In 1453, Constantinople fell, heralding the beginning of the history of the Ottoman Empire (formerly the Ottoman state), which was destined to become the author of one of the most terrible atrocities in the history of mankind.
1915 - a symbol of human cruelty
Throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire, Armenians lived in the east of the country, who considered this land their home and historical homeland. However, the Muslim state treated them differently.
Being both a national and a religious minority, the Armenians were perceived as “second-class citizens”. Their rights were not only not protected, but the authorities themselves contributed in every possible way to the oppression of the Armenian population. The situation escalated sharply after Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878
The defeated empire did not accept the conditions dictated to it, turning all its anger on the Christians living on its territory. It is no coincidence that Muslims expelled from the Caucasus and from Balkan countries. The close proximity of people of different faiths and cultures often led to serious conflicts.
Raids on Christian villages have become commonplace. The government just watched. The beginning of the protests of the Armenians became another reason for mass arrests and killings. But that was only the beginning. Approached 1915 which has become a symbol of human cruelty and indifference, a year painted with a scarlet helmet of blood of millions of innocent victims.
Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire
April 24, 1915- this date has become a symbol of the Great Sorrow, grief for lost lives and lost destinies. On this day, a whole nation was beheaded, striving only for a peaceful life in the land of their ancestors.
It was on this day that the arrests of the most prominent political and public figures of the Armenian elite began in Constantinople (Istanbul). Politicians, writers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, musicians were arrested - everyone who could lead the people, become its leader on the path to resistance.
By the end of May, more than 800 of the most influential Armenians were completely isolated from society, and few of them returned alive. Then it was the turn of civilians. Raids on Armenian settlements became more frequent and more merciless. Women, old people, children - the sword in the hands of the "punishers" embittered and incited by the authorities did not spare anyone. And even there was no one to protect their home, because the men were called up to serve in the army of a country that only wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible. The surviving people were gathered into groups and, under the pretext of protection from enemy invasions, "relocated".
How many people were left on the road, and how many of them, driven by sword and whip through the endless and barren expanses of Der Zor, reached their destination where their slow death awaited? They don't have an account. The scale of the operation conceived by the authorities to destroy an entire people under the guise of war was truly enormous.
Armenian Genocide was prepared even before the war, and its beginning became a lever for launching a merciless "death machine".
Back in February 1914, a boycott of Armenian enterprises began, followed by the collection of property “for the army” and demobilization. In January 1915, the Turkish army was defeated in the battle of Sarikamish and retreated. Rumors began to circulate that success Russian army the voluntary assistance of the Armenians contributed greatly.
The retreating army unleashed its wrath on the local Christians: Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks. Raids on settlements, massacres and deportations continued until the end of the First World War, but in fact, the genocide continued after the capitulation of Turkey and the overthrow of the Young Turks.
The new government condemned the actions of the previous one, the main organizers of the crimes fell under the tribunal. But even sentenced to death, many of them escaped punishment by fleeing a country where, in fact, they did not want to condemn them. All investigations of crimes committed under the guise of hostilities pursued only one goal: to reassure the world community, which, despite the attempts of the Turkish authorities to hide the true state of affairs in the country, already knew what really happened.
Largely due to the courage of ambassadors and public figures European countries the world learned about the greatest atrocity of the early 20th century. The advanced public demanded punishment for criminals.
But the real punishment came from the victims themselves. In October 1919, at the initiative of Shaan Natali, an activist of the Dashnaktsutyun party, a decision was made to organize a punitive operation "Nemesis". As part of this operation, Taleat Pasha, Dzhemal Pasha, Said Halim and others who fled from justice criminals.
But the operation itself became a symbol of retribution. Soghomon Tehlirian, who lost his entire family during the genocide, on March 15, 1921, in the Charlottenburg region, shot dead a man who had taken away his house and relatives Taleat Pasha. And right in the courtroom, Tehlirian was acquitted. The world did not recognize the guilt of a man who avenged the crippled fate of an entire nation.
Genocide of 1915- everlasting memory !
But, despite numerous condemnations, the world is still not ready to completely free itself from the shackles and let into its home all the bitterness of one of greatest atrocities in the history of mankind.
Countries such as France, Belgium, Argentina, Russia, Uruguay have recognized and condemned the Armenian genocide on the territory of the Ottoman Empire. But one of the most important players in the world political arena, the United States, continues to bypass such an important topic, speculating on it to influence modern Turkey (so far, only a few states have recognized the Armenian genocide).
And, most importantly, the fact of the genocide is denied by the Turkish state itself, the successor of the Ottoman Empire. But the facts cannot be changed, history cannot be rewritten, and the 1,500,000 voices of innocent victims will never be silenced. Sooner or later, the world will bow to history, because despite Hitler’s words that marked the beginning of the Holocaust (“Who now remembers the destruction of the Armenians”), in fact, “nothing is forgotten, no one is forgotten.”
Every year on April 24, Armenians will rise to the height of Tsitsernakaberd, bringing with them fresh flowers as a tribute to the victims of the “great atrocity” and the eternal fire of torches will burn in the hands of a new generation.
On the prospects for resolving the conflict in, the aggravation of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, on the history of Armenia and Armenian-Turkish relations political observer websiteSaid Gafurov talks with political scientist Andrei Epifantsev.
Genocide issue: "Armenians and Turks behaved in the same way"
Armenian Genocide
— Let's start with the controversial topic right away ... T Tell me right away, was there a genocide of Armenians by the Turks in general or not? I know that you wrote a lot on this topic and understood this topic.
— What is certain is that there was a massacre in Turkey in 1915 and that such things should never be repeated. My personal approach is that the official Armenian position, according to which it was a genocide caused by the terrible hatred of the Turks for Armenians, is not correct in a number of positions.
Firstly, it is quite obvious that the cause of what happened was largely the Armenians themselves, who staged an uprising before this. Which began long before 1915.
All this dragged on late XIX century and covered, including Russia. The Dashnaks didn't care who they blew up, Turkish officials or Prince Golitsyn.
Secondly, it is important to know what is usually not shown here: the Armenians, in fact, behaved like the same Turks - they staged ethnic cleansing, massacres, and so on. And if all the available information is put together, you get a comprehensive picture of what happened.
— The Turks have their own genocide museum, dedicated to the territory, which, with the help of English gold and Russian weapons, was "liberated" by Armenian pre-Shnak units. Their commanders indeed reported that not a single Turk remained there. Another thing is that the Dashnaks were then provoked into action by the British. And, by the way, the Turkish court in Istanbul, even under the Sultan, condemned the organizers of mass crimes against Armenians. True, in absentia. That is, the fact of a mass crime took place.
- Certainly. And the Turks themselves do not deny this, they offer condolences. But they do not call what happened a genocide. From point of view international law, there is the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, signed, among other things, by Armenia and Russia. It indicates who has the right to recognize a crime as genocide - this is the court in The Hague, and only he.
Neither Armenia nor the foreign Armenian diaspora has ever appealed to this court. Why? Because they understand that they will not be able to prove this genocide in legal, historical terms. Moreover, all international courts - the European Court of Human Rights, the French Court of Justice and so on, when the Armenian diaspora tried to raise this issue, they were denied. Only since last October there were three such courts - and the Armenian side lost everything.
Let's go back to the first half of the 20th century: even then it was obvious that both the Turkish and the Armenian sides resorted to ethnic cleansing. Two American missionaries sent by the Congress after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire saw a picture of ethnic cleansing carried out specifically by the Armenians.
We ourselves saw in 1918 and in 1920, before Soviet power was firmly established, either Armenian or Azerbaijani purges. Therefore, as soon as the "factor of the USSR" disappeared, they immediately received Nagorno-Karabakh and the same purges. Today, this area has been cleared to the maximum. There are practically no Armenians left in Azerbaijan, and no Azerbaijanis in Karabakh and Armenia.
The positions of Turks and Azerbaijanis are fundamentally different
— And in Istanbul, meanwhile, there is a large Armenian colony, there are churches. By the way, this is an argument against genocide.
- The positions of the Turks and Azerbaijanis are fundamentally different. At the ethnic level, at the household level. There is no real territorial conflict between Armenia and Turkey now, but there is one with the Azerbaijanis. Secondly, some events were 100 years ago, while others are today. Thirdly, the Turks set themselves the goal not to destroy the Armenians physically, but to call them to loyalty, albeit by wild means.
Therefore, many Armenians remained in the country, whom they tried to Turkify, so to speak, to Islamize, but they remained Armenians inside themselves. Some of the Armenians survived, who were resettled away from the battle zone. After World War II, Turkey began to restore Armenian churches.
Now Armenians are actively going to work in Turkey. There were Armenian ministers in the Turkish government, which is impossible in Azerbaijan. The conflict is now going on for very specific reasons - and the main thing is land. Compromise option offered by Azerbaijan: autonomy high degree, but within Azerbaijan. So to say, the Armenians should become Azerbaijan. The Armenians categorically disagree with this - it will again be a massacre, deprivation of rights, and so on.
There are, of course, other options for a settlement, for example, as was done in Bosnia. The parties have created very complex state, consisting of two autonomous entities with their own rights, the army and so on. But this option is not even considered by the parties.
Monostates, states created on the basis of an ethnic project, are a dead end. The question is this: history is not finite, it continues. For some states, it is very important to get the dominance of their people on this earth. And after it is provided, it is already possible to develop the project further, involving other peoples, but already on the basis of some kind of subordination. In fact, the Armenians now, after the collapse Soviet Union, and Azerbaijanis, in fact, are at this stage.
Is there any solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem?
— The Azerbaijani official line: the Armenians are our brothers, they must return, that is, all the necessary guarantees, let them leave us only external defense and international affairs. Everything else will remain with them, including security issues. And what is the position of Armenia?
Here everything runs into the fact that Armenia and the Armenian society have this position of historical land - "this is our historical land, and that's it." There will be two states, one will be a state, it doesn't matter. We will not give up our historical land. We are more likely to die or leave from there, but we will not live in Azerbaijan. No one says that nations cannot make mistakes. Including the Armenians. And in the future, when they are convinced of their mistake, they will probably come to a different opinion.
Armenian society today is, in fact, very much divided. There are diasporas, there are Armenians of Armenia. Very strong polarization, more than in our society, oligarchies, a very large spread between Westerners and Russophiles. But with regard to Karabakh, there is a complete consensus in it. The Diaspora spends money on Karabakh, there is a powerful lobbying of the interests of Karabakh Armenians in the West. The national-patriotic upsurge remains, it is warmed up and will long time persist.
But everything national projects have their moment of truth. In the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, this moment of truth has not yet come for any of the parties. The Armenian and Azerbaijani sides are still on maximalist positions, each of the elites has convinced its people that victory is possible only on maximalist positions, only by fulfilling all our demands. "We are everything, our enemy is nothing."
People, in fact, have become hostages of this situation, it is already difficult to win back. And the same mediators who work in the Minsk Group face a difficult task: to persuade the elite to turn to the people and say - no, guys, we must lower the bar. Therefore, there is no progress.
- Bertolt Brecht wrote: "Nationalism does not feed hungry stomachs." Azerbaijanis rightly say that the most affected by the conflict is the ordinary Armenian people. The elite is cashing in on military supplies, while the life of ordinary people is getting worse: Karabakh is a poor land.
“And Armenia is not a rich land. But so far, people are choosing guns from the "guns or butter" option. In my opinion, the resolution of the Karabakh crisis is possible. And this decision lies in the division of Karabakh. If you just divide Karabakh, although I understand that it is difficult, but nevertheless: one part is one, the other part is another.
Legalize, say: " International community accepts exactly this option. "Maybe calculate the percentage of the population at the time of 1988 or 1994. Divide, fix the borders and say that anyone who unleashes a conflict that violates the established status quo will be punished. The issue will resolve itself.
Prepared for publication by Sergey Valentinov
In order to clarify the essence of the Armenian issue and the concept of "Armenian genocide", we will cite a number of excerpts from the book of the famous French historian Georges de Maleville "Armenian tragedy of 1915", published in Russian by the Baku publishing house "Elm" in 1990, and will try to comment on it.
In chapter I, Historical Frame of Events, he writes: geographically great Armenia constitutes a territory with indefinite borders, the approximate center of which was Mount Ararat (5.165 m) and which was bounded by three large lakes of the Caucasus: Sevan (Goycha) - from the northeast, Lake Van - from the southwest and Lake Urmia in Iranian Azerbaijan - from the southeast. It is impossible to determine the borders of Armenia in the past more accurately due to the lack of reliable data. As you know, today in the Central Caucasus there is an Armenian core - the Armenian SSR, 90% of the population of which, according to Soviet statistics, are Armenians. But it was not always so. The “six Armenian provinces” of Ottoman Turkey (Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Elaziz and Sivas) were inhabited until 1914 a large number Armenians, who, however, were by no means the majority. Today, Armenians no longer live in Anatolia, and it is their disappearance that is blamed on the Turkish state.". However, as Georges de Maleville writes on p. 19, “ since 1632 the border has been changed as a result of the Russian invasion of the Caucasus. It became clear that political plans Russians were in the annexation of the Black Sea coast. In 1774, an agreement in Kuchuk-Keynar confirmed the loss of dominance over the Crimea by the Ottomans. On the eastern coast of the Black Sea, according to the treaty of 1812, concluded in Bucharest, Abkhazia and Georgia ceded to Russia, annexed, however, since 1801. The war with Persia, which began in 1801, ended in 1828 with the transfer to Russia of all the territories of Persia north of the Araks, namely the Erivan Khanate. Under the Treaty of Turkmenchay, signed in March, Russia had a common border with Turkey, and, pushing back Persia, she gained dominance over part of the territory of Armenia(which has never existed there in history - ed.).
A month later, in April 1828, Loris-Melikov's army, which had come to end the Armenian campaign, occupied Turkish Anatolia as part of the operations of the Fifth Russo-Turkish War and laid siege for the first time in front of the fortress in Karey. It was during these events that for the first time the Armenian population of Turkey came out in support of the Russian army, which consisted of volunteers recruited in Erivan, driven to fanaticism by the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin and called upon to terrorize the Muslim population, raising the Armenian population of Turkey to revolt. The same scenario played out imperturbably for ninety years every time the Russian army made another breakthrough in the same territory, with the only nuance that, over time, Russian propaganda improved its methods, and, starting from the moment when the "Armenian question" became object of constant excitement, the Russian army was sure that it could count on Turkish territory and on the rear of the Turkish army, that is, on the assistance of bands of armed rebels who, in anticipation of a breakthrough by the Russian army, would wear down the Turkish army and try to destroy it from the rear. After that there were more Russian-Turkish wars in 1833, 1877. 36 years passed before the next conflict, which began with the declaration of war on November 1, 1914. However, a long period of time was not in any way peaceful for Turkish Anatolia. Beginning in 1880, for the first time in its history, Turkish Armenia experienced riots, banditry and bloody riots that the Ottoman state tried to stop without much success. The riots followed a chronology that was not accidental: there were systematic riots, and the suppression of them, necessary to establish order, evoked enduring hatred in response.
Throughout the territory enclosed between Erzincayim and Erzerum in the north and Diyarbekir and Van in the south, sedition has been carried out for more than twenty years, with all the consequences that may flow from it, in a region remote from the center and difficult to govern.". Here, as evidenced Russian sources, the river flowed weapons from Russia.
“On the first of November 1914, Turkey was forced to enter the war,” continues Georges de Maleville. In the spring of 1915, the Turkish government decided to resettle the Armenian population of eastern Anatolia to Syria and the mountainous part of Mesopotamia, which was then Turkish territory. They prove to us that it was allegedly about a beating, about a measure of disguised destruction. We will try to analyze whether this is so or not. But before setting out and studying these events, it is necessary to consider the disposition of forces along the front line during the war. At the beginning of 1915, the Russians, without the knowledge of the Turks, take a maneuver and, bypassing Ararat, descend south along the Persian border. It was then that the rebellion of the Armenians inhabiting Van broke out, which led to the first significant deportation of the Armenian population during the war. This should be considered in more detail.
A telegram from the governor of Van, dated March 20, 1915, reports an armed uprising and specifies: " We believe that there are more than 2000 rebels. We are trying to suppress this uprising.". Efforts were, however, in vain, since on March 23 the same governor reports that the mutiny was spreading to nearby villages. A month later, the situation became desperate. Here is what the Governor telegraphed on April 24: 4,000 rebels gathered in the region. The rebels cut off roads, attack nearby villages and subdue them. Currently, many women and children are left without a hearth and a home. Shouldn't these women and children (Muslims) be transported to the western provinces?» Unfortunately, they couldn’t do it then, and here are the consequences.
« The Caucasian army of Russia begins an offensive in the direction of Van, - tells us the American historian Stanford J. Shaw. (S. J. Shaw, vol. 2, p. 316). — This army includes a large number of Armenian volunteers. Departing from Yerevan on April 28, ... they reached Van on May 14, organized and carried out a massacre of the local Muslim population. Over the next two days, an Armenian state was established in Van under the protection of the Russians, and it seemed that it could hold on after the disappearance of the Muslim population, killed or put to flight.«.
« The Armenian population of the city of Van before these tragic events was only 33,789 people, i.e., only 42% of the total population". (S. J. Shaw p. 316). The number of Muslims was 46,661 people, of which, apparently, the Armenians killed about 36,000 people, which is an act of genocide (author's note). This gives an idea of the scale of the beatings carried out on the unarmed population (Muslim men were at the front) for the simple purpose of making room. There was nothing accidental or unexpected in these actions. Here is what another historian, Valiy, writes: “ In April 1915, Armenian revolutionaries captured the city of Van and established an Armenian headquarters there under the command of Aram and Varelu.(two leaders of the revolutionary party "Dashnak"). the 6th of May(perhaps according to the old calendar) they opened the city to the Russian army after the cleansing of the area from all Muslims ... Among the most famous Armenian leaders (in Van) was former member Turkish Parliament Pasdermajian, known as Garro. He led the Armenian volunteers when clashes broke out between Turks and Russians". (Felix Valyi "Revolutions in Islam", Londres, 1925, p. 253).
On May 18, 1915, the tsar, moreover, expressed " gratitude to the Armenian population of Van for their devotion”(Gyuryun, p. 261), and Aram Manukyan was appointed Russian governor. The show continues the description of the events that followed.
« Thousands of Armenian residents of Mush, as well as other important centers of the eastern regions of Turkey, began to converge on the new Armenian state, and among them were columns of fugitive prisoners ... at least, 250,000 Armenians... However, in early July, the Ottoman units pushed back the Russian army. The retreating army was accompanied by thousands of Armenians: they were fleeing punishment for the murders that the stillborn state allowed(S. J. Shaw, p. 316).
The Armenian author Khovanesyan, who is violently hostile towards the Turks, writes: “ The panic was indescribable. After a month of resistance to the governor, after the liberation of the city, after the establishment of the Armenian government, everything was lost. More than 200,000 refugees fled with the retreating Russian army in Transcaucasia, losing the brightest thing they had, and falling into endless traps set by the Kurds” (Hovannisian, “Road to independence”, p. 53, cite par Shaue).
We dwelled in such detail on the events in Van because, unfortunately, they are a sad example. First, it is clear to what extent armed uprisings in regions with a significant Armenian minority were widespread and dangerous for the Ottoman troops who fought against the Russians. Here it is quite clear and obvious we are talking about betrayal in the face of the enemy. By the way, such behavior of the Armenians today is systematically obscured by authors who are favorable to their claims - all this is simply denied: the truth bothers them.
On the other hand, the official telegrams of the Turks confirm the opinion of all objective authors that the Armenian leaders systematically suppressed Muslim majority local population in order to be able to seize the territory (that is, they simply cut out all the children, women, old people - ed.). We have already spoken about this and we repeat it again: nowhere in ottoman empire the Armenian population, which resettled itself voluntarily, did not even make up a small majority, which could allow the creation of an autonomous Armenian region. Under these conditions, for the success of their policy, the Armenian revolutionaries had no choice but to turn the minority into a majority by destroying the Muslim population. They resorted to this procedure every time they had a free hand, besides with the support of the Russians themselves, finally, and this is the main element in our evidence, when trying to calculate the number of Armenians allegedly destroyed by the Turks, an honest observer would by no means must equate the number of missing persons with the number of victims; throughout the war, the insane hope of achieving the establishment of an autonomous Armenian state under the auspices of the Russians became an obsession for the Armenian population of Turkey. Khovanesyan, an Armenian author, also tells us about this: “ A reckless armed rebellion in Van brought 200,000 Armenians from all points of eastern Anatolia to him, who then fled from there, overcoming 3,000-meter mountains, to then return to Erzurum and again escape from there with other Armenians, and so on.". It is inevitable that a population that has experienced such severe suffering in the midst of a war will be greatly reduced in numbers. However, justice does not allow the Turks to be blamed for these human losses, which occurred solely as a result of the circumstances of the war and insane propaganda that poisoned the Turkish Armenians for decades and made them believe that they would succeed in creating an independent state through rebellion or murder, while they were everywhere minority". Let's return to the history of battles.
The Turkish breakthrough turned out to be short-lived, and in August the Turks were forced to cede Van again to the Russians. The Eastern Front until the end of 1915 was established along the Van-Agri-Khorasan line. But in February 1916, the Russians launched a powerful offensive in two directions: one - around Lake Van from the south side and further to Bitlis and Mush, the second - from Kars to Erzrum, which was taken on February 16. Here, too, the Russians were accompanied by irregular columns of Armenians, determined to crush everything in their path.
Shaw writes: This was followed by the worst beating of the entire war: more than a million Muslim peasants were forced to flee. Thousands of them were cut to pieces while trying to escape with the Ottoman army retreating to Erzincan."(Show S. Pzh, p. 323).
One can only wonder at the magnitude of this figure: it gives an idea of the reputation for brutality that the Armenian auxiliaries have acquired and maintained through constant terror (the Russian army, of course, has nothing to do with this).
On April 18, Trabzon was taken by the Russians, in July - Erzincan, even Sivas was under threat. However, the Russian offensive in the south around Lake Van was repulsed. In the autumn of 1916, the front was in the form of a semicircle, which included Trabzon and Erzincan in Russian territory and reached Bitlis in the south. This front remains until the spring of 1918.
Of course, the Armenian revolutionary organizations believed that the victory of the Russians was assured, and imagined, " that their dream would come true, especially since the port of Trabzon was part of the newly occupied territories. A huge number of Armenians flocked to the Erzurum region - refugees from Van, as well as emigrants from Russian Armenia. Throughout 1917, the Russian army was paralyzed by the St. Petersburg revolution. On December 18, 1917, the Bolsheviks signed a truce in Erzincan with the Ottoman government, and this was followed by the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, which announced the return of Turkey eastern territories taken from her in 1878. The Russians returned Kara and Ardagan, and "Armenia" was thus reduced to its natural densely populated territory - Russian Armenia, which Armenian gangs created in 1905-1907. as a result of the massacre of Azerbaijanis(However, it should be noted that here, too, the Armenians did not make up the majority at that time, until the end of the forties of the twentieth century - ed.).
But the Armenians did not agree on this. Starting on January 13, 1918, they began to acquire weapons from the Bolsheviks, who recalled their units from the front.(TsGAAR, D-T, No. 13). Then, on February 10, 1918, together with Georgians and Azerbaijanis, they formed a single socialist republic of Transcaucasia with Menshevik tendencies, which rejected in advance the terms of the agreement that were to be accepted in Brest-Litovsk. Finally, taking advantage of the decision of the Russian army, non-combatant Armenian units organized a systematic beating of the Muslim population in Erzinjan and Erzrum, accompanied by indescribable horrors, which were then told by indignant Russian officers". (Khleboc, journal de guerre du 2nd regiment d'artillerie, cite par Durun, p. 272).
The goal was still the same: to make room in order to ensure the exclusive right of Armenian immigrants to the territory in the eyes of international public opinion. Shaw states that the Turkish population of the five provinces of Trabzon, Erzincan, Erzrum, Van and Bitlis, which was 3,300,000 in 1914, became 600,000 refugees after the war (ibid., p. 325).
On June 4, 1918, the Caucasian republics signed an agreement with Turkey, which confirmed the terms of the Brest-Litovsk agreement and recognized the borders of 1877, thus allowing Turkish troops to bypass Armenia from the south and recapture Baku from the British, which they did on September 14, 1918. The Mudros Agreement of October 30, 1918 found Turkish troops in Baku. In the subsequent period of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians tried to take advantage of the retreat of the Turkish troops: on April 19, 1919, they again occupied Kars (Georgians - Ardagan). This means that the front line was again pushed to the west almost along the 1878 border. From there, for eighteen months, the Armenians made countless raids on the outskirts of the territories occupied by them, namely in the north-western direction towards the Black Sea and Trabzon (Gyuryun, 295-318), who refers to the memoirs of General Kazim Karzbekir and two witnesses - Rawlinson (Englishman ) and Robert Dan (American).
And, of course, they again tried to increase the Armenian population of Kars, and they did it known methods, i.e., through total terror and murder. Fate decreed otherwise. Thanks to Mustafa Kemal, Turkey restored its forces, and on September 28, 1920, General Kazim Karabekir launched an offensive against the Armenians. On October 30, he took Kars, and on November 7, Alexandropol (Gyumri). For the third time in 5 years of war, a huge mass of Armenians fled before the onset of the Turkish army, thus expressing in their own way their refusal to submit to the Turkish government.
Thus ends the story of the migration of the Armenian population on the Eastern Front. However, this population could never actually be taken into account in the statistics of the notorious "beatings" committed by the Turks against the Armenians. All that is known about him is that the survivors, their number is very unclear, after terrible trials, reached Soviet Armenia. But how many of these unfortunate people were sent by human and criminally absurd propaganda at the height of the war to the line of fire in order to build a chimerical state there by exterminating the indigenous local population?
However, in order to more clearly imagine what happened in 1915, let us return to the events unfolding around the Armenians in the pre-war period, that is, before the start of the First World War of 1914-1918.
About who worked for the promotion and use of the Armenians for their own purposes, it is quite eloquently stated in the letter of the tsar's governor in the Caucasus, Vorontsov-Dashkov, which we present below.
On October 10, 1912, the viceroy of Nicholas II in the Caucasus, I.K. Vorontsov-Dashkov, wrote to the Emperor of the Russian Empire: “ Your Majesty knows that in the entire history of our relations with Turkey in the Caucasus up to the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which ended with the annexation of the present Batum and Kars regions to our territory, Russian policy has been constantly based on a benevolent attitude towards the Armenians since Peter the Great, who paid for this to us during the hostilities by actively helping the troops. With the accession to our possessions of the so-called Armenian region, in which Etchmiadzin, the cradle of Armenian Gregorianism, was located. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich used a lot of effort to create a trustee of the Turkish and Persian Armenians from the Patriarch of Etchmiadzin, rightly believing that he would thereby achieve beneficial influence for Russia among the Christian population of Asia Minor, through which the path of our primordial offensive movement to the southern seas ran. Patronizing the Armenians, we acquired loyal allies who always rendered great services to us ... It was carried out consistently and steadily for almost a century and a half"(" Red Archive ", No. 1 (26). M., pp. 118-120).
So, the policy of using Armenians in the fight against the Turks and Azerbaijanis by Russia began from the time of Peter 1 and has been going on for about 250 years. By the hands of the Armenians, who, as the prosecutor of the Etchmiadzin Synod aptly put it. A.Frenkel, "only superficially touched civilization«, Russia is implementing the precepts of Peter I. « And the infidels of these zealously quietly reduce so that they do not know this". Yes, history, no matter how hushed up or distorted, has preserved the true state of affairs in the Caucasus, the so-called Armenian region, in which Echmiadzin (Uch muAdzin - Three Churches) and Iravan, i.e. Yerevan, are located. By the way, the flag of the Iravan Khanate is in Baku, in the museum.
In 1828, on February 10, according to the Turkmenchay Treaty, the Nakhchivan and Iravan khanates became part of the Russian Empire. The Iravan Khanate offered heroic resistance to the Russian hordes for 23 years. Armenians also fought as part of the Russian troops. In 1825, the population of the Iravan Khanate was made up of Muslim Azerbaijanis (more than 95%) and Kurds. In 1828, Russia, having spent huge material resources, resettled 120 thousand Armenians within the borders of the defeated Iravan Khanate.
And from 1829 to 1918, about 300 thousand more Armenians were settled there, and even after that, the Armenians in the Erivan, Etchmiadzin provinces and in other regions of the so-called Russian Armenia nowhere constituted the majority of the population. Their national composition nowhere exceeded 30-40% of the total local population in 1917. Thus, the table of the population of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, compiled according to the "Caucasian calendar for 1917", shows that in the part of the Erivan province, which is part of Azerbaijan, 129,586 Muslims lived, and 80,530 Armenians, which accounted for 61% and 38% respectively. %. And in the document submitted to the Chairman of the Paris Peace Conference - a note of protest. The Azerbaijani Peace Delegation dated August 16/19, 1919 on the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan (given with abbreviations - author's note) says: “ Being deprived of the opportunity to receive regular and private relations with their capital, the city of Baku, the Azerbaijani peace delegation learned only from the latest half-hearted official reports about the sad fate that the Karskaya region, the Nakhchivan, Sharuro-Daralagezsk, Surmalinsky districts and part of the Erivan district of the Erivan province were subjected to , with the exception of the Ardagan district, to the Kars region forcibly to the territory of the Armenian Republic. All these lands were occupied by Turkish troops, who remained in them until the armistice was signed. After the departure of the latter, the Kars and Batumi regions, together with the Akhaliih and Akhalkalaki districts of the Tiflis province, formed an independent republic of the South-Western Caucasus, headed by a provisional government in the city of Kars.
This provisional government was composed by the then-convened parliament. Despite such a clearly expressed will of the population of the aforementioned regions, the neighboring republics, in violation of the principle of free self-determination of peoples, made a number of attempts and forcibly seized part of the Republic of the South-Western Caucasus and in the end achieved that the Kars parliament and government were dissolved by a decree of General Thomson, and members government arrested and sent to Batumi. At the same time, the dissolution and arrests were motivated by the fact that the Kars parliament and government seemed to be holding a hostile orientation, which, by the way, the Allied Command was incorrectly informed by the parties interested in this region. After that, the Kars region, under the guise of settling refugees, was occupied by Armenian and Georgian troops, and the occupation of the region was accompanied by armed clashes. Deeply sympathizing with the cause of the resettlement of refugees in their places, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, in his protest dated April 30 of this year, wrote to the commander of the Allied Forces that this placement should take place with the assistance of the British troops, and not the Armenian military forces, striving not so much to settle refugees to places, how much to the forcible capture and consolidation of this area.
As a simple spectator, the Republic of Azerbaijan cannot and should not be indifferent to such a fate of the Kars region. At the same time, one should not forget that it was in the Kars region, which relatively recently belonged to Turkey (until 1877), that the attitude of Armenians towards Muslims always left much to be desired. At the same time last war these relations were greatly aggravated in connection with the events in December 1914, when Turkish troops temporarily occupied the Ardagan district, the city of Ardagan and part of the Kars district; after the retreat of the Turks, Russian troops began to destroy the Muslim population, betraying everything to fire and sword. And in these bloody events that fell on the heads of the innocent Muslim population, the local Armenians expressed a clearly hostile attitude and in places, as was the case, for example, even in the cities of Kars and Ardagan, they not only incited the Cossacks against the Muslims, but they themselves slaughtered the latter mercilessly. All these circumstances cannot, of course, speak of a calm life together Muslims of the Kars region under the control of the Armenian authorities.
Realizing this, the Muslim population of the region itself, through deputations and with the help of written requests, has recently repeatedly addressed the Azerbaijani government with a statement that it cannot and will not be able to submit to the power of the Armenians, and therefore asks for the annexation of the region to the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic. Even less can the Republic of Azerbaijan reconcile with the transfer of control of the counties of Nakhichevan, Sharuro-Daralagez, Surmalin and part of the Erivan county to the government of Armenia ...
She finds that the transfer of control of an integral part of the territory of Azerbaijan allowed a clear violation of the undoubted right of the Azerbaijan Republic to the counties: Nakhichevan, Sharuro-Daralagez, Surmalinsky and part of the Erivan county. This act creates a source of constant misunderstandings and even clashes between the local Muslim population and the Armenian Republic.
These regions are inhabited by Muslim Azerbaijanis, who are one people, one nationality with the indigenous population of Azerbaijan, completely homogeneous not only in faith, but also in ethnic composition, language, customs and way of life.
It is enough to take the ratio of Muslims and Armenians to resolve the issue of the ownership of these lands in favor of Azerbaijan. Thus, there are not only more than half of the Muslim Azerbaijanis, but their significant majority in all counties, especially in the Sharuro-Daralagez county - 72.3%. For the Erivan uyezd, figures are taken for the population of the entire uyezd. But that part of this county, which was transferred to the administration of the Armenian government and which consists of the districts of Vedi-Basar and Millistan, contains about 90% of the Muslim population.
This is precisely the part of the Erivan district that suffered the most from the Armenian military units under various names - "Vanians", "Sasunians", who, like the gangs of Andronicus, slaughtered the Muslim population, not sparing the elderly and children, burned entire villages, subjected villages to shelling from cannons and an armored train, dishonored Muslim women, ripped open the stomachs of the dead, they gouged out eyes, and sometimes burned corpses, they also robbed the population and generally committed unheard-of atrocities. By the way, an outrageous fact took place in the Vedi-Basar region, when the same Armenian detachments in the villages of Karakhach, Kadyshu, Karabaglar, Agasibekdy, Dehnaz slaughtered all the men, and then took into captivity several hundred beautiful married women and girls, whom they handed over to Armenian "warriors". The latter kept these unfortunate victims of the Armenian atrocities with them for a long time, despite the fact that after the protest of the Azerbaijani government even the Armenian parliament intervened in the matter ”(TsGAOR Az. SSR, f, 894. from 10, d. 104, fol. 1-3) .
The information contained in the note of protest of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which they cited, presented to the Chairman of the Paris Peace Conference, eloquently testify that in Armenia (Russian) the Armenians never had a homeland, since they did not form the majority anywhere. This document testifies that in Batumi, Akhalsalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Kars, Nakhichevan, Echmiadzin, Yerevan, etc., Muslim Azerbaijanis have always lived, moreover, in the majority.
Contrary to common sense, the Armenian Republic was established in 1918 by the will of England in the territories that belonged to Azerbaijanis from time immemorial.
England solved a double task by this: “created a buffer Christian state between Turkey and Russia and cut off Turkey from the entire Turkic world (and in 1922, by the will of the USSR leadership, Zangezur was taken from Azerbaijan and transferred to Armenia. Thus, Turkey finally lost direct land access to to the Turkic world, which stretches in a wide strip from the Balkans to the Korean Peninsula. What motivated England and the Entente in deciding to create an Armenian state from scratch? Apparently, anti-Turkism and anti-Islamism! And besides this, the successful development of the brilliant Porte, which stretched from Asia Minor to the middle of Europe and organically combined the interests of both Muslim and Christian peoples subject to it.It is not for nothing that for the first time in world practice the Ottoman Empire created the institution of the "Ombudsman" - the defender of the rights of mankind, regardless of the religious, national and property affiliation of the subjects of the empire, which effectively protected the entire population from the will of the bureaucratic apparatus of power.
Excerpt from the book GREAT LIE ABOUT "GREAT ARMENIA" Takhira Mobil oglu. Baku "Araz" -2009 pp.58-69
For the Armenians in Turkey, it was a difficult time. They were subjected to genocide, which is recognized all over the world, except for Turkey itself, of course. Reasons. The Ottomans were never particularly friendly. In 1915, the Armenians and the indigenous inhabitants of the empire were not equalized in rights. There was a division not only according to nationalities, but also according to the faith of 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 heavily taxed, could not have remedies, and could not act as witnesses in courts. These people, at that moment lived in poverty, worked on the land, I emphasize that on their own. But the Turks did not like the Armenians, they considered them prudent 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.
In 1908 there was a coup. The Young Turks came to power, nationalism and pan-Turkism became the basis of the new government, in short, nothing positive was offered for other nationalities living on these lands. And so, in 1914, the raids on the Armenians began when the Turks entered the First World War, signing an agreement with Germany. The Germans promised that they would help Turkey get out to the Caucasus. The problem was that many Armenians lived on the lands of the Caucasus at that time. On the very same Turkish territory, non-Muslims began to be harassed, property could be taken away, and jihad was declared. As you know, this is a war against the infidels, and the infidel is everyone not a Muslim. Beginning. Of course, during the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War, Armenian people were also called to the war. The bulk of the Armenians fought against Persia and Russia. But Turkey suffered defeats on all fronts, and the Armenians became guilty. They began to deprive all people of this nationality of weapons, confiscations took place, and then the killings began. Those soldiers of Armenian nationality who did not follow the new orders were shot. Distorted news, they spread information that this people is a traitor, they are spies, the society learned such news from the media. 
April 24, 1915. Today, this day is a day of remembrance, a day associated with the genocide of an entire nation. In Istanbul, the entire Armenian elite was arrested, then they were deported. Even before the events in the capital, residents of other settlements. But then, such shipments were covered by the desire to resettle people in other areas that were not affected by the war. But, in fact, people were sent to the desert, where there was not even water, there were no food, conditions for life. This was done on purpose, and old people, women and children were sent there. Men, on the other hand, were taken under arrest so as not to interfere. In May, Anatolia was persecuted. And on April 12, in a city called Van, an uprising of Armenians began. People realized that a starvation, 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, where 55 thousand people died, and these are only Armenians. During the action of expulsion, there were several such skirmishes, and the Turkish authorities, as best they could, ignited hatred between the 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. Of course, the schools of this people were also closed, they tried to place new settlements as far as possible from each other. 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 learn about what was happening. Killed in an organized manner, on purpose and en masse. People died during the journey, also in concentration camps. Later, it will become known that, at the initiative of the authorities, experiments were performed on people, they tried the vaccine against typhus. Gendarmes mocked and tortured people every day. Today. This issue is still being actively studied. The number of dead is still not known. In the fifteenth year, they talked about three hundred thousand dead. But the German researcher Lepsius, called 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 are talking about 200,000 deaths, but the free press is talking about 2 million. There is famous encyclopedia, is called "Britannica", there are numbers from six hundred thousand to one and a half mil. 
Of course, they wanted to hide all their actions, but abroad found out. And in 1915, the ally countries of Great Britain, France, Russia, signed a declaration, she called on Istanbul to stop this. Naturally, there was no point, they were not going to stop anything. Everything stopped only in 1918, Turkey lost in the First World War. The country was occupied by the Entente, these are the three countries about which it is written above, they had at that time a union called the Entente. Of course, the government itself fled. Came new government, and an alliance of three countries demanded a debriefing. Already in the year 18, all documents were studied by a military tribunal. They proved that the killings of the population were planned, organized, 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 served as Minister of the Interior and Grand Vizier. Also, Enver Pasha, he was one of the leaders of the party, Ahmed Cemal Pasha, also a party member. All these people were sentenced to death, 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. Legal methods of struggle in Yerevan were not accepted, they began to look for the guilty and kill. The action "Nemesis" has begun. For four years, 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, it happened in the twenty-second year. And Enver died already during the hostilities, by the way, he fought against the Red Army. Here is such a terrible bloody river, a terrible trace in history that will always be in the hands of descendants, residents, in the hearts of the relatives of the dead.
Genocide(from the Greek genos - clan, tribe and lat. caedo - I kill), an international crime expressed in actions committed with the aim of destroying, in whole or in part, any national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Actions qualified by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as acts of Genocide have been committed repeatedly in the history of mankind since ancient times, especially during wars of extermination and devastating invasions and campaigns of conquerors, internal ethnic and religious clashes, during the period of partition peace and the formation of colonial empires of European powers, in the process of a fierce struggle for the redivision of the divided world, which led to two world wars and in the colonial wars after the Second World War of 1939 - 1945.
However, the term "genocide" was first introduced into use in the early 30s. XX century by a Polish lawyer, a Jew by origin Rafael Lemkin, and after the Second World War received an international legal status, as a concept that defines the gravest crime against humanity. R Lemkin under the Genocide meant the massacre of Armenians in Turkey during the First World War (1914 - 1918), and then the extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany in the period preceding the Second World War, and in the countries of Europe occupied by the Nazis during the war years.
The destruction of more than 1.5 million Armenians during 1915-1923 is considered the first genocide of the 20th century. in Western Armenia and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, organized and systematically carried out by the Young Turk rulers.
The Armenian Genocide should also include the massacres of the Armenian population in Eastern Armenia and in Transcaucasia as a whole, committed by the Turks, who invaded Transcaucasia in 1918, and by the Kemalists during the aggression against the Armenian Republic in September-December 1920, as well as the pogroms of Armenians organized by the Musavatists. in Baku and Shushi in 1918 and 1920 respectively. Taking into account those who perished as a result of the periodic pogroms of Armenians perpetrated by the Turkish authorities, since the end of the 19th century, the number of victims of the Armenian Genocide exceeds 2 million.
The Armenian Genocide of 1915 - 1916 - the mass destruction and deportation of the Armenian population of Western Armenia, Cilicia and other provinces of the Ottoman Empire, carried out by the ruling circles of Turkey during the First World War (1914 - 1918). The policy of genocide against Armenians was conditioned by a number of factors.
Leading among them was the ideology of Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, which since the middle of the XIX century. professed by the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire. The militant ideology of pan-Islamism was distinguished by intolerance towards non-Muslims, preached outright chauvinism, and called for the Turkification of all non-Turkish peoples. Entering the war, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire made far-reaching plans for the creation of the "Big Turan". These plans implied joining the empire of Transcaucasia, North Caucasus, Crimea, Volga region, Central Asia.
On the way to this goal, the aggressors had to put an end, first of all, to the Armenian people, who opposed the aggressive plans of the Pan-Turkists. The Young Turks began to develop plans for the extermination of the Armenian population even before the start of the World War. The decisions of the congress of the "Unity and Progress" party, held in October 1911 in Thessaloniki, contained a demand for the Turkification of the non-Turkish peoples of the empire.
At the beginning of 1914, a special order was sent to the local authorities regarding the measures to be taken against the Armenians. The fact that the order was sent before the start of the war irrefutably testifies that the extermination of the Armenians was a planned action, not at all determined by a specific military situation. The leadership of the "Unity and Progress" party has repeatedly discussed the issue of mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population.
In October 1914, at a meeting chaired by the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat, a special body was formed - Executive committee three who were instructed to organize the extermination of the Armenian population; it included the leaders of the Young Turks Nazim, Behaetdin Shakir and Shukri. Plotting a monstrous crime, the leaders of the Young Turks took into account that the war provided an opportunity for its implementation. Nazim bluntly stated that such an opportunity may no longer be, "the intervention of the great powers and the protest of the newspapers will have no consequences, because they will face a fait accompli, and thus the issue will be resolved ... Our actions must be directed to annihilate the Armenians so that not a single one of them remains alive."
Undertaking the destruction of the Armenian population, the Turkish ruling circles intended to achieve several goals:
- liquidation of the Armenian Question, which would put an end to the intervention of the European powers;
- the Turks were getting rid of economic competition, all the property of the Armenian people would have passed into their hands;
- the elimination of the Armenian people will help pave the way to the capture of the Caucasus, to the achievement of the great ideal of Turanism.
The executive committee of the three received wide powers, weapons, money. The authorities organized “Teshkilati and Makhsuse” special detachments, which consisted mainly of criminals released from prisons and other criminal elements, who were supposed to take part in the mass extermination of Armenians.
From the very first days of the war, a frenzied anti-Armenian propaganda unfolded in Turkey. The Turkish people were inspired that the Armenians did not want to serve in the Turkish army, that they were ready to cooperate with the enemy. There were rumors about the mass desertion of Armenians from the Turkish army, about Armenian uprisings that threatened the rear of the Turkish troops, etc. Anti-Armenian propaganda especially intensified after the first serious defeats of the Turkish troops on the Caucasian front. In February 1915, Minister of War Enver ordered the extermination of Armenians serving in the Turkish army (at the beginning of the war, about 60 thousand Armenians aged 18-45 were drafted into the Turkish army, i.e. the most combat-ready part of the male population). This order was carried out with unparalleled cruelty.
On the night of April 24, 1915, representatives of the police department of Constantinople broke into the homes of the most prominent Armenians in the capital and arrested them. Over the next few days, eight hundred people - writers, poets, journalists, politicians, doctors, lawyers, lawyers, scientists, teachers, priests, teachers, artists - were sent to the central prison.
Two months later, on June 15, 1915, 20 intellectuals - Armenians - members of the Hnchak party, were executed on one of the squares of the capital, who were trumped-up charges of organizing terror against the authorities and striving to create an autonomous Armenia.
The same thing happened in all vilayets (regions): within a few days, thousands of people were arrested, including all famous cultural figures, politicians, people of mental labor. The deportation to the desert regions of the Empire was planned in advance. And this was a deliberate deception: as soon as people moved away from their native places, they were ruthlessly killed by those who were supposed to accompany them and ensure their safety. The Armenians who worked in government bodies were fired one by one; all military doctors were thrown into prisons.
The great powers were completely involved in the global confrontation, and they put their geopolitical interests above the fate of two million Armenians...
From May - June 1915, mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian population of Western Armenia (vilayets of Van, Erzrum, Bitlis, Kharberd, Sebastia, Diyarbekir), Cilicia, Western Anatolia and other areas began. The ongoing deportation of the Armenian population in fact pursued the goal of its destruction. US Ambassador to Turkey G. Morgenthau noted: "The true purpose of the deportation was robbery and destruction; this is indeed a new method of massacre. When the Turkish authorities ordered these deportations, they actually pronounced the death sentence of an entire nation."
The real purpose of the deportation was also known to Germany, an ally of Turkey. In June 1915, the German ambassador to Turkey, Wangenheim, informed his government that if at first the expulsion of the Armenian population was limited to the provinces close to the Caucasian front, now the Turkish authorities extended these actions to those parts of the country that were not under the threat of enemy invasion. These actions, the ambassador concluded, the way in which the deportation is carried out, indicate that the Turkish government has as its goal the destruction of the Armenian nation in the Turkish state. The same assessment of the deportation was contained in the reports of the German consuls from the vilayets of Turkey. In July 1915, the German vice-consul in Samsun reported that the deportation carried out in the vilayets of Anatolia was aimed at either destroying or converting the entire Armenian people to Islam. The German consul in Trebizond at the same time reported on the deportation of Armenians in this vilayet and noted that the Young Turks intended to put an end to the Armenian question in this way.
The Armenians who left their places of permanent residence were reduced to caravans that went deep into the empire, to Mesopotamia and Syria, where special camps were created for them. Armenians were exterminated both in their places of residence and on their way to exile; their caravans were attacked by Turkish rabble, Kurdish robber bands, hungry for prey. As a result, it did not reach its destinations. most of deported Armenians. But even those who reached the deserts of Mesopotamia were not safe; there are cases when deported Armenians were taken out of the camps and massacred by the thousands in the desert. Lack of basic sanitary conditions, famine, epidemics caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people.
The actions of the Turkish rioters were distinguished by unprecedented cruelty. This was demanded by the leaders of the Young Turks. Thus, Minister of the Interior Talaat, in a secret telegram sent to the governor of Aleppo, demanded to put an end to the existence of Armenians, not to pay any attention to age, gender, or remorse. This requirement was strictly observed. Eyewitnesses of the events, Armenians who survived the horrors of deportation and genocide, left numerous descriptions of the incredible suffering that befell the Armenian population. A correspondent for the English newspaper The Times reported in September 1915: “From Sasun and Trebizond, from Ordu and Eintab, from Marash and Erzurum, the same reports of atrocities are received: about men mercilessly shot, crucified, mutilated or taken away to labor battalions, about children abducted and forcibly converted to the Mohammedan faith, about women raped and sold into slavery in the rear, shot on the spot or sent with their children to the desert west of Mosul, where there is neither food nor water ... Many of these unfortunate victims did not reach their destination... and their corpses clearly indicated the path they followed."
In October 1916, the newspaper "Caucasian Word" published a report about the massacre of Armenians in the village of Baskan (Vardo Valley); the author cited an eyewitness account: “We saw how everything valuable was first torn off the unfortunate; then they undressed, and others were killed right there on the spot, and others were taken away from the road, into dead corners, and then finished off. We saw a group of three women who embraced in mortal fear. And it was impossible to separate them, to separate them. All three were killed ... The scream and scream were unimaginable, our hair stood on end, the blood ran cold in the veins ... "The majority of the Armenian population was also subjected to barbaric extermination Cilicia.
The massacre of Armenians continued in subsequent years. Thousands of Armenians were massacred, driven into southern regions The Ottoman Empire and those held in the camps of Rasul-Aina, Deir-Zora and others. The Young Turks sought to carry out the Armenian genocide in Eastern Armenia, where, in addition to the local population, large masses of refugees from Western Armenia accumulated. Having committed aggression against Transcaucasia in 1918, Turkish troops carried out pogroms and massacres of Armenians in many areas of Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Having occupied Baku in September 1918, the Turkish invaders, together with the Azerbaijani nationalists, organized a terrible massacre of the local Armenian population, killing 30,000 people.
As a result of the Armenian genocide carried out by the Young Turks in 1915-1916, more than 1.5 million people died, about 600 thousand Armenians became refugees; they scattered over many countries of the world, replenishing the existing ones and forming new Armenian communities. An Armenian diaspora was formed (“diaspora” - Armenian).
As a result of the genocide, Western Armenia lost its original population. The leaders of the Young Turks did not hide their satisfaction with the successful implementation of the planned atrocity: German diplomats in Turkey informed their government that already in August 1915, Minister of the Interior Talaat cynically declared that "the actions against the Armenians were basically carried out and the Armenian question no longer exists."
The relative ease with which the Turkish pogromists managed to carry out the genocide of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire is partly due to the unpreparedness of the Armenian population, as well as the Armenian political parties to the looming threat of extermination. In many respects, the actions of the pogromists were facilitated by the mobilization of the most combat-ready part of the Armenian population - men, into the Turkish army, as well as the liquidation of the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople. A certain role was also played by the fact that in some public and clerical circles of Western Armenians they believed that disobedience to the Turkish authorities, who ordered the deportation, could only lead to an increase in the number of victims.
The Armenian genocide carried out in Turkey caused enormous damage to the spiritual and material culture of the Armenian people. In 1915-1916 and subsequent years, thousands of Armenian manuscripts kept in Armenian monasteries were destroyed, hundreds of historical and architectural monuments were destroyed, and the shrines of the people were desecrated. The destruction of historical and architectural monuments on the territory of Turkey, the appropriation of many cultural values of the Armenian people continues to the present. The tragedy experienced by the Armenian people was reflected in all aspects of the life and social behavior of the Armenian people, firmly settled in their historical memory.
progressive public opinion world condemned the villainous crime of the Turkish rioters who tried to destroy the Armenian people. Public - politicians, scientists, cultural figures of many countries branded genocide, qualifying it as the gravest crime against humanity, took part in the implementation humanitarian aid the Armenian people, in particular the refugees who have taken refuge in many countries of the world.
After Turkey's defeat in the First World War, the leaders of the Young Turks were accused of dragging Turkey into a disastrous war for her and put on trial. Among the accusations brought against war criminals was the charge of organizing and carrying out the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. However, the verdict against a number of leaders of the Young Turks was passed in absentia, because. after the defeat of Turkey, they managed to flee the country. The death sentence against some of them (Talaat, Behaetdin Shakir, Jemal Pasha, Said Halim, etc.) was subsequently carried out by the Armenian people's avengers.
After the Second World War, genocide was qualified as the gravest crime against humanity. The legal documents on the genocide were based on the basic principles developed by the international military tribunal in Nuremberg, which tried the main war criminals Nazi Germany. Subsequently, the UN adopted a number of decisions regarding genocide, the main of which are the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and the Convention on the non-applicability of the statute of limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity, adopted in 1968.
