Armenian Genocide—The AGHET

In 1915, the Turkish government exterminated about 1.5 million Armenians.

Thousands of documents uncovered in Berlin (Germany was an ally at the time) have exposed a lot of the details that were previously hidden or denied.

A few years before, from 1895-1897, about 200,000 Armenians were executed in a partial ethnic cleansing. But when World War I came, Turkey devised grander plans to persecute, torture, and kill the largely Christian Armenians.

The Armenians were envied because they were wealthy and better educated; they were "the businessmen of the Ottoman Empire". False rumors were spread that the Armenians were supporting the Allies to justify the government's actions. Speeches were made to the effect of "Since we're at war with Christians, we need to wipe them out in this country first," and "They are profiting from the Turkish citizens."

An edict was issued that all Armenians be disarmed. Quotas were enacted, and officials who did not turn in the prescribed number of weapons were tortured. Many resorted to buying guns from other sources just to meet the quotas.

Some groups of Armenians decided not to comply with the disarmament, grabbed their weapons, and fled to the hills. They fended off attacks there until Allied forces eventually took the area and rescued them. They fared far better than the rest.

Men, women, and children were forced to leave their homes (which were then looted) and suffer a grueling march for months across long distances, including parts of the Syrian desert, the intent of which was kill them from fatigue, exposure, dehydration and hunger. Soldiers in charge of the march allowed raiders to rob the refugees and kidnap young girls. Conditions were horrendous, and people died all along the way from starvation, abuse and suicide. Some mothers drowned their children in rivers to end their suffering. Few survived the march.

Others were forced to purchase train tickets (with their own money, of course) and were loaded into crowded railroad cattle cars to be taken away; the trains made frequent stops to remove the latest dead.

Photography of Armenian deportees was strictly prohibited, but some photographs were smuggled out and survived to document the horrors.

The number of Armenians who were killed is roughly equal to the entire population of Hawaii today.

References and more details:
Bearing Arms
History

Bearing Arms