Armenian Genocide ( , ) , also known as the Armenian Holocaust , was the Ottoman government 's systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians , mostly citizens within the Ottoman Empire . The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915 , the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up , arrested , and deported from Constantinople ( now Istanbul ) to the region of Angora ( Ankara ) , 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders , the majority of whom were eventually murdered . The genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases — the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour , followed by the deportation of women , children , the elderly , and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian Desert . Driven forward by military escorts , the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery , rape , and massacre . Other ethnic groups were similarly targeted for extermination in the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide , and their treatment is considered by some historians to be part of the same genocidal policy . Most Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a direct result of the genocide
235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders
Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915
Armenian Genocide