Rape during the Armenian genocide

[3][4] Heinrich Bergfeld, the German consul to Trabzon, reported "the numerous rapes of women and girls," a crime he regarded as being part of a plan for "the virtually complete extermination of the Armenians."

[5] In the years between 1850 and 1870, the Patriarch of Armenia submitted 537 letters to the Sublime Porte asking for help to protect 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.

According to Peter Balakian, "a well-armed Kurd or Turk could not only steal his [Armenian] host's possessions but could rape or kidnap the women and girls of the household with impunity.

The book made note of the fact that men were murdered out of hand, while the women and children suffered appalling sexual attacks.

Genocides usually involve attacking the familial roles of the victims, which are the ways they contribute to the reproduction 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 violation and mutilation of the reproductive systems.

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.

[24] Rössler, the German consul in Aleppo during the genocide, heard from an "objective" Armenian that around a quarter of young women, whose appearance was "more or less pleasing", were regularly raped by the gendarmes, and that "even more beautiful ones" were violated by 10-15 men.

[25] Aurora (Arshaluys) Mardiganian, who emigrated to the United States after escaping through Europe, brought the story of mass rapes during the Armenian genocide to public attention through her 1918 memoir Ravished Armenia, which served as the basis for the 1919 silent film, Auction of Souls.

Following the end of World War I, 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.

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.

"[26] The court found the lieutenant governor Mehmed Kemal Bey, of the district of Yozgat, guilty of murder and forced relocation; he was sentenced to death by hanging.