Speech #900208013

These bloody events created a tense situation in which Armenians did not feel safe. and this unhappy situation persisted up to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Early in that war the Turks were determined to carry out their design of eliminating all Armenian elements in the country. and they set upon that deadly task early in 1915. knowing that no outside power could intervene in their doings during the war. and confident that they could conceal it from the outside world. they began with mass arrests and imprisonments of many thousand Armenian leaders on April 24. Soon began general deportations of all Armenians from their homes to distant and desolate deserts of Syria and Iraq. Then came the order for general massacres of all. irrespective of age and sex. which was carried out under most brutal and cruel circumstances. By this inhuman measure more than 1.000.000 Armenians were done to death. between 200.000 and 300.C00 Armeniansmostly boys and girls between ages 8 to 12were