Silenced Crime: Forcible Child Transfer During the Armenian Genocide

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. Through a combination of government decrees and local initiatives, children's identities were systematically erased via religious conversion and changes to their 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 in the aftermath of the Mudros Armistice. Drawing on historical, legal, religious, and sociological perspectives, the book offers a comprehensive analysis of child transfer as a core component of the Armenian Genocide.