Armenian people, which prevented the leaders of the Young Turks from realizing their selfish political goals. The Turks and other peoples living in Turkey were set against the Armenians by all means, belittling and exposing the latter in a dirty light. The date of April 24, 1915 is called the beginning of the Armenian genocide, but the persecution and killings began long before it. Then, at the end of April, the intelligentsia and the elite of Istanbul, who were deported, suffered the first most powerful, crushing blow: the arrest of 235 noble Armenians, their exile, then the arrest of another 600 Armenians and several thousand more people, many of whom were killed near the city.

Since then, “purges” of Armenians have been continuously carried out: the deportations were not aimed at resettlement (exile) of the people in the deserts of Mesopatamia and Syria, but their complete extermination. people were often attacked by robbers along the way of the procession of the caravan of prisoners, killed by the thousands after arriving at their destinations. In addition, the “executors” used torture, during which either all or most of the deported Armenians died. Caravans were sent by the longest route, people were exhausted by thirst, hunger, unsanitary conditions.

On the deportation of Armenians:

« The deportation was carried out according to three principles: 1) the “principle of ten percent”, according to which Armenians should not exceed 10% of the Muslims in the region, 2) the number of houses of the deportees should not exceed fifty, 3) the deportees were forbidden to change their places of destination. Armenians were forbidden to open their own schools, Armenian villages had to be at least five hours away from each other. Despite the demand to deport all Armenians without exception, a significant part of the Armenian population of Istanbul and Edirne was not expelled for fear that foreign citizens would become witnesses of this process ”(Wikipedia)

That is, they wanted to neutralize those who still survived. How did the Armenian people “annoy” Turkey, Germany (which supported the first)? In addition to political motives and the desire to conquer new lands, the enemies of the Armenians also had ideological considerations, according to which Christian Armenians (a strong, united people) prevented the spread of pan-Islamism for the successful solution of their plans. Christians were set against Muslims, Muslims were manipulated based on political goals, behind the slogans in need of unification, the use of the Turks in the destruction of Armenians was hidden.

NTV documentary “Genocide. Start"

In addition to information about the tragedy, the film shows one amazing moment: there are quite a lot of living grandmothers who witnessed the events of 100 years ago.

Testimony of victims:

“Our group was driven along the stage on June 14 under escort of 15 gendarmes. We were 400-500 people. Already two hours walk from the city, we were attacked by numerous gangs of villagers and bandits armed with hunting rifles, rifles and axes. They took everything from us. In seven to eight days, they killed all the men and boys over 15 years old - one by one. Two blows with the butt and the man is dead. The bandits got everyone attractive women and girls. Many were taken to the mountains on horseback. So my sister was also kidnapped, who was torn away from her one-year-old child. We were not allowed to spend the night in the villages, but were forced to sleep on bare ground. I have seen people eat grass to relieve their hunger. And what the gendarmes, bandits and local residents did under the cover of darkness is beyond description at all” (from the memoirs of an Armenian widow from the town of Bayburt in the northeast of Anatolia)

“They ordered the men and boys to come forward. Some of the little boys were dressed as girls and hid in the crowd of women. But my father had to leave. He was a grown man with ycams. As soon as they separated all the men, a group of armed men appeared from behind the hill and killed them in front of our eyes. They stabbed them in the stomach with bayonets. Many women could not stand it and threw themselves off the cliff into the river” (from the story of a survivor from the city of Konya, Central Anatolia)

“The lagging behind were immediately shot. They drove us through deserted areas, through deserts, along mountain paths, bypassing cities, so that we had nowhere to get water and food. At night we were wet with dew, and during the day we were exhausted under the scorching sun. I only remember that we walked and walked all the time ”(from the memoirs of a survivor)

The Armenians stoically, heroically and desperately fought off the brutalized Turks, inspired by the slogans of the instigators of revolts and bloodshed to kill as many as possible of those who were presented as enemies. The most large-scale battles, confrontations were the defense of the city of Van (April-June 1915), the Musa-Dag Mountains (53-day defense in the summer-early autumn of 1915).

In the bloody massacre of the Armenians, the Turks did not spare either children or pregnant women, they mocked people in incredibly cruel ways., girls were raped, taken as concubines and tortured, crowds of Armenians were gathered on barges, ferries under the pretext of resettlement and drowned in the sea, gathered in villages and burned alive, children were slaughtered and also thrown into the sea, medical experiments were carried out on young and old in specially created camps. People dried up alive from hunger and thirst. All the horrors that befell the Armenian people then cannot be described in dry letters and numbers, this tragedy, which they remember in emotional colors already in the younger generation to this day.

From the reports of witnesses: “About 30 villages were slaughtered in Alexandropol district and Akhalkalaki region, some of those who managed to escape are in the most distressed situation.” Other reports described the situation in the villages of the Alexandropol district: “All the villages have been robbed, there is no shelter, no grain, no clothes, no fuel. The streets of the villages are full of corpses. All this is supplemented by hunger and cold, taking away one victim after another ... In addition, askers and hooligans taunt their captives and try to punish the people with even more brutal means, rejoicing and enjoying it. They subject their parents to various torments, force them to hand over their 8-9 year old girls to the executioners…” (genocide.ru)

« Biological justification was used as one of the justifications for the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians. Armenians were called "dangerous microbes", they were assigned a lower biological status than Muslims . The main promoter of this policy was Dr. Mehmet Reshid, the governor of Diyarbekir, who first ordered that horseshoes be nailed to the feet of the deportees. Reshid also practiced the crucifixion of Armenians, imitating the crucifixion of Christ. The official Turkish encyclopedia of 1978 characterizes Reşid as "a fine patriot." (Wikipedia)

Children and pregnant women were forcibly given poison, those who disagreed were drowned, lethal doses of morphine were injected, children were killed in steam baths, many perverse and cruel experiments were performed on people. Those who survived in conditions of hunger, cold, thirst, unsanitary conditions often died from typhoid fever.

One of the Turkish doctors, Hamdi Suat, who conducted experiments on Armenian soldiers in order to obtain a vaccine against typhoid fever (they were injected with typhoid-infected blood), is revered in modern Turkey as national hero, the founder of bacteriology, in Istanbul a house-museum is dedicated to him.

In general, in Turkey it is forbidden to refer to the events of that time as the genocide of the Armenian people, the history books tell about the forced defense of the Turks and the murders of Armenians as a measure of self-defense, those who are victims for many other countries are exposed as aggressors.

The Turkish authorities are agitating their compatriots in every possible way to strengthen the position that there has never been an Armenian genocide, campaigns, PR campaigns are being carried out to maintain the status of an “innocent” country, monuments of Armenian culture and architecture that exist in Turkey are being destroyed.

War changes people beyond recognition. What a person can do under the influence of authorities, how easily he kills, and not just kills, but brutally - it's hard to imagine when we see the sun, the sea, the beaches of Turkey in cheerful pictures or remember our own travel experience. Why is Turkey there .. in general - the war changes people, the crowd, inspired by the ideas of victory, the seizure of power - sweeps away everything in its path, and if in ordinary, peaceful life it is savagery to kill for many, then in war - many become monsters and not notice this.

Under the noise and intensification of the cruelty of the river of blood - a familiar sight, how many examples of how people during every revolution, clashes, military conflicts did not control themselves and destroyed, killed everything and everyone around.

The common features of all genocides carried out in world history are similar in that people (victims) were devalued to the level of insects or soulless objects, while provocateurs in every way called on the perpetrators and those who were beneficial for the extermination of the people not just the lack of pity for the potential the object of the murders, but also hatred, animal fury. They were convinced that the victims were to blame for many troubles, that the triumph of retribution was necessary, combined with unbridled animal aggression - this meant an uncontrollable wave of outrages, savagery, ferocity.

In addition to the extermination of the Armenians, the Turks also carried out the destruction of the cultural heritage of the people:

“In 1915-23 and subsequent years, thousands of Armenian manuscripts stored in Armenian monasteries 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 on the territory of Turkey, the appropriation of many cultural values ​​of the Armenian people continues to the present. The tragedy experienced by the Armenian people was reflected in all aspects of the life and social behavior of the Armenian people, firmly settled in their historical memory. The impact of the genocide was experienced both by the generation that became its direct victim and subsequent generations” (genocide.ru)

Among the Turks there were caring people, officials who could shelter Armenian children, or rebelled against the extermination of Armenians - but basically any assistance to the victims of the genocide was condemned and punished, therefore it was carefully hidden.

After the defeat of Turkey in the First World War, a military tribunal in 1919 (despite this - genocide, according to the versions of some historians and eyewitness accounts - lasted until 1923) sentenced representatives of the committee of three to death in absentia, later the sentence was executed for all three, including including through self-judgment. But if the performers were honored with execution, then those who gave orders remained at large.

April 24 is the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Armenian Genocide. One of the most monstrous in terms of the number of victims and the degree of study of genocides in world history, like the Holocaust, it experienced attempts to deny it, first of all, from the country responsible for the massacres. According to official figures, the number of killed Armenians is about 1.5 million people.

The mass destruction and deportation of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces of the Ottoman Empire were carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey in 1915-1923. The policy of genocide against Armenians was conditioned by a number of factors. Leading among them was the ideology of Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, which was professed by the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire. The militant ideology of pan-Islamism was distinguished by intolerance towards non-Muslims, preached outright chauvinism, and called for the Turkification of all non-Turkish peoples. Entering the war, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire made far-reaching plans for the creation of the "Big Turan". It was meant to attach Transcaucasia, North to the empire. Caucasus, Crimea, Volga region, Central Asia. On the way to this goal, the aggressors had to put an end, first of all, to the Armenian people, who opposed the aggressive plans of the Pan-Turkists.

The Young Turks began to develop plans for the extermination of the Armenian population even before the start of the World War. The decisions of the congress of the party "Unity and Progress" (Ittihad ve Terakki), held in October 1911 in Thessaloniki, contained a demand for the Turkification of the non-Turkish peoples of the empire. Following this, the political and military circles of Turkey came to the decision to carry out the Armenian genocide throughout the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of 1914, a special order was sent to the local authorities regarding the measures to be taken against the Armenians. The fact that the order was sent out before the start of the war irrefutably testifies that the extermination of the Armenians was a planned action, not at all due to a specific military situation.

The leadership of the "Unity and Progress" party has repeatedly discussed the issue of mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population. In September 1914, at a meeting chaired by Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, a special body was formed - the Executive Committee of the Three, which was instructed to organize the massacre of the Armenian population; it included the leaders of the Young Turks Nazim, Behaetdin Shakir and Shukri. Plotting a monstrous crime, the leaders of the Young Turks took into account that the war provided an opportunity for its implementation. Nazim openly stated that such an opportunity may no longer be, "the intervention of the great powers and the protest of the newspapers will have no consequences, because they will face a fait accompli, and thus the issue will be resolved ... Our actions must be directed to annihilate the Armenians so that not a single one of them remains alive."

Undertaking the extermination of the Armenian population, the ruling circles of Turkey intended to achieve several goals: the elimination of the Armenian question, which would put an end to the intervention of European powers; the Turks were getting rid of economic competition, all the property of the Armenians would have passed into their hands; the elimination of the Armenian people will help pave the way to the capture of the Caucasus, to the achievement of the "great ideal of Turanism." The executive committee of the three received wide powers, weapons, money. The authorities organized special detachments, such as "Teshkilat and Mahsuse", which consisted mainly of criminals released from prisons and other criminal elements, who were supposed to take part in the mass destruction of Armenians.

From the very first days of the war, a frenzied anti-Armenian propaganda unfolded in Turkey. The Turkish people were inspired that the Armenians did not want to serve in the Turkish army, that they were ready to cooperate with the enemy. There were rumors about the mass desertion of Armenians from the Turkish army, about the uprisings of Armenians who threatened the rear of the Turkish troops, etc.

The unbridled chauvinistic propaganda against the Armenians intensified especially after the first serious defeats of the Turkish troops on the Caucasian front. In February 1915 Minister of War Enver ordered the destruction of the Armenians serving in the Turkish army. At the beginning of the war, about 60 thousand Armenians aged 18-45 were drafted into the Turkish army, that is, the most combat-ready part of the male population. This order was carried out with unparalleled cruelty.

From May - June 1915, mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population of Western Armenia (vilayets of Van, Erzrum, Bitlis, Kharberd, Sebastia, Diyarbekir), Cilicia, Western Anatolia and other areas began. The ongoing deportation of the Armenian population in fact pursued the goal of its destruction. The real purpose of the deportation was also known to Germany, an ally of Turkey. The German consul in Trebizond in July 1915 reported on the deportation of Armenians in this vilayet and noted that the Young Turks intended to put an end to the Armenian question in this way.

The Armenians who left their places of permanent residence were reduced to caravans that went deep into the empire, to Mesopotamia and Syria, where special camps were created for them. Armenians were exterminated both in their places of residence and on their way to exile; their caravans were attacked by Turkish rabble, Kurdish robber bands, hungry for prey. As a result, a small part of the deported Armenians reached their destinations. But even those who reached the deserts of Mesopotamia were not safe; there are cases when deported Armenians were taken out of the camps and massacred by the thousands in the desert.

Lack of basic sanitary conditions, famine, epidemics caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people. The actions of the Turkish rioters were distinguished by unprecedented cruelty. This was demanded by the leaders of the Young Turks. Thus, Minister of the Interior Talaat, in a secret telegram sent to the governor of Aleppo, demanded to put an end to the existence of Armenians, not to pay any attention to age, gender, or remorse. This requirement was strictly observed. Eyewitnesses of the events, Armenians who survived the horrors of deportation and genocide, left numerous descriptions of the incredible suffering that befell the Armenian population. Most of the Armenian population of Cilicia was also subjected to barbaric extermination. The massacre of Armenians continued in subsequent years. Thousands of Armenians were exterminated, driven to the southern regions of the Ottoman Empire and kept in the camps of Ras-ul-Ain, Deir ez-Zor, etc. The Young Turks sought to carry out the Armenian genocide in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to the local population, large masses of refugees Western Armenia. Having committed aggression against Transcaucasia in 1918, Turkish troops carried out pogroms and massacres of Armenians in many areas of Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan. Having occupied Baku in September 1918, the Turkish invaders, together with the Caucasian Tatars, organized a terrible massacre of the local Armenian population, killing 30,000 people. As a result of the Armenian genocide carried out by the Young Turks only in 1915-16, 1.5 million people died. About 600 thousand Armenians became refugees; they scattered over many countries of the world, replenishing the existing ones and forming new Armenian communities. The Armenian Diaspora (Diaspora) was formed. As a result of the genocide, Western Armenia lost its original population. The leaders of the Young Turks did not hide their satisfaction with the successful implementation of the planned atrocity: German diplomats in Turkey informed their government that already in August 1915, Minister of the Interior Talaat cynically declared that "the actions against the Armenians were basically carried out and the Armenian question no longer exists."

The relative ease with which the Turkish pogromists managed to carry out the genocide of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire is partly due to the unpreparedness of the Armenian population, as well as the Armenian political parties, for the impending threat of extermination. In many respects, the actions of the pogromists were facilitated by the mobilization of the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population - men, into the Turkish army, as well as the liquidation of the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople. A certain role was also played by the fact that in some public and clerical circles of Western Armenians they believed that disobedience to the Turkish authorities, who ordered the deportation, could only lead to an increase in the number of victims.

However, in some places the Armenian population offered stubborn resistance to the Turkish vandals. The Armenians of Van, having resorted to self-defense, successfully repulsed the attacks of the enemy, held the city in their hands until the arrival of Russian troops and Armenian volunteers. Armed resistance to the many times superior enemy forces was provided by the Armenians Shapin Garakhisar, Mush, Sasun, Shatakh. The epic of the defenders of Mount Musa in Suetia continued for forty days. The self-defense of the Armenians in 1915 is a heroic page in the national liberation struggle of the people.

During the aggression against Armenia in 1918, the Turks, having occupied Karaklis, massacred the Armenian population, killing several thousand people. In September 1918, Turkish troops occupied Baku and, together with Azerbaijani nationalists, organized the massacre of the local Armenian population.

During Turkish-Armenian War 1920 Turkish troops occupied Alexandropol. Continuing the policy of their predecessors - the Young Turks, the Kemalists sought to organize genocide in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to the local population, masses of refugees from Western Armenia had accumulated. In Alexandropol and the villages of the district, the Turkish invaders committed atrocities, destroyed the peaceful Armenian population, and robbed property. The Revolutionary Committee of Soviet Armenia received information about the atrocities of the Kemalists. One of the reports said: "About 30 villages were slaughtered in the Alexandropol district and the Akhalkalaki region, some of those who managed to escape are in the most distressed situation." Other reports described the situation in the villages of the Alexandropol district: “All the villages have been robbed, there is no shelter, no grain, no clothes, no fuel. The streets of the villages are overflowing with corpses. All this is supplemented by hunger and cold, taking away one victim after another ... In addition, askers and the hooligans taunt their captives and try to punish the people with even more brutal means, rejoicing and enjoying it. They subject their parents to various torments, force them to hand over their 8-9-year-old girls to the executioners ... "

In January 1921, the government of Soviet Armenia protested to the Turkish Commissar for Foreign Affairs over the fact that Turkish troops in the Alexandropol district were carrying out "continuous violence, robbery and murder against the peaceful working population ...". Tens of thousands of Armenians became victims of the atrocities of the Turkish invaders. The invaders also inflicted enormous material damage on the Alexandropol district.

In 1918-20, the city of Shushi, the center of Karabakh, became the scene of pogroms and massacres of the Armenian population. In September 1918, Turkish troops, supported by Azerbaijani Musavatists, moved to Shushi, devastating Armenian villages along the way and destroying their population, on September 25, 1918, Turkish troops occupied Shushi. But soon, after the defeat of Turkey in the First World War, they were forced to leave it. Dec. 1918 The British entered Shushi. Soon, Musavatist Khosrov-bey Sultanov was appointed governor-general of Karabakh. With the help of Turkish military instructors, he formed shock Kurdish detachments, which, together with parts of the Musavatist army, were deployed in the Armenian part of Shushi. The forces of the rioters were constantly replenished, there were many Turkish officers in the city. In June 1919, the first pogroms of the Armenians of Shusha took place; on the night of June 5, at least 500 Armenians were killed in the city and surrounding villages. On March 23, 1920, Turkish-Musavat gangs perpetrated a terrible massacre of the Armenian population of Shusha, killing over 30 thousand people and setting fire to the Armenian part of the city.

The Armenians of Cilicia, who survived the genocide of 1915-16 and found refuge in other countries, began to return to their homeland after the defeat of Turkey. According to the division of zones of influence stipulated by the allies, Cilicia was included in the sphere of influence of France. In 1919, 120-130 thousand Armenians lived in Cilicia; the return of Armenians continued, and by 1920 their number had reached 160,000. The command of the French troops located in Cilicia did not take measures to ensure the security of the Armenian population; Turkish authorities remained on the ground, the Muslims were not disarmed. This was used by the Kemalists, who began the massacre of the Armenian population. In January 1920, during the 20-day pogroms, 11 thousand Armenian residents of Mavash died, the rest of the Armenians went to Syria. Soon the Turks laid siege to Ajn, where the Armenian population by that time numbered barely 6,000 people. The Armenians of Ajna offered stubborn resistance to the Turkish troops, which lasted 7 months, but in October the Turks managed to take the city. About 400 defenders of Ajna managed to break through the siege ring and escape.

At the beginning of 1920, the remnants of the Armenian population of Urfa moved to Aleppo - about 6 thousand people.

On April 1, 1920, Kemalist troops besieged Ayntap. Thanks to the 15-day heroic defense, the Aintap Armenians escaped the massacre. But after the French troops left Cilicia, the Armenians of Ayntap moved to Syria at the end of 1921. In 1920, the Kemalists destroyed the remnants of the Armenian population of Zeytun. That is, the Kemalists completed the extermination of the Armenian population of Cilicia begun by the Young Turks.

The last episode of the tragedy of the Armenian people was the massacre of Armenians in the western regions of Turkey during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-22. In August-September 1921, Turkish troops achieved a turning point in the course of hostilities and launched a general offensive against the Greek troops. On September 9, the Turks broke into Izmir and massacred the Greek and Armenian population, the Turks sank the ships that were in the harbor of Izmir, on which there were Armenian and Greek refugees, mostly women, old people, children ...

The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the governments of Turkey. They are the main culprits of the monstrous crime of the first genocide of the twentieth century. The Armenian genocide carried out in Turkey caused enormous damage to the material and spiritual culture of the Armenian people.

In 1915-23 and subsequent years, thousands of Armenian manuscripts kept in Armenian monasteries 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 on the territory of Turkey, the appropriation of many cultural values ​​of the Armenian people continues to the present. The tragedy experienced by the Armenian people was reflected in all aspects of the life and social behavior of the Armenian people, firmly settled in their historical memory. The impact of the genocide was experienced both by the generation that became its direct victim and by subsequent generations.

The progressive public opinion of the world condemned the villainous crime of the Turkish pogromists, who were trying to destroy one of the most ancient civilized peoples of the world. Public and political figures, scientists, cultural figures of many countries branded the genocide, qualifying it as the gravest crime against humanity, took part in the implementation of humanitarian assistance to the Armenian people, in particular to refugees who found shelter in many countries of the world. After the defeat of Turkey in the First World War, the leaders of the Young Turks were accused of dragging Turkey into a disastrous war for her, and put on trial. Among the charges brought against war criminals was the charge of organizing and carrying out the massacre of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. However, a number of Young Turk leaders were sentenced to death in absentia, because after the defeat of Turkey they managed to escape from the country. The death sentence against some of them (Taliat, Behaetdin Shakir, Jemal Pasha, Said Halim, etc.) was subsequently carried out by the Armenian people's avengers.

After the Second World War, genocide was qualified as the gravest crime against humanity. The legal documents on the genocide were based on the basic principles developed by the international military tribunal in Nuremberg, which tried the main war criminals of Nazi Germany. Subsequently, the UN adopted a number of decisions regarding genocide, the main of which are the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and the Convention on the Non-Applicability of the Statute of Limitation to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, adopted in 1968.

In 1989, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR adopted a law on genocide, which condemned the Armenian genocide in Western Armenia and Turkey as a crime directed against humanity. The Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR asked the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to adopt a decision condemning the Armenian genocide in Turkey. The Declaration of Independence of Armenia, adopted by the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR on August 23, 1990, proclaims that "the Republic of Armenia supports the cause of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia."