The Genocide Project by Hila Ben-navat

HILA BEN-NAVAT

2010

FROM THE PLACE WHERE WE ARE RIGHT FLOWERS WILL NEVER GROW IN THE SPRING. THE PLACE WHERE WE ARE RIGHT IS HARD AND TRAMPLED LIKE A YARD. BUT DOUBTS AND LOVES DIG UP THE WORLD LIKE A MOLE, A PLOW. AND A WHISPER WILL BE HEARD IN THE PLACE WHERE THE RUINED HOUSE ONCE STOOD. THE PLACE WHERE WE ARE RIGHT / YEHUDA AMICHAI

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

Contents INTRODUCTION ---

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

06 - 11

---

CHAPTER 01

CHAPTER O2

CHAPTER 03

TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

10 CASES OF GENOCIDE

AFTERMATH

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

12 - 19

20 - 105

106 - 117

118

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF THE WORLD'S GENOCIDES (PAGES 06 - 08)

12131417

33 37

27 45 41 28 04

22 39 46

05 07 08 40

24 42

06 09 11 15 16 43

21 32

26 36

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

Introduction This project started seventy years ago, before World War Two, in a small town called Grabovitz, where I use to have a family. Through life in the state of Israel, and the lives of second and third generation Holocaust survivors. It explores what it is like to live in a constant state of fear, and the fundamental human need for home and shelter. It continues to my new life in London, and the sense of 'differentness' and alienation I felt, which leads to a questioning of one's faith and identity. This project has evolved from several spaces from disorder and the lack of clarity, from empathy and denial and from memory and forgetting. It charts the constant battle -Â doomed from the start between dictators and their armies, and the minorities who lack identity and acceptance. This project is here to give space to all those "others" who have suffered, and still suffer, for their sense of identity. The Genocide Project.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

YEARS | 1933-1945 WHERE | Nazi-occupied Europe DEATHS | 6,000,000 Jews

YEARS | 1930 - 1932 WHERE | USSR DEATHS | 7,000,000 Ukrainians, North Caucasians and Central Asian steppe peoples

* 600

6,000,000 |

7,000,000 |

* 700

YEAR | 1904 WHERE | German South West Africa DEATHS | 65,000 Herero, plus thousands of Nama, Berg Damara and other peoples

YEAR | 1902 WHERE | US Occupied Philippines DEATHS | 100,000 luzonese filipinos

65,000 |

* 10

100,000 |

/ 40,000 Victims

/ 10,000 Victims

Crimes against humanity

1900 - 2010

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

* 25

YEARS | 1933-1945 WHERE | Nazi-occupied Europe DEATHS | 250,000 Roma and Sinti

250,000 |

YEAR | 1904 WHERE | Dutch East Indies DEATHS | 3,000 Achinese

3,000 |

* 30

* 180

YEARS | 1939- 1945 WHERE | Nazi-occupied Europe DEATHS | 1,800,000 Non-Jewish Poles

1,800,000 |

YEARS | 1905-1906 WHERE | German East Africa DEATHS | 300,000 Pangwa, Matumbi, Viduna and other peoples

300,000 |

* 150

* 550

YEARS | 1941-1944 WHERE | Nazi-occupied USSR DEATHS | 5,500,000 Belarussians and Ukrainians

5,500,000 |

YEAR | 1915 WHERE | Ottoman Turkey DEATHS | 1,500,000 Armenians, and Assyrian Nestorians

1,500,000 |

17 YEARS | 1941-1945 WHERE | Nazi-occupied Europe DEATHS | 3,300,000 Soviet prisoners of war

YEARS | 1941-1944 WHERE | USSR DEATHS | 250,000 Volga Germans, Karachai, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingushi, Balkars, Meshketians & Crimean Tatars

* 330

* 25

YEARS | 1941-1945 WHERE | Croatia DEATHS | 250,000 Serbs

250,000 |

3,300,000 |

250,000 |

* 30

YEAR | 1923 WHERE | Republic of Turkey DEATHS | 300,000 Ethnic Greeks

300,000 |

YEAR | 1922 WHERE | Greekoccupied Turkey DEATHS | 400,000 Turks

* 40

YEAR | 1916 WHERE | Czarist Russia DEATHS | 100,000 Kazakhs and Kirgiz

400,000 |

* 10

100,000 |

COURTESY OF THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON

* 50

YEARS | 1946 WHERE | Czech Republic and Poland DEATHS | 500,000 Ethnic Germans

500,000 |

YEAR | 1920 WHERE | Soviet Russia DEATHS | 15,000 Azeris

15,000 |

YEARS | 1930 - 1932 WHERE | Italian- occupied Libya DEATHS | 60,000 Arab Bedouin

60,000 |

YEARS | 1983-present WHERE | Sudan DEATHS | 20,000 Dinka, Shilluk, Nuer and Nuba peoples

YEARS | 1981-1989 WHERE | Iran DEATHS | 20,000 Kurds and Baha’is

* 300

YEAR | 1988 WHERE | Burundi DEATHS | 50,000 Hutu

YEARS | 1984-present WHERE | Turkey DEATHS | 20,000 Kurds

50,000

YEAR | 1971 WHERE | East Pakistan (Bangladesh) DEATHS | 3,000,000 Bengalis

3,000,000 |

* 120

YEARS | 1959 – present WHERE | (Chinese-occupied) Tibet DEATHS | 1,200,000 Tibetans

1,200,000 |

20,000

* 150

1,500,000 |

20,000 |

YEARS | 1966-1970 WHERE | Nigeria DEATHS | 1,000,000 Ibo

YEARS | 1966-1984 WHERE | Guatemala DEATHS | 60,000 Maya Indians and others

YEARS | 1965-1966 WHERE | Indonesia DEATHS | 1,000,000 Communists and suspected Communists

* 100

1,000,000 |

* 50

YEARS | 1956-1972 WHERE | Sudan DEATHS | 125,000 Non-Muslim Southerners

500,000 |

60,000 |

1,000,000 |

* 100

YEARS | 1947-Present WHERE | Bangladesh DEATHS | 125,000 Jummas (Chittagong Hill Tracts peoples)

* 13

YEAR | 1947 WHERE | India and Pakistan DEATHS | 1,000,000 Hindus & Sikhs

125,000 |

* 100

1,000,000 |

* 10

* 50

* 10

YEAR | 1987-1988 WHERE | Iraq DEATHS | 100,000 Kurds

100,000

YEAR | 1971 WHERE | Uganda DEATHS | 500,000 Karamojong, Acholi, Lango and others

500,000 |

YEARS | 1960 - 1980 WHERE | Iraq DEATHS | 100,000 Kurds

100,000 |

YEARS | 1994-present WHERE | Russian Federation DEATHS | 4,000 Chechens

4,000 |

YEARS | 1975-1979 WHERE | Cambodia DEATHS | 1,200,000 Cambodians

1,200,000 |

* 120

YEARS | 1961 - 1962 WHERE | Angola DEATHS | 40,000 Kongo

40,000 | *1

* 25

YEARS | 1991-1995 WHERE | Former Yugoslavia DEATHS | 250,000 Bosnian Muslims

250,000 |

YEARS | 1975-1999 WHERE | East Timor DEATHS | 250,000 East Timorese

250,000 |

YEARS | 1962 - present WHERE | Burma (Myanmar) DEATHS | 5,000 Karin, Kachin, Shan and Mon peoples

5,000 |

YEAR | 1994 WHERE | Rwanda DEATHS | 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus

* 80

YEARS | 2003- present WHERE | Sudan DEATHS | 400,000 Inhabitants of Darfur region of Sudan

* 40

400,000 |

* 10

800,000 |

100,000 |

YEAR | 1986 WHERE | Uganda DEATHS | 100,000 Karamojong, Nilotic tribes, Bagandans and others

* 20

YEARS | 1965-1973 WHERE | Burundi DEATHS | 200,000 Hutu

200,000 |

YEAR | 1978 WHERE | Burma DEATHS | 10,000 Muslims (Rohingyas)

10,000 |

YEARS | 1963-1964 WHERE | Rwanda DEATHS | 14,000 Tutsi

14,000 |

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

Crimes against humanity Scale

1900 - 2010

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT COURTESY OF THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

CHAPTER 01

Terms and Definitions

WALTER BENJAMIN / ON THE CONCEPT OF HISTORY, 1939

THERE IS NO DOCUMENT OF CIVILISATION WHICH IS NOT AT THE SAME TIME A DOCUMENT OF BARBARISM

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

FREE WORLD MAGAZINE, VOL. 4, 1945

CHAPTER 01 / TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

CHAPTER 01

Terms and Definitions GENOCIDE

The word ‘genocide’ brings together the Greek word genos, meaning race or tribe, and the Latin cide from the verb caedere meaning to kill. It was coined by a Polish-Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe to describe the Nazi assault on European peoples and nations. Lemkin escaped to the US in 1941 with his brother, the only members of their immediate family to survive the war. He subsequently dedicated his life to lobbying for the adoption and ratification of international legislation to prevent and prosecute genocide. Lemkin’s efforts and the appalling scale of the Nazi persecutions prompted the newly created United Nations to adopt the International Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide on 9 December 1948.

GENOCIDE - A MODERN CRIME By Raphael Lemkin, April 1945

This article first appeared during WWII in the April 1945 issue of Free World “A Non-Partisan Magazine devoted to the UN and Democracy,” (Free World, Vol. 4) The article summarised the concepts Lemkin originally presented in Chapter 9 of Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, published by the Carnegie Endowment in 1944. TECHNIQUES OF GENOCIDE

All aspects of nationhood were exposed to the attacks of the genocidal policy: POLITICAL

The political cohesion of the conquered countries was intended to be weakened by dividing them into more or less selfcontained and hermetically enclosed zones, as in the four zones of France, the ten zones of Yugoslavia, the five zones of Greece; by partitioning their territories to create puppet states, like Croatia and Slovakia; by detaching territory for incorporation in the Greater Reich, as was done with western Poland, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxembourg, Slovenia. Artificial boundaries were created to prevent communication and mutual assistance by the national groups involved. In the incorporated areas of western land, Luxembourg, Alsace-Lorraine, Malmedy, Moresnet, local administrations were replaced by German administrative organisation. The legal system was recast on the German model. Special Commissioners for the strengthening of Germanism, attached to each administration, coordinated the activities designed to foster and promote Germanism. They were assisted by local inhabitants of German origin. These, duly registered and accredited, served as a nucleus of Germanism and enjoyed special privileges in respect to food rations, employment and position. SOCIAL

The social structure of a nation is vital to its national development. Therefore the German occupant endeavored to bring about changes that weakened national spiritual resources. The focal point of this attack has been the intelligentsia, because this group largely provides leadership. In Poland and Slovenia the intellectuals and the clergy were to a large extent either

The Convention established genocide as a crime under international law and provided the following legal definition: The Convention states that it is not only genocide which will be punished, but also conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide and complicity in genocide. It also imposes a general duty on all states that are signatories to ‘prevent and to punish’ genocide. This represents the principle of universal jurisdiction, introduced at the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946, that some crimes are so great that they can be tried in the courts of any country, regardless of where the crimes were carried out or the nationality of victim and accused. The UN definition of genocide is established in international law. Many scholars believe, however, that the definition is too narrow and have put forward their own definitions. The UN Genocide Convention was not applied in an international courtroom for more than forty years after its establishment.

murdered or removed for forced labor in Germany. Intellectuals and resistants of all occupied countries were marked for execution. Even among the blood-related Dutch some 23,000 were killed, the greater number of them being leading members of their communities.

accept alcohol for agricultural produce. Although under Polish law gambling houses had been prohibited, German authorities not only permitted them to come into existence, but relaxed the otherwise severe curfew law.

CULTURAL

The genocidal purpose of destroying or degrading the economic foundations of national groups was to lower the standards of living and to sharpen the struggle for existence, that no energies might remain for a cultural or national life. Jews were immediately deprived of the elemental means of existence by expropriation and by forbidding them the right to work. Polish property in western incorporated Poland was confiscated and Poles denied licenses to practice trades or handicrafts, thus reserving trade to the Germans. The Post Office Savings Bank in western Poland taken over by the occupying authorities, assured the financial superiority of Germans by repaying deposits only to certificated Germans. Among the bloodrelated peoples (Luxembourgers, Alsatians) the acceptance of Germanism was the criterion by which participation in the economic life was determined.

The Germans sought to obliterate every reminder of former cultural patterns. In the incorporated areas the local language, place names, personal names, public signs and inscriptions were supplanted by German inscriptions. German was to be the language of the courts, of the schools, of the government and of the street. In Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg, French was not even permitted as a language to be studied in primary schools. The function of the schools was to preserve and strengthen nazism. Attendance at a German school compulsory through the primary grades and three years of secondary school. To prohibit artistic expression of a national culture, rigid controls were established. Not only were the radio, the press, and the cities closely supervised, but every painter, musician, architect, sculptor, writer, actor and theatrical producer required a license to continue his artistic activities. RELIGIOUS

Wherever religion represented a vital influence in the national life, the spiritual power of the Church was undermined by various means. In Luxembourg children over 14 were protected by law against criticism if they should renounce their religious affiliations for membership in Nazi youth organisations. In the puppet state of Croatia an independent, but Germandominated Orthodox Church was created for Serbs, in order to destroy forever the spiritual ties with the Patriarch at Belgrade. With the special violence and thoroughness reserved for Poles and Jews, Polish church property was pillaged and despoiled and the clergy subjected to constant persecution. MORAL

Hand in hand with the undermining of religious influence went devices for the moral debasement of national groups. Pornographic publications and movies were foisted upon the Poles. Alcohol was kept cheap although food became increasingly dear, and peasants were legally bound to

ECONOMIC

BIOLOGICAL

The genocidal policy was far-sighted as well as immediate in its objectives. On the one hand an increase in birth rate, legitimate or illegitimate, was encouraged within Germany and among Volksdeutsche in the occupied countries. Subsidies were offered for children begotten by German military men by women of related blood such as Dutch and Norwegian. On the other hand, every means to decrease the birth rate among «racial inferiors» was used. Millions of war prisoners and forced laborers from all the conquered countries of Europe were kept from contact with their wives. Poles in incorporated Poland met obstacles in trying to marry among themselves. Chronic undernourishment, deliberately created by the occupant, tended not only to discourage the birth rate but also to an increase in infant mortality. Coming generations in Europe were thus planned to be predominantly of German blood, capable of overwhelming all other races by sheer numbers.

PHYSICAL

The most direct and drastic of the techniques of genocide is simply murder. It may be the slow and scientific murder by mass starvation or the swift but no less scientific murder by mass extermination in gas chambers, wholesale executions or exposure to disease and exhaustion. Food rations of all territory under German domination were established on racial principles, ranging in 1943 from 93 per cent of its pre-war diet for the German inhabitants to 20 per cent of its pre-war diet for the Jewish population. A carefully graduated scale allowed protein rations of 97 per cent to Germans, 95 per cent to the Dutch, 71 per cent to the French, 38 per cent to the Greeks and 20 per cent to the Jews. For fats, where there was the greatest shortage, the rations were 77 per cent to the Germans, 65 per cent to the Dutch, 40 per cent to the French and 0.32 per cent to the Jews. Specific vitamin deficiencies were created on a scientific basis. The rise in the death rate among the various groups reflects this feeding program. The death rate in the Netherlands was 10 per thousand; Belgium 14 per thousand; Bohemia and Moravia 13.4 per thousand. The mortality in Warsaw was 2.160 Aryans in September 1941 as compared to 800 in September 1938, and for the Jews in Warsaw 7,000 in September 1941 as against 306 in September1938. Such elementary necessities of life as warm clothing, blankets and firewood in winter were either withheld or requisitioned from Poles and Jews. Beginning with the winter of 1940-1941 the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto received no fuel at all. The authoritative report of the War Refugee Board published in November 1944, and the overwhelming new evidence that appears daily of the brutal mass killings that have taken place in such notorious “death camps” as Maidanek and Oswiecim are sufficient indication of the scope of the German program. In Birkenau alone between April 1942 and April 1944 approximately 1,765,000 Jews were gassed. Some 5,600,000 Jews and around 2,000,000 Poles have been murdered or died as a result of the extermination policies. Whole communities have been exterminated. It is estimated, for instance, that of the 140,000 Dutch Jews who lived in the Netherlands before occupation, only some 7,000 now survive, the rest being transferred to Poland for slaughter.

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

CHAPTER 01 / TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

THE 8 STAGES OF GENOCIDE

By Gregory H. Stanton, 1998. Originally presented as a briefing paper at the US State Department in 1996. Genocide is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The process is not linear. Logically, later stages must be preceded by earlier stages. But all stages continue to operate throughout the process. 1 . CLASSIFICATION

All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic cleavages as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like Tanzania has also promoted transcendent national identity. This search for common ground is vital to early prevention of genocide. 2 . SYMBOLISATION

We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people “Jews” or “Gypsies”, or distinguish them by colours or dress; and apply the symbols to members of groups. Classification and symbolisation are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanisation. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia. To combat symbolisation, hate symbols can be legally forbidden (swastikas) as can hate speech. Group marking like gang clothing or tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well. The problem is that legal limitations will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement. Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980’s, code-words replaced them. If widely supported, however, denial of symbolisation can be powerful, as it was in Bulgaria, where the government refused to supply enough yellow badges and at least eighty percent of Jews did not wear them, depriving the yellow star of its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews. 3 . DEHUMANISATION

One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanisation overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanisation, incitement to genocide should not be confused with

protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than democracies. Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from international travel and have their foreign finances frozen. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished. 4 . ORGANISATION

Genocide is always organised, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility (the Janjaweed in Darfur.) Sometimes organisation is informal (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or decentralised (terrorist groups.) Special army units or militias are often trained and armed. Plans are made for genocidal killings. To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel. The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations, as was done in post-genocide Rwanda. 5 . POLARISATION

Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarising propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center. Moderates from the perpetrators’ own group are most able to stop genocide, so are the first to be arrested and killed. Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups d’état by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions. 6 . PREPARATION

Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. Their property is expropriated. They are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. At this stage, a Genocide Emergency must be declared. If the political will of the great powers, regional alliances, or the U.N. Security Council can be mobilised, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance provided to the victim group to prepare for its self-defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organised by the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees to come. 7 . EXTERMINATION

Begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias

THE 8 STAGES OF GENOCIDE / GREGORY H. STANTON

to do the killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide (as in Burundi). At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. (An unsafe “safe” area is worse than none at all.) The U.N. Standing High Readiness Brigade, EU Rapid Response Force, or regional forces -- should be authorised to act by the U.N. Security Council if the genocide is small. For larger interventions, a multilateral force authorised by the U.N. should intervene. If the U.N. is paralysed, regional alliances must act. It is time to recognise that the international responsibility to protect transcends the narrow interests of individual nation states. If strong nations will not provide troops to intervene directly, they should provide the airlift, equipment, and financial means necessary for regional states to intervene. 8 . DENIAL

Is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile. There they remain with impunity, like Pol Pot or Idi Amin, unless they are captured and a tribunal is established to try them. The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav or Rwanda Tribunals, or an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or an International Criminal Court may not deter the worst genocidal killers. But with the political will to arrest and prosecute them, some may be brought to justice.

I THINK THERE IS A PATTERN IN MASS KILLING AND THE KEY THING IS THE SEPARATION OF SOME MINORITY GROUP BY SLOW STAGES FROM THE REST OF THE POPULATION. BREAKING THE LINKS OF SOLIDARITY THAT CONNECT, SAY, THE JEWS – CITIZENS OF GERMANY, FIERCELY PATRIOTIC MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL COMMUNITY - SLOWLY SEPARATING THEM OUT AND ISOLATING THEM BY DISCRIMINATORY LEGISLATION, THEN YELLOW STARS, THEN POLICE ROUND-UPS, THEN DEPORTATION. SO THAT AT THE END OF THE PROCESS THEIR FELLOW NEIGHBOURS LOOK AT THEM AND SAY, ‘WELL, THEY’RE NOT REALLY ONE OF US AND I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT ANYWAY.’ COURTESY OF THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON

CLASSIFICATION

SYMBOLISATION

DEHUMANISATION

ORGANISATION

POLARISATION

PREPARATION

EXTERMINATION

DENIAL

MICHAEL IGNATIEFF

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

CHAPTER 01 / TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

KIEV, 1942 / A MOTHER ATTEMPTS TO SHIELD HER CHILD AS SHE IS ABOUT TO BE SHOT BY THE EISENGRUPPEN / COURTESY OF YAD VASHEM, JERUSALEM

SOCIAL SCIENTISTS AND HISTORIANS' DEFINITIONS OF GENOCIDE

Social scientists have different definitions of genocide from each other and from the definition in international law (the UN genocide convention) following. These differences are both because of the differences between generic concepts and legal definition, and because of the political and group processes involved in drawing up an international convention.

'I CAME DOWN TO THE CITIES AT A TIME OF CONFUSION, WHEN HUNGER REIGNED IN THEM. I CAME AMONG THE PEOPLE AT A TIME OF REVOLTS, I REBELLED ALONG WITH THEM, AND SO I PASSED MY TIME. I ATE MY BREAD AMID BATTLES, AND LAY DOWN TO SLEEP AMID THE MURDERED'. TO POSTERITY / BERTOLT BRECHT

HELEN FEIN

ISRAEL W. CHARNY

GENOCIDE: A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, 1993

GENOCIDE: CONCEPTUAL AND HISTORICAL DIMENSIONS ED. GEORGE ANDREOPOULOS, 1994

Genocide is sustained purposeful action by a perpetrator to physically destroy a collectivity directly or indirectly, through interdiction of the biological and social reproduction of group members, sustained regardless of the surrender or lack of threat offered by the victim.

Genocide in the generic sense is the mass killing of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military forces of an avowed enemy, under conditions of the essential defenselessness and helplessness of the victims.

BARBARA HARFF AND TED R. GURR

STEVEN T. KATZ

TOWARD EMPIRICAL THEORY OF GENOCIDES AND POLITICIDES,1988

THE HOLOCAUST IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, 1994

and politicides are the promotion and execution of policies by a state or its agents which result in the deaths of a substantial portion of a group. The difference between genocides and politicides is in the characteristics by which members of the group are identified by the state.

The concept of genocide applies only when there is an actualized intent, however successfully carried out, to physically destroy an entire group (as such a group is defined by the perpetrators.

FRANK CHALK AND KURT JONASSOHN THE HISTORY AND SOCIOLOGY OF GENOCIDE , 1990

Genocide is a form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator.

CHAPTER 02

10 Cases of Genocide

MICHAEL IGNATIEFF

GENOCIDE IS THE WAY TO A UTOPIA, THE UTOPIA OF A WORLD WITHOUT ENEMIES. WHO DOESN’T WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT ENEMIES - RIGHT? IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL. YOU’D BE SECURE, YOU’D BE SAFE, NO ONE CAN ATTACK YOU. HITLER AND STALIN SERVED THAT UTOPIA. IN STALIN’S CASE IT WOULD BE A WORLD WITHOUT THE CLASS ENEMY, CONSTANTLY SAPPING THE VIRTUE AND STRENGTH OF THE REVOLUTION. IN GERMANY IT’S ALL THOSE DAMN JEWS, PARASITES, BLOODSUCKERS, DRAINING THE LIFE OF THE NATION. IF WE COULD JUST GET RID OF ALL OF THEM, WE’LL LIVE IN PERFECT PEACE AND BROTHERHOOD.

GENOCIDE IN DARFUR

2003 - ONWARDS

In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed, a government-supported militia recruited from local Arab tribes. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people

THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE

1994

In 100 day period between April - June 1994 some 800,000 out of a population of around eight million Rwandans were slaughtered, most of them from the minority Tutsi group. The killing was planned by the radical Hutu power regime, and carried out by militias, the army and the police, along with thousands of ordinary Hutu.

Sudan

Turkey

The Holodomor refers to the famine of 1932–1933 in Ukrainian in which millions of people starved to death as a result of the economic and trade policies instituted by the government of Stalin. The famine was a part of the wider Soviet famine of 1932–1933.

The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the “Young Turk” government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916 (with subsidiaries to 1922-23). One and a half million Armenians were killed, out of a total of two and a half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

In 1904, the Herero, the largest tribal people in German South-West Africa (Namibia) rebelled against colonial rule. The German military response was one of extermination and, by 1906, the Herero had been reduced to a quarter of their original size.

Namibia

1932-1933

1915-1923

1904-1905

Ukraine

THE HOLODOMOR IN UKRAINE

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

GENOCIDE OF THE HEREROS

CHAPTER 02 / 10 CASES OF GENOCIDE

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

The Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, its allies, and collaborators

1939-1945

HOLOCAUST: THE JEWS

The Nazis and their allies murdered an estimated 250,000 ‘Gypsies’ because they were considered ‘asocial’ (socially deviant) and believed they threatened the racially pure German state. The Roma describe the Nazi genocide of the gypsies as the porajmos: “the devouring.”

1939-1945

HOLOCAUST: THE GYPSIES

Between 1975 and 1999, when East Timor regained its independence, the primarily Muslim Indonesia engaged in brutal warfare against the primarily Catholic East Timorese, killing one third of the population

1975

GENOCIDE IN EAST TIMOR

Between 1975 -1979 the Khmer Rouge regime terrorised Cambodia. In pursuit of their goal of a pure Khmer state, the regime forced the bulk of the population into slave labour. A million people died from malnutrition and overwork. At least 200,000 were murdered in ‘the killing fields

1975-1979

THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE

The breakdown of the Communist state of Yugoslavia resulted in the death of 250,000 people. Serb attempts to create a ‘greater Serbia’ which included Serb populations in neighbouring Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo resulted in organised campaigns of ‘ethnic cleansing’

1991-1999

FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

COURTESY OF THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON

MICHAEL IGNATIEFF / WRITER AND HISTORIAN

WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT TWENTIETH CENTURY KILLING ON THE BATTLEFIELD IS THAT IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR, 90% OF THE FATALITIES APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN SOLDIERS. BY THE END OF THE CENTURY, 90% OF THE CASUALTIES ARE CIVILIAN, 10% ARE SOLDIERS. IN THE ETHNIC WARS OF THE 1990S WHERE PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO HACK OUT NEW STATES BY DRIVING OUT POPULATIONS TO CREATE HOMOGENEOUS ETHNIC STATES BASED ON ONE POPULATION, THEN YOU CAN BEGIN TO SEE THE LOGIC OF WHY THE BURDEN FALLS ON CIVILIANS - BECAUSE THEY’RE THE REAL OBJECT OF WAR.

EDMUND BURKE / A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY

POWER GRADUALLY EXTIRPATES FOR THE MIND EVERY HUMAN AND GENTLE VIRTUE CASE NO.

1904 1905

EDMUND BURKE / A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY

POWER GRADUALLY EXTIRPATES FOR THE MIND EVERY HUMAN AND GENTLE VIRTUE

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

CHAPTER 02 / CASE NO.O1 / GENOCIDE OF THE HEREROS

MAP NO.1 /

NAMIBIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS BY CASPER ERICHSEN

With large parts of the Herero nation either dead or in exile and the south in a state of war, the German colonial venture was facing a considerable labour crisis. Newly confiscated lands could not be properly utilised without labour, nor would any other wheel in the colonial machine be able to turn without access to unskilled and inexpensive labour. There were therefore two options for the German administration: either Herero still hiding in the country and those in exile be lured back into German territory and forced in to labour, or alternatively a military expedition be launched against the Owambo kingdoms to enable a more systematic labour recruitment there. The first step to encourage the repatriation of Herero was a promise that those who returned would have nothing to fear. The German officer Von Estorff wrote: "I do not lie, I will issue letters to you so that nothing will happen to you". Under this assumption many Hereros came out of the bush. Most were directed towards the collection points at Otjihanena and Omburo. The largest of the concentration camps were found in Swakopmund, Karibib, Windhoek, Okahandja, and Luderitz.

In these camps the prisoners would typically be fenced in, either by thorn- bush fences or by barbed wire. Thousands of people were cramped into small areas, rations were minimal, consisting of a daily allowance of a handful of uncooked rice, some salt and water. Disease was uncontrolled as the lack of medical attention, unhygienic living quarters, insufficient clothing and high concentration of people meant that diseases such as Typhoid spread rapidly. Beatings and maltreatment were also part and parcel of life in the camps. In statistics compiled by the German High Command in 1907, 7 682 prisoners-of-war are calculated to have died. Of an estimated 17 000 prisoners, that's a mortality rate of 45,2%. The frightening part is that these were mere estimates, other official figures were even higher, and some camps were not closed down for another 2-3 years, leaving further casualties to be added to the morbid list.

Genocide of the Hereros

DEPORTATION OF HEREROS, 1905 / THE REVOLT OF THE HEREROS / JON.M BRIDGMAN

1904-1905 COLONIAL GENOCIDE

STATISTICS

835,100 km2 (322,434 sq mi)

AREA

hoek Wind

MAP German South West Africa (modern Namibia) FLAG

COAT OF ARMS

POPULATION

NAMIBIA POPULATION 1902

In 1902, the colony had 200,000 inhabitants, though only 2,595 were German, 1,354 were Afrikaner, and 452 were British. There were around 80,000 Herero, 60,000 Ovambo, and 10,000 Nama, who were disparagingly referred to as Hottentots. ETHNIC DIVISIONS

TODAY (2009)

Black 87.5%, White 6%, Mixed 6.5% (about 50% of the population belong to the Ovambo tribe and 9% to the Kavangos tribe; other ethnic groups include Herero 7%, Damara 7%, Nama 5%, Caprivian 4%, Bushmen 3%, Baster 2%, Tswana 0.5%) RELIGIONS

Christian 80% to 90% (Lutheran 50%), indigenous beliefs 10% to 20%

LANGUAGES

English 7% (official), Afrikaans common language of most of the population and about 60% of the white population, German 32%, indigenous languages 1% (includes Oshivambo, Herero, Nama)

GENOCIDE

WHO COMMITTED THE GENOCIDE

German colonial rule

WHO LED THE GENOCIDE

Lothar von Trotha (1848 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1920) was a German military commander universally condemned for his conduct of the Herero Wars in South-West Africa, especially for the events that led to the nearextermination of the Herero.

Lother Von Trotha

WHO WERE THE VICTIMS NUMBER OF DEATHS

METHODS OF EXECUTION

The Herero and the Namaqua people of South West Africa

75%

65,000 Hereros Of the population

01. Death by starvation 02. Poisoning 03. Forced Labour 04. Administered Diseases

SOURCES :

1. CIA The World Factbook / Namibia 2. Totten and Parsons. (1998) Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views 3. The Imperial War Museum, London

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

MAP NO.1 /

CHAPTER 02 / CASE NO.O1 / GENOCIDE OF THE HEREROS

MAP NO.2 /

NAMIBIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS BY CASPER ERICHSEN

DEPORTATION OF HEREROS, 1905 / THE REVOLT OF THE HEREROS / JON.M BRIDGMAN

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

CASE NO.

01 IN BRIEF

In January 1904, a revolt broke out in German South West Africa. The Hereros, who inhabited most of the best grazing land in the colony, rose against the Germans. Two years later, when the German army finally succeeded in stamping out the last embers of the revolt, the Hereros all but ceased to exist as a cultural entity. Of the original 80,000 Hereros, only 20,000 remained alive and the survivors were so shaken by the catastrophe that they lapsed into a terrible lethargy that lasted for decades. JON BRIDGMAN AND LESLIE J. WORLEY / CENTURY OF GENOCIDE, 1998

CHAPTER 02 / CASE NO.O1 / GENOCIDE OF THE HEREROS

HERERO PRISONERS IN CHAINS / REPORT ON THE NATIVES IN SOUTH WEST AFRICA , 1918

12. BATTELFIELD AT HARTEBEESTMUND / GROSSE COURTESY OF THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON GENERALSTAB, BERLIN 1906

19. HEREROS EXECUTED BY THE GERMANS / REPORT ON THE NATIVES IN 2931 SOUTH WEST AFRICA AND THEIR TREATMENT BY GERMANY , 1918

TIMELINE / GENOCIDE OF THE HEREROS

FORCE THEM TO DO IT WITH THE GREAT GUNS. ANY HERERO FOUND WITHIN THE GERMAN BORDERS WITH OR WITHOUT A GUN, WITH OR WITHOUT CATTLE, WILL BE SHOT. I SHALL NO LONGER RECEIVE ANY WOMEN OR CHILDREN. I WILL DRIVE THEM BACK TO THEIR PEOPLE OR I WILL SHOOT THEM. THIS IS MY DECISION FOR THE HERERO PEOPLE.

1884

ABOUT THE HERERO

The Herero way of life was traditionally based around cattle. In 1884 the quickening pace of the European ‘scramble for Africa’ led to the formal declaration of a German colony over both ‘Hereroland’ and adjoining areas. From the outset German rule was uncompromising, often brutal and implicitly racist. A disastrous cattle epidemic –the rinderpest – in 1897 forced many Herero to borrow money from unscrupulous German traders or sell land to settlers. Unable to repay their loans, they had to give up many of their remaining cattle in compensation. By 1903 a once proud people was largely reduced to a servile work force. Their chiefs had already largely been stripped of their former authority. Plans to build a railway across what remained of Hereroland may have proved the last straw. THE PERPETRATORS

In the early 1880s, German influence in South West Africa was stronger than that of any other European power, but for all that it was still minuscule. Furthermore, the government in Berlin, under Chancellor Bismarck, had no interest in imperial expansion. Bismarck modified his position somewhat in 1882 when he gave Adolf Lüderitz, a German trader, a guarantee of imperial protection for such lands as he might acquire in Africa, providing Lüderitz acquired a harbor and "clear title." Subsequently, Lüderitz purchased several large parcels of land and the harbor of Angra Pequena in South West Africa from the Orlam tribe, and he asked the German government for official recognition and protection. After a two-year period of inquiries to Whitehall and the Cape government concerning the British position on South West Africa, which resulted in no clear statement or policy, Bismarck in April 1884 had all parties notified that Lüderitz and his property were under the protection of the Reich.

To add insult to injury, Kamaherero told Goering that he was giving Robert Lewis, an English adventurer, power of attorney to exercise control and authority over the territory. The threat of English intervention along with the collapse of the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft für Südwestafrika forced Bismarck to dispatch Captain Curt von François with a small detachment of soldiers to South West Africa. For better or worse, South West Africa now became a German colony and the direct responsibility of the German government.

Most of the German troops stationed in Hereroland were transferred to the south of the colony to quell an uprising by the Nama people. JANUARY 1904

The Herero took advantage of the absence of troops to attack German farms and villages. Strict instructions were given by

Massive German reinforcements were sent to the colony. Practically the whole Herero people were forced northwards towards the Waterberg plateau. AUGUST 1904

The Germans attacked the Herero from three sides. After fierce resistance, the Germans drove them into the Omaheke Desert. Any who lagged behind were killed. The western rim of the desert was guarded to prevent them escaping back into the colony. Waterholes were sealed off, and some poisoned, leaving the Herero to die in the desert. The German commander, General von Trotha, issued an order that any Herero found within the German borders would be shot. DECEMBER 1904

Alarmed by the bad press the treatment of the Herero was generating, the German government countermanded von Trotha’s order. But in practice, the killing continued. APRIL 1905

Surviving Herero were sent to labour camps where still more died from vicious treatment and disease. New regulations denied them ownership of land or cattle. These laws were also applied to most of the other tribes of South-West Africa.

Of around 80,000 Herero in 1900, only 15,000 remained. Some had fled to British-controlled Bechuanaland, but the drastic reduction in the population was mostly the result of either the German military campaign or subsequent ill-treatment. Other tribes, notably the Nama and Berg Damara, also suffered catastrophic losses. 1915

During the First World War, after invading and conquering German South-West Africa the British launched an investigation into the Germans’ treatment of the Herero and other tribes. Far from being humanitarian, however, the purpose of the ensuing report was primarily to disparage German colonial rule. In 1920 the League of Nations mandated South-West Africa to the Union of South Africa. All copies of the report published on the German ill-treatment of the tribes were destroyed to avoid creating tension between British-South African officials and German farmers in the territory. Conditions for surviving Herero only marginally improved. The post-1906 German regulations became the model for the South African pass laws, requiring black South Africans to carry identity cards wherever they travelled, thereby helping to underpin the system of racial segregation and economic control in South Africa known as ‘apartheid.’ RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

In August 2004 the German government offered a formal apology for the atrocities committed against the Herero recognising that today the most appropriate term to describe them would be genocide . They have, however, ruled out compensation for victims’ descendants, citing the disproportionate amount of development aid Germany gives to Namibia because of its former colonialism. LOTHER VON TROTHA IN HIS INFAMOUS VERNICHTUNGSBEFEHL (ANNIHILATION ORDER)

AUTUMN 1903

SPRING 1904

1911

In April 1885, Dr. Goering, the father of Hermann Goering, arrived in South West Africa as Imperial Commissioner. Goering's main task was to extend German control and influence beyond Lüderitz's holdings by persuading the various tribal chiefs to sign treaties of protection. Kamaherero, the Herero chief, signed such a treaty on October 21, 1885. Within four years, the Herero leader repudiated this treaty. Kamaherero felt the treaty was utterly useless since it provided him with neither men, money, nor arms and equipment to protect the Herero cattle and to fight the Orlam, a neighboring tribe with whom the Herero had cattle wars.

THE COURSE OF THE GENOCIDE

Samuel Maherero, the principal chief, that German women and children, British and Boer settlers and Christian missionaries should not be killed.

Southwest Africa was made a German protectorate 1904 JANUARY 11 General Lothar von Trotha arrived in SW Africa from Germany to take over from the colonial Governor, Theodor Leutwein, the direction of a campaign to quell an uprising 1904 JANUARY 12 Anxious Germans opened fire on Ovaherero at Okahandja. The Herero people of Namibia had risen in rebellion against German colonial rule. The deadly Deutsche Schutzruppe “peacekeeping regiment” quelled the tribes. They eventually annihilated 75% of the Herero and Nama peoples 1904 AUGUST 11 German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South Africa 1904 AUGUST 14 The cattle-herding Hereros, a tribe of Southwest Africa, became the first genocide victims of the 20th century. Kaiser Wilhelm II had sent General Von Trotha to put down a Herero uprising along with groups of rebellious Khoikhoi. Trotha drove the Hereros into the desert and then issued a formal "extermination order" authorizing the slaughter of all who refused to surrender. Out of some 80,000 Hereros, 60,000 died in the desert. Of the 15,000 who surrendered, half of those died in prison camps. Some 9,000 escaped to neighboring countries 1904 NOVEMBER 27 A German colonial army defeated Hottentots at Warmbad in Southwest Africa. 1904 DECEMBER 9 Von Schlieffen ordered Von Trotha to pardon all Ovaherero, after tens of thousands had perished in the desert, except those who were "directly guilty and the leaders" 1915 JULY 9 Germany’s South West Africa surrendered to Gen. Botha of the Union of South Africa

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

CHAPTER 02 / CASE NO.O1 / GENOCIDE OF THE HEREROS

HERERO PRISONERS IN CHAINS / REPORT ON THE NATIVES SOUTH WEST AFRICA , 1918 18. HERERO RETURNING FROM THE OMAHAKE DESERT IN / REPORT ON THE NATIVES IN SOUTH WEST AFRICA AND THEIR TREATMENT BY GERMANY , 1918

28 30

CASE NO.

01 In January 1904, a revolt broke out in German South West Africa. The Hereros, who inhabited most of the best grazing land in the colony, rose against the Germans. Two years later, when the German army finally succeeded in stamping out the last embers of the revolt, the Hereros all but ceased to exist as a cultural entity. Of the original 80,000 Hereros, only 20,000 remained alive and the survivors were so shaken by the catastrophe that they lapsed into a terrible lethargy that lasted for decades.

OCTOBER 2, 1904

JON BRIDGMAN AND LESLIE J. WORLEY / CENTURY OF GENOCIDE, 1998

I, THE GREAT GENERAL OF THE GERMAN TROOPS, SEND THIS LETTER TO THE HERERO PEOPLE. HEREROS ARE NO LONGER GERMAN SUBJECTS. THEY HAVE MURDERED, STOLEN, THEY HAVE CUT OFF THE NOSES, EARS, AND OTHER BODILY PARTS OF WOUNDED SOLDIERS AND NOW, BECAUSE OF COWARDICE, THEY WILL FIGHT NO MORE. I SAY TO THE PEOPLE: ANYONE WHO DELIVERS ONE OF THE HERERO CAPTAINS TO MY STATION AS A PRISONER WILL RECEIVE 1000 MARKS. HE WHO BRINGS IN SAMUEL MAHERERO WILL RECEIVE 5000 MARKS. ALL THE HEREROS MUST LEAVE THE LAND. IF THE PEOPLE DO NOT DO THIS, THEN I WILL

IN BRIEF

12. BATTELFIELD AT HARTEBEESTMUND / GROSSE GENERALSTAB, BERLIN 1906

19. HEREROS EXECUTED BY THE GERMANS / REPORT ON THE NATIVES IN SOUTH WEST AFRICA AND THEIR TREATMENT BY GERMANY , 1918

TIMELINE / GENOCIDE OF THE HEREROS

LOTHER VON TROTHA IN HIS INFAMOUS VERNICHTUNGSBEFEHL (ANNIHILATION ORDER)

1884

Von Schlieffen ordered Von Trotha to pardon all Ovaherero, after tens of thousands had perished in the desert, except those who were "directly guilty and the leaders" 1915 JULY 9 Germany’s South West Africa surrendered to Gen. Botha of the Union of South Africa

CASE NO.

02 1915 1923

15 MAY 1916

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE SHOULD BE CLEANED UP OF THE ARMENIANS AND THE LEBANESE. WE HAVE DESTROYED THE FORMER BY THE SWORD, WE SHALL DESTROY THE LATTER THROUGH STARVATION ENVER PASHA

15 MAY 1916

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE SHOULD BE CLEANED UP OF THE ARMENIANS AND THE LEBANESE. WE HAVE DESTROYED THE FORMER BY THE SWORD, WE SHALL DESTROY THE LATTER THROUGH STARVATION ENVER PASHA

THE GENOCIDE PROJECT

CHAPTER 02 / CASE NO.2 / THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

TIMELINE / THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

1909 APRIL 15-25

1909 1923

30,000 Armenians are slaughtered in Adana, Tarsus and other towns of Cilicia. The Turkish army bears direct responsibility, but the Armenian community is willing to consider it as an isolated incident.

1913 JANUARY 9 In Turkey, the triumvirate of Enver, Talaat and Jemal Pasha head the government.

1914 FEBRUARY 8 Under the combined influence of Russia and Great Britain, the Turkish authorities sign the Armenian Reform Project and agree to take certain measures in favour of the Armenian population. The promised measures are not implemented.

1915 JANUARY

1915 FEBRUARY 13

1915 FEBRUARY 26

1915 APRIL 15

1915 APRIL 20

Enver is disastrously defeated in Sarikamish at the hands of Russian troops, marking a failure of his Pan-Turanian plans. The Turkish authorities decree the demobilisation of the Armenians. The Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army are marched and killed in cold blood.

Two Armenian deputies of the Ottoman Assembly submit a note concerning the massacres and executions of several such battalions.

War Minister Enver convenes 75 top ranking Ittihadists. This secret meeting finalises the the plan to carry out a genocide. Evidence indicates that the decision to carry out the Genocide was made some years earlier.

Talaat, Enver and Nazem send a secret order to the local governments for the removal and extermination of Armenians in Turkey.

At the news of the massacres, the mostly Armenian population of Van takes to the barricades. The Turkish authorities will use this incident on the Caucasian front and the resistance of the Armenians as a pretext to justify the measures of deportation they are about to inflict.

1915 APRIL 20MAY 19

1915 APRIL 24

1915 MAY 15

1915 JUNE 1

1915 JUNE 15

1915 JUNE 24

1915 JUNE 25

1915 JUNE 26

1915 JULY 3

The remaining Armenians of Van try to defend themselves from the overwhelming Turkish forces.

800 Armenian leaders, writers and intellectuals are arrested in Constantinople and murdered. The barbaric Armenian genocide begins. This is the most important date for all Armenians today.

Turkish forces begin the process of removal and deportation of the Armenian population from villages in the vilayet of Erzerum.

12,000 Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army are massacred in Balu, vilayet of Diarbekir.

21 leaders of the Hnchukyan Party are hanged publicly in Constantinople.

Massacres and deportations of the inhabitants of Shabin Karahissar begin.

The removal and deportation of the Armenians of the city of Sivas begin.

The removal of the Armenian population of Kharput and Trebizond vilayets are commenced by the Turkish army.

The massacre of the Armenian population of Mush, Sassun and Bitlis vilayets begins.

1915 JULY 10

1915 JULY 27

1915 JULY 28

1915 JULY 29

1915 AUGUST 16

1915 AUGUST 10- 19

The Armenian population of Malatia is deported.

The Armenian population of Cilicia and Antioch is deported.

The removal of the Armenian population of the Cilician cities, Aintab and Qilise, is carried out.

Deportations begin from Aintab and Kilisse, in Cilicia.

Deportations begin from Marash in Cilicia and Konia in western Asia Minor.

Removal and deportations begin of Armenians from Smyrna (Nikodemia), Brusa, Bartizak, Adabazar and surrounding areas.

1918 MARCH

1918 OCTOBER

1918 OCTOBER 30

1918 NOVEMBER

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed between Russia and Turkey after Russia's withdrawal brought about by the Russian Revolution. Turkish invasion of Russian Armenia causes more killings of Armenians. Fighting continues on the Caucasian front involving Armenian units.

US Congressman Edward Little presents a resolution to the Congress advocating that the "Armenian people have the right to be free and independent and be the masters of the Christian culture for which their sons had been sacrificed".

The armistice of Moudros ends the war between the Allies and Turkey. Global estimates of the campaign of extermination: close to 1,500,000 Armenians dead.

Defeated Turkey recognizes the small Armenian Republic whose territory consists only of a small fraction of former Armenian lands. Turkey also cedes to it the vilayets of Kars and Ardahan the following year.

In Stockholm, a large meeting takes place dedicated to repudiation of the mass murder of Armenians. The members of the meeting deplore the insensitivity of Sweden towards Armenians.

1917 DECEMBER 4 Speaking in the Congress of the US, President Wilson states "We hope to provide the right and opportunity for people living in the Turkish Empire to make their lives safe and their fate secure from aggression and injustice, orders of foreign courts and parties.

1919 APRIL 27

1919 MAY 22

1919 JULY 5

By the order of Sultan Mahmed VI it was ordered that the First, Second and Third Military Tribunals prosecute the leaders of the "Young Turks" and other implicated members of the government.

A Military Tribunal finds a number of Turkish leaders guilty of carnages in the Yozkhat area. The Court finds that Kemal Bey ordered the Moslems to eliminate all the Armenian population, and sentences him to death.

In Constantinople, the trial begins of members of the Union and Progress Party, and other leaders of the Turkish government. The trial continues until June 26, 1919.

The special Military Court tries the organizers of deportations and slaughter in Trebizond and punishes eight as criminals.

Following the trial of the Unionists, Talaat, Enver Pasha Djemal Pasha are sentenced to death.

1922 SEPTEMBER

Kemal Ataturk's forces seize and set fire to the city of Smyrna and engage in a rampage, killing Greeks and Armenians. 150,000 perish.

1917 MARCH 29

1919 APRIL 8

1921 MAY 16 The independent Armenian Republic, in existence since May 28, 1918, is tranformed into the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia.

Talaat, Minister of the Interior, sends a cable to the Aleppo Prefecture, ordering the extermination of children at military installations.

1919 JANUARY 8

1920 FEBRUARY

French forces in postwar occupation of Cilicia unexpectedly withdraw. Turks take advantage of the opportunity and kill 30,000 Armenians.

1916 MARCH 7

1923 APRIL 25

1923 SEPTEMBER

Unrepentant Turkey enacts the law of "abandoned property" which allows for the confiscation of all property abandoned by Armenians absent from the country, regardless of the date, reason or conditions of their departure.

Turkey adopts a law which prohibits the return of Armenians who left Cilicia or any of the eastern vilayets whether or not they had left voluntarily.

The Armenian Genocide 1915 - 1923 JUDGED BY MOST MODERN HISTORIANS TO BE A GENOCIDE, STRONGLY REFUTED BY TURKISH AUTHORITIES

STATISTICS

29,743 km2 (141st) 11,484 sq mi

AREA

Georgia

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Historic Armenia Borders

Current Armenia Borders

FLAG

COAT OF ARMS

POPULATION

ARMENIAN POPULATION 1905

ARMENIAN POPULATION 2009

1,698,301 [1]

2,967,004 (July 2009 est.)[4]

Turkey

Syria

ETHNIC DIVISIONS

Armenian 97.9%, Yezidi (Kurd) 1.3%, Russian 0.5%, other 0.3%

RELIGIONS

Armenian Apostolic 94.7%, other Christian 4%, Yezidi (monotheist with elements of nature worship) 1.3%

LANGUAGES

Armenian 97.7%, Yezidi 1%, Russian 0.9%, other 0.4%

GENOCIDE WHO COMMITTED THE GENOCIDE

The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) (Also known as the Young Turks)

WHO LED THE GENOCIDE

Three figures from the CUP controlled the government: Mehmet Talaat, Minister of the Interior in 1915 and Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) in 1917; Ismail Enver, Minister of War; Ahmed Jemal, Minister of the Marine and Military Governor of Syria. This Young Turk triumvirate relied on other members of the CUP appointed to high government posts and assigned to military commands to carry out the Armenian Genocide

Ismail Enver

Mehmet Talaat

WHO WERE THE VICTIMS NUMBER OF DEATHS METHODS OF EXECUTION

The Ottoman Armenian

50%

1.5 million - 2,000,000 Of the Ottoman Armenian population

The vast majority of Armenian civilians were either massacred immediately or deported to their deaths. Many were burned alive. In Trebizond province, 50,000 Armenians were drowned in the Black Sea. Many others suffered a similar fate along stretches of the River Euphrates and its tributaries. 01. 02. 03. 04.

Death using automatic weapon and machine guns. By fire Drowning Starvation

SOURCES :

1. McCarthy, Justin.(1983) Muslims and Minorities: The Population of Ottoman Anatolia and the End of the Empire 2. Totten and Parsons. (1998) Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views 3. The Imperial War Museum, London. (Examples of genocide cases) 4. The CIA World Factbook