The Silenced Crime

This book examines the forcible transfer and assimilation of Armenian children during the Armenian Genocide, a systematic effort by the Young Turk regime to erase Armenian identity through Turkification and conversion to Islam. Targeted as part of a broader genocidal strategy, Armenian children were forcibly removed from their families and placed into Muslim households or state-run orphanages. Government decrees and local efforts facilitated the erasure of their identities, including religious conversion and changes to personal data. This study analyses the legal, ideological, and sociopolitical structures that enabled this policy and explores the complex post-war attempts to recover these children under the Mudros Armistice and Treaty of Sèvres. Drawing on historical, legal, religious, and sociological perspectives, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of child transfer as a core component of the Armenian Genocide.