Becoming someone else…
Genocide and kidnapped Armenian women.
The policy of genocide against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire started with the annihilation of the male population and subsequent deportation the rest of the people into the Syrian deserts. These deportations quickly turned into “death marches”. Deportation caravans mostly consisted of old people, women and children. En route many of the women were kidnapped either by the Ottoman Turkish soldiers or Kurdish bands, or Bedouins killing any who tried to oppose them: tens of thousands women and children perished on the way to deserts, while others, in order to escape humiliation and violence, committed suicide.
The Armenian genocide resulted in the kidnapping of thousands of Armenian women from their families, usually during deportations or overnight stops. After the organized mass killings of the Armenian male population, during the first stage of state-orchestrated policy of extermination, the Ottoman governors implemented another pre-meditated phase of the genocidal policy: the destruction of the rest of Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire, this time targeting the elderly, women and children.
Some of those individuals who were kidnapped and integrated into Muslim family life, over time forgot about their Armenian ethnicity and even lost the ability to speak their native language. In order to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones many Armenian women forcibly to adopted Islam. They eventually were married off to Muslim men and in keeping with local tribal customs, were marked with specific tattoos. Tattoos were extensively used as amulets in the Middle East and Islamic countries, with the wearers believing that the mark imbued them with magical powers. These tattoos were often in the form of dots or a small “x” and provided protection, strength or fertility. These new markings represented new belonging and a marked change in their life.
After the end of the First World War
more
The policy of genocide against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire started with the annihilation of the male population and subsequent deportation the rest of the people into the Syrian deserts. These deportations quickly turned into “death marches”. Deportation caravans mostly consisted of old people, women and children. En route many of the women were kidnapped either by the Ottoman Turkish soldiers or Kurdish bands, or Bedouins killing any who tried to oppose them: tens of thousands women and children perished on the way to deserts, while others, in order to escape humiliation and violence, committed suicide.
The Armenian genocide resulted in the kidnapping of thousands of Armenian women from their families, usually during deportations or overnight stops. After the organized mass killings of the Armenian male population, during the first stage of state-orchestrated policy of extermination, the Ottoman governors implemented another pre-meditated phase of the genocidal policy: the destruction of the rest of Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire, this time targeting the elderly, women and children.
Some of those individuals who were kidnapped and integrated into Muslim family life, over time forgot about their Armenian ethnicity and even lost the ability to speak their native language. In order to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones many Armenian women forcibly to adopted Islam. They eventually were married off to Muslim men and in keeping with local tribal customs, were marked with specific tattoos. Tattoos were extensively used as amulets in the Middle East and Islamic countries, with the wearers believing that the mark imbued them with magical powers. These tattoos were often in the form of dots or a small “x” and provided protection, strength or fertility. These new markings represented new belonging and a marked change in their life.
After the end of the First World War
more