The Burning Tigris

The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response by Peter Balakian, Harper Collins, 2003. 

The Ottoman Empire

This book describes the efforts of the Ottoman Empire to ethnically cleanse Turkey of non-Turks and non-Muslims. This mainly applied to the original inhabitants of Anatolia: the Greeks, the Armenians and the Assyrian Christians. Armenians and all other Christians (and Jews) were dhimmis, second-class citizens under Muslim rule. Dhimmis had to pay a tax which was not levied on Muslims. Dhimmis were not allowed to own weapons. Since the Russians were also Christians (Eastern Orthodox), many Armenians saw Russia as their protector. A small minority of Armenians even collaborated with the Russians militarily. This made the  Turks suspect Armenians in general of disloyalty to the Ottoman Empire. 

Tax Resistance Movement

Armenians were required to pay taxes to both the Kurds and the Turks. The tax-resistance movement, lead by the Armenian Hunchak Party, started in Sasun (near Lake Van in Eastern Turkey) in the early 1890s. The Kurds responded by killing three thousand Armenians in Sasun in 1894. In 1895 Turkish Caliph Sultan Abdul Hamid II ordered his troops to kill Armenians and burn their villages in the region around Zeitun in Cilician Armenia. They killed about two hundred thousand Armenians, half directly, and the other half by famine and disease. Another 50 thousand Armenians were expelled from Turkey.

Adana

The urban Armenians living in Adana in Cilician Armenia were envied for their wealth by the poor Turks living there. In 1909 many Turks looted the Armenian shops in the Armenian Quarter of Adana. The Armenians were armed, so they fought back. The looters killed two thousand Armenians in Adana. A cease-fire was arranged and the Armenians were disarmed. Then the Young Turks sent in troops, who slaughtered even more Armenians. Nearby towns and villages were also attacked. About twenty thousand Armenians were killed in total.

Committee of Union and Progress (İttihad ve Terakki)

In 1908, the Caliph Abdul Hamid II was replaced by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Their goal was to replace the shrinking Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic caliphate by a state based on Turkish ethnic nationalism. Informally, they were called the Young Turks, and in Turkish their name was İttihad ve Terakki. 

Talaat Pasha, Enver Pasha and Djemal Pasha

Talaat Pasha, Enver Pasha and Djemal Pasha were three of their main leaders. Talaat Pasha was a Bulgarian gypsy, head of the secret police, and administered the six Armenian provinces in eastern Turkey. Enver Pasha spoke German fluently and worshipped Prussian militarism.

The Ministry of the Interior of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) created the Special Organization (Teshkilât-i Mahsusa), which organized chetes (killing squads), many composed of violent felons released from prison especially for the purpose of killing Armenians. 

Armenian Labor Battalions

On February 25, 1915 all the Armenian men in the Ottoman army were disarmed and put into labor battalions. They then worked building roads and railways for the Ottoman army. Many of these Armenian soldiers were later slaughtered. Armenian civilians were also disarmed. They were required to turn in their weapons, and local officials searched Armenian homes for weapons. 

Djevdet Bay

Djevdet Bay, the brother-in-law of Enver Pasha, issued a proclamation stating that the Armenians must be exterminated and that any Muslim protecting a Christian would have his house burned down and his family and himself killed. In April 1915 Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople were arrested. 

Deportation of Armenians from Armenia

The first Armenian deportations from Zeitun started in April 1915. Armenians were deported in cattle cars of the Baghdad Railway (recently built by the Germans) or by forced marches. Armenians were deported to Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Russia and Iran. Deportations from eastern Armenia commenced in In June-July 1915;. Deportation of Cilician Armenians took place during July-August 1915. Deportations from southeastern Armenia took place during August-September 1915.

Expropriation and Confiscation

The Temporary Law of Expropriation and Confiscation (of Armenian property) was passed in September 1915. During the summer 1916 deported Armenians at concentration camps at Deir ez-Zor in the northern Syrian desert were massacred.

International Support for the Armenians

In 1918 the American Committee for the Independence of Armenia is formed. In 1920, at the San Remo conference, Britain and France divided up oil fields of Mosul. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres promised Nationhood for Armenia and Kurdistan. It was later repealed. In 1921 the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was created.

Lausanne Treaty

The 1923 Lausanne Conference Treaty replaced the earlier Treaty of Sèvres. The Lausanne Treaty denied statehood for Armenia and Kurdistan. The Lausanne Treaty did not even contain the word Armenia! To its credit, the United States refused to sign the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, because it denied the Armenians a homeland. But the European powers signed the Treaty of Lausanne, because they wanted access to the oil fields of the former Ottoman Empire (e.g., Mosul).