It was led by the evil triumvirate known as
the 'Three Pashas', Talaat Pasha, Djemal
Pasha and Ismail Enver Pasha. They
were jointly responsible for the death
of approximately 3.5 million Assyrians,
Greeks and Armenians in an area of the
Ottoman Empire now known as Turkey,
although exact figures are not known. The
justification for this deliberate genocidal
action was that Islam is the only true
religion and Talaat stated in 1915 that "there
is no room for Christians in Turkey".
Christians and non-Muslims alike were
killed in their thousands in mass drownings,
burnings, poisonings, shootings and
death marches into the Syrian desert with
nothing but their immediate personal
belongings. Families were systematically
separated, whole communities were
deported to the Ottoman interior to what
were effectively concentration camps and
everything was taken from the persecuted,
right down to their tooth fillings.
In addition to this, Christian monuments
and other cultural property were
destroyed. If people tried to escape from
the camps, they would be tortured to
death in front of the other prisoners as an
example.
Arbitrary executions would also take
place throughout towns and cities, and
it was common for the corpses to buried
upright with the head still above ground, in
the middle of the road. Passing carriages
would crush them, with the families of the
dead still watching.
After the genocide came to an end and
justice was demanded internationally
for the Three Pashas, Talaat and Djemal
were assassinated, although Ismael Enver
escaped direct punishment and died in
battle.
Whilst it may not be surprising that the
genocide in the Ottoman Empire has
been overshadowed by the vastly more
destructive horrors of the Soviet Union,
Nazi Germany or Maoist China, these
atrocities are still denied and rejected by
the Turkish government.
12
ISSUE 108 / 2018
GUESTLIST
Between 1914 and 1923 – throughout the First World War
and after it – the Committee for Union and Progress (the
C.U.P a.k.a the Young Turks) carried out the systematic
and conscious massacring of all non-Muslims.
THE FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE OF
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
BAD HISTORY