The Armenians were the first nation in the world to accept Christianity as their state religion. As I have emphasized. the Armenians retained their sense of unity and their national aspiration became intense by the mid19th century. with the hope of attainment of a goal of selfgovernment. However. at that time. the Turks set out to exterminate the whole Armenian Christian population within its borders and called for the elimination of some 2 million Armenians in the Ottoman empire through deportation. contrived famine. and largescale massacres. But many hundreds of thousands were able to flee abroad to neighboring Persian and the Russian Caucasus. and others. mostly women and children were forced to adopt the Moslem faith and submit to servitude in Turkish homes. The Armenians paid with their lives for having entertained the elemental idea of human dignity and freedom.
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deportation