08.04.2015


Three photos depicting women and children victims of the Armenian Genocide were published in the Russian journal “Iskra” (Sparks), No 18, 18 October 1915. This photo is one of those representing an episode of the Armenian Genocide.

There are empty carts next to the dead body of a martyred woman; by the command of the Young Turks government the caravan of the Armenian deportees was moving to the Mesopotamian deserts - the point of exile.



Unlike the Holocaust, which was unknown to the wide international community for quite a long time, publications on the mass extermination of the Armenians by the Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire appeared in the Armenian and international media already in 1915.

Progression of the Russian Army on the Caucasian front gave opportunity to the journalists and media correspondents covering the military operations to enter the areas where the Armenians where tortured and slaughtered, their properties were robbed and the Armenian settlements were totally destroyed several days and weeks ago.

Very soon photos proving the Turkish atrocities against the Armenians appeared in media, mainly taken by the foreign missioners, Russian soldiers and Armenian volunteers.

“In his report to the Catholicos, the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople had informed that till now 850.000 Armenians were exterminated in Turkey. Horror was blowing from that cold numbers. Unarmed people have been killed and exterminated as insects, just because they are seeking freedom… By the help of German officers, the plan of annihilating the Armenian population in Turkey developed by the “constitutional” Young Turks was being carried out systematically, and it is probable, that in the near future there will come a day when no single Armenian will remain in Turkish-Armenia”.

«Искры», 18 October 1915

The source of the photo Collection of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute
From “100 Photographic Stories about the Armenian Genocide”