According to Winston Churchill, who was one of the pre-eminent reporters of the First World War: "There is no doubt that the planning of this crime and its implementation had political motives. There had arisen an opportunity for annihilating a Christian people which was against the views of the Turkish government and had even started to cherish a dream which could not be realised without losses for Turkey, and from a geographical point of view would become a barrier between the Ottoman Turks and the other Turanian people. It is not entirely unthinkable that the English attack on the Bosporus and the Dardanelles had inflamed the merciless wrath of Turkey. The supporters of Pan Turkism believed that, even if Constantinople were to fall and Turkey be defeated, the annihilation of the Armenian people would still be to the advantage of the future of the Turkish people." 8
For the extermination of an entire people, the Turkish elite found countless fanatic collaborators . The committee of Union and Progress confiscated the properties of the murdered and made a fortune through looting the properties and accruing the savings of the dead. This atrocity, unmatched in violence, was inspired by hate and loathing.
The Armenian Genocide, in regard to its implementation and basic motives, strikes a clear parallel with the events that occurred 25 years later in Nazi Germany. The Armenians and the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire, like the Jews in Nazi Germany, constituted a minority who controlled a large portion of the capital in the country, and thus were the subject for hate and envy of the political elite. In both cases, extreme sentiment led to the systematic extermination of the minority, aimed at confiscating their properties and capital, and reeking revenge for the social prominence which the "inferior" element had obtained over its masters.
On May 24, 1915, the allied nations delivered a summons to the Ottoman government: "Massacres have taken place from mid April in Erzurum, Terjan, Eghine, Bitlis, Moush, Sasoun, Zeytoun and throughout Cilicia. The inhabitants in almost a hundred villages around Van have been completely murdered and the Armenian quarters in Van are under siege by Kurds. At the same time, the Ottoman government has acted mercilessly against the defenceless Armenian population in Constantinople. In regard to this new crime against humanity and civilisation, the allied governments declare openly to the Sublime Port that they will hold each member of the Turkish government personally responsible, as well as those who have participated in these massacres." 56a
Sadly, as the war drew to an end, it became clear that the governments were more interested in appropriating privileges in Asia Minor and Turkey than pursuing justice. Rather than prosecuting the Turkish elite in an international court, these governments concentrated on using the new Turkish nationalists for the realisation of their own plans. Hence, it became the mission of the Armenian nationalists, through the self-sacrifices of 1920-1922, to avenge the Armenian Genocide and, according to French scientist E. Rossier,: "restore the moral order which had been desecrated."
The 1915 crime against humanity ended to the advantage of the Turks and brought them closer to realising their dream of Pan Turanism: by the end of the war, they had managed to empty Western Armenia of its native inhabitants and annex Kars and the shattering of the old Eastern Armenia.
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