This short lesson is intended as an introduction to a broader study of the Armenian Genocide, WWI, and literature.

During World War I, the Turkish leadership of the Ottoman Empire implemented a policy of annihilation against the Turkey’s Armenian population. During this genocide, approximately 1.5 million Armenians, more than half the Armenian population living in its indigenous homeland for more than 3,000 years, were murdered by means of  physical attack, torture, deprivation and long-term exposure to the elements. The government stole or destroyed virtually all Armenian communal and personal properties, and the few survivors were forced to flee to other countries.