A little background on the Armenian genocide of 1915. Approximately 1.5 million are said to have died, either as a direct result of action (shootings etc) or indirectly from the long marches that Armenians were forced to embark upon (pictured, and more on this later).

As evidence of Turkish knowledge/planning we have the Turkish Interior Minister writing on 15th September 1915: "You have already been informed that the Government...has decided to destroy completely all the indicated persons living in Turkey...their existence must be terminated, however tragic the measures taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to any scruples of conscience."

Why, you might well ask? Well it's inevitably part to do with the fact that some Armenians (a sizeable number, not just a few) were supporting and fighting with their Christian enemies against Ottoman Turkey in the First World War. But also because nationalists with racist creed came into control of the power behind the government around 1915.

There had also been a relentless (well-documented) anti-Turkish campaign by Armenian terrorists since the late 1880s, perhaps 1890s, i.e. a long time. This included the murder of any senior Turks they could find; politicians, ambassadors, family of the emperor, you name it. That caused a lot of resentment, as so many prominent Turks did get killed by it. At the same time, the Armenians did have a serious plan to set up a Greater Armenia,which would have meant carving out a big big part of Eastern Anatolia. They also had got external support for this, from powers such as Russia, who simply wanted to undermine the Ottomans to themaximum extent possible. The Armenians had also been collaborating in the WWI operations with the powers fighting against Turkey, and had organized a number of units fighting with the Allies in the war. So they were widely seen by the population as traitors.

On 24th April 1915 (henceforth the Day of Armenian Genocide) arrests were made of 600 of the leading Armenian intelligentsia and businessmen, as well as 5000 others living in the Armenian quarters. Kurds, it should be noted, took a notable role in the perpetration of crimes against the Armenians, particularly in the north of Iraq and Syria. Killings, hangings, rape, mass population movements. It was all there. Robert Fisk notes in his book that the huge number of bodies in the Marqadeh killing-ground may have been the cause for the diversion of the course of the river Khabur.

In a cave at Shedadiyye (Syria), thousands were gassed (by rudimentary means; a smoky fire positioned in front of the cave's entrance. Thousands died in that cave to save bullets. Some convoys of Armenians were driven across huge distances. For example Marash (Turkey) to Aleppo (Syria) which was 150km, then 300km eastwards to Deir ez-Zor, then back north only to die in Marqadeh, another 150km away.

Here, copied from Philip Marsden's The Crossing Place, is an account of one of these "dismal convoys":

Day 1 - 3000 Armenians leave Kharput. Escort of seventy zapatieh under command of Faiki Bey.
Day 2 - Faiki Bey levies 400 lira from convoy for its safety. Faiki Bey disappears.
Day 3 - First women and girls taken by Kurds. Open violation by zapatieh.
Day 9 - All horses sent back to Kharput.
Day 13 - 200 lira levied by zapatieh. zapatieh disappear.
Day 15 - Kurdish 'guard' take 150 men and butcher them, then rob convoy. Joined by another convoy from Sivas. Numbers swell to 18000.
Days 25-34 - Harassed by villagers. Many women taken.
Day 40 - Eastern Euphrates. Blood-stained clothes on riverbank; 200 bodies in water. Armenians forced to avoid being thrown in water.
Day 52 - Kurds take everything, including clothes.
Day 52-9 - Naked, without food or water. Women bent double from shame. Hundreds die beneath hot sun. Forced to pay for water. Money hidden in hair, mouth, genitals. Many throw themselves into the wells. Arab villagers give them pieces of cloth out of pity.
Day 60 - 300 remain from 18000.
Day 64 - Men and the sick burned to death.
Day 70 - 150 arrive in Aleppo.

Part of the distinction of the 1915 massacres is their systematic nature, as opposed to those of the 1890s. It was widely described in the west. Arnold Toynbee himself wrote a report for the British government in 1915 entitled, The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-6. US and UK diplomats (including Gertrude Bell) bore witness to what they saw - incidentally some of the most referred-to witness testimony that emerged. Germans (building Turkey's railway network) witnessed the use of trains as human cattle-trucks. The New York Times, now a staunch holocaust-denier, had front-page coverage of the Armenian genocide every day.

In the aftermath of WW1, there was a lack of interest, though, in pressing for trials or justice of any other sort. The Armenians were similarly betrayed by the Treaty of Sevres (10 August 1920). There was a fear that an admission of culpability would give rise to claims for compensation; indeed insurance firms in the US have had a steady flow of such requests.

Bush Mk, at a meeting with Armenian communities during his first election campaign, said on 19th February 2000 that, "the Armenians were subjected to a genocidal campaign...an awful crime in a century of bloody crimes against humanity. If elected president, I would ensure that our nation properly recognises the tragic suffering of the Armenian people." This was, needless to say, forgotten later down the line. Later speeches referred only to "infamous killings", and their "bitter fate", no longer to genocide.