In the first stage of Turkey's well planned genocide of its Armenian minority that began in 1915, all guns and other weapons were confiscated from Armenians, and then in the second stage able-bodied men were collected together under one ruse or another, and murdered either immediately or after well guarded forced labor. This left the Armenian women, and the young and old, to the mercies of the regime. In the third stage, it then deported these helpless Armenians to collection centers, mostly in the desert. This was carried out in large guarded columns or on trains for part of the distance. Many died or were murdered during the march or trip, and the rest died from exposure, disease, or starvation in the centers. This specific genocide (Turkey's previous and subsequent regimes all committed their own genocide of Armenians) went on until 1918, when Turkey was defeated in World War I, and cost the lives of about 1,700,000 Armenians. In this photo is shown a large group of Armenian men that the regime collected together from Kesaria and photographed in front of their jail. All were then murdered an hour later. Documentation: Death By Government, and Statistics of Democide. Source: " "Pictures of the Armenian Genocide." This and other pictures of the genocide are from James Nazer's book, The First Genocide Of The 20th Century: The Story Of The Armenian Massacres In Text And Pictures, and The Armenian Genocide As Reported In The Press, by Richard Kloian. Next photo of those murdered by government Return to Photographs of Democide, Room 3 Home