What is genocide? Genocide is systematically planed mass murder of some national, religious or ethnic group.

I will begin this article chronologically with a different kind of genocide but still genocide. It’s considered that about 37 million native Africans lost their lives in slavery and during the slave trade since 16th to 19th century. For almost 400 years European colonists have been performing genocide on Africans without any remorse. They considered that is their God given right as superiors to enslave inferiors.

Why is this different kind of genocide? It’s different because the goal of the colonists was creating a slave power for their economic needs. It wasn’t in their interest to annihilate them. However that doesn’t justify the tragic consequences of their actions.  

Between 1880 and 1915 Turks have murdered over one million Armenians. In mostly a Muslim region Armenians were suitable for prosecution because of their Christian religion. Ottomans planed and organized their relocation and extinction considering them as enemy’s of the Empire.

The biggest genocide of the man kind happened in Soviet Union during the Stalin reign. He is responsible for about 62 million terrible deaths.

The government of Soviet Union prosecuted and confined millions of people in labor camps of Siberia based on their political stand, social class or nationality.

It’s very well known fact that Stalin is personally responsible for deliberate starvation and finally death of 5 million Ukrainian peasants between 1932 and 1933.

In numbers his crime was even bigger than Hitler’s – 62 million killed in Soviet Union to 21 million killed by Nazis. The terrible conclusion is that Stalin killed more people than all wars in 20th century together. 

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The most familiar case of genocide was Holocaust of 6 million Jews in Nazi Germany and rest of the Europe before and during the WWII.

It began in 1930s and lasted to the end of WWII. The final phase of Holocaust started in December 1941 when murders were organized in death camps.

Purpose of so called “final solution” for Jewish people was complete annihilation of European Jewry.  Until 1945 Nazi’s managed to murder about 6 million Jews across Europe.

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Because of Khmer Rouges regime under the leadership of Pol Pot 1.7 million people lost their lives in Cambodia in 1970s. That was 21% of Cambodia population.

Connecting the ideology with racial hatred led to all kinds of cruelty and murders of massive proportions. Similar situations like in Cambodia happened also in East Timor, Guatemala, Ruanda etc.

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The most recent case of genocide happened 1995 in Srebrenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina) during the war after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Genocide was carried out by Army of Republic of Srpska and Serbian paramilitary troops Scorpions under the leadership of General Ratko Mladic who is accused war criminal on the run. Victims of the genocide were 8000 Bosnian civilians, mostly Muslims.

That was one of the most horrific events and one of the largest massacres since the WWII that occurred in modern European history.