The
atrocities committed against the Armenian people of
the Ottoman Empire during W.W.I are called the Armenian
Genocide. Genocide is the organized killing of a people
for the express purpose of putting an end to their collective
existence. Because of its scope, genocide requires central
planning and a machinery to implement it. This makes
genocide the quintessential state crime as only a government
has the resources to carry out such a scheme of destruction.
The Armenian Genocide was centrally planned and administered
by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian
population of the Ottoman Empire. They killed 1,500,000
innocent souls and almost achieved a 100% elimination
of Armenians. It was carried out during W.W.I between
the years 1915 and 1918. The Armenian people were subjected
to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre,
and starvation.
The great bulk of the Armenian population was forcibly
removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the
vast majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst
and hunger. Large numbers of Armenians were methodically
massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women and children
were abducted and horribly abused. The entire wealth
of the Armenian people was expropriated. After only
a little more than a year of calm at the end of W.W.I,
the atrocities were renewed between 1920 and 1923, and
the remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres
and expulsions. In 1915, thirty-three years before UN
Genocide Convention was adopted, the Armenian Genocide
was condemned by the international community as the
worst crime against humanity.
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