On the evening of April 24. 1915. more than 200 Armenian religious. political. and intellectual leaders of the Armenian community in Istanbul were arrested. exiled from the capital city. and executed. In a single nights sweep the voice of the representatives of the Armenian nation in Turkey was silenced. This tragic event was only the beginning of an unfolding. systematic policy of deportation and extermination being implemented by the young Turk Government. Consequently. the 24th of April represents for Armenia the symbolic beginning date of the Armenian genocide. The Armenians were targeted for extermination by the Ottoman Empire in which more than 1.5 million women. children. and men were tortured and killed during the Armenian genocide of 191523. Before 1914. over 2 million Armenians lived in Turkey. By the end of 1923. the entire Armenian population of Anatolia had been either killed or deported. I believe that it is of vital importance that we take the time to remember those Armenians who were brutally murdered. The horror of the Armenian genocide is made worse by the refusal of the current Government of the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge that it ever happened.
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deported deportation