The #ArmenianGenocide did not begin nor end in 1915

In the 1890s, Sultan Hamid II, in efforts to maintain power during the collapsing Ottoman Empire, ordered the systemic massacre of Christians, mainly Armenians.

Armenians, like other Christians, were second class citizens, subject to a jizya (non-muslim tax) and devşirme (child slavery, forced conversion, made up the famous Ottoman Janissary infantry)

In the 1860s-1870, Armenians began asking for civil rights, such as pressing for an end to looting and murder by (Ottoman backed) Kurds, improper taxes, and usurpation of lands.

Requests fell on deaf ears, and Armenian Nationalism grew.

The Kurd began attacking with impunity, with Hamid giving semi-official status to those that took part. with addition of turks, yoruk, Arabs, turkmens, and circassians, The Hamidiye Alaylari, they became known as, were given free reign to attack Armenians.

I'm response, Armenian revolutionary forces, namely the Hunchaks and Dashnaks (ARF) were founded

Sasun became one of the most notable areas of resistance. Hunckah activists encouraged resistance, and Dashnaks armed the population. However, they finally succumbed to vastly superior numbers.

In response to Sasun, the governor of Mush incited violence against Armenians.

Violence quickly spread to most of the Armenian towns of the Ottoman Empire.

Hamid sent the Ottoman Army and armed Kurdish irregulars to carry on the massacres.

An est 300k Armenians, 100k Greeks, and 25k Assyrians were massacred, leaving an estimated 50k orphans, 1m pillaged

The Hamidian Massacre went unpunished, and thus laid the foundation for the #ArmenianGenocide under the Young Turks.

The ARF (Dashnaks) initially supported the Young Turks revolution to overthrow Sultan Hami in hopes of autonomy being granted. In 1908 Hamid was overthrown and the Young Turks took power.

Autonomy was not granted. Instead, the Adana massacre followed in 1909 in which 20-25k were massacred.

The CUP, lead by Talaat Pasha, launched another coup, seizing total control of the Ottoman Empire. The policy to change the demographics by forcing Christina's to leaving and replacing them with Muslims was enacted. Immigrants were promised property that belonged to Christians.

Talaat referred to non-Muslims as "internal tumors" that needed to be excised. Pan-Turanism emerged heavily.

The entry into WWI, and the Ottoman defeat at Sarikamish sent Talaat into a frenzy, blaming Armenians for the loss.

The massacre at Bitlis followed. Any local incident or discovery of arms were cited as evidence of Armenian conspiracy against the empire.

Akçam wrote that allegations of an Armenian revolt "have no basis in reality but we're deliberately fabricated"

Armenian civil servant were dismissed from their posts in late 1914 - early 1915. On February 25, Enver Pasha ordered the removal of all non-Muslims from their posts. They were disarmed, put into labor batallion, and systematically executed.

When ARF organized the defense of Van. Ottoman attack began on April 20. Armenians in surrounded villages were massacred. After Russian liberation on May 18, 55,000 corpses were found in the province.

On April 24, 1915, Armenian intellectuals were arrested and executed.

What followed was systemic deportations and organized massacres.

Deportations occurred behind the front lines. Armenians near the war zones were instead massacred.

Marches into the desert

Starvation, dehydration

Countless starving orphans

Mass graves and executions

Here, Norwegian missionary Bodil Biørn took a photo of an orphanage. The note left behind the photo noted that the teacher and the children were burned alive

Horrors that no living being should witness

Many young girls/women were taken as slaves, raped, and forcefully converted and tattood to mark ownership.

1.5m were massacred from 1915-1917, countless forcefully turkified, deported, escaped, and we lost the majority of our indigenous homeland.

But, we are still here. And we will return.

(please credit artist if you know)

Colorized images from @vicki_sammy

As these events went unpunished, Ataturk (consummator of the Armenian Genocide) rebranded the Ottoman Empire as the Republic of Turkey.

Today, these barbaric practices and the struggle against the offspring of the same perpetrators continues.

However, we are resilient. Forever a thorn in the Turks neck. A thorn that will one day bring down their empire.

"you blow up the skull of the Number One nation-murderer and you don't try to flee. You stand there, your foot on the corpse"