Armenian genocide

1915-01-01 - 1917-01-01

The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress, it was implemented primarily through the mass murder of around one million Armenians during death marches to the Syrian desert and the forced Islamization of women and children. It followed earlier large-scale massacres of Armenians in the 1890s and 1909, and was driven by CUP leaders' fear that Armenians would seek independence after the Ottoman Empire's territorial losses.