Educational Advisory on the Armenian Genocide

In April 1915, the Ottoman government initiated plans to systematically destroy the Armenian population as it existed in the Ottoman empire. Their actions included (but were not limited to) forced displacement, starvation, imprisonment, and the use of the military and proxies to commit mass violence. These crimes happened in the open, while witnesses, like Armin Wegner, and diplomats, such as Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr., relayed information to the wider world, but nothing was done to stop it. Ultimately, more than 1 million Armenians had been murdered by 1918.

Sadly, today, the fact of the Armenian Genocide remains a topic often denied or ignored throughout much of the world. This is in part due to coordinated efforts to deny these crimes. It is also the result of widespread unawareness. Here in the US, the House and Senate passed two resolutions in 2019 to affirm the reality of the Armenian Genocide and to reject efforts to deny the genocide. To live up to this obligation, we must all learn more about the history of the Armenian Genocide, listen to the words of those few who survived, and reflect on its relevance today and into the future.

To learn more about the USC Shoah Foundation’s work on the Armenian Genocide, please visit our resource page.