The Armenian Genocide

What happened

Beginning with the arrest of Armenian leaders in Constantinople on 24 April 1915, Ottoman authorities carried out the systematic destruction of the empire's Armenian population through massacres, death marches, starvation, and deportation. Of roughly 1.5 million Armenians in the empire, at least 664,000 and possibly up to 1.2 million were killed.

Why it matters

Often called the first genocide of the twentieth century, it was closely bound up with the events of the war in the Near East and remains a defining atrocity of the era.

How we know

Documented by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other institutions; the estimated death toll spans a range.

Sources

• Holocaust Encyclopedia, USHMM. The Armenian Genocide (1915–16): Overview · Reputable source