The Armenian genocide: Why Turkey slaughtered 1.5 million men, women and children
Whenever Turkey makes headlines, the haunting memory of the Armenian genocide resurfaces. With “Boycott Turkey” now trending in India amid diplomatic tensions, this dark chapter is once again in focus. Around 1.5 million Armenian civilians were killed during the genocide — many were hanged, while others were forced into brutal desert marches, where countless died of hunger and thirst.
Adan Khan
New Delhi: Turkey has recently come under sharp criticism in India following its support for Pakistan amid heightened diplomatic tensions. In response, Indian traders are considering halting imports and exports and many tourists are cancelling their travel plans and hotel bookings in Turkey. The backlash stems from a growing sense of betrayal, as India had extended significant humanitarian aid to Turkey during its recent devastating earthquake.
Turkey is no stranger to international controversies, but one historical event continues to cast a long shadow on its global image — the Armenian genocide. More than a century later, its legacy remains a matter of global debate, despite the consensus of over 30 countries that recognise it as genocide.
The massacre of 1.5 million Armenians
The international outcry intensified in 2021 when the United States, under President Joe Biden, officially recognised the mass killings of Armenians as genocide. The move angered Turkey, but Biden refused to retract the statement. The episode he referred to was not a minor historical dispute — it was the second-largest genocide of the 20th century after the Holocaust.
Between 1915 and 1917, nearly 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed by the forces of the then Ottoman Empire. Victims were executed by hanging, starvation and forced death marches across the desert. Many perished due to thirst, hunger and exhaustion. Despite overwhelming global condemnation, Turkey continues to deny that these atrocities constitute genocide. While it acknowledges that deaths occurred, Ankara disputes both the number of victims and the categorisation of the killings as a coordinated genocide.
April 24, 1915, is widely marked as the beginning of the Armenian genocide, when the Ottoman authorities arrested and executed hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in what is now modern-day Turkey. Over the following years, more than a million Armenian Christians — including women, children and the elderly — were killed. Accounts speak of looting, mass rapes and children being abandoned in the desert without food or water.
This tragic event is considered the second-largest genocide in modern history, after Adolf Hitler’s Holocaust in which six million Jews were exterminated during World War II.
The rise of nationalism and religious mistrust
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire was a dominant Muslim-majority power. Minority Christian communities, including Armenians, were often well-educated and economically successful. As nationalist sentiment grew, mistrust toward non-Muslim minorities escalated. The Ottoman rulers began suspecting Armenians of siding with Soviet Russia during World War I and used this as a pretext for mass arrests and killings.
On April 24, 1915, the arrests of Armenian leaders in Ankara marked the beginning of what would become a two-year-long campaign of violence and displacement. Men were the first to be executed. Later, women and children were subjected to brutal atrocities — including rape, mass killings and forced desert marches to Syria and Arabia. Many died along the way, in what historians now refer to as “death marches.”
The genocide unfolded in two major waves. First, adult men were executed. Then, women, children and the elderly were driven into the desert with no food, water, or shelter. Entire villages were destroyed and communities were torn apart. Though the Ottoman leadership claimed it was a wartime measure against traitors, the international community has long regarded it as a deliberate and systematic extermination.
Global recognition, Turkish denial
More than 30 countries — including France, Germany, Canada and most recently the United States — officially recognise the Armenian genocide. However, Turkey continues to dispute the genocide label, insisting that the deaths occurred in the chaos of war and were not part of a state-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing. Ankara also disputes the death toll, which historians estimate to be around 1.5 million.
India, meanwhile, has not officially commented on the issue. But given the growing public outrage over Turkey’s strategic alignment with Pakistan, many speculate that New Delhi might reconsider its stance in the near future. After all, Turkey has reportedly supplied military aid to Pakistan — a move that has further angered Indian citizens who remember India’s earthquake relief efforts with goodwill.
Armenia: From victim state to independent nation
The Armenian diaspora around the world observes April 24 as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Today, Armenia is a peaceful and independent nation. Once a part of the Soviet Union, it declared independence on August 23, 1990 and was internationally recognised on December 25, 1991. With its capital in Yerevan, the country is now divided into ten provinces and stands as a symbol of resilience and remembrance for one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.
