Armenian men being hanged during the Armenian Genocide in 1915.

Besides Armenian genocide.

Islamization of Armenians was carried out as a systematic state policy involving the bureaucracy, police, judiciary, and clergy and was a major structural component of the genocide. An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Armenians were Islamized,[186] and it is estimated that in the early twenty-first century as many as two million Turkish citizens may have at least one Armenian grandparent. Some Armenians were allowed to convert to Islam and evade deportation, but where their numbers exceeded the five to ten percent threshold, or where there was a risk of their being able to preserve their nationality and culture, the regime insisted on their physical destruction..

Talaat Pasha personally authorized conversion of Armenians and carefully tracked the loyalty of converted Armenians until the end of the war.[189] Although the first and most important step was conversion to Islam, the process also required the eradication of Armenian names, language, and culture, and for women, immediate marriage to a Muslim man.[190] Although Islamization was the most feasible opportunity for survival, it also transgressed Armenian moral and social norms.

The CUP allowed Armenian women to marry into Muslim households, as these women had to convert to Islam and would lose their Armenian identity.Young women and girls were often appropriated as house servants or sex slaves. Some boys were abducted to work as forced laborers for individual Muslims.Some children were forcibly seized, but others were sold or given up by their parents to save their lives. Special state-run orphanages were also set up with strict procedures intending to deprive their charges of an Armenian identity.[195] Most Armenian children who survived the genocide endured exploitation, hard labor without pay, forced conversion to Islam, and physical and sexual abuse.[192] Armenian women captured during the journey ended up in Turkish or Kurdish households; those who were Islamized during the second phase of the genocide found themselves in an Arab or Bedouin environment.[196]

The rape, sexual abuse, and prostitution of Armenian women were all very common.[197] Although Armenian women tried to avoid sexual violence, suicide was often the only alternative.[198] Deportees were displayed naked in Damascus and sold as sex slaves in some areas.

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