The outbreak of World War I led to confrontation between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire in the Caucasus and Persian Campaigns . The new government in Istanbul began to look on the Armenians with distrust and suspicion , because the Imperial 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 Anatolia perished in what has become known as the Armenian Genocide
Armenian intellectuals were arrested by Ottoman authorities
Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915
Armenia