 The confiscation of Armenian properties by the Ottoman and Turkish governments involved seizure of the assets , properties and land of the country 's Armenian community . Starting with the Hamidian massacres in the mid @-@ 1890s and peaking during the Armenian Genocide , the confiscation of the Armenian property lasted continuously until the Istanbul pogrom of 1955 and with renewed efforts in 1974 . Much of the confiscations during the Armenian Genocide were made after the Armenians were deported into the Syrian Desert with the government declaring their goods and assets left behind as " abandoned " . Virtually all properties owned by Armenians living in their ancestral homeland in Western Armenia were confiscated and later distributed among the local Muslim population . Renewed efforts were introduced in 1974 where the property acquired by the Armenian community after the property declaration of 1936 was confiscated . 
