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The Armenian Genocide[1][2]—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime[3]—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empireduring and just after World War I.[4] It was implemented through wholesale massacres and deportations, with the deportations consisting of forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees. The total number of resulting Armenian deaths is generally held to have been between 1 million and 1.5 million.[5][6][7][8][9] Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Ottoman Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Greeks, and some scholars consider those events to be part of the same policy of extermination.[10][11][12]
It is widely acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides,[13][14]:177[15] as scholars point to the systematic, organized manner in which the killings were carried out to eliminate the Armenians,[16] and it is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust.[17] The word genocide[18] was coined in order to describe these events.[19][20]
The starting date of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.[21][22] Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace.[23] The majority of Armenian diaspora communities were founded as a result of the Armenian genocide.
The Republic of Turkey, one of the successor states of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events (see Denial of the Armenian Genocide).[24] In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide. To date, twenty countries have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars and historians accept this view.[25][26][27][28]
Parliaments and governments
[Countries
On May 24, 1915, during World War I, the Allied Powers (Britain, France, and Russia) jointly issued a statement in which they said that for about a month the Kurd and Turkish populations of Armenia had been massacring Armenians with the connivance and often assistance of Ottoman authorities and that the Allied Powers would hold personally responsible for crimes against humanity all members of the Ottoman Government, implicated in such crimes.[26]
In recent years, parliaments of several countries, including France and Switzerland, have formally recognised the event as genocide. Turkish entry talks with the European Union were met with a number of calls to consider the event as genocide,[27][28][29] though it never became a precondition.
Sovereign nations officially recognising the Armenian Genocide include:
Argentina (2 laws,[30][31] and 3 Resolutions[32][33][34][35])
Armenia[36]
Belgium[37]
Canada (1996,[38] 2002,[39] 2004[40][41])
Chile[42]
Cyprus[33][43]
France (2001 Act of Parliament[44][45][46][47][48][49])
Germany[50][unreliable source?][citation needed]
Greece[33][40][51]
Italy[33][40]
Lithuania[52]
Lebanon[33][53]
Netherlands The Second Chamber (House of Representatives) of the States General Assembly asked "the government within the framework of its dialogue with Turkey to continuously and expressly raise the recognition of the Armenian genocide"[54]
Poland[40][55]
Russia[33][56]
Slovakia[57]
Sweden[33][40][50]
Switzerland[58]
Uruguay (1965,[33][59] 2004[60])
Vatican City[33][61]
Venezuela[62]
]Regions or provinces
Regions or provinces recognising the Armenian Genocide include:
Basque Country, Spain and 
Catalonia, Spain: Parliaments of the two regions recognised the Armenian Genocide.[63][64]
Crimea, Ukraine: The Supreme Council of Crimea recognised the Armenian Genocide.[65]
New South Wales, Australia: In 2007 the Parliament of the State of New South Wales passed a motion condemning the genocide and called on the Australian Federal Government to do the same,[66]
Quebec, Canada: First, in 2001, the Canadian province of Quebec independently of its federal government, then, in 2004, the government of Canada itself recognised the Armenian Genocide.[40][67][68]
South Australia, Australia: In March 2009 the Parliament of South Australia passed a similar motion.[69]
United States: 43 US states have recognized the Armenian Genocide; as of May 2011 this includes every state in the Union with the exception of Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, Wyoming, and South Dakota. [70]
[]Kurdish position
There is also a movement of Kurdish recognition of the killings as genocide. Kurds played a major role in the Armenian Genocide, as they were the primary tool used by the Ottoman authorities to carry out the killings.[71] Many modern Kurds acknowledge the killings and apologize in the name of their ancestors who committed atrocities toward Armenians andAssyrians in the name of the Ottoman Empire.[72][73]
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