One of the main reasons for the genocide against the Armenians was to take over the vast properties of the Armenians. The defeated Turkish government needed the enormous wealth of Armenians such as air and water.

The editor of the Turkish newspaper “Alemtar” published at the beginning of the 20th century, Refi Javad Bey, stated that, in his opinion, the Turks’ hatred towards the Armenians was neither political nor religious, but only economic.

“I have traveled through Turkey after 1915 and I have not found a Turkish house where there was no Armenian pottery, carpet, property,” the Turkish publisher wrote.

One of the main objectives of the genocide against Armenians was to take the wealth of Armenians, because before World War I, Armenians, both as craftsmen and as money holders, had an influential weight on the Ottoman economy.

Industry and especially trade were in the hands of the Armenians. The Young Turk authorities were very concerned that the economic empowerment of the Armenians would also lead to political victories. In their secret meetings, they discussed plans to destroy the economy by exterminating the Armenians and usurping the property of their fathers.

The contribution of Armenians to the Ottoman economy reached 69-80%, and foreign sources even indicate 90%.

The Turks even developed special legislation to implement the dispossession program. On June 1, 1915, the “Deportation Law” was issued, according to which one and a half million Armenians were displaced and exterminated. On June 10, the 34-article directive on the treatment of “abandoned Armenian properties” was issued, after which the “Abandoned Properties Law” was passed by the Ottoman Parliament on September 13 of the same year. Thus, the usurpation of abandoned Armenian property was legalized.