The 8 Stages of Genocide

By Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch Classification Symbolization Dehumanization Organization Polarization Preparation Extermination Denial

Genocide is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The process is not linear. Logically, later stages must be preceded by earlier stages. But all stages continue to operate throughout the process.

1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic cleavages as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like Tanzania has also promoted transcendent national identity. This search for common ground is vital to early prevention of genocide.

2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people “Jews” or “Gypsies”, or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply the symbols to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia. To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden (swastikas) as can hate speech. Group marking like gang clothing or tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well. The problem is that legal limitations will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement. Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980’s, code-words replaced them. If widely supported, however, denial of symbolization can be powerful, as it was in Bulgaria, where the government refused to supply enough yellow badges and at least eighty percent of Jews did not wear them, depriving the yellow star of its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews.

3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than democracies. Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from international travel and have their foreign finances frozen. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished.

4. ORGANIZATION: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility (the Janjaweed in Darfur.) Sometimes organization is informal (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or decentralized (terrorist groups.) Special army units or militias are often trained and armed. Plans are made for genocidal killings. To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel. The U.N.

should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations, as was done in post-genocide Rwanda.

5. POLARIZATION: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center. Moderates from the perpetrators’ own group are most able to stop genocide, so are the first to be arrested and killed. Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups d’état by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions.

6. PREPARATION: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. Their property is expropriated. They are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. At this stage, a Genocide Emergency must be declared. If the political will of the great powers, regional alliances, or the U.N. Security Council can be mobilized, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance provided to the victim group to prepare for its self-defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organized by the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees to come.

7. EXTERMINATION begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide (as in Burundi). At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. (An unsafe “safe” area is worse than none at all.) The U.N. Standing High Readiness Brigade, EU Rapid Response Force, or regional forces -- should be authorized to act by the U.N. Security Council if the genocide is small. For larger interventions, a multilateral force authorized by the U.N. should intervene. If the U.N. is paralyzed, regional alliances must act. It is time to recognize that the international responsibility to protect transcends the narrow interests of individual nation states. If strong nations will not provide troops to intervene directly, they should provide the airlift, equipment, and financial means necessary for regional states to intervene.

8. DENIAL is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile. There they remain with impunity, like Pol Pot or Idi Amin, unless they are captured and a tribunal is established to try them. The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav or Rwanda Tribunals, or an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or an International Criminal Court may not deter the worst genocidal killers. But with the political will to arrest and prosecute them, some may be brought to justice.

Genocide in Darfur

Darfur is in the western part of Sudan, bordering on Libya, Chad, and the Central African Republic.

Darfur is a region in Sudan the size of France. It is home to about 6 million people from nearly 100 tribes. Some

nomads. Some farmers. All Muslims. In 1989, General Omar Bashir took control of Sudan by military coup, which

then allowed The National Islamic Front government to inflame regional tensions. In a struggle for political control

of the area, weapons poured into Darfur. Conflicts increased between African farmers and many nomadic Arab

tribes.

In 2003, two Darfuri rebel movements- the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement

(JEM)- took up arms against the Sudanese government, complaining about the marginalization of the area and the

failure to protect sedentary people from attacks by nomads. The government of Sudan responded by unleashing

Arab militias known as Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback”. Sudanese forces and Janjaweed militia attacked

hundreds of villages throughout Darfur. Over 400 villages were completely destroyed and millions of civilians were

forced to flee their homes.

In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at

the hands of the Janjaweed. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people.

More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month. The Sudanese government

disputes these estimates and denies any connection with the Janjaweed.

The Sudanese government appears unwilling to address the human rights crisis in the region and has not taken the

necessary steps to restrict the activities of the Janjaweed. In June 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) took

the first step in ending impunity in Darfur by launching investigations into human rights violations in Darfur.

However, the government of Sudan refused to cooperate with the investigations.

On March 4, 2009 Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, became the first sitting president to be indicted by ICC for

directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur. The arrest warrant for Bashir

follows arrest warrants issued by the ICC for former Sudanese Minister of State for the Interior Ahmad Harun and

Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb. The government of Sudan has not surrendered either suspect to the ICC.

Darfuris today continue to suffer and the innumerable problems facing Sudan cannot be resolved until peace is

secured in Darfur. According to UN estimates, 2.7 million Darfuris remain in internally displaced persons camps

and over 4.7 million Darfuris rely on humanitarian aid. Resolving the Darfur conflict is critical not just for the

people of Darfur, but also for the future of Sudan and the stability of the entire region.

Ukrainian Famine

18/02/11

By: Talar Kossakian

The Ukrainian Famine was dreadful famine premeditated by the Soviet Union, headed by Joseph Stalin during 1932-

1933, as a means to undermine the nationalistic pride of the Ukrainian people. It served to control and further

oppress the Ukrainian people by denying them the basic vital essentials they needed to survive. The Ukrainian

Famine is also known as Holodomor, meaning “death by hunger.”

The Communist Regime sought to eliminate any threat from Ukrainian nationalists, whom they feared had the

potential to form a rebellion and to seek independence from the Soviet Union. More than 5,000 Ukrainian

intellectuals were arrested and later were either murdered or deported to prison camps in Siberia. These individuals

were falsely accused of plotting an armed rebellion; however it was very clear that Stalin’s intentions were to

eliminate the leaders of Ukrainian society, to leave the masses without any guidance or direction.

Stalin regarded the self-sufficient farms of the Ukraine peasants, as a threat to his ideals. He did not want the

Ukrainian peasants to prosper freely from the wealth accumulated from independent farm holdings. The wealthier

farmers were termed as “kulaks”, and became the primary target of “dekulukization,” an effort to eliminate

independent farm-holdings, and create collective farm units. The Communists attempted to gain the support of the

poorer class of peasants, by turning them against the kulak class of farmers. A false image of the Kulak class

portrayed them as a danger to society. Contrary to the expected outcome of the Communists’ plan, the poor farmers

sided with the kulaks, instead of siding with the Soviet authorities. As a result many of them became new targets of

dekulakization. Many other poor farmers unwillingly joined collective farms. Those who attempted to aid a “kulak”

were punished under the law.

The Soviet police confiscated the Ukrainian farmers of their homes, livestock, wheat crops, and valuable

possessions. They imposed heavy grain taxes, deliberately leaving families to starve. Those who resisted giving up

their homes and crops, were violently shot to death or deported to regions in Siberia. Some families and individuals

chose to burn their homes to the ground and kill their livestock, instead of handing it over to Soviet authorities.

Families, who tried to hide grain resources, in order to sustain a source of food, were killed. This campaign of terror

was organized to instill fear within the people, and force them to relinquish all that they had. The ultimate goal was

to have these people embrace Soviet-ism and abandon all nationalistic pride.

A system of internal passports prevented Ukrainians from leaving their towns and villages. Thus villagers were not

able to cross the border and escape the torment by fleeing to other countries. When news of the Famine reached the

Ukrainian Diaspora in the United States and Europe, food supplies were sent to Ukraine to assist the starving people.

However all food shipments were denied at the border by Soviet authorities. Following the Soviet Union’s policy of

denying any allegations having to do with the Famine, all outside assistance was refused. Even journalists were not

allowed in Ukraine, because the Soviet government feared that the media would reveal the perpetrated crimes

against the Ukrainian people. When an individual claimed that there was a famine in Ukraine they were considered

to be spreading anti-Soviet propaganda. Even stating the words “famine” or “hunger” could cause someone to end

up in jail.

All the grain taken from Ukrainian farmers were exported to European countries, and the money generated from

these sales, were used to fuel Stalin’s Five Year Plan for the transformation of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union

purchased many products and weapons from Western countries. Those western countries in return remained silent in

regards to the starving Ukrainians. Grain that was not yet shipped out was reserved in granaries. While the animals

that were needed for work on the farms were fed, the people were left to starve. The granaries were guarded to

ensure no one would steal grain supplies. Anyone who attempted to do so was shot and killed.

It was estimated that about 25,000 Ukrainians were dying every day during the Famine. Desperation and extreme

hunger even lead to cases of cannibalism and consequentially thousands were arrested for this act.

Despite many Ukrainian Communist leaders’ objections to Stalin and his decrees, Stalin continued to raise grain

quotas, which led to worsening of the famine. Many Communists blame the orchestrated famine on an unsuccessful

harvest and crop yield, failing to acknowledge the crimes perpetrated by the Soviet government and authorities It is

estimated that more than 10 million people died as a result of violent executions, deportation, and starvation.

Currently Russia does not recognize the Ukrainian Famine or Holodomor, as genocide. The Russian State Duma

stated that there was starvation in many parts of the Soviet Union, and it is insulting and incorrect for the Ukrainians

to claim that they were directly targeted. Despite Russia’s persistent denial of the Ukrainian Famine, many countries

around the world have recognized the atrocious crimes committed against the Ukrainian people as genocide.

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Estonia, Ecuador, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico,

Paraguay, Peru, Poland, and the United States of America regard the Ukrainian Famine from 1932-1933 as

genocide. Argentina, Czech Republic, Chile, Slovakia, Spain, Balearic Islands, Spain, and Vatican consider

Holodomor as a deliberate act of famine.

On November 28, 2006 the Parliament of Ukraine adopted a law that recognized the artificial famine in Ukraine as

genocide committed against the Ukrainian people. The law also made public denial of the Ukrainian Genocide

illegal. Ukrainian Genocide commemoration day is on November 26.

The Palestinian Conflict

21/11/10

A Palestinian protester holding his national flag confronts an Israeli soldier during a

demonstration against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Maasarah near

Bethlehem on November 12, 2010.

In 1850, the population of Palestine was estimated at 500,000, of whom approximately 80% were Muslim, 15%

Christian and 5% Jewish. The current conflict is not ancient, but began in the late 19th-century when the Zionist

movement in Europe decided to create a Jewish state in Palestine. Since Jews constituted a small minority in

Palestine, implanting a Jewish majority state would by definition require the displacement of the non-Jewish

majority.

In Palestine, a national liberation movement was already taking place. Palestinians were seeking independence from

occupation by the Ottoman Turks and then by the British.

When the Ottoman Empire fell after WWI, the victorious European powers created new artificial boundaries and

Palestine became a mandate territory of Britain in 1922. Tensions had increased in November 1917 when the British

Foreign Office Secretary announced his governments support for the establishment of ‘a Jewish national home in

Palestine.’ The number of Jewish settlers in Palestine grew tenfold during the three decades of British rule.

Palestinian Arabs resisted using both non-violent means and armed revolt.

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which recommended dividing Palestine

into two states; one Palestinian and one Jewish. Although Jews constituted 33% of the total population, and owned

6.59% of the land, the U.N. resolution allocated 54% of the territory for a Jewish state.

Palestinians did not accept the partition of their homeland and continued to demand independence. Immediately

after the resolution was announced, fighting broke out between Zionist Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

By May 1948 Zionist forces had already captured substantial portions of Palestine outside the U.N. defined Jewish

state, and at least 200,000 Palestinians had been expelled from their homes in what became Israel. On May 14th

Great Britain officially declared the end of British Mandate rule in Palestine. That same day, Zionist leaders

declared the state of Israel, and the U.S. government recognized it within hours. On May 15, Jordan, Syria, and

Egypt entered the war. Fighting continued until armistice agreements were signed in January 1949. The new state of

Israel had conquered 78% of Palestine, with Jordan taking control of the West Bank and Egypt taking control of

Gaza.

The Zionist forces launched a systematic plan, Plan Dalet, for the expulsion of Palestinians, which included

destruction of villages, mass expulsion, imprisonment, massacres and rape.

By 1949, close to 800,000 Palestinians had been driven out of their homes and 531 villages were destroyed.

Palestinians are one of the largest and longest suffering groups of refugees in the world. Over 4.5 million Palestinian

refugees are registered with the U.N., and many more remain unregistered. Many still carry keys to their homes

from which they were expelled.

In 1967, border skirmishes and instability increased and Israel launched a surprise attack on Egypt. Just 5 days after

the attack, Israel had achieved all its territorial objectives, including Gaza and the West Bank. 300,000 more

Palestinians were driven out of Palestine to become refugees. Israel immediately began to demolish their hoes for

Israeli settlements.

After the 1967 victory, Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem to become part of the State of Israel. The other

conquered areas- Gaza and the West Bank- have never formally been annexed and so the 3.5 million Palestinians

who remain there are not citizens of any country but have remained subjects of an illegal military occupation.

The West Bank and Gaza are still under military occupation. Palestinians are subject to Israeli military laws much

like apartheid laws of old South Africa. They have no right to free speech or a fair trial, they have no freedom of

movement between towns, they can be expelled from the country without due process and they have no right to

privacy. Although the pay taxes, they are not allowed to vote in Israeli elections.

The Israeli military continues to invade Gaza, bombard civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure, and carry out

targeted assassinations, all the while strengthening the military occupation of the West Bank with an ever-increasing

network of checkpoints, walls and illegal settlements.

The Genocide in Rwanda

26/05/09

In 1994, Rwanda’s population of seven million was composed of three ethnic groups: Hutu (approximately 85%), Tutsi (14%)

and Twa (1%). In the early 1990s, Hutu extremists within Rwanda’s political elite blamed the entire Tutsi minority population for

the country’s increasing social, economic, and political pressures. Tutsi civilians were also accused of supporting a Tutsi-

dominated rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Through the use of propaganda and constant political maneuvering,

Habyarimana, who was the president at the time, and his group increased divisions between Hutu and Tutsi by the end of 1992.

The Hutu remembered past years of oppressive Tutsi rule, and many of them not only resented but also feared the minority.

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down. Violence began almost immediately after

that. Under the cover of war, Hutu extremists launched their plans to destroy the entire Tutsi civilian population. Political leaders

who might have been able to take charge of the situation and other high profile opponents of the Hutu extremist plans were killed

immediately. Tutsi and people suspected of being Tutsi were killed in their homes and as they tried to flee at roadblocks set up

across the country during the genocide. Entire families were killed at a time. Women were systematically and brutally raped. It is estimated that some 200,000 people participated in the perpetration of the Rwandan genocide.

In the weeks after April 6, 1994, 800,000 men, women, and children perished in the Rwandan genocide, perhaps as many as three

quarters of the Tutsi population. At the same time, thousands of Hutu were murdered because they opposed the killing campaign and the forces directing it.

The Rwandan genocide resulted from the conscious choice of the elite to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power. This

small, privileged group first set the majority against the minority to counter a growing political opposition within Rwanda. Then,

faced with RPF success on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, these few power holders transformed the strategy of ethnic

division into genocide. They believed that the extermination campaign would reinstate the solidarity of the Hutu under their

leadership and help them win the war, or at least improve their chances of negotiating a favorable peace. They seized control of the state and used its authority to carry out the massacre.

The civil war and genocide only ended when the Tutsi-dominated rebel group, the RPF, defeated the Hutu perpetrator regime and President Paul Kagame took control.

Although the Rwandans are fully responsible for the organization and execution of the genocide, governments and peoples

elsewhere all share in the shame of the crime because they failed to prevent and stop this killing campaign.

Policymakers in France, Belgium, and the United States and at the United Nations were aware of the preparations for massive

slaughter and failed to take the steps needed to prevent it. Aware from the start that Tutsi were being targeted for elimination, the

leading foreign actors refused to acknowledge the genocide. Not only did international leaders reject what was going on, but they

also declined for weeks to use their political and moral authority to challenge the legitimacy of the genocidal government. They

refused to declare that a government guilty of exterminating its citizens would never receive international assistance. They did

nothing to silence the radio that televised calls for slaughter. Even after it had become indisputable that what was going on in Rwanda was a genocide, American officials had shunned the g-word, fearing that it would cause demands for intervention.

When international leaders finally voiced disapproval, the genocidal authorities listened well enough to change their tactics

although not their ultimate goal. Far from cause for satisfaction, this small success only highlights the tragedy: if weak protests produced this result in late April, imagine what might have been the result if in mid-April the entire world had spoken out.

The Armenian Genocide (1915-1923)

10/05/09

The Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th Century, occurred when two million Armenians living in

Turkey were eliminated from their historic homeland through forced deportations and massacres between 1915-

1918.

The Ancient Armenians

For three thousand years, a thriving Armenian community had existed inside the vast region of the Middle East

bordered by the Black, Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. The area, known today as Anatolia, stands at the

crossroads of three continents; Europe, Asia and Africa. Great powers rose and fell over the many centuries and

the Armenian homeland, when not independent, was at various times ruled by Persians, Greeks, Romans,

Byzantines, Arabs and Mongols.

Despite the repeated invasions and occupations, Armenian pride and cultural identity never wavered. The snow-

capped peak of Mount Ararat became the focal point of this proud people and by 600 BC Armenia as a kingdom

sprang into being.

The First Christian Nation

Following the advent of Christianity, Armenia became the very first nation to accept it as the state religion. A

golden era of peace and prosperity followed which saw the invention of a distinct alphabet, the flourishing of

literature, art, commerce, and a unique style of architecture. By the 10th century, Armenians had established a

new capital at Ani, affectionately called the ‘city of a thousand and one churches.’

Under Muslim Rule

In the eleventh century, the first Turkish invasion of the Armenian homeland occurred. Thus began several

hundred years of rule by Muslim Turks. By the sixteenth century, Armenia had been absorbed into the vast and

mighty Ottoman Empire. At its peak, this Turkish empire included much of Southeast Europe, North Africa, and

almost all of the Middle East.

But by the 1800s the once powerful Ottoman Empire was in serious decline. For centuries, it had spurned

technological and economic progress, while the nations of Europe had embraced innovation and became industrial

giants. Turkish armies had once been virtually invincible. Now, they lost battle after battle to modern European

armies.

As the empire gradually disintegrated, formerly subject peoples including the Greeks, Serbs and Romanians

achieved their long-awaited independence. Only the Armenians and the Arabs of the Middle East remained stuck

in the backward and nearly bankrupt empire, now under the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid.

An Ottoman Civil Rights Movement

By the 1890s, young Armenians, educated in the universities of Europe began to press for political reforms in the

Ottoman Empire, calling for a constitutional government, the right to vote and an end to discriminatory practices

such as special taxes levied solely against them because they were Christians. The despotic Turkish Sultan

responded to their pleas with brutal persecutions and massacres. Between 1894 and 1896 over 100,000

inhabitants of Armenian villages were slaughtered during widespread pogroms conducted by the Sultan’s special

regiments.

But the Sultan’s days were numbered. In July 1908, reform-minded Turkish nationalists known as ‘Young Turks’

forced the Sultan to allow a constitutional government and guarantee basic rights. The Young Turks were

ambitious junior officers in the Turkish Army who hoped to halt their country’s steady decline.

Armenians in Turkey were delighted with this sudden turn of events and its prospects for a brighter future. Both

Turks and Armenians held jubilant public rallies attended with banners held high calling for freedom, equality and

justice.

The Rise of Turkish Nationalism

However, their hopes were dashed when three of the Young Turks seized full control of the government via a coup

in 1913. This triumvirate of Young Turks, consisting of Mehmed Talaat, Ismail Enver and Ahmed Djemal, came to

wield dictatorial powers and concocted their own ambitious plans for the future of Turkey. They wanted to unite

all of the Turkic peoples in the entire region while expanding the borders of Turkey eastward across the Caucasus

all the way into Central Asia. This would create a new Turkish empire, a ‘great and eternal land’ called Turan with

one language and one religion.

But this new empire would have to come at the expense of the Armenian people, whose traditional historic

homeland lay right in the path of the Young Turks’ plans to expand eastward. And on that land was a large

population of Christian Armenians totaling some two million persons, making up about 10 percent of the Empire’s

overall population.

Along with the Young Turk’s newfound ‘Turanism’ there was a dramatic rise in Islamic fundamentalist agitation

throughout Turkey. Christian Armenians were once again branded as infidels (non-believers in Islam). Young

Islamic extremists, sometimes leading to violence, staged anti-Armenian demonstrations. During one such

outbreak in 1909, two hundred villages were plundered and over 30,000 persons massacred in the Cilicia district

on the Mediterranean coast. Throughout Turkey, sporadic local attacks against Armenians continued unchecked

over the next several years.

Fueling hatred toward Armenians within the Empire were the significant cultural differences between Armenians

and Turks. Though a majority of the Armenian population in Turkey lived in poverty and despair, a small minority

had excelled as best they could within their second class status, with many serving as professionals, businessmen,

lawyers, doctors, artists, architects and skilled craftsmen.

Armenians had also, by and large, been well educated compared to their Turkish counterparts, who were largely

illiterate peasant farmers and small shopkeepers. The leaders of the Ottoman Empire had traditionally placed little

value on education and not a single institute of higher learning could be found within their old empire. The various

autocratic and despotic rulers throughout the empire’s history had valued loyalty and blind obedience above all.

The Young Turks decided to glorify the virtues of simple Turkish peasantry at the expense of the Armenians in

order to capture peasant loyalty. They exploited the religious, cultural, economic and political differences between

Turks and Armenians so that the average Turk came to regard Armenians as strangers among them.

The Outbreak of War

When World War I broke out in 1914, leaders of the Young Turk regime sided with the Central Powers (Germany

and Austria-Hungary). The outbreak of war would provide the perfect opportunity to solve the ‘Armenian

question’ once and for all for the Young Turks. The world’s attention became fixed upon the battlegrounds of

France and Belgium where the young men of Europe were soon falling dead by the hundreds of thousands. The

Eastern Front eventually included the border between Turkey and Russia. With war at hand, unusual measures

involving the civilian population would not seem too out of the ordinary.

As a prelude to the coming action, Turks disarmed the entire Armenian population under the pretext that the

people were naturally sympathetic toward Christian Russia. Every last rifle and pistol was forcibly seized, with

severe penalties for anyone who failed to turn in a weapon. Quite a few Armenian men actually purchased a

weapon from local Turks or Kurds (nomadic Muslim tribesmen) at very high prices so they would have something

to turn in.

The Genocide Begins

At this time, about forty thousand Armenian men were serving in the Turkish Army. In the fall and winter of 1914,

all of their weapons were confiscated and they were put into slave labor battalions building roads or were used as

human pack animals. Under the brutal work conditions they suffered a very high death rate. Those who survived

would soon be shot outright. For the time had come to move against the Armenians.

The decision to annihilate the entire population came directly from the ruling triumvirate of ultra-nationalist Young

Turks. The actual extermination orders were transmitted in coded telegrams to all provincial governors throughout

Turkey. Armed roundups began on the evening of April 24, 1915, as 300 Armenian political leaders, educators,

writers, clergy and dignitaries in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) were taken from their homes, briefly jailed

and tortured, then hanged or shot.

Next, there were mass arrests of Armenian men throughout the country by Turkish soldiers, police agents and

bands of Turkish volunteers. The men were tied together with ropes in small groups then taken to the outskirts of

their town and shot dead or bayoneted by death squads. Local Turks and Kurds armed with knives and sticks often

joined in on the killing.

Then it was the turn of Armenian women, children, and the elderly. On very short notice, they were ordered to

pack a few belongings and be ready to leave home, under the pretext that they were being relocated to a non-

military zone for their own safety. They were actually being taken on death marches heading south toward the

Syrian Desert.

Muslim Turks who assumed instant ownership of everything quickly occupied most of the homes and villages left

behind by the rousted Armenians. In many cases, local Turks who took them from their families spared young

Armenian children from deportation. The children were coerced into denouncing Christianity and becoming

Muslims, and were then given new Turkish names. For Armenian boys the forced conversion meant they each had

to endure painful circumcision as required by Islamic custom.

Turkish gendarmes escorted individual caravans consisting of thousands of deported Armenians. These guards

allowed roving government units of hardened criminals known as the ‘Special Organization’ to attack the

defenseless people, killing anyone they pleased. They also encouraged Kurdish bandits to raid the caravans and

steal anything they wanted. In addition, an extraordinary amount of sexual abuse and rape of girls and young

women occurred at the hands of the Special Organization and Kurdish bandits. Most of the attractive young

females were kidnapped for a life of involuntary servitude.

The death marches during the Armenian Genocide, involving over a million Armenians, covered hundreds of miles

and lasted months. Indirect routes through mountains and wilderness areas were deliberately chosen in order to

prolong the ordeal and to keep the caravans away from Turkish villages.

Food supplies being carried by the people quickly ran out and they were usually denied further food or water.

Anyone stopping to rest or lagging behind the caravan was mercilessly beaten until they rejoined the march. If they

couldn’t continue they were shot. A common practice was to force all of the people in the caravan to remove

every stitch of clothing and have them resume the march in the nude under the scorching sun until they dropped

dead by the roadside from exhaustion and dehydration.

An estimated 75 percent of the Armenians on these marches perished, especially children and the elderly. Those

who survived the ordeal were herded into the desert without a drop of water. Being thrown off cliffs, burned alive,

or drowned in rivers.

During the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish countryside became littered with decomposing corpses. At one point,

Mehmed Talaat responded to the problem by sending a coded message to all provincial leaders: ‘I have been

advised that in certain areas unburied corpses are still to be seen. I ask you to issue the strictest instructions so

that the corpses and their debris in your vilayet are buried.’

But his instructions were generally ignored. Those involved in the mass murder showed little interest in stopping to

dig graves. The roadside corpses and emaciated deportees were a shocking sight to foreigners working in Turkey.

Eyewitnesses included German government liaisons, American missionaries, and U.S. diplomats stationed in the

country.

Western Response

During the Armenian Genocide, the Christian missionaries serving in the Empire were often threatened with death

and were unable to help the people. Diplomats from the still neutral United States communicated their blunt

assessments of the ongoing government actions. U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, reported to

Washington: ‘When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the

death warrant to a whole race”

The Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia) responded to news of the massacres by issuing a warning to

Turkey: ”the Allied governments announce publicly’that they will hold all the members of the Ottoman

Government, as well as such of their agents as are implicated, personally responsible for such matters.’

The warning had no effect. Newspapers in the West including the New York Times published reports of the

continuing deportations with the headlines: Armenians Are Sent to Perish in the Desert ‘ Turks Accused of Plan to

Exterminate Whole Population (August 18, 1915) ‘ Million Armenians Killed or in Exile ‘ American Committee on

Relief Says Victims of Turks Are Steadily Increasing ‘ Policy of Extermination (December 15, 1915).

Armenian Self-Defense

Temporary relief for some Armenians came as Russian troops attacked along the Eastern Front and made their way

into central Turkey. But the troops withdrew in 1917 upon the Russian Revolution. Armenian survivors withdrew

along with them and settled in among fellow Armenians already living in provinces of the former Russian Empire.

There were in total about 500,000 Armenians gathered in this region.

In May 1918, Turkish armies attacked the area to achieve the goal of expanding Turkey eastward into the Caucasus

and also to resume the annihilation of the Armenians. As many as 100,000 Armenians may have fallen victim to the

advancing Turkish troops.

However, the Armenians managed to acquire weapons and they fought back, finally repelling the Turkish invasion

at the battle of Sardarabad, thus saving the remaining population from total extermination with no help from the

outside world. Following that victory, Armenian leaders declared the establishment of the independent Republic of

Armenia in a small portion of their historic homeland in the Caucasus.

War Trials

World War I ended in November 1918 with a defeat for Germany and the Central Powers including Turkey. Shortly

before the war had ended, the Young Turk triumvirate; Talaat, Enver and Djemal, abruptly resigned their

government posts and fled to Germany where they had been offered asylum.

In the months that followed, repeated requests by Turkey’s new moderate government and the Allies were made

asking Germany to send the Young Turks back home to stand trial. However all such requests were turned down.

As a result, Armenian activists took matters into their own hands, located the Young Turks and assassinated them

along with two other instigators of the mass murder.

Meanwhile, representatives from the fledgling Republic of Armenia attended the Paris Peace Conference in the

hope that the victorious Allies would give them back their historic lands seized by Turkey. The European Allies

responded to their request by asked the United States to assume guardianship of the new Republic. However,

President Woodrow Wilson’s attempt to make Armenia an official U.S. protectorate was rejected by the U.S.

Congress in May 1920.

But Wilson did not give up on Armenia. As a result of his efforts, the Treaty of Sevres was signed on August 10,

1920 by the Allied Powers, the Republic of Armenia, and the new moderate leaders of Turkey. The treaty

recognized an independent Armenian state in an area comprising much of the former historic homeland.

Justice Denied

However, Turkish nationalism once again reared its head. The moderate Turkish leaders who signed the treaty

were ousted in favor of a new nationalist leader, Mustafa Kemal, who simply refused to accept the treaty and even

re-occupied the very lands in question then expelled any surviving Armenians, including thousands of orphans.

No Allied power came to the aid of the Armenian Republic and it collapsed. Only a tiny portion of the easternmost

area of historic Armenia survived by being becoming part of the Soviet Union.

After the successful obliteration of the people of historic Armenia during the Armenian Genocide, the Turks

demolished any remnants of Armenian cultural heritage including priceless masterpieces of ancient architecture,

old libraries and archives. The Turks even leveled entire cities such as the once thriving Kharpert, Van and the

ancient capital at Ani, to remove all traces of the three thousand year old civilization.

Referring to the Armenian Genocide, the young German politician Adolf Hitler duly noted the half-hearted reaction

of the world’s great powers to the plight of the Armenians. After achieving total power in Germany, Hitler decided

to conquer Poland in 1939 and told his generals: ‘Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my ‘Death’s

Head Units’ with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language.

Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?’