A genocide is a deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Armenian genocide was probably the first in modern history. This genocide was brutal, loathed with bloods of men, women and children and was planned and executed over five years. Most historians call this genocide a premeditated and systematic way of exterminating people. Still Armenian government does not acknowledge this event and it is still illegal in Armenia to talk about this genocide.

The genocide saw more than 1.5 million Armenian killed. The cruellest part was many of them were forced to walk through dessert without food, water and proper clothing. Many of the Armenians perished in the dessert which still is a witness of human bones today. Though the event has long history and series of events in Armenia and Turkey but the genocide started in 1915. The Turkish government arrested and executed several hundred Armenian intellectuals. After that, ordinary Armenians were turned out of their homes and sent on death marches through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. At the same time, the Young Turks created a “Special Organization,” which in turn organized “killing squads” or “butcher battalions” to carry out, as one officer put it, “the liquidation of the Christian elements.” These killing squads were often made up of murderers and other ex-convicts. They drowned people in rivers, threw them off cliffs, crucified them and burned them alive. In short order, the Turkish countryside was littered with Armenian corpses.

Government squads also kidnapped children. In some places, they raped women and forced them to join Turkish “harems” or serve as slaves. Muslim families moved into the homes of deported Armenians and seized their property.

In 1922, when the genocide was over, there were just 388,000 Armenians remaining in the Ottoman Empire.

This genocide probably vanished one civilisation. Though the human history is full of such genocides, Armenian genocide still chills the bones of everyone who comes to know about it. Few people who survived the genocide can tell the pain and unprecedented brutality they went through. One can only hope that such events will never happen in the name of religion, race, nationality and otherwise.