It was during this time that more than 20,000
Armenians were killed again.
The First World War began in August of 1914. Turkey entered the war and
sided with Germany and the central powers Nov. 2 of that year. The Turks
offered the Armenians a deal; if they would attack Russia, when the war was
over they would be rewarded with land. The Armenians refused saying that
there were a lot of Armenians in southern Russia; attacking them would be like
attacking their brothers. The Turks viewed this as a treasonous act. As of
August 3, 1914 however, men both Turkish and Armenian men were drafted to
fight in the war. By 1915, the Turkish government had decided that they wanted to get rid of
the Armenians once and of all. They had constructed a 4-step plan that would
mean the end for 1,500,000 Armenians in Turkey: 1. Destroy all men physically
capable of fighting: 2. Confiscate all weapons which could be used to revolt:
3. Kill the political leaders, religious leaders, the educated, and anybody
else that was capable of leading: 4. "Deport" the remaining Armenians. Early 1915 the Armenians that had been drafted and were serving in the
Ottoman army were stripped of their arms (guns not limbs) and placed in "labor
battalions" were they would build roads and carry supplies. They were poorly
fed and clothed and most died from starvation. Those that did not were taken
out by the hundreds, made to dig their own graves, and then shot. Mean while, in the Armenian communities, no one knew that anything was wrong
because of the poor communication and the general chaos of the war. The
Turkish government then announced that they were in need of guns for the war,
and that they would take them from the Armenians. In some places Armenians
were given quotas; they had to produce so many guns or they would be
prosecuted (tortured and killed). It was not uncommon for Armenians to have
to buy guns from their Turkish neighbors in order to meet these quotas. In
some cases Armenian revolutionaries hid guns in their houses or buried them.
Armenian political leaders were tortured until they surrendered the location
of those weapons. If they did not then their families were tortured. The
guns confiscated from these people were photographed and used as "evidence"
(actually just propaganda to elevate the public's hatred of Armenians) of the
Armenians involvement in treasonous and insubordinate activities.
Leaders in Armenian communities were then asked to report to government
headquarters.