Genocide in Armenia

In 1908, the Young Turk party took over Turkey. In 1914 they allied with Germany and the Central Powers in World War I, and they soon began a systematic genocide of the Armenian population. It began with the arrest and execution of Armenian intellectuals in 1915. Soon Armenian property and weapons were confiscated. From 1915-1917, death marches and executions occurred. Around 1.5 million Armenians were killed in those two years; during WWI, the Armenian population dropped from two million to fewer than 400,000.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Books

Taner Akcam – The Young Turks’ crime against humanity: the Armenian genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Ottoman Empire

Grigoris Balakian – Armenian Golgotha: a memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918

Peter Balakian – The burning Tigris: the Armenian genocide and America’s response

Yucel Guclu – The Holocaust and the Armenian case in comparative perspective

Richard G. Hovannisian – The Armenian genocide: cultural and ethical legacies

Laure Marchand – Turkey and the Armenian ghost: on the trail of the genocide

Donald E. Miller – Survivors: an oral history of the Armenian genocide

Ronald Grigor Suny – “They can live in the desert but nowhere else”: a history of the Armenian genocide

Search Terms

Armenian massacres, 1915-1923

Armenian massacres survivors

Armenians — Turkey — History — 20th century

Genocide — Turkey

World politics — 1900-1918

The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute

Armenian National Institute: Frequently Asked Questions about the Armenian Genocide

Facing History and Ourselves: Introducing the Armenian Genocide

John Kifner: Armenian Genocide of 1915: An Overview

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: The Armenian Genocide (1915-16): Overview