1915–1916 CE · Middle East · War
The Armenian genocide
Ottoman authorities and their collaborators subjected Armenians to deportation, massacre and lethal conditions during the First World War.
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Destruction through several mechanisms
The genocide cannot be understood only through individual massacres. Deportation, exposure, hunger and systematic ill-treatment also caused mass death. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum places the main period between spring 1915 and autumn 1916 and reports a range of estimates rather than a single certain death toll.
Evidence and remembrance
Survivor testimony, diplomatic reports and relief records illuminate different parts of the catastrophe. Their dates, authorship and purpose matter. Public relief efforts abroad were substantial, but humanitarian response did not prevent the destruction of Armenian communities. This history deserves its own entry alongside the war in which it occurred.