“Turkification”
Killing, however, was not the solution. For some, the aim was to eradicate the Armenian identity: its culture, its religion and ensure uniformity. To this end, Armenian men, women, and children were subjected to “Turkification”: the absorption and transformation of alien entities within the Turkish state.
A letter to the American Secretary of State from the ambassador in turkey, dated July 20, 1915, detailed the Turkification of children. Orphans in state orphanages were to be remade in a Turkish image. This was especially easy if the children were so young they could not remember their parents – or young enough to forget. Armenian names were removed and replaced with Turkish ones and children were placed with Turkish families.
Most able-bodied men were contained or executed. But early in 1916, perhaps as part of the war effort, officials decided to offer remaining Armenian soldiers the option of conversion to Islam. Many refused.
But women were given no choice and their Turkification was more of an appropriation as some were forced into marriages with Turks to deprive them of inheritance rights or worse still, sold as sex slaves.
Their captors on the marches routinely abused women and girls, with commanders telling their men to use them as they wanted. British diplomat Gertrude Bell filed a report based on the account of a captured Ottoman soldier that told how 12,000 Armenians left in the hands of Kurdish guards were told to wipe out all but the young women. The fate of these young women was probably the slave markets of Damascus and Mosel where their guards sold them as sex slaves as a way of lining their own pockets.
Turkification did not end with people. As part of the movement, it became policy to destroy all Armenian items and property of cultural and religious significance. Armenian churches were either destroyed or re-styled as mosques. After 1923, UNESCO reported that out of 913 Armenian historical monuments in turkey, 464 were obliterated, 252 in ruins and 197 damaged.