This lecture examines the systematic targeting of elites as a defining feature of genocidal campaigns, with a particular focus on the Armenian genocide of 1915. Genocides often begin with the deliberate assault on the victim group’s intellectual, cultural, economic, religious, and political leadership, aiming to dismantle resistance, prevent documentation, and erode communal cohesion. The Armenian case vividly demonstrates this pattern.

This lecture explores the motives behind this strategy, its execution, and its devastating consequences. It also incorporates comparative analysis of other genocides, to highlight the recurring nature of elite destruction in mass violence. It elucidates how the removal of elites accelerates the physical destruction of a group and obliterates its cultural and institutional foundations. Üngör underscores the critical role of leadership in maintaining societal identity and stability, and the profound long-term impacts of its eradication.