Rape during the Armenian Genocide

During the Armenian Genocide which occurred in the Ottoman Empire, lead at the time by the Young Turks, the Turkish armed forces, militias, and members of the public engaged in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape against the female Armenian minority. Before the genocide had begun one method used to intimidate the Armenian population was sexual humiliation. Women and young girls were not only subjected to rape, but also forced marriage, torture, forced prostitution, sold into slavery and sexual mutilation.

Heinrich Bergfeld, the German Consul to Trabzon reported "“the numerous rapes of women and girls,” which crime he regarded as being part of a plan for “the virtually complete extermination of the Armenians" The systematic use of rape during the genocide was testified to by Turkish, American, Austrian, and German witnesses and officials.

Background
In the years between 1850 and 1870 the Patriarch of Armenia submitted 537 letters to the Sublime Porte asking for help to protect the Armenians from the violent abuse and social and political injustice they were subjected to. He requested the people be protected from "brigandage, murder, abduction and rape of women and children, confiscatory taxes, and fraud and extortion by local officials."

Within the legal system the Armenian communities had their own prisons and court systems, and were able to hold civil cases for issues between Christians and Muslims. Within the Islamic judicial system the armenians had no recourse, a Muslim was allowed to request a hearing before a religious court, in which testimony from non Muslims would be disallowed or given little value, all a Muslim needed to do to get a case settled was swear on the Koran. Because of this the Armenians, as well as other dhimmi had little hope within the judicial system. According to Peter Balakian, "The amount of theft and extortion, as well as rape and abduction of Armenian women, that was allowed under this Ottoman legal system placed the Armenians in perpetual jeopardy." And that "a well-armed Kurd or Turk could not only steal his host’s possessions but could rape or kidnap the women and girls of the household with impunity."

In 1895, Frederick Davis Greene, published The Armenian Crisis in Turkey: The Massacre of 1894, Its Antecedents and Significance The book made note of the fact that men were murdered out of hand, while the women suffered appalling sexual attacks. His letter five, A lot of women, variously estimated from 60 to 160 in number, were shut up in a church, and the soldiers were “let loose” among them. Many were outraged to death, and the remainder dispatched with sword and bayonet. Children were placed in a row, one behind another, and a bullet fired down the line, apparently to see how many could be dispatched with one bullet. Infants and small children were piled one on the other and their heads struck off.

The genocide was planned well in advance, a document obtained by Commander C. H. Heathcote Smith of the British Naval Volunteer Service, which was dubbed "The Ten Commandments" gave a detailed account of how the genocide was to be carried out.

The genocide began following the outbreak of World War I. Armenians serving in the Turkish armed forces were removed and killed, the Armenian civilian population were sent on forced marches, and denied food and water. In a strategy similar to the tactics used by the German Empire in German South-West Africa the Armenians were to be forced into the desert. On the line of march the women were raped, mutilated and tortured systematically. Hundreds of thousand died on these forced marches.

Rape as a weapon of genocide


One objective of genocidal rape is forced pregnancy, however those unable to bear children are also subject to sexual assault. Victims ages can range from children to women in their eighties. During the Armenian Genocide the rape of young girls was well documented, they would be assaulted in their homes before forced relocation, or on the forced marches into the Syrian desert. An eyewitness testified, "It was a very common thing for them to rape our girls in our presence. Very often they violated eight or ten year old girls, and as a consequence many would be unable to walk, and were shot." Another testified that every girl in her village aged over twelve, and some who were younger had been raped.

Women were gang raped and often committed suicide afterwards. Once the men had been separated from the women, the women were systematically raped and then, along with any children were killed. According to eyewitness accounts the practice of rape was "more or less universal". The Armenian population "were often killed in festivals of cruelty which involved rape and other forms of torture" The women were raped on a daily basis and were forced to work as prostitutes. Many were killed by bayoneting or died from exposure or from prolonged secual abuse.

In 2008 A. Dirk Moses described genocide as a "total social practice" Within this context the practice of rape can be viewed as a form of genocide. During genocides familial roles are usually targeted, which are the parts a victim plays within the reproductive role of the targeted group as perceived by the perpetrators. Commonalities across all genocides are the murder of infants in front of parents, forced rape of women by family members, and the rape and mutilation of the reproductive systems. The Armenian genocide is a prime example of these genocidal actions. The attackers follow a pattern of family based destruction. In attacks on villages men were killed, and the surviving population were raped, forcibly dislocated or killed. Another purpose for the rapes was eliticide, the destruction of a groups leadership which was used to create confusion. This gave a public demonstration of the mastery the attackers had over the Armenian populace, and caused `total suffering` on both sexes, as they bore witness to sexual assault and the torture of those they loved.

According to Taner Akçam, forced prostitution, rape and sexual abuse were widespread, military commanders told their men to "Do to them whatever you wish". Members of the German armed forces in Der Zor helped to open a brothel. Throughout the genocide the men were given free licence to do as they wished to Armenian women.

Karen Jeppe, who was working for the League of Nations in Aleppo and was attempting to have released the tens of thousands of women and children who had been abducted said in 1926, that out of the thousands of women she had spoken to, only one had not been sexually abused.

War crimes trials
Following the end of WW1 the British exerted pressure on the Sultan to bring to trial the leadership of the Committee of Union and Progress {CUP} for crimes against humanity. And by April 1919 over 100 Turkish officials had been arrested.

Testimony given by Nuri, the police chief of Trabzon was that he had given young girls as a gift from the governor-general, to the CUP central committee. A merchant by name of Mehmed Ali testified that not only were children being killed at the Red Crescent Hospital, but that young girls were also being raped and that the governor-general held there for his sexual gratification fifteen girls. Hasan Maruf, a military officer testified to the british that "Government officials at Trebizond picked out some of the prettiest Armenian women of the best families. After committing the worst outrages on them, they had them killed."

The court found the lieutenant governor, Kemal Bey, of the district of Yozgat guilty of murder and forced relocation and he was given the death penalty. Major Tevfik Bey, a commander of police was also found guilty and was given to 16 year prison sentence."