World War I presented the Turks with the best possible opportunity to carry out their hideous designs with impunity. At the beginning of the war there were about 2 million Armenians in Turkey. Early in 1915 nearly all of them were uprooted from their homes on the baseless pretext that they were plotting against the Government. and deported to distant Mesopotamian and Syrian Deserts. There. some were massacred with a brutality and cruelty rare in the annals of human history. while others were condemned to slow death by starvation. In this manmade holocaust. the first case of planned genocide in modern history. more than 1 million Armenians lost their lives in the course of a single year. Several hundred thousand Armenians were lucky enough to escape to neighboring countries. while a larger number of women and children were enslaved in Turkish. Kurdish. and Arab homes. In short. in 1 year during the First World War. the entire Armenian community in Turkey. consisting of the sinews and brains of Turkeys economic. industrial. and commercial life. was wiped out through wholesale massacres. deportation. and enslavement. That was the legacy of World War I to the Armenians who by sheer chance and good luck survived their national tragedy. It is unfortunate and paradoxical that these people. who were the first to adopt the Christian faith as their state religion In the third century and who stoutly defended Christianity against paganism and Mohammedanism for more than 1.500 years. often at a terrific cost in human lives. could not obtain effective aid from their European friends.
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deported deportation