On May 24, 1915 the Entente powers (France, Russia and United Kingdom) adopted a joint declaration, condemning the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire, calling the atrocities “crimes against humanity,” the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute informs.
The first and most important document on the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide was officially published in the capitals of three countries and was handed to the Turkish authorities.
The declaration reads: For abut a month the Kurd and Turkish population in Armenia has been massacring Armenians with the connivance and often assistance of Ottoman authorities. Such massacres took place in middle April (new style) at Erzrum, Dertchun, Eguine, Akn, Bitlis, Mush, Sasun, Zeitun and throughout Cilicia. Inhabitants of about one hundred villages near Van were all murdered. In that city Armenian quarter, us besieged by Kurds. At the same time in Constantinople Ottoman Government ill-treats inoffensive Armenian population, In view of those new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, the Allied Government announce publicly to the Sublime-Porte that they will hold personally responsible (for) these crimes all members of the ottoman government and those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres.
