The Special Organisation played a key role in the Armenian genocide . The Special Organisation , which was made of especially fanatical Unionist cadres was expanded from August 1914 onwards . Talaat Pasha , the Interior Minister gave orders that all of the prisoners convicted of the worse crimes such as murder , rape , robbery , etc. could have their freedom if they agreed to join the Special Organisation to kill Armenians and loot their property . Besides the hardened career criminals who joined in large numbers to have their freedom , the rank and file of the Special Organisation killing units comprised Kurdish tribesmen attracted by the prospect of plunder and refugees from Rumelia , who were thirsting for the prospect of revenge against Christians after having been forced to flee from the Balkans in 1912 . The recruitment of thuggish career criminals straight from the prison system into the Special Organisation explains the very high incidence of rape during the Armenian genocide . As explained in the key indictment at the trial ( '' in absentia '' ) of the Three Pashas , the Armenian Genocide massacres were spearheaded by the Special Organisation ( ) under its leader , the Turkish physician Dr. Behaeddin Shakir . The Special Organisation was much feared by all and were by all accounts the ones responsible for the worse violence against the Armenians . The American historian Gerard Libaridian wrote about the lethal combination in the Special Organisation of fanatical Unionist cadres commanding convicts newly released from prison : " The release of the vilest , unbridled animal passions served well the government 's purpose of ensuring extermination in the most humiliating , dehumanizing fashion . The torture of thousands of women and children became a source of satisfaction for hundreds who sought and found official sanction from government officials as well as Muslim clergymen , since the murder of Armenians was characterized , like the war against the Entente , as a '' jihad '' or holy war . Human imagination labored to devise new ways of mutilating , burning and killing " . To prevent ordinary Muslims , whatever they be Turks , Kurds or Arabs from saving the lives of the Armenians , a decree declaring the penalty for sheltering Armenians was death by hanging and the destruction of one 's home was passed ; despite this decree , a number of ordinary Turks , Kurds and Arabs did shelter Armenians from the fury of the Special Organisation . Other ordinary Turks , Kurds and Arabs did assist the army , the gendarmes and the Special Organisation in the deportations and killings , motivated by the desire to loot Armenian property , to have Armenian women and girls as sex slaves or because of incitements by Muslim clergymen saying that the genocide was an act of '' jihad '' . As the gendarmes rounded up the Armenians for deportation , it was common for slave markets to be established where for the right price a Muslim man could buy Armenian women and/or girls to use as his sex slaves . Besides genocide against the Armenians , the CUP regime waged the Assyrian genocide against the Assyrian minority and the Pontic Greek genocide against the Pontic Greeks in Pontus
Pontic Greek genocide
Greek genocide
Committee of Union and Progress