With onslaught of World War I , the Ottoman Empire and Russian Empire engaged during the Caucasus and Persian Campaigns , and the CUP began to look on the Armenians with distrust and suspicion . This was due to the fact that the Russian army contained a contingent of Armenian volunteers . On 24 April 1915 , Armenian intellectuals were arrested by Ottoman authorities and , with the Tehcir Law ( 29 May 1915 ) , eventually a large proportion of Armenians living in Western Armenia perished in what has become known as the Armenian Genocide . There was local Armenian resistance in the region , developed against the activities of the Ottoman Empire . The events of 1915 to 1917 are regarded by Armenians , Western historians , and even some Turkish writers and historians like Taner Akçam and Orhan Pamuk , to have been state-sponsored and planned mass killings , or genocide
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire