Today, on April 24th, Armenians around the world, along with many other nations, commemorate the 111th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian Genocide – the systematic and premeditated killing of over 1.5 million Armenians – was perpetrated by the government of the Young Turks in various regions of the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1915 during WWI.
The first international reaction to the violence was a joint statement by France, Russia, and Great Britain in May 1915, in which the Turkish atrocities directed against the Armenian people were defined as “a new crime against humanity and civilization,” and the Turkish government was held accountable for these crimes.
When WWI erupted, the Young Turks government, hoping to preserve the remnants of the weakened Ottoman Empire, adopted a policy of Pan-Turkism – the establishment of a mega-Turkish empire comprising all Turkic-speaking peoples from the Caucasus and Central Asia extending to China, with the aim of Turkifying all ethnic minorities of the empire. The Armenian population was seen as the main obstacle to the realization of this policy.
An estimated two million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire before WWI. Over one and a half million Armenians were killed from 1915 to 1923. Those who survived were either forced to convert to Islam, exiled, or sought refuge in different parts of the world.
The first phase of the Armenian Genocide began on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of several hundred Armenian intellectuals and national elite members (mainly in the Ottoman capital, Constantinople) and their subsequent elimination. This is why April 24 is observed as Remembrance Day for the Armenian Genocide.
The second phase involved the forced conscription of around 60,000 Armenian men into the Turkish military, who were later disarmed and murdered.
The third phase of the genocide saw the exile and massacre of women, children, and the elderly, who were deported to the Syrian desert. Hundreds of thousands were murdered by Turkish soldiers, police officers, and Kurdish and Circassian gangs during the deportation. Many others died of disease and starvation. Thousands of women and children were subjected to sexual violence. Tens of thousands were forcibly converted to Islam.
Finally, the last phase of the Armenian Genocide is marked by the total denial by the present-day Turkish government of the mass killings and the elimination of the Armenian people from their homeland. Despite ongoing international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey – the successor state to the Ottoman Empire – continues to deny the genocide, claiming the deaths were due to wartime conditions, and uses historical falsifications, propaganda, and lobbying to promote this narrative.
The term genocide was first introduced in 1944 by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, whose family was a victim of the Holocaust. He used the term to define the systematic murder and cruelty of the Nazis, as well as the atrocities committed against Armenians in 1915.
On December 9, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defined genocide as an international crime and obligated signatory states to prevent and punish those responsible for committing genocide.
Published by Armenpress, original at
—
Disclaimer: This article was contributed and translated into English by Emil Lazarian. While we strive for quality, the views and accuracy of the content remain the responsibility of the contributor. Please verify all facts independently before reposting or citing.
Direct link to this article: https://www.armenianclub.com/2026/04/26/armenpress-april-24-marks-the-111th-anniversary-of-the-armenian-genocide/
