Who helped the Armenians during the genocide. Death of a people. A Brief History of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire

On August 26, 1896, a group of well-armed Armenians seized the building of the Ottoman Bank, took European staff hostage and, threatening to blow up the bank, demanded that the Turkish government carry out the promised political reforms. However, in response, the Turkish authorities ordered attacks on the Armenians. Over the course of two days, with the apparent connivance of the authorities, the Turks massacred or beat to death more than 6,000 Armenians.

The exact number of victims of the massacre of 1894-1896 is impossible to calculate. Even before the end of the violent actions, the Lutheran missionary Johannes Lepsius, who was in Turkey at that time, using German and other sources, collected the following statistics: killed - 88,243 people, devastated - 546,000 people, plundered cities and villages - 2,493, villages converted to Islam - 456, churches and monasteries desecrated - 649, churches turned into mosques - 328. Estimating the total number of killed, Kinross gives the figure 50-100 thousand, Bloxham - 80-100 thousand, Hovhannisyan - about 100 thousand, Adalyan and Totten - from 100 to 300 thousand, Dadryan - 250-300 thousand, Syuni - 300 thousand people.

But the date April 24, 1915 occupies a special place in the history of the Armenian genocide. During World War I, Armenians fought on the side of the Turks. But when the Turkish troops suffered a brutal defeat near Sarykamysh, the Armenians were blamed for everything.

The Armenians in the army were disarmed. At first, the authorities gathered healthy men in Turkish cities, declaring that the government, which was friendly towards them, was preparing to resettle the Armenians to new homes, based on military necessity. Many law-abiding Armenians loyal to Turkey, having received calls from the police, came themselves.

The collected men were imprisoned, and then taken out of the city into desert areas and destroyed using firearms and bladed weapons. Then the elderly, women and children gathered and were also informed that they had to be resettled. They were driven in columns under the escort of gendarmes. Those who could not walk were killed; no exceptions were made even for pregnant women. The gendarmes chose the longest routes possible or forced people to go back along the same route, but drove people around until the majority died of thirst or hunger.

Muslims were warned about death penalty for the protection of Armenians. Women and children from Ordu were loaded onto barges under the pretext of transporting them to Samsun, and then taken out to sea and thrown overboard.

During the 1919 tribunal, the chief of police of Trebizond testified that he had sent young Armenian women to Istanbul as a gift from the regional governor to Ittihat leaders. Armenian girls from the Red Crescent Hospital were abused, where the governor of Trebizond raped them and kept them as personal concubines.

The destruction of the Armenian population was accompanied by a campaign to destroy the Armenian cultural heritage. Armenian monuments and churches were blown up, cemeteries were plowed open into fields where corn and wheat were sown, Armenian quarters of cities were destroyed or occupied by the Turkish and Kurdish population and renamed

A telegram from US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to the State Department (dated July 16, 1915) describes the extermination of the Armenians as a “campaign of racial extermination.”

Armenians near a fallen horse.

According to 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. Ernst Sommer of the German Relief Union estimated the number of deportees at 1,400,000 and the number of survivors at 250,000.

If this is not genocide, then what is genocide?

The Armenian people did not bow their heads until the very end and fought for their views, their freedom and their independence. The resistance of the Armenians is evidenced by the battles that took place in Musa Dag, where the Armenians held the defense for more than fifty days; defense of the cities of Van and Mush. The Armenians held out in these cities until the Russian army appeared on the territory of the cities.

The Armenians took revenge even after the end of all hostilities. They created an operation to destroy the Ottoman rulers, who decided to exterminate the innocent people. So in 1921 and 1922, three pashas who decided on genocide were shot dead by Armenian soldiers and patriots.

It is not surprising that Germany recognized the Armenian genocide (despite Turkey’s hysteria). Russia also recognized him.

Putin at the memorial complex for those killed in the genocide.

100 years have passed since the beginning of one of the most terrible events in world history, crimes against humanity - the genocide of the Armenian people, 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, Armenians themselves made up a fifth of the population, 2-4 million Armenians out of 13 million people living in Turkey, including all other peoples.

According to official reports, about 1.5 million people became victims of the genocide: 700 thousand were killed, 600 thousand died during deportation. Another 1.5 million Armenians became refugees, many fled to the territory of modern Armenia, some to Syria, Lebanon, and 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 then was 13 million people ).

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

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

“The situation worsened further in 1914, when Turkey became an ally of Germany and declared war on Russia, which was naturally sympathized with by local Armenians. The government of the Young Turks declared them a “fifth column”, and therefore a decision was made on their wholesale deportation to inaccessible mountainous areas” (ria.ru)

“Mass extermination and deportation of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces Ottoman Empire carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey in 1915-1923. The policy of genocide against the Armenians was determined by a number of factors. Leading value 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 characterized 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 “Great Turan”. It was meant to annex Transcaucasia and the North to the empire. Caucasus, Crimea, Volga region, Central Asia. On the way to this goal, the aggressors had to put an end to, first of all, the Armenian people, who opposed the aggressive plans of the Pan-Turkists. In September 1914, at a meeting chaired by the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, a special body was formed - the Executive Committee of Three, which was tasked with organizing the beating of the Armenian population; it included the leaders of the Young Turks Nazim, Behaetdin Shakir and Shukri. The executive committee of the three received broad powers, weapons, and money. » (genocide.ru)

The war became a convenient opportunity for the implementation of cruel plans; the purpose of the bloodshed was the complete extermination of the Armenian people, preventing the leaders of the Young Turks from realizing their selfish political goals. The Turks and other peoples living in Turkey were incited against the Armenians by all means, belittling and showing the latter in a dirty light. The date April 24, 1915 is called the beginning of the Armenian genocide, but persecution and murder began long before it. Then, at the end of April, the first most powerful, crushing blow was suffered by the intelligentsia and elite of Istanbul, which were deported: 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.

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

About the deportation of Armenians:

« The deportation was carried out according to three principles: 1) the “ten percent principle”, 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 destinations. Armenians were prohibited from opening their own schools, and Armenian villages had to be at least a five-hour drive 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 deported for fear that foreign citizens would witness this process" (Wikipedia)

That is, they wanted to neutralize those who still survived. Why did the Armenian people of Turkey and Germany (which supported the former) so “annoy”? Except political motives and the thirst for conquest of new lands, the enemies of the Armenians also had ideological considerations, according to which the Christian Armenians (a strong, united people) prevented the spread of pan-Islamism for the successful solution of their plans. Christians were incited against Muslims, Muslims were manipulated based on political goals, and the slogans of the need for unification hid the use of the Turks in the destruction of the Armenians.

NTV documentary film “Genocide. Start"

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

Testimonies from victims:

“Our group was driven along the stage on June 14 under an escort of 15 gendarmes. There were about 400-500 of us. Already a two-hour walk from the city, numerous gangs of villagers and bandits armed with hunting rifles, rifles and axes began to attack us. They took everything we had. Over the course of seven or eight days, they killed all the men and boys over 15 years old, one by one. Two blows with a rifle butt and the man is dead. The bandits grabbed everyone attractive women and girls. Many were taken to the mountains on horseback. This is how my sister was kidnapped and 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 the bare ground. I saw people eating grass to relieve hunger. And what the gendarmes, bandits and local residents did under the cover of darkness is completely beyond description” (from the memoirs of an Armenian widow from the town of Bayburt in northeastern Anatolia)

“They ordered the men and boys to come forward. Some little boys were dressed as girls and hid in the crowd of women. But my father had to come out. He was a grown man with ycami. As soon as they separated all the men, a group of armed men appeared from behind the hill and killed them before our eyes. They bayoneted them in the stomach. 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)

“Those who lagged 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 memories of a survivor)

The Armenians stoically, heroically and desperately fought off the brutal Turks, inspired by the slogans of the instigators of the riots and bloodshed to kill as many as possible of those who were presented as enemies. The largest battles and 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 collected on barges, ferries under the pretext of resettlement and drowned in the sea, gathered by villages and burned alive, children were stabbed to death and also thrown into the sea, medical experiments were carried out on young and old in specially created camps. People were drying out alive from hunger and thirst. All the horrors that befell the Armenian people then cannot be described in dry letters and numbers; this is a tragedy that they remember in emotional colors already in the younger generation to this day.

From witness reports: “About 30 villages were cut out in the Alexandropol district and the Akhalkalaki region; some of those who managed to escape are in the most dire situation.” Other messages described the situation in the villages of Alexandropol district: “All the villages have been robbed, there is no shelter, no grain, no clothing, no fuel. The streets of the villages are filled with corpses. All this is complemented by hunger and cold, which claim one victim after another... In addition, askers and hooligans mock their prisoners and try to punish the people with even more brutal means, rejoicing and getting pleasure from this. They subject parents to various tortures, force them to hand over their 8-9 year old girls into the hands of executioners...” (genocide.ru)

« Biological justification was used as one of the justifications for the extermination of the Ottoman Armenians. Armenians were called “dangerous germs” and were given a lower biological status than Muslims . The main propagandist of this policy was Dr. Mehmet Reshid, the governor of Diyarbakir, who was the first to order the nailing of horseshoes 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 “wonderful patriot.” (Wikipedia)

Children and pregnant women were forcibly given poison, those who disagreed were drowned, lethal doses of morphine were administered, children were killed in steam baths, many perverted and cruel experiments were performed on people. Those who survived in conditions of hunger, cold, thirst, and 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 blood contaminated with typhus), is revered in modern Turkey as a national hero, the founder of bacteriology, and a house-museum is dedicated to him in Istanbul.

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

The Turkish authorities are in every possible way agitating their compatriots to strengthen the position that the Armenian genocide never happened; campaigns and PR campaigns are being carried out to maintain the status of an “innocent” country; monuments of Armenian culture and architecture existing 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 in cheerful pictures we see the sun, the sea, the beaches of Turkey or remember our own travel experiences. What about Turkey... in general - war changes people, a crowd inspired by the ideas of victory, the seizure of power - sweeps away everything in its path, and if in ordinary, peaceful life committing murder is savagery for many, then in war - many become monsters and not notice this.

Under the noise and increasing cruelty, rivers of blood are a familiar sight; there are so many examples of how people, during every revolution, skirmish, and military conflict, could not control themselves and destroyed and killed everything and everyone around them.

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 the provocateurs by all means caused the perpetrators and those who were beneficial for carrying out the extermination of the people not just a lack of pity for the potential the object of murder, and also hatred, animal rage. 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, and ferocity.

In addition to the extermination of 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 in Turkey and the appropriation of many cultural values ​​of the Armenian people continue to this day. The tragedy experienced by the Armenian people affected 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" (genocid.ru)

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

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

April 24 is the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Armenian Genocide. One of the most monstrous genocides in world history in terms of the number of victims and the degree of study, like the Holocaust, it experienced attempts at denial on the part of the country that was primarily responsible for the massacres. The number of killed Armenians, according to official data alone, is about 1.5 million.

About crimes and information war after 102 years

Isabella Muradyan

On these beautiful spring days, when nature awakens and blossoms, in the heart of every Armenian, young or adult, there is a place that will not bloom again... All Armenians, not excluding those whose ancestors did not suffer during a series of Genocides perpetrated by the Turks and their patrons in 1895-1896, 1909, 1915-1923 carry this pain within themselves...

And everyone is tormented by the question - why, why, why...?! Despite the fact that so little and so much time has passed at the same time, most Armenians, and not only others, have little idea of ​​the answers to these questions.

This is happening because since the end of the 19th century a large-scale information war has been waged against Armenians - and the majority of the Armenian elite of the Republic of Armenia and the Diaspora does not understand this.

The sacred duty of every Armenian parent, especially the mother, in the name of love and in the name of the life given by her, is not only to provide the child with normal conditions for growth and development, to provide knowledge about the terrible danger that can find him everywhere, its name is the Unpunished Armenian Genocide...

Within the framework of this article, I will only have the opportunity to lift the veil on this issue and make you want to know more...

Feral Wolf Effect

In order to better understand the problems of the peoples living under the Turkish yoke, one should take a closer look at the Turks themselves and their legislative acts and customs. These nomadic tribes came to our region around the 11th century, following their herds during the terrible drought that reigned in Altai and the Volga steppes, but this was not their homeland. The Turks themselves and the majority world scientists The steppes and semi-deserts that are part of China are considered the ancestral home of the Turks. Today this is the Xinjiang Uyghur region of China.

Worth mentioning is the well-known legend about the origin of the Turks, which is told by the TURKIC scientists THEMSELVES. A certain young boy survived after an enemy raid on his village in the steppe. But they cut off his arms and legs and left him to die. The boy was found and nursed by a wild wolf.

Then, having matured, he copulated with the she-wolf who fed him, and from their connection eleven children were born, who formed the BASIS OF THE ELITE OF THE TURKIC TRIBES (the Ashina clan).

If you visit the ancestral homeland of the Turks at least once - in the Xinjiang Uyghur region of China and come across Uyghurs en masse - comparatively pure form Turks, you will see their way of life and everyday life, you will immediately understand a lot - and the main thing is that the Turkic legends were right... For a couple of centuries now, the Chinese have been trying to ennoble the Uighurs with a firm hand / train them, build modern houses, create infrastructure, give Newest technologies etc./. However, even today the relations between the Chinese and the Uyghurs are quite ambiguous, based on the support of the “brotherly Turkish government.” Türkiye officially funds terrorist Uyghur organizations that advocate secession from the PRC and organize numerous terrorist attacks in China. One of the brutal ones was in 2011, when in Kashgar, Uyghur terrorists first threw an explosive device into a restaurant, and then began to finish off the fleeing customers with knives... As a rule, in all terrorist attacks, the majority of the victims are Han (ethnic Chinese).

The centuries-old processes of abduction and mixing of Turks determined their external distance from their Uyghur relatives, but as you can see, their essence is one. Despite today's deceptive external resemblance of the Turks / inc. Azeri-Turk / with the peoples of our region it does not change, as evidenced dispassionately scary statistics their inhumane crimes against the Armenians (Greeks, Assyrians, Slavs, etc.), in 1895-96, in 1905 or 1909, in 1915-1923, 1988 or 2016 / slaughtered family of Armenian elders and abuse of Armenian corpses soldier, 4-day war/…

One of the reasons is our lack of understanding of the Turkish essence. It’s interesting, but being very practical people in everyday life and business, Armenians become “incorrigible romantics” (the words of the father of Zionism T. Herzel) in politics and operate in advance with categories that are failed from the very beginning. Instead of distancing themselves from the feral “wolf” or trying to isolate/destroy it, the majority tries to “establish cooperation”, “induce feelings of guilt”, “get offended” or seek mediators for negotiations.” Needless to say, at any opportunity this “wolf” will try to deal with you - a favorite Turkish proverb even today is “if you can’t cut off an outstretched hand, kiss it while you can...”. Let’s also imagine that a feral wolf has partial human thinking and he knows that he lives on land stolen from you, in a house stolen from you, eats fruits stolen from you, sells valuables stolen from you... It’s not that he’s bad, he’s just different - a completely different subspecies, and these are yours It's a problem if you don't understand this...

Another very important aspect - The causes of the Armenian Genocide should be sought primarily in the geopolitical and economic planes.

There is a huge amount of archival documents, historical, scientific and other literature on the topic of the causes of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, but even broad masses the Armenian people and their elite (including the Diaspora) are still captive of a number of misconceptions specifically carried out by Turkish propaganda and its patrons - and this a significant part of the information war against Armenians.

I'll bring you 5 of the most common misconceptions:

The genocide was a consequence of the First World War;

Mass deportations of the Armenian population were carried out from the Eastern front zone into the depths of the Ottoman Empire and were caused by military expediency so that the Armenians would not help the enemy (mainly the Russians);

Numerous casualties among the Armenian civilian population of the Ottoman Empire were random and not organized;

The basis of the Armenian Genocide was the religious difference between Armenians and Turks - i.e. there was a conflict between Christians and Muslims;

The Armenians lived well with the Turks as subjects of the Ottoman Empire, and only Western countries and Russia, through their intervention, destroyed the friendly relations of the two peoples - Armenian and Turkish.

Giving a brief analysis, we immediately note that none of these statements has any serious basis. This a well-thought-out information war that has been going on for decades.

It's meant to hide real reasons The Armenian Genocide, which lie on the economic and geopolitical planes and are not limited to the framework of the Genocide of 1915. There was precisely a desire to physically destroy the Armenians, take away their material wealth and territory, and so that nothing would interfere with the creation of a new pan-Turkic empire led by Turkey - from Europe (Albania ) to China (Xinjiang province).

Exactly pan-Turkic component and the economic defeat of the Armenians(and then the Pontic Greeks) were one of the main ideas of the Genocide of 1909, 1915-1923, carried out by the Young Turks.

(The planned pan-Turkic empire is marked in red on the map, its further advancement is marked in pink). And today a small part of our homeland, the Republic of Armenia (about 7% of the original, see map of the Armenian Highlands) cuts the supposed empire like a narrow wedge.

MYTH 1st. The 1915 genocide was a consequence of the First World War.

It's a lie. The decision to exterminate the Armenians has been discussed in certain political circles in Turkey (and especially the Young Turks) since the end of the 19th century, especially intensely since 1905, when there was no talk of the First World War. With the participation and support of Turkish emissaries to Transcaucasia in 1905. The first Turkic/Tatar-Armenian clashes and pogroms of Armenians were prepared and carried out in Baku, Shushi, Nakhichevan, Erivan, Goris, Elisavetpol. After the suppression of the Turkic/Tatar rebellion by the tsarist troops, the instigators fled to Turkey and joined the central committee of the Young Turks (Akhmed Agayev, Alimardan-bek Topchibashev, etc.) In total, there were from 3,000 to 10,000 people killed.

As a result of the pogroms, thousands of workers lost their jobs and livelihoods. The Caspian, Caucasian, “Petrov”, Balakhanskaya and other Armenian-owned oil companies, warehouses, and the Beckendorf Theater were burned. The damage of the pogroms reached about 25 million rubles - about 774,235,000 US dollars today (the gold content of 1 ruble was 0.774235 grams of pure gold) the Armenian campaigns especially suffered, since the fires were directed specifically against the Armenians (for comparison, a month average earnings worker in 1905 in the Russian Empire was 17 rubles 125 kopecks, beef shoulder 1 kg - 45 kopecks, fresh milk 1 liter - 14 kopecks, premium wheat flour 1 kilogram - 24 kopecks, etc.

We should not forget the Armenian Genocide, provoked by the Young Turks in 1909. in Adana, Marash, Kessab (massacre on the territory of the former Armenian kingdom-Cilicia, Ottoman Türkiye). 30,000 Armenians were killed. The total damage inflicted on the Armenians was about 20 million Turkish lira. 24 churches, 16 schools, 232 houses, 30 hotels, 2 factories, 1,429 summer houses, 253 farms, 523 shops, 23 mills and many other objects were burned.

For comparison, the Ottoman debt to creditors after the First World War under the Treaty of Sèvres was fixed at 143 million golden Turkish lira.

So The First World War was for the Young Turks only a screen and decoration for the well-thought-out and prepared extermination of Armenians in their area of ​​​​residence - on the historical land of Armenia...

MYTH 2nd. Mass deportations of the Armenian population were carried out from the Eastern front zone into the depths of the Ottoman Empire and were caused by military expediency so that the Armenians would not help the enemy (mainly the Russians). It's a lie. The Ottoman Armenians did not help their enemies - and the same Russians. Yes, in the Russian army in 1914. there were Armenians from among the subjects of the Russian Empire - 250 thousand people, many were mobilized into the war and fought on the fronts, incl. against Turkey. However, also on the Turkish side, according to official data, there were Ottoman subjects Armenians - about 170 thousand (according to some sources about 300 thousand) who fought as part of the Turkish troops (whom the Turks drafted into their army and then killed). The very fact of the participation of Armenian subjects of the Russian Empire did not make the Ottoman Armenians traitors, as some Turkish historians are trying to prove. On the contrary, when Turkish troops under the command of Enver Pasha (Minister of War) after attacking Russian Empire were repulsed and suffered a brutal defeat near Sarikamysh in January 1915, it was the Ottoman Armenians who helped Enver Pasha escape.

The thesis about the deportation of Armenians from the front-line zone is also false since the first deportations of Armenians were carried out not on the eastern front, but from the center of the empire - from Cilicia and AnatoliaVSyria. And in all cases, the deportees were doomed to death in advance.

MYTH 3rd. Numerous casualties among the Armenian civilian population of the Ottoman Empire were random and not organized. Another LIE- a single mechanism for the arrest and murder of Armenian men, and then the deportation of women and children under escort of gendarmes and the organized extermination of Armenians throughout the empire directly indicate the state structure in the organization of the Genocide. The murder of Armenian subjects drafted into the Ottoman army, regulations, numerous testimonies, including from the Turks themselves, indicate the personal participation of Turkish government officials of various ranks in the Armenian Genocide.

This is evidenced by inhumane experiments in government institutions Ottoman Empire over Armenians (including women and children). These and many other facts of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 ORGANIZED BY THE TURKISH AUTHORITIES. revealedTurkish military tribunal 1919-1920And many still do not know that one of the first countries to recognize the Armenian Genocide, after the endThe First World War was TURKEY. Among the general cruelty and savagery, the methods of extermination of Armenians by TURKISH OFFICIALS in 1915, which subsequently were only partially used by the fascist executioners in the Second World War and recognized as crimes against humanity. For the first time in the history of the 20th century and on a similar scale, it was To was applied to the Armeniansso-called lower“biological status” .

According to the indictment announced on Turkish military tribunal, the deportations were not dictated by military necessity or disciplinary reasons, but were conceived by the central Young Turk Ittihad committee, and their consequences were felt in every corner of the Ottoman Empire. By the way, the Young Turk regime was one of the successful “color revolutions” of that time; there were other projects that were not successful - the Young Italians, the Young Czechs, the Young Bosnians, the Young Serbs, etc.

In evidence Turkish military tribunal 1919-1920. mostly relied on documents, and not for testimony. The Tribunal considered the fact of the organized murder of Armenians by the leaders of Ittihat (Turkish) to be proven. taktil cinayeti) and found Enver, Cemal, Talaat and Dr. Nazim, who were absent from the trial, guilty. They were sentenced to death by the tribunal. By the beginning of the tribunal, the main leaders of Ittihat - denme Talaat, Enver, Jemal, Shakir, Nazim, Bedri and Azmi - fled with the help of the British outside Turkey.

The killings of Armenians were accompanied by robberies and thefts. For example, Asent Mustafa and the governor of Trebizond, Cemal Azmi, embezzled Armenian jewelry worth from 300,000 to 400,000 Turkish gold pounds (at that time about $1,500,000, with the average salary of a worker in the United States during this period being about $45.5 per month). The American consul in Aleppo reported to Washington that Turkey was operating “ giant scheme looting." The Consul in Trebizond reported that he daily observed how "a crowd of Turkish women and children followed the police like vultures and seized everything they could carry away," and that the house of Commissioner Ittihat in Trebizond was full of gold and jewelry, which constituted his share of the plunder, and etc.

MYTH 4th. The basis of the Armenian Genocide was the religious difference between Armenians and Turks - i.e. there was a conflict between Christians and Muslims. And this is also a LIE. During the Genocide of 1915 were exterminated and robbed not only Christian Armenians, but also Muslim Armenians who converted to Islam from the 16th to 18th centuries - Hamshenians (Hemshils). During the Genocide of 1915-1923. Armenians were not allowed to change their religion, many agreed to this just to save their loved ones - Talaat's directive “On a change of faith” dated December 17, 1915 directly insisted on the deportation and actual murder of Armenians, REGARDLESS OF THEIR FAITH. And we should not forget that the difference in religion did not become an obstacle and the bulk of Christian Armenian refugees found shelter and conditions for organizing a new life EXACTLY IN NEIGHBORING MUSLIM COUNTRIES . So, the factor of Islamo-Christian confrontation was only a background/cover.

MYTH 5th. The Armenians lived well with the Turks as subjects of the Ottoman Empire, and only Western countries and Russia, through their intervention, destroyed the friendly relations of the two peoples - the Armenian and Turkish. This statement can be considered the apotheosis of lies and a visual aid of information propaganda, since the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, not being Muslims, were considered second-class subjects - dhimmis (submissive to Islam), and were subject to many restrictions:

- Armenians were forbidden to carry weapons and ride horses(On horse);

- murder of a Muslim - incl. in self-defense and protection of loved ones - punishable by death;

- Armenians paid higher taxes, and in addition to the official ones, they were also subject to taxes from various local Muslim tribes;

- Armenians could not inherit real estate(for them there was only lifetime use, heirs had to get permission again for the right to use property),

- Armenians' testimony was not accepted in court;

In a number of areas Armenians were forbidden to speak their native language under pain of having their tongues cut out(for example, the city of Kutia is the birthplace of Komitas and the reason for his ignorance of his native language in childhood);

- Armenians had to give part of their children to the harem and to the Janissaries;

- Armenian women and children were constantly targets of violence, kidnappings and the slave trade and much more…

For comparison: Armenians in the Russian Empire. They were equal in rights to Russian subjects, including the possibility of entering the service, representation in noble assemblies, etc. In serf Russia, serfdom did not apply to them, and Armenian settlers, regardless of class, were allowed to freely leave the Russian Empire. Among the benefits provided to Armenians was the establishment of an Armenian court in 1746. and the right to use the Armenian code of law in Russia, permission to have their own Magistrates, i.e. granting full self-government. The Armenians were freed for ten years (or forever, like, for example, the Grigoriopol Armenians) from all duties, billets, and recruitment. They were given sums without repayment for the construction of urban settlements - houses, churches, magistrates' buildings, gymnasiums, installation of water pipes, baths and coffee houses (!). Saving fiscal legislation was implemented: “after 10 preferential years have passed, pay them to the treasury from merchant capital 1% of the ruble, from guilds and townspeople 2 rubles per year from each yard, from villagers 10 kopecks. for a tithe." See Decree of Empress Catherine II of October 12, 1794.

During the organization of the Armenian Genocide in 1915, at the beginning of 1914-1915. The government of the Young Turks declared war on the infidels - jihad, organizing numerous gatherings in mosques and public places, at which Muslims were called upon to kill ALL Armenians as spies and saboteurs. According to Muslim law, the enemy's property is a trophy for the first person to kill him. Thus, murders and robberies were carried out everywhere, because after the mass declaration of Armenians as enemies, this was considered a LEGAL and financially ENCOURAGED act. A fifth of the loot from the Armenians OFFICIALLY went to the Young Turks’ party treasury.

The speed and scale of the 1915 Genocide carried out by the Young Turks is terrifying. Within a year, about 80% of the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were exterminated - in 1915. About 1,500,000 Armenians were killed as of today, in 2017. The Armenian community in Turkey is about 70,000 Christian Armenians, there are also Islamized Armenians - the number is unknown.

Geopolitical and legal aspects Armenian Genocide

IN 1879 Ottoman Türkiye officially declared itself BANKRUPT- the size of Turkey’s external debt was considered astronomical and reached a nominal value of 5.3 billion francs in gold. Central State Bank of Turkey "Imperial Ottoman Bank" was a concession enterprise established in 1856. and was sentenced to 80 years English and French financiers (including those from the Rothschild clan) . Under the terms of the concession, the Bank serviced all operations related to the accounting of financial revenues to the state treasury. The bank had the exclusive right to issue banknotes (i.e., issue Turkish money) valid throughout the Ottoman Empire.

Let us note that it was in this bank that the valuables and funds of the majority of Armenians were kept, which were then confiscated from ALL of them AND WERE NOT RETURNED TO ANYONE, and so did branches of foreign banks.

Map of murders and pogroms of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire for 1915.

Türkiye quickly sold off its existing assets, includinggave concessions to foreign companies(mainly Western) land, rights to build and operate large infrastructures (railway), mining, etc. This is an important detail; in the future, the new owners were not interested in changing the status of the territories and their loss to Turkey.

Map of mineral resources of Western Armenia /Türkiye today/.

For reference: The territory of Western Armenia is rich in various useful things, incl. ore minerals: iron, lead, zinc, manganese, mercury, antimony, molybdenum, etc. There are rich deposits of copper, tungsten, etc.

Living in their historical homeland, the Armenians and Pontic Greeks also participated in economic legal relations within the empire - especially after a series of internal Turkish reforms (1856, 1869), which took place under pressure from the Western powers (France, Great Britain) and Russia and represented a significant part of the financial and industrial elite of Turkey.

Having centuries-old corresponding civilizational potential and powerful connections with compatriots from outside, including the possibility of attracting (turnover) national capital, the Armenians and Greeks represented serious competition and therefore were exterminated by the Young Turks of the Denme.

Legal levers that the Young Turks operated during the deportation and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. (the most important acts).

1. The totality of a number of aspects of Ottoman Muslim law that legitimized the seizure of the property of Armenians by virtue of declaring them en masse as “Western and Russian spies.” Important step in the indicated direction - declaration of a holy war - jihad with infidels from the Entente countries and their allies on November 11, 1914. The seized property of the Armenians/"harbi", according to the legal custom established and applied in Turkey, passed to the murderers. By order of the Young Turks, a fifth of it was officially transferred to their party treasury.

2. Decisions of the congresses of the party “Unity and Progress” 1910-1915. ( The extermination of Armenians has been considered since 1905. ), incl. Secret decision of the “Unity and Progress” committee at the congress in Thessaloniki on the Turkification of non-Turkish peoples of the empire. The final decision to implement the Armenian Genocide was made at a secret meeting of the Ittihadists on February 26, 1915. with the participation of 75 people.

3. Decision on special education. organ - executive committee of three, consisting of the Young Turks-Denme Nazim, Shakir and Shukri, October 1914, who was supposed to be responsible for organizational issues of the extermination of the Armenians. The organization of special detachments of criminals, “Teshkilat-i Makhsuse” (Special Organization), to assist the Executive Committee of the Three, numbered up to 34,000 members and largely consisted of “chettes” - criminals released from prison.

4. Order of War Minister Enver in February 1915 on the extermination of Armenians serving in the Turkish army.

7. Temporary Law “On the Disposal of Property” of September 26, 1915 Eleven articles of this law regulated issues related to the disposal of the property of deportees, their loans and assets.

8. Order of the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat dated September 16, 1915 on the extermination of Armenian children in orphanages. IN initial period After the 1915 Genocide, some Turks began to officially adopt Armenian orphans, but the Young Turks saw this as a “loophole to save the Armenians” and a secret order was issued. In it, Talaat wrote: “gather all the Armenian children, ... remove them under the pretext that the deportation committee will take care of them, so that suspicion does not arise. Destroy them and report execution.”

9. Temporary Law “On Expropriation and Confiscation of Property”, dated October 13/16, 1915 Among the many glaring facts:

The unprecedented nature of the confiscation carried out by the Turkish Ministry of Finance, on the basis of this law, of bank deposits and jewelry of Armenians, which they deposited in the Ottoman Bank before deportation;

- official expropriation of money that was received by Armenians when selling their property to local Turks;

Attempts by the government, represented by the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, to receive compensation for the insurance policies of Armenians who insured their lives with foreign insurance companies, based on the fact that they had no heirs left and the Turkish government became their beneficiary.

10. Talaat’s directive “On a change of faith” dated December 17, 1915 etc. Many Armenians, trying to escape, agreed to change their religion; this directive insisted on their deportation and actual murder, regardless of their faith.

Losses from the Genocide for the period 1915-1919. / Paris Peace Conference, 1919 /

Losses of the Armenian people at the end of the 19th century. and the beginning of the 20th century, the culmination of which was the implementation of the 1915 Genocide. - cannot be calculated either by the number of killed or by fixed property damage - they are immeasurable. In addition to those brutally killed by enemies, tens of thousands of Armenians died daily from hunger, cold, epidemics, and stress etc., mostly helpless women, old people and children. Hundreds of thousands of women and children were Turkified and held captive by force, were sold into slavery, the number of refugees amounted to hundreds of thousands, plus tens of thousands of orphans and street children. The population mortality figures also speak of the catastrophic situation. In Yerevan, 20-25% of the population died in 1919 alone. According to expert estimates, for 1914-1919. the population of the current territory of Armenia decreased by 600,000 people, a small part of them emigrated, the rest died from disease and deprivation. There was massive looting and destruction of numerous valuables, incl. destruction of priceless treasures of the nation: manuscripts, books, architectural and other monuments of national and world significance. The unrealized potential of the destroyed generations, the loss of qualified personnel and the failure in their succession, which sharply affected the overall level of development of the nation and the global niche it occupies to this day, are irreplaceable, and the list goes on...

Total from 1915-1919 1,800,000 Armenians were killed throughout Western Armenia and Cilicia, part of Eastern Armenia. 66 cities, 2,500 villages, 2,000 churches and monasteries, 1,500 schools, as well as ancient monuments, manuscripts, factories, etc. were plundered and devastated.

Incomplete (recognized) damage at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. amounted to 19,130,932,000 French gold francs, of which:

Let us recall that the size of the external debt of Ottoman Turkey was the largest among the countries of Eurasia and reached a nominal value of 5,300,000,000 French gold francs.

Türkiye paid for it and has a lot today precisely due to the robbery and murder of Armenians on Armenian soil...

Since the Armenian Genocide remained an unpunished crime, which brought huge dividends to its organizers, ranging from material to moral and ideological - perpetuating their positive role in the formation of the Turkish state and the embodiment of the ideas of pan-Turkism, Armenians will always be a target.

It is the reluctance of the Turkish side to part with the loot and pay the bills of history that makes any negotiations on the issue of the Armenian genocide impossible.

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 essential element state security Republic of Armenia, since impunity for the crime and too large dividends clearly lead to an attempt to REPEAT THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE.

The increase in the number of countries that have recognized the Armenian genocide also increases the level of security of Armenia, since international recognition of this crime is a deterrent for Turkey and Azerbaijan.

We do not call for hatred, we call for UNDERSTANDING and ADEQUACY not only of Armenians, but also of all those who consider themselves cultured and civilized people. And even after more than 100 years, crimes against Armenians must be condemned, criminals punished, and what was obtained by criminal means returned to the owners (their loved ones) or the national to the successor state.This is the only way to stop new crimes, new genocide anywherepeace. In the dissemination of meaningful information and the consistent struggle to punish criminals, the salvation of our future generations - in the palms of mothers, look for the fate of nations...

Isabella Muradyan - migration lawyer (Yerevan), member of the International Law Association, especially for

Some historians distinguish two periods in the history of genocide. If at the first stage (1878-1914) the task was to retain the territory of the enslaved people and organize a mass exodus, then in 1915-1922 the destruction of the ethnic and political Armenian clan, which was hindering the implementation of the pan-Turkism program, was put at the forefront. Before the First World War, the destruction of the Armenian national group was carried out in the form of a system of widespread individual murders combined with periodic massacres of Armenians in certain areas where they constituted an absolute majority (the massacre in Sasun, murders throughout the empire in the fall and winter of 1895, the massacre in Istanbul in Van area).

The original number of people who lived in this territory is a controversial issue, since a significant part of the archives was destroyed. It is known that in the mid-19th century in the Ottoman Empire, non-Muslims made up about 56% of the population.

According to the Armenian Patriarchate, in 1878, three million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey estimated the number of Armenians in the country at 1,845,450. The Armenian population decreased by more than a million due to massacres in 1894-1896, the flight of Armenians from Turkey and forced conversion to Islam.

The Young Turks, who came to power after the 1908 revolution, continued their policy of brutally suppressing the national liberation movement. In ideology, the old doctrine of Ottomanism was replaced by no less rigid concepts of pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism. A campaign of forced Turkification of the population was launched, and non-Turkish organizations were banned.

In April 1909, the Cilician massacre took place. mass kill Armenians of the vilayets of Adana and Aleppo. About 30 thousand people became victims of the massacre, among whom were not only Armenians, but also Greeks, Syrians and Chaldeans. In general, during these years the Young Turks prepared the ground for a complete solution to the “Armenian question”.

In February 1915, at a special meeting of the government, the Young Turk ideologist Dr. Nazim Bey outlined a plan for the complete and widespread destruction of the Armenian people: “It is necessary to completely exterminate the Armenian nation, without leaving a single living Armenian on our land. Even the word “Armenian” itself must be erased from memory..."

On April 24, 1915, on the day now celebrated as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide, mass arrests of the Armenian intellectual, religious, economic and political elite began in Constantinople, which led to the complete destruction of an entire galaxy of prominent figures of Armenian culture. More than 800 representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia were arrested and subsequently killed, including writers Grigor Zohrab, Daniel Varuzhan, Siamanto, Ruben Sevak. Unable to bear the death of his friends, the great composer Komitas lost his mind.

In May-June 1915, massacres and deportations of Armenians began in Western Armenia.

The general and systematic campaign against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire consisted of the expulsion of Armenians into the desert and subsequent executions, death by bands of marauders or from hunger or thirst. Armenians were subjected to deportations from almost all the main centers of the empire.

On June 21, 1915, during the final act of deportation, its main inspirer, Interior Minister Talaat Pasha, ordered the expulsion of “all Armenians without exception” living in the ten provinces of the eastern region of the Ottoman Empire, with the exception of those who were considered useful to the state. Under this new directive, deportations were carried out according to the "ten percent principle", according to which Armenians were not to exceed 10% of the Muslims in the region.

Process of expulsion and destruction Turkish Armenians culminated in a series of military campaigns in 1920 against refugees returning to Cilicia, and in the Smyrna (modern Izmir) massacre in September 1922, when troops under Mustafa Kemal massacred the Armenian quarter in Smyrna and then, under pressure from the Western powers, allowed evacuate the survivors. With the destruction of the Armenians of Smyrna, the last surviving compact community, the Armenian population of Turkey practically ceased to exist in their historical homeland. The surviving refugees scattered around the world, forming diasporas in several dozen countries.

Modern estimates of the number of victims of the genocide vary from 200 thousand (some Turkish sources) to more than 2 million Armenians. Most historians estimate the number of victims to be between 1 and 1.5 million. Over 800 thousand became refugees.

It is difficult to determine the exact number of victims and survivors, since since 1915, fleeing murders and pogroms, many Armenian families changed their religion (according to some sources - from 250 thousand to 300 thousand people).

For many years now, Armenians around the world have been trying to ensure that the international community officially and unconditionally recognizes the fact of genocide. The first special decree recognizing and condemning the terrible tragedy of 1915 was adopted by the Parliament of Uruguay (April 20, 1965). Laws, regulations and decisions on the Armenian genocide were subsequently adopted by the European Parliament, State Duma Russia, the parliaments of other countries, in particular Cyprus, Argentina, Canada, Greece, Lebanon, Belgium, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Venezuela, Lithuania, Chile, Bolivia, as well as the Vatican.

The Armenian genocide was recognized by over 40 American states, the Australian state of New South Wales, the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario (the city of Toronto inclusive), the Swiss cantons of Geneva and Vaud, Wales (Great Britain), about 40 Italian communes, dozens of international and national organizations, including including the World Council of Churches, the League for Human Rights, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanities, and the Union of Jewish Communities of America.

On April 14, 1995, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a statement “On condemnation of the genocide of the Armenian people in 1915-1922.”

The US government exterminated 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, but refuses to call it genocide.

The Armenian community in the United States has long ago accepted a resolution by Congress recognizing the fact of genocide of the Armenian people.

Attempts to pass this legislative initiative were made in Congress more than once, but they were never successful.

The issue of recognition of genocide in the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey.

Armenia and Turkey have not yet established diplomatic relations, and the Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 on the initiative of official Ankara.

Turkey traditionally rejects accusations of the Armenian genocide, arguing that both Armenians and Turks were victims of the 1915 tragedy, and reacts extremely painfully to the process of international recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

In 1965, a monument to the victims of the genocide was erected on the territory of the Catholicosate in Etchmiadzin. In 1967, the construction of a memorial complex was completed on the Tsitsernakaberd hill (Swallow Fortress) in Yerevan. In 1995, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute was built near the memorial complex.

The words “I remember and demand” were chosen as the motto of Armenians around the world for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, and the forget-me-not was chosen as the symbol. This flower in all languages ​​has a symbolic meaning - to remember, not to forget and to remind. The flower's cup graphically depicts the memorial in Tsitserkaberd with its 12 pylons. This symbol will be actively used throughout 2015.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

For Armenians in Turkey, it was a difficult time. They were subjected to genocide, this is recognized throughout the world, except for Turkey itself, of course. Reasons: The Ottomans were never particularly friendly. In 1915, the rights of Armenians and the indigenous inhabitants of the empire were not equal. There was a division not just by nationality but also by faith and confession. Armenians are Christians, so they went to church. And the Turks, at that time they were all Sunnis. Armenians were not Muslims, therefore they were subject to high taxes, could not have means of defense, and could not act as witnesses in courts. These people, at that moment, lived rather poorly, worked on the land, I emphasize that on their own. But the Turks did not like the Armenians, they considered them calculating and cunning. If you look at the Caucasian places in the Ottoman Empire, the situation there was more sad. The Muslims who lived in those territories often came into conflict with the Armenians. In general, hatred grew.

First World War.

In 1908 there was a revolution. The Young Turks came to power, the basis of the new government was nationalism and pan-Turkism, in short, nothing positive was offered for other nationalities living on these lands. And then in 1914, raids on Armenians began when the Turks entered the First World War by signing a treaty with Germany. The Germans promised that they would help Turkey get out to the Caucasus. The problem was that many Armenians lived in the lands of the Caucasus at that time. On Turkish territory itself, non-Muslims began to be harassed, property could be taken away, and jihad was declared. As you know, this is a war against infidels, and every infidel is not a Muslim. The beginning. Of course, during the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War, Armenian people were also called up to fight. The bulk of the Armenians fought against Persia and Russia. But Türkiye suffered defeats on all fronts, and the Armenians became to blame. They began to deprive all people of this nationality of weapons, confiscations took place, and then the killings began. Those military men of Armenian nationality who did not comply with the new orders were shot. Distorted news spread information that these people are traitors, they are spies, the public learned such news from the media.

April 24, 1915. Today, this day is a day of remembrance, a day that is associated with the genocide of an entire people. The entire Armenian elite was arrested in Istanbuli, and then they were deported. Even before the events in the capital, residents of other settlements. But then, such shipments were covered up by the desire to resettle people to other areas that were not affected by the war. But, in fact, people were sent to deserts, where there was not even water, no food, no living conditions. This was done on purpose, and old people, women and children were sent there. The men were taken under arrest so as not to interfere. In May, Anatolia was persecuted. And on April 12, in a city called Van, the Armenian uprising began. People realized that starvation and painful death awaited them, and they took up arms to defend themselves. They fought for a month, Russian troops came to the rescue and stopped the bloodshed. Then, about 55 thousand people died, and these were only Armenians. During the expulsion campaign, there were several similar clashes, and the Turkish authorities did their best to incite hatred between peoples. In June 15, an order was given to deport almost the entire Armenian population. How everything was done. One region was taken, the number of inhabitants of Muslims and Armenians. It was necessary to deport so that the Armenian population was ten percent of the Muslim population. Of course, the schools of these people were also closed, and they tried to place new settlements as far from each other as possible. Similar actions took place throughout the empire. But, in major cities everything happened not so tragically and massively, the authorities were afraid of noise. After all, foreign media could find out about what was going on. They killed in an organized, special and en masse manner. People died during the journey, and also in concentration camps. Later, it will become known that on the initiative of the authorities, experiments were carried out on people, a vaccine against typhus was tried. The gendarmes mocked and tortured people every day. Today. This issue is still being actively studied. The number of deaths is still unknown. In the fifteenth year, they talked about three hundred thousand dead. But the German researcher Lepsius gave a different figure of a million dead. Johannes Lepsius studied everything in detail. This scientist also stated that about three hundred thousand people were forcibly converted to Islam. Now, the Turks talk about two hundred thousand dead, but the free press writes about two million. There is a well-known encyclopedia called Britannica, where the numbers range from six hundred thousand to one and a half million.

Of course they wanted to hide all their actions, but abroad found out. And in 1915, the allied countries Great Britain, France, and Russia signed a declaration calling on Istanbul to stop this. Naturally, there was no point, they weren’t going to stop anything. Everything stopped only in 1918, Türkiye lost in the First World War. The country was occupied by the Entente, these are the three countries described above; at that time they had an alliance called the Entente. Of course, the government itself fled. A new government came, and the union of three countries demanded a debriefing. Already in 18, all documents were studied by a military tribunal. They proved that the killings of the population were planned, organized, and were recognized as an international war crime. Guilty number one was identified, he became Mehmed Talaat Pasha, at the time of the atrocities this man held the post of Minister of Internal Affairs and Grand Vizier. Also, Enver Pasha, he was one of the leaders of the party, Ahmed Jemal Pasha, also a party member. All these people were sentenced to execution, but fled the country. In 19, an Armenian party gathered in Yerevan, which presented a list of those who initiated the events of the fifteenth, there were hundreds of people there. They did not accept legal methods of struggle in Yerevan, they began to look for the culprits and kill. The "Nemesis" campaign has begun. For four years, they killed different faces who were related to the authorities, who were related to the killing of civilians. The main culprit, Talaat Pasha, was killed by a man named Soghomon Tehlirian, this happened in 1921, in March in the city of Berlin. Of course, the man was arrested, but he was better defended by German lawyers, the killer was acquitted, and later moved to the states. The next torturer was killed in Tiflis, this happened in 1922. And Enver died during the fighting; by the way, he fought against the Red Army. This is such a terrible bloody river, a terrible trace in history that will always be in the hands of descendants, residents, and in the hearts of relatives of the victims.