-
A group calling themselves the "Young Turks" overthrow Sultan Abdul Hamid and establish a modern constitutional government. Armenians hope to now have an equal place in society, but the Young Turks, led by the "Three Pashas", soon announce their plan to "Turkify" the empire and remove all threats to the empire including the Armenians.
-
The Ottoman empire becomes an alliance with Germany and enters World War 1. Through the "Proclamation of Jihad" they declare they will kill all Christians of Russia, England, and France.
-
Military leaders accuse Armenians of joining Russia in the war. Turkish forces attack the village of Otsni, killing the local Armenian priest and many civilians. Other villages in the same province are attacked as well.
-
The first convoy of Armenian deportees leaves the city of Zeitun, headed to the Konia Desert or the Syrian Desert. Deportations from other cities begin as well, but most deportees are killed in route.
-
Hundreds of Armenians are arrested in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. They are later murdered. This event marks the official beginning of the Armenian genocide, which lasts until 1917. However, massacres continue into the 1920s.
-
The Turkish government systematically deported, killed, and put into concentration camps up to two million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. They led the Armenians on death marches and burned down forests and villages with civilians still in it. In the end, 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated by the hands of the Ottoman government, To this day, the Turkish government continues to deny this genocide.
