The History File: 1915, the Treaty Chain and the Legal Record

Why It Matters

The Events of 1915 are the most contested file between Türkiye and Armenia, and the disagreement is less about whether Ottoman Armenians suffered grievous losses than about how those losses are characterised, who has the competence to decide, and what legal consequences follow. This dossier lays out the documentary and legal record in order: the Ottoman context, the committees, the wartime law, the casualty debate, the legal standard of the 1948 Genocide Convention, the treaty chain and the diplomatic track. Armenian and diaspora positions are summarised in their own terms, and Türkiye's 'fair memory' (adil hafıza) case is set out with attribution to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

Background

The Ottoman context

Armenians lived in Anatolia and the Caucasus for centuries under the Great Seljuks, the Anatolian principalities and the Ottoman Empire. Under the millet system the Armenian community held religious, educational and commercial autonomy, and Turkish sources often describe it as the Millet-i Sadıka ('loyal community'). Turkish official and academic accounts cite Western observers such as Helmuth von Moltke (1835–1839) to illustrate this coexistence. Ankara also points to Ottoman demographic statistics showing that Armenians were under about 20 per cent of the population in the eastern provinces and a majority in none. Armenian historians dispute Ottoman census figures and argue that the community was undercounted.

The nineteenth century changed the setting. After the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War and the 1878 Congress of Berlin, the 'Armenian Question' became an instrument of great-power diplomacy. Armenian leaders, including Patriarch Nerses Varzhapetian and Mkrtich Khrimian, sought foreign guarantees for reforms in the eastern provinces.

The Hunchak and Dashnak committees

Two revolutionary organisations emerged in this period: the Hunchak Party (founded in Geneva in 1887) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, or Dashnaksutyun (founded in Tbilisi in 1890). Turkish sources argue that both adopted armed insurgency and political violence to provoke European intervention. The episodes usually cited are the 1890 Kumkapı demonstration in Istanbul, the 1893 unrest in Merzifon, Yozgat and Kayseri, the 1894 Sasun rebellion and the 26 August 1896 seizure of the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul, led by Karekin Pastırmacıyan. Armed fedayi bands associated with names such as Antranik, Dro, Paramaz, Hamazasp and Sabah Gülyan appear repeatedly in Ottoman and Russian records.

Armenian historiography generally presents these groups as a response to arbitrary taxation, land seizures and the 1894–1896 Hamidian massacres, in which many thousands of Armenian civilians died. The chronology is set out in detail in our companion timeline, The Hunchak and Dashnak Committees, 1887–1896: A Timeline from the Sources.

The First World War

The Ottoman Empire entered the war in late 1914, and the Sarıkamış campaign of December 1914 to January 1915 opened the Caucasus front. Ottoman records and Turkish accounts describe Armenian volunteer units fighting alongside the Russian army, as well as sabotage, desertion and local uprisings behind Ottoman lines. Ankara argues that these were organised by the committees and that the units committed massacres against Muslim villagers in the Van, Erzurum and Bitlis regions. The Van events of April–May 1915 are the central case. Turkish sources call them a rebellion that ended when Russian forces took the city. Armenian sources describe a defensive stand by a population facing destruction.

On 24 April 1915 the Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian political and community figures in Istanbul. Armenians commemorate this date as the start of the genocide. Turkish sources describe the arrests as targeting committee members suspected of subversion. On 24 May 1915 the Allied governments (Britain, France and Russia) issued a joint declaration condemning 'crimes against humanity and civilization' and warning that Ottoman officials would be held personally responsible.

The Relocation and Resettlement Law

The Ottoman government adopted the Relocation and Resettlement Law (Sevk ve İskân Kanunu) on 27 May 1915, and it was published in the official gazette Takvim-i Vekayi on 1 June 1915. It authorised military commanders to relocate populations deemed a threat to security during wartime. The correspondence between the War Ministry (Enver Pasha) and the Interior Ministry (Talat Pasha) is central to the debate. Later legislation on abandoned property, adopted in the autumn of 1915, is also part of the record.

Türkiye argues that the measure was a temporary wartime security decision with provisions for escort, supply and the protection of property, and that deaths from disease, famine, harsh conditions and attacks by armed groups were tragic failures of implementation, not the product of a plan to destroy a people. Armenian and many international scholars argue that the same documents, together with the scale and pattern of deaths and the relocation of whole communities far from the front, show an intent to destroy the Armenian population.

The casualty-figure debate

No single figure commands agreement. Armenian sources and many international historians cite approximately 1 to 1.5 million Armenian deaths. Turkish sources cite figures of around 300,000, and argue that higher numbers rest on wartime propaganda and on pre-war population estimates that Ottoman statistics do not support. Ankara also stresses the very large Muslim civilian losses in Anatolia and the Caucasus between 1914 and 1922, which it says are largely omitted from the international narrative. Estimates in all directions remain contested, and the dispute is one reason Türkiye has repeatedly called for access to all archives.

Post-war proceedings and the treaty chain

The Ottoman courts-martial of 1919–1920 tried a number of officials, and some were convicted. Turkish sources note that these were conducted under the occupation of Istanbul and under political pressure. Armenian and international sources treat the proceedings as valuable evidence. Article 230 of the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920) provided for the surrender of those responsible for the massacres, but Sèvres was never ratified and never entered into force. Britain held Ottoman detainees on Malta from 1919 to 1921 and released them in 1921 in an exchange for British prisoners. Turkish sources say the British found no sufficient evidence for prosecution. Armenian sources contend that British investigators lacked access and that the release was political.

The settlement that followed rests on a chain of binding treaties:

• Alexandropol (2–3 December 1920): concluded between the Ankara government and the Republic of Armenia.
• Moscow (16 March 1921): Türkiye and Soviet Russia fixed the eastern frontier.
• Kars (13 October 1921): Türkiye and the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Soviet republics, with Russia, confirmed the Moscow frontier.
• Lausanne (24 July 1923): recognised the Republic of Türkiye and, in Articles 37–45, guaranteed the rights of non-Muslim minorities as equal citizens. It was accompanied by a Declaration of Amnesty.

This chain is analysed in Is the Treaty of Sèvres Still Valid? Reading the Chain from Alexandropol to Lausanne.

Chronology at a glance

Date	Event
1878	Congress of Berlin internationalises the 'Armenian Question'
1887 / 1890	Hunchak Party and Dashnaksutyun founded
26 Aug 1896	Ottoman Bank seizure in Istanbul
Late 1914	Ottoman entry into the war; Caucasus front opens
Apr–May 1915	Van events; 24 April arrests in Istanbul
24 May 1915	Allied declaration on 'crimes against humanity and civilization'
27 May / 1 Jun 1915	Relocation and Resettlement Law adopted / gazetted
1919–1921	Ottoman courts-martial; Malta detentions
10 Aug 1920	Treaty of Sèvres signed, never ratified
1920–1923	Alexandropol, Moscow, Kars and Lausanne treaties
1948	UN Genocide Convention adopted (in force 12 January 1951)
1973–1984	ASALA and JCAG-ARA attacks on Turkish targets
2005	Türkiye proposes a Joint Historical Commission
15 Oct 2015	Perinçek v. Switzerland (Grand Chamber)
14 Jan 2022	Kılıç–Rubinyan normalization talks begin

The legal standard of the 1948 Genocide Convention

Article II of the Convention defines genocide as specified acts committed with 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such'. The International Court of Justice, in its judgments in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro (2007) and Croatia v. Serbia (2015), treated this specific intent (dolus specialis) as a demanding standard, holding that it must be established by evidence and that an inference from a pattern of conduct is acceptable only if it is the only reasonable inference. Article VI provides that persons charged with genocide are tried by a competent tribunal of the State in whose territory the act was committed, or by an international penal tribunal.

Ankara draws three conclusions: the Convention cannot be applied retroactively to 1915, no competent tribunal has found the elements established, and legal characterisation belongs to courts rather than to parliaments. Armenian and diaspora legal arguments make a different point. They hold that the Convention codified a pre-existing norm, that the Allied declaration of 1915 already named the acts as crimes against humanity, and that Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term, drew on the Armenian case. A 2003 legal analysis commissioned by the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission from the International Center for Transitional Justice concluded that the events could include elements of the crime of genocide, while also stating that the Convention does not give rise to legal, financial or territorial claims. Both sides cite it.

The broader legal framework is covered in The 1948 Genocide Convention and the Events of 1915: What the Legal Criteria Require from our sister publication The Global Anatomy.

Perinçek v. Switzerland

In Perinçek v. Switzerland (application no. 27510/08), the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled on 15 October 2015 that Switzerland violated Article 10 (freedom of expression) by convicting a Turkish politician for publicly denying that the 1915 events were genocide. The Court stated that it was not called upon to decide whether the events constituted genocide in the legal sense, and found that his statements, made in a debate on a historical question of public interest, were not a call to hatred and that the conviction was not necessary in a democratic society. Ankara cites the judgment as confirmation that this is a matter of legitimate historical debate. Armenian and diaspora commentators emphasise that the Court did not endorse denial and distinguished the case from Holocaust denial. Both readings stay within the text of the judgment.

ASALA and JCAG-ARA

From 1973 to 1984 a campaign of violence was waged against Turkish diplomatic and other targets. The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) and the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG, later ARA) were responsible. Turkish sources count dozens of diplomats and family members killed worldwide and state that 31 of JCAG-ARA's 32 attacks targeted Turkish representatives. The best known attacks were at Ankara's Esenboğa Airport on 7 August 1982 and at Paris-Orly Airport on 15 July 1983. Turkish sources link ASALA to the Hunchak tradition and JCAG-ARA to the Dashnak wing. Armenian institutions and mainstream diaspora organisations have generally distanced themselves from this violence, and the Turkish MFA's point is that these groups used terrorism as part of a political campaign.

Key Players & Positions

Armenia

Armenia's Declaration of Independence of 23 August 1990 pledges support for international recognition of the 1915 genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia. Yerevan commemorates 24 April each year at the Tsitsernakaberd memorial. Armenian officials hold that recognition and the facts are not open to bargaining, while maintaining that normalization with Türkiye can proceed on a separate track without preconditions. Türkiye points to the Declaration's reference to 'Western Armenia' as an unresolved territorial implication. Armenian officials reject any territorial claim.

The Armenian diaspora

Diaspora organisations, including the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and community institutions in France, the United States and elsewhere, campaign for recognition and often for reparations. Their core argument is that the pattern of deportations, killings and property seizures shows a deliberate policy of destruction, and that acknowledgment by the successor state is a moral and legal duty.

Third states and scholarly bodies

A few dozen states and many legislatures have recognised the events as genocide. Examples include France (law of 2001), Germany (Bundestag resolution of 2 June 2016), the United States Congress (resolutions in 2019) and a presidential statement by Joe Biden on 24 April 2021. The International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution to the same effect in 1997. Other governments, including those of the United Kingdom, Israel and Azerbaijan, have not recognised the events as genocide. Positions vary by country, and some are tied to wider diplomatic calculations.

Courts

No international court has ruled on the characterisation of the 1915 events. The ECHR addressed only free expression in Perinçek, and the ICJ has not been seised.

🇹🇷 Official Position · Documents on File

Türkiye's Position

• Shared pain, not denial of suffering. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Events of 1915 caused enormous suffering to Ottoman Armenians and also to other Ottoman communities, including Muslims. Then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's message of 23 April 2014 expressed condolences to the grandchildren of Armenians who lost their lives. Ankara's formula is 'fair memory': each society should be able to remember its losses without the pain of one community being turned against another.
• A wartime security measure, not extermination. The MFA states that the Relocation and Resettlement Law of 27 May 1915 (gazetted 1 June 1915) was a temporary measure addressing armed rebellion, sabotage and collaboration with invading forces behind the front, and that Ottoman records show orders to protect and supply those relocated. Ankara argues that deaths resulted from wartime conditions and from attacks by armed gangs, and that officials who failed to protect convoys were prosecuted.
• The legal threshold has not been met. Türkiye holds that genocide is a legal category under the 1948 Convention requiring dolus specialis and a judgment by a competent tribunal under Article VI, and that no such judgment exists. It also invokes the principle that treaties are not applied retroactively. It argues that parliamentary resolutions in third countries are political acts and cannot substitute for judicial findings, a point it reads into Perinçek v. Switzerland.
• The treaty chain settles the frontier. The MFA maintains that the status and borders of Türkiye are settled by the Treaties of Alexandropol, Moscow, Kars and Lausanne, while Sèvres never entered into force. It regards any attempt to revive Sèvres, or to attach territorial or compensation claims to the 1915 debate, as contrary to international law.
• Historians and open archives, then normalization. On 10 April 2005 Prime Minister Erdoğan wrote to Armenian President Robert Kocharyan proposing a Joint Historical Commission of Turkish, Armenian and international historians with access to Ottoman, Armenian and third-country archives. The offer stands. Türkiye also supports the Kılıç–Rubinyan process begun on 14 January 2022, in which Ambassador Serdar Kılıç and Armenian Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan discuss normalization and regional peace in the South Caucasus without preconditions.

These positions reflect the published statements of the Turkish MFA and the Presidency. The historical grounds are the 1915 wartime legislation, Lausanne's minority provisions and the Genocide Convention's text.

Source Comparison

Issue	Armenian / diaspora / many international sources	Turkish primary sources and MFA
Terminology	'Armenian Genocide'	'Events of 1915'; 'relocation'; 'shared pain'
Nature of the 1915 law	Instrument of deportation with intent to destroy	Temporary wartime security measure with protective provisions
Committees	Defensive response to Hamidian violence	Armed organisations that sought foreign intervention through insurgency and terror
Casualties	Approximately 1–1.5 million	Around 300,000; Muslim losses must also be counted
Legal standard	Convention codified a pre-existing norm; scale and pattern show intent	Requires dolus specialis and a competent tribunal; not retroactive
Perinçek ruling	Court did not endorse denial	Court treated 1915 as a matter of open historical debate
Remedy	Recognition, possible reparations	Historians' commission, open archives, normalization
Treaties	Sèvres reflects the Allied view of accountability	Alexandropol–Moscow–Kars–Lausanne are binding; Sèvres never ratified

Western media often present the question as settled and the Turkish position as denial. Turkish sources, for their part, rarely engage with the scholarly consensus that Armenian groups and many historians cite. Readers are best served by consulting both sets of documents. For further comparative material, see Region Scope's The Events of 1915: Archives, Legal Framework and the Path to Normalization and Archive of Nations' Ottoman & 1915 Archives: The Events of 1915 in Documents, Law and Diplomacy. Our own sourcing standards are set out in Editorial Principles and Primary Source Standards.

The normalization track

The Zurich Protocols signed on 10 October 2009 envisaged diplomatic relations, an open border and a sub-commission on the historical dimension, but they were never ratified, and Armenia formally annulled them in 2018. Türkiye's land border with Armenia has been closed since 1993. Since the first Kılıç–Rubinyan meeting on 14 January 2022, the two sides have held further rounds and made practical gestures, including humanitarian crossing arrangements after the February 2023 earthquakes. Ankara links full normalization to progress on regional peace in the South Caucasus, and Yerevan states that it seeks a relationship without preconditions. For wider context on how Türkiye frames security and diplomacy, see The Security File: A Casebook on Four Syria Operations and Their Legal Basis.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Events of 1915 (Turkish official term): the wartime relocation of Ottoman Armenians and the associated loss of life. The contested alternative is 'Armenian Genocide'.
• Sevk ve İskân Kanunu (Relocation and Resettlement Law): the Ottoman wartime measure of 27 May 1915, published in Takvim-i Vekayi on 1 June 1915.
• Hunchak and Dashnak: the two Armenian revolutionary parties founded in 1887 and 1890. Read the timeline in The Hunchak and Dashnak Committees, 1887–1896.
• Dolus specialis: the 'specific intent' to destroy a protected group, required by Article II of the 1948 Convention.
• Competent tribunal: the national court of the territory or an international penal tribunal named in Article VI of the Convention.
• Treaty chain: Alexandropol, Moscow, Kars and Lausanne. See Is the Treaty of Sèvres Still Valid?.
• ASALA / JCAG-ARA: the militant groups behind the 1973–1984 attacks on Turkish targets.
• Joint Historical Commission: the 2005 Turkish proposal for a historians' commission with open archives. Further context appears in The Political Axis's The Events of 1915: Archives, Law and the Path to Normalization.

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Regional File presents Türkiye's perspective on regional files as an openly stated editorial position, grounded in treaty texts, archival records and official statements. Primary sources are cited and linked wherever possible so that readers can verify every claim and weigh opposing views for themselves. This page is published by the Regional File Editorial Team.