24 April 1915
The
Armenian Genocide also known as the
Armenian Holocaust, the
Armenian Massacres and, traditionally by Armenians, as
Medz Yeghern was the
Ottoman government's systematic extermination of its minority
Armenian subjects from their historic homeland in the territory constituting the present-day
Republic of Turkey. It took place during and after
World War I and was implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and forced labor, and the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm on
death marches to the
Syrian Desert.
[10][11] The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 1 and 1.5 million. Other
indigenous and Christian ethnic groups such as the
Assyrians, the
Greeks and other minority groups were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman government, and their treatment is considered by many historians to be part of the same genocidal policy.
[12][13][14] It is acknowledged to have been one of the first modern
genocides,
[15][16][17] as scholars point to the organized manner in which the killings were carried out to eliminate the Armenians,
[18] and it is the second most-studied case of genocide after the
Holocaust.
[19] The word
genocide was coined in order to describe these events.
[20][21]
The starting date of the genocide is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day Ottoman authorities rounded up and arrested some
250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in
Constantinople.
[22][23] Thereafter, the Ottoman military began expelling the Armenians from their homes throughout Turkey, forcing them onto roads that led to the Syrian desert hundreds of miles away. They were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre as they were marched along by military escorts.
[24] The majority of
Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a direct result of the Armenian Genocide.
Turkey, the
successor state of the Ottoman Empire,
denies the word
genocide as an accurate description of the events.
[25] In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide. To date, 23 countries have
officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars and historians accept this
The stills are from the movie La masseria della allodole