Before the genocide had begun, one method used to intimidate the Armenian population was sexual humiliation. They cut off their breasts, mutilated their limbs, and their corpses lay naked, defiled, or blackened by the heat on the fields.' ĭuring the Armenian genocide, which occurred in the Ottoman Empire, led at the time by the Young Turks, the Turkish armed forces, militias, and members of the public engaged in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape against female Armenians and children of both sexes. All the crimes that had ever been committed against women, were committed here. Armin Wegner's description: 'Looking at you is the dark beautiful face of Babesheea who was robbed by Kurds, raped, and freed only after ten days like a wild beast the Turkish soldiers, officers, and gendarmes swept down on this welcome prey.
