Genocide 1915
Armenian Genocide Information
The Armenian Genocide of 1915 carried out by the Ottoman Empire is a historical fact. Despite Turkish denials, it is unanimously verified by the International Association of Genocide Scholars and accepted by nations that uphold moral responsibility above political gain.

Armenian Genocide Quotes

Mustafa "Ataturk" Kemal

Founder of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and revered throughout Turkey, in an interview published on August 1, 1926 in The Los Angeles Examiner, talking about former Young Turks in his country…
These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule.

Adolf Hitler

While persuading his associates that a Jewish holocaust would be tolerated by the west stated…
Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

Yossi Beilin

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister. April 27, 1994 on the floor of the Knesset in response to a TV interview of the Turkish Ambassador
It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember... We will always reject any attempt to erase its record, even for some political advantage.

Gerald Ford

Addressing the US House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, with mixed emotions we mark the 50th anniversary of the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people. In taking notice of the shocking events in 1915, we observe this anniversary with sorrow in recalling the massacres of Armenians and with pride in saluting those brave patriots who survived to fight on the side of freedom during World War I. - Congressional Record, pg. 8890

Enver Pasha

One of the triumvirate rulers publicly declared on 19 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

One of the triumvirate rulers publicly declared on 19 May 1916…
You are greatly mistaken. We have this country absolutely under our control. I have no desire to shift the blame onto our underlings and I am entirely willing to accept the responsibility myself for everything that has taken place.

Talat Pasha

In a conversation with Dr. Mordtmann of the German Embassy in June 1915…
Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate (grundlich aufzaumen) its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention. What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians.

Cemal Pasha

To a German officer upon seeing the deportations in Mamure said…
I am ashamed of my nation (Ich schame mich fur meine Nation)

Cemal Pasha

Minister of the Interior of Turkey publicly declared on March 15 that on the basis of computations undertaken by Ministry Experts…
800,000 Armenian deportees were actually killed...by holding the guilty accountable the government is intent on cleansing the bloody past.

Prince Abdul Mecid

Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne, during an interview…
I refer to those awful massacres. They are the greatest stain that has ever disgraced our nation and race. They were entirely the work of Talat and Enver. I heard some days before they began that they were intended. I went to Istanbul and insisted on seeing Enver. I asked him if it was true that they intended to recommence the massacres which had been our shame and disgrace under Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could get from him was: 'It is decided. It is the program.'

Grand Vezir Damad Ferid Pasha

Equivalent rank in the US would be head of the cabinet I think. He described the treatment of the Armenians as…
A crime that drew the revulsion of the entire humankind.

Mustafa Arif

Minister of Interior stated on 13 December 1918…
Surely a few Armenians aided and abetted our enemy, and a few Armenian Deputies committed crimes against the Turkish nation... it is incumbent upon a government to pursue the guilty ones. Unfortunately, our wartime leaders, imbued with a spirit of brigandage, carried out the law of deportation in a manner that could surpass the proclivities of the most bloodthirsty bandits. They decided to exterminate the Armenians, and they did exterminate them.

Henry Morgenthau, Sr.

U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, 1919
When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact. . . . I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.

British Viscount James Bryce

October 6, 1915, speech
The massacres are the result of a policy which, as far as can be ascertained, has been entertained for some considerable time by the gang of unscrupulous adventurers who are now in possession of the Government of the Turkish Empire. They hesitated to put it in practice until they thought the favorable moment had come, and that moment seems to have arrived about the month of April.

Count Wolff-Metternich

German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire July 10, 1916, cable to the German Chancellor
In its attempt to carry out its purpose to resolve the Armenian question by the destruction of the Armenian race, the Turkish government has refused to be deterred neither by our representations, nor by those of the American Embassy, nor by the delegate of the Pope, nor by the threats of the Allied Powers, nor in deference to the public opinion of the West representing one-half of the world.

Theodore Roosevelt

May 11, 1918, letter to Cleveland Hoadley Dodge
. . . the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it . . . the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense.

Herbert Hoover

The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, 1952
The association of Mount Ararat and Noah, the staunch Christians who were massacred periodically by the Mohammedan Turks, and the Sunday School collections over fifty years for alleviating their miseries—all cumulate to impress the name Armenia on the front of the American mind.

Jimmy Carter

May 16, 1978, White House ceremony
It is generally not known in the world that, in the years preceding 1916, there was a concerted effort made to eliminate all the Armenian people, probably one of the greatest tragedies that ever befell any group. And there weren't any Nuremberg trials.

Ronald Reagan

April 22, 1981, proclamation
Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it, . . . the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.

George Bush Sr.

April 20, 1990, speech in Orlando, Florida
[We join] Armenians around the world [as we remember] the terrible massacres suffered in 1915–1923 at the hands of the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. The United States responded to this crime against humanity by leading diplomatic and private relief efforts.

Prime Minister of Great Britain (1940-45, 1951-55)

In 1915 the Turkish Government began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous general massacre and deportation of Armenians in Asia Minor." "There is no reasonable doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political reasons.

Caroline, Baroness Cox, House of Lords

If nations are allowed to commit genocide with impunity, to hide their guilt in a camouflage of lies and denials, there is a real danger that other brutal regimes will be encouraged to attempt genocides. Unless we speak today of the Armenian genocide and unless the Government recognizes this historical fact, we shall leave this century of unprecedented genocides with this blot on our consciences.

Admiral Mark L. Bristol, U.S. High Commissioner to Turkey

The Armenians are a race like the Jews-they have little or no national spirit and poor moral character.

Prof. Colin Tatz, Director, Centre for Comparative Genocide Studies

The Turkish denial [of the Armenian Genocide] is probably the foremost example of historical perversion. With a mix of academic sophistication and diplomatic thuggery -- of which we at Macquarie University have been targets -- the Turks have put both memory and history into reverse gear.

Stanley Cohen, Professor of Criminology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

The nearest successful example [of collective denial] in the modern era is the 80 years of official denial by successive Turkish governments of the 1915-17 genocide against the Armenians in which 1.5 million people lost their lives. This denial has been sustained by deliberate propaganda, lying and cover-ups, forging documents, suppression of archives, and bribing scholars.

Mustafa "Ataturk" Kemal

Founder of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and revered throughout Turkey, in an interview published on August 1, 1926 in The Los Angeles Examiner, talking about former Young Turks in his country…
These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule.

Adolf Hitler

While persuading his associates that a Jewish holocaust would be tolerated by the west stated…
Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

Yossi Beilin

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister. April 27, 1994 on the floor of the Knesset in response to a TV interview of the Turkish Ambassador
It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember... We will always reject any attempt to erase its record, even for some political advantage.

Gerald Ford

Addressing the US House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, with mixed emotions we mark the 50th anniversary of the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people. In taking notice of the shocking events in 1915, we observe this anniversary with sorrow in recalling the massacres of Armenians and with pride in saluting those brave patriots who survived to fight on the side of freedom during World War I. - Congressional Record, pg. 8890

Enver Pasha

One of the triumvirate rulers publicly declared on 19 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

One of the triumvirate rulers publicly declared on 19 May 1916…
You are greatly mistaken. We have this country absolutely under our control. I have no desire to shift the blame onto our underlings and I am entirely willing to accept the responsibility myself for everything that has taken place.

Talat Pasha

In a conversation with Dr. Mordtmann of the German Embassy in June 1915…
Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate (grundlich aufzaumen) its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention. What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians.

Cemal Pasha

To a German officer upon seeing the deportations in Mamure said…
I am ashamed of my nation (Ich schame mich fur meine Nation)

Cemal Pasha

Minister of the Interior of Turkey publicly declared on March 15 that on the basis of computations undertaken by Ministry Experts…
800,000 Armenian deportees were actually killed...by holding the guilty accountable the government is intent on cleansing the bloody past.

Prince Abdul Mecid

Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne, during an interview…
I refer to those awful massacres. They are the greatest stain that has ever disgraced our nation and race. They were entirely the work of Talat and Enver. I heard some days before they began that they were intended. I went to Istanbul and insisted on seeing Enver. I asked him if it was true that they intended to recommence the massacres which had been our shame and disgrace under Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could get from him was: 'It is decided. It is the program.'

Grand Vezir Damad Ferid Pasha

Equivalent rank in the US would be head of the cabinet I think. He described the treatment of the Armenians as…
A crime that drew the revulsion of the entire humankind.

Mustafa Arif

Minister of Interior stated on 13 December 1918…
Surely a few Armenians aided and abetted our enemy, and a few Armenian Deputies committed crimes against the Turkish nation... it is incumbent upon a government to pursue the guilty ones. Unfortunately, our wartime leaders, imbued with a spirit of brigandage, carried out the law of deportation in a manner that could surpass the proclivities of the most bloodthirsty bandits. They decided to exterminate the Armenians, and they did exterminate them.

Henry Morgenthau, Sr.

U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, 1919
When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact. . . . I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.

British Viscount James Bryce

October 6, 1915, speech
The massacres are the result of a policy which, as far as can be ascertained, has been entertained for some considerable time by the gang of unscrupulous adventurers who are now in possession of the Government of the Turkish Empire. They hesitated to put it in practice until they thought the favorable moment had come, and that moment seems to have arrived about the month of April.

Count Wolff-Metternich

German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire July 10, 1916, cable to the German Chancellor
In its attempt to carry out its purpose to resolve the Armenian question by the destruction of the Armenian race, the Turkish government has refused to be deterred neither by our representations, nor by those of the American Embassy, nor by the delegate of the Pope, nor by the threats of the Allied Powers, nor in deference to the public opinion of the West representing one-half of the world.

Theodore Roosevelt

May 11, 1918, letter to Cleveland Hoadley Dodge
. . . the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it . . . the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense.

Herbert Hoover

The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, 1952
The association of Mount Ararat and Noah, the staunch Christians who were massacred periodically by the Mohammedan Turks, and the Sunday School collections over fifty years for alleviating their miseries—all cumulate to impress the name Armenia on the front of the American mind.

Jimmy Carter

May 16, 1978, White House ceremony
It is generally not known in the world that, in the years preceding 1916, there was a concerted effort made to eliminate all the Armenian people, probably one of the greatest tragedies that ever befell any group. And there weren't any Nuremberg trials.

Ronald Reagan

April 22, 1981, proclamation
Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it, . . . the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.

George Bush Sr.

April 20, 1990, speech in Orlando, Florida
[We join] Armenians around the world [as we remember] the terrible massacres suffered in 1915–1923 at the hands of the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. The United States responded to this crime against humanity by leading diplomatic and private relief efforts.

Prime Minister of Great Britain (1940-45, 1951-55)

In 1915 the Turkish Government began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous general massacre and deportation of Armenians in Asia Minor." "There is no reasonable doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political reasons.

Caroline, Baroness Cox, House of Lords

If nations are allowed to commit genocide with impunity, to hide their guilt in a camouflage of lies and denials, there is a real danger that other brutal regimes will be encouraged to attempt genocides. Unless we speak today of the Armenian genocide and unless the Government recognizes this historical fact, we shall leave this century of unprecedented genocides with this blot on our consciences.

Admiral Mark L. Bristol, U.S. High Commissioner to Turkey

The Armenians are a race like the Jews-they have little or no national spirit and poor moral character.

Prof. Colin Tatz, Director, Centre for Comparative Genocide Studies

The Turkish denial [of the Armenian Genocide] is probably the foremost example of historical perversion. With a mix of academic sophistication and diplomatic thuggery -- of which we at Macquarie University have been targets -- the Turks have put both memory and history into reverse gear.

Stanley Cohen, Professor of Criminology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

The nearest successful example [of collective denial] in the modern era is the 80 years of official denial by successive Turkish governments of the 1915-17 genocide against the Armenians in which 1.5 million people lost their lives. This denial has been sustained by deliberate propaganda, lying and cover-ups, forging documents, suppression of archives, and bribing scholars.