The Armenian Genocide and Decades of Silence

Did you know that one of the first genocides of the twentieth century remained largely

unacknowledged for decades? In 1915, during the First World War,

the Ottoman Empire began the mass deportation of its Armenian population. Under the pretext

of security, entire communities were forced from their homes and marched into the

Syrian desert. What followed was systematic violence, starvation, and death.

An estimated one to one and a half million Armenians were killed. But the violence

did not end with the war. In the years that followed, the new Turkish

state rejected responsibility. There were no international tribunals. No formal acknowledgment. No justice for survivors.