Background

Armenians had lived in eastern Anatolia (the territory of modern Turkey) for over two thousand years. They were Christian, while the Ottoman Empire was officially Muslim. Under Ottoman rule, Armenians had been a recognized religious minority with some autonomy but also subject to discrimination and periodic violence. Major massacres in the 1890s under Sultan Abdul Hamid II had killed an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Armenians, foreshadowing the larger genocide to come.

The Young Turks, a nationalist movement, took power in 1908 and increasingly emphasized Turkish ethnic identity. The Ottoman Empire's entry into WWI on the German side in 1914 created the conditions for the genocide. The empire was losing territory. Armenians were increasingly seen by the government as potential collaborators with Christian Russia, even though most were loyal subjects.