REFLECTIONS ON PHASES OF MASS ATROCITY CRIMES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/AFA/2026.22.1.181Keywords:
mass atrocity crimes, phases of genocide, crimes against humanity, Holocaust, Armenian GenocideAbstract
An analytical exploration of different aspects and phases of mass atrocity crimes are offered, including some of the key underlining terms employed to describe such a major and complex destructive process. Amongst the concepts discussed are: war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, politicide, forced ethnic expulsions, so-called ethnic cleansing, and man-made famine. Amongst the methods described are financial plundering, ghettoization, mass imprisonment, coerced slave labour, man-made starvation, mass shootings, and extermination by gas chambers. A case study of the Nazi Germany’s regime of mass deportations and murder is offered to contextualize and provide historic examples of the concepts discussed. Comparisons with aspects and phases of the Armenian Genocide are also offered. The article concludes by offering several cautionary reflections about the grim prospects for even more calamitous consequences of mass atrocity crimes, such as omnicide, in the contemporary era.
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