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to Islam or were sold as slaves to Turkish and Kurdish harems and households. 154Notwithstanding, it should be mentioned that not the entire governmental body and the Muslimsociety participated or approved of the treatment of Armenians. Many Armenian children weresaved by adopting Turkish and Kurdish families. There is also evidence of resistance within theofficial ranks, regardless their limited nature. These were, however, rectified severely: governorswho did not comply with the orders were replaced and in two known cases Turkish officialsrefusing to carry out the order for deportation were murdered. 155The number of the victims of the 1915 genocide is issue of discussion, mainly due to theuncertain population statistics of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, it is estimated that of the2,000,000 Armenian inhabitants in Turkey, almost 1,800,000 were subjected to the plannedgenocide and more than 1,000,000 lost their lives. 156 Only a few hundred thousand escaped toTranscaucasus or survived in Syria and Mesopotamia. It is estimated that the total number ofvictims of the continuous massacres, including the Armenian women and children abducted byTurks and Kurds, is somewhere between 1.2 million and 1.5 million. 157 Depending on theoriginal population figures, this number corresponds to about 50-80 % of the total OttomanArmenians and about 30-38 % of the Armenian world population. In a recently published study,David Gaunt has presented quite detailed information about the course of the massacres, amongother the pertaining statistics. Even though his work on the 1915 genocide focuses mainly on aSyriac/Chaldean perspective (minority groups mostly concentrated in the south-eastern parts ofpresent-day Turkey, northern Mesopotamia and north-western Iran), there are also fresh resultsconcerning the Armenian victims. Documents show that during the initial massacres theCatholics and Protestants were exempted from the deportations. However, as the deportationsand massacres continued, the Catholics and the Protestants too were ordered to leave theirhomes and properties and were deported as the rest. 158During a short period of time, following the ceasefire in 1918, the victors seemed to fulfil theircommitment to administer justice in the Armenian issue. The War Crimes Commission of theParis Conference, in charge of negotiating the peace treaty, despite oppositions from U.S. StateSecretary, Robert Lansing, passed a resolution by a large majority, condemning crimes violating“laws of humanity,” particularly in regard to the Turkish massacres of the Armenian, whichsubsequently opened the door for the trials of the Turkish Ittihadist leaders. 159 Article 228 in the154 Hovannisian writes: ”After the reoccupation of Moush and Bitlis, Armenian societies of Transcaucasiaoffered rewards for the deliverance of women and children forcibly Islamised and taken into Turkish andKurdish homes. The ‘one piece of gold for an Armenian’ fund retrieved between 5,000 and 6,000 persons.”See Hovannisian, 1967, p. 85.155 Dadrian, 1999, p. 9.156 Pasdermadjian, 1949, p. 481.157 Dadrian, 1999, p. 20. The same figure for the Assyro-Chaldeans of Ottoman Turkey and Persia were250,000 victims out of a pre-war population of 563,000, i.e. a 45 % loss of lives. See Gaunt, 2007, p. 300-301.For the Pontic numbers see Peterson, 2004, p. 103.158 Gaunt, 2007, p. 77. For detailed listing see Tables 62 and 63 in Appendix 3.159 Simpson, 1995, p. 25-26.37