The Genocide Begins
In the late fall and early winter of 1914, Armenian men fighting in the Turkish Army, about 40,000, had their weapons confiscated and were forced to work as slaves doing jobs such as building roads. The conditions for the men were often unbearable, and if the men didn't die right away, they were shot after several weeks.
On April 24th, 1915 the rounding up of everyday Armenian citizens began. First, Armenian men were taken from their homes, led out of town, and then shot or hung on the spot. After the men were taken care of, the women and children were told to pack a few, necessary belongings and follow the Turkish soldiers, whom would lead them to a "military free zone". This method of trickery worked very well, and the women and children soon followed, believing they were being relocated for their own safety, but truthfully were being taken on death marches toward the Syrian Desert.
On April 24th, 1915 the rounding up of everyday Armenian citizens began. First, Armenian men were taken from their homes, led out of town, and then shot or hung on the spot. After the men were taken care of, the women and children were told to pack a few, necessary belongings and follow the Turkish soldiers, whom would lead them to a "military free zone". This method of trickery worked very well, and the women and children soon followed, believing they were being relocated for their own safety, but truthfully were being taken on death marches toward the Syrian Desert.
In Great Britain's House of Commons, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edward Grey declares "All the information concerning the carnages of Armenians in Turkey became public. Only two feelings can describe it - horror and disturbance."
-Edward Gray stated on October 12, 1915
On the death marches the Armenians were steered through mountains and deserts so other villages would not see the caravans of starving Armenians. About 75% of the Armenians starved or died from dehydration by the time the marches reached the Syrian Desert, and the marches left a train of bodies wherever they went. The 25% of people who were still alive after the marches were either left to starve in the Syrian Desert, or thrown into rivers to drown.
"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." Mehemed Talaat, a leader of the Genocide, responds to problem of too many dead corpses littering the ground.
In the Russian Duma, Minister of Foreign Affairs S.D. Sazonov declares "I have mentioned before about the awful sufferings of that wretched race. Under the tacit assent of its ally, Germany, the Turks hoped to bring alive their desire to exterminate the entire Armenian race..."
In 1916, Morgenthau's successor Abram Elkus cabled to the United States,
". . . unchecked policy of extermination through starvation, exhaustion, and brutality of treatment hardly surpassed even in Turkish history."
Torture
If a girl was pretty, she was sold to Turkish men, others were sent to be servants of the Turkish, or put in prostitution camps. Often, they were raped, and many killed themselves after, not wanting to go through the same experience again. Children, mothers, and older people were told they were being relocated, but really being escorted on marches through the desert. Those who were not in the death marches were hung, burned alive, or shot. Like the Jewish Holocaust, some were transported on trains, but were forced to buy their own tickets.
_"The Committee [of Union and Progress] demands the annihilation of the last remnants of the Armenians and the [Ottoman] government must bow to its demands."
Count Von Wolff Metternich, a German Ambassador, stated this quote in 1916, proving that the Armenian Genocide actually happened, despite Turkish denial.
This survivor talks about her memories of how badly women were treated.
"Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate (grundlich aufzaumen) its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention. What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians."
- Talaat Pasha
Photos of skulls, a little boy lying dead on his doorstep, and two children killed.
When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact. . . . I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.
-Henry Morgenthau Sr. 1919