“The Murder of a Nation”

“The Murder of a Nation”

The Armenian massacres of 1915 have been described as “the murder of a nation.” The campaign to exterminate the Armenian population and expel them from the Ottoman Empire (which was superseded by Turkey) was so organized and systematic that it became a model for the prosecution of even more devastating genocidal programs later in the 20th century.

The historian Arnold Toynbee decried Turkey’s conduct, calling it “the murder of a nation.” It would be another generation, however, before an international crime would be defined to write into law what Toynbee had in mind.[1]Quigley, J. and Quigley, J., 2006. The Genocide Convention. Hampshire: Ashgate

Adolf HITLER famously cited the annihilation of the Armenians when he made plans to carry out genocidal warfare against the Jews. Nonetheless, successive Turkish governments continue to deny or downplay the Ottomans’ culpability for the massacres

Estimates of the total number of Armenians who died as a result of the massacres and deportations vary, ranging up to 1.5 million

The violence that began in 1915 killed perhaps half the Armenian Christians in the region. Although the accumulated stories of massacre numb after a while, some of the atrocities cry out particularly. One of the worst storm centers was the wilayet, or province, of Diyarbakir, under its brutal governor, Resid Bey.  Here, “men had horse shoes nailed to their feet; women were gang raped.” One source placed the number of murdered Christians in this province alone at 570,000.

The Armenian Genocide is not “owned” by Turks and Armenians; rather, it is part of our world history and heritage, a dark part, indeed, but one that we, as humans, have to accept and integrate into our understanding of ourselves. And it is not just any part of our dark history: the Armenian Genocide is perhaps the original sin of the twentieth century.