• Seyfi Cengiz

• Mehmet Doğan

• Huseyin Dedesoy

• Bertal Kahraman

• Ali Kılıç

• Alishan Karsan

• Serpil Demir

• R. Bagciyan

• M.Tornêgeyali

• Seyit Olgun

• M. Hayaloğlu

• İsmail Kiliç

• Şerafettin Yurdakul

• Sengul Savas

The Armenian Genocide

Mistrust had long existed between the Turks and Armenians and this turned to open hostility in the late 19th century when Armenians in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire started to impress upon the people the idea of Armenian self-government, under the encouragement of Russia. Soon political groups and two parties formed. The first party, developed in 1887, was called Henchak, meaning "The Bell". The second, called Dashnaktzutiun, meaning "Union", was established in 1890. During this time, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the leader of the Ottoman empire, was promoting animosity towards the Armenians who were already being heavily discriminated against.

The discrimination, along with an escalation in taxes, gave the Armenians two solid reasons for protest. In 1894, Armenians in Sasum fought back by refusing to pay the required taxes, but this was not successful as this villages were burned and thousands of people were killed by Kurdish troops. Two years later, the Armenians again attempted to stand up to the Turkish autocracy and hoping to make European powers aware of their motives, they took over the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul. Groups of Muslim Turks organized by government troops halted their effort by killing around 50,000 of the Armenian dissenters.

The 20th century did not start off any better for the Armenians. After a coup by the progressive 'Young Turks' in 1908, the Turks began to envision a new empire covering all Turkish speaking parts of Central Asia. The Armenians were the only ethnic group in between two major pockets of Turkish speakers and the Turks wanted to get rid of them altogether.

World War one gave the Young Turk government the cover and the excuse to carry out their plan. On April 24, 1915, two hundred fifty-four Armenian intellectuals were arrested in Istanbul and then taken to the provinces of Ayash and Chankiri, where most of them were later killed. The Turks then ordered all Armenians out of every village in Turkish Armenia and Asia Minor. As the villages were evacuated, men were often shot immediately, and women and children were forced to walk vast distances to the south in what is known as the 'Death Marches'.

The Death Marches would lead across Anatolia where Armenians were raped, starved, dehydrated, murdered and kidnapped along the way. The Turkish army either led the atrocities or turned a blind eye. Their eventual destination for resettlement were concentration camps. In these camps, such as the most horrid one called Deir ez-Zor, located in Syria, Armenians suffered agony and torment similar to what the Jews would experience in the Holocaust in future years. Armenian prisoners were starved, beaten, and murdered by unmerciful guards, women were rapped before being murdered. Many Armenians however were not sent to concentration camps but were immediately killed. In Trebizond, for example, they were put on ships and then thrown overboard, into the Black Sea. In 1915 it is estimated that over 1 million Armenians were slaughtered. Turkish atrocities against the Armenians continued into the 1920s.

These tragic events resulted in many thousands of Armenians seeking refuge in Lebanon where they have lived ever since and are well respected members of the community.