The Armenian Genocide was not limited to the mass murder of over one million Armenians. It also included the systematic removal of thousands of Armenian children from their families and communities.
Many of these children witnessed the murder of their parents before being taken into orphanages, government institutions, or Muslim households throughout the Ottoman Empire. There, countless children were given new names, converted to Islam, forbidden to speak Armenian, and raised to forget the language, faith, and traditions of their ancestors.
This deliberate destruction of a child's national, cultural, and religious identity is now recognized under international law. In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Article II(e) defines one act of genocide as:
"Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The inclusion of this article reflects the understanding that a people can be destroyed not only through physical extermination but also through the systematic removal of its children and the erasure of their identity.