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Armenian Genocide – First Genocide of the 20th Century We remember it. We speak its truths. By 1915, the Ottoman Empire had become the old, sick man of Europe, threatened by the rise of Allied forces in the West. Believing that exterminating non-Muslim populations within the empire would help it survive, the Ottomans turned against the Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and Yazidis. In 1915, Turkic forces and those who enjoyed being ruled by them, the Kurds, launched a systematic attack, first targeting the Armenians. Over 1.5 million Armenians were killed through massacres, death marches, and starvation. Families were torn apart; entire villages were destroyed. Greeks faced similar atrocities. In the south, Assyrians and Yazidis in Shekhan also faced extermination by the Kurds under the control of the Ottoman Turks. Further south in Sinjar, the Yazidis had a stronghold. Neither the Turks nor the Kurds wanted a direct confrontation with them, who were led by Hammo Shero. Twenty thousand Armenians and Assyrians fled to Sinjar Mountain, where they were welcomed, sheltered, fed, and promised protection. The Ottoman authorities sent an envoy to Hammo Shero, the leader of the Yazidis in Sinjar Mountain, demanding that he extradite the Armenian and Assyrian refugees. They threatened that if he refused, the Yazidis of Sinjar themselves would face genocide. Hammo, confident in his power, stripped the Ottoman envoy of his clothes and sent him back naked, refusing to extradite his guests to the Ottomans. In response, an Ottoman army attacked the Yazidis in Sinjar but was defeated by the warriors of Hammo Shero. This defeat marked the end of Ottoman influence in the Sinjar region. Armenians, Yazidis, Assyrians, and Greeks were the victims of this events. The Yazidis of Sinjar Mountain, led by Hammo Shero, were the bright light and symbol of hope in these dark days. The Ottoman Turks and Kurds were red-handed and the clear perpetrators of these atrocities against the non-Muslim nations of the region.