Speaker. April 24 marks 65 years since the genocide of the Armenian people by the Turkish Ottoman Government in 1915. It is welldocumented that at least 1.2 million Armenians were massacred or deported from their homes and forced on death marches in the months following April of 1915. It is also welldocumented that this horrifying event arose not as one of the tragic side effects of World War I. but. in the words of historian Arnold Toynbee. as a "deliberate. systematic attempt to eradicate the Armenian population throughout the Ottoman Empire." Early in 1915. the Turks decreed that all Armenians should be disarmed. Armenians in the Turkish Army were regrouped into unarmed labor battalions. and civilians were required to turn in arms to local authorities. whether they actually possessed them or not.
Keywords matched
deported