The Syriac population of northern Mesopotamia ( the Tur Abdin , Hakkari , Van , Siirt regions of present-day southeastern Turkey and the Urmia region of northwestern Iran ) was forcibly relocated and massacred by Ottoman ( Turkish ) and Kurdish forces between 1914 and 1920 under the regime of the Young Turks . The Assyrian population of northern Mesopotamia ( the Tur Abdin , Hakkari , Van , Siirt regions of present-day southeastern Turkey and the Urmia region of northwestern Iran ) was forcibly relocated and massacred by Ottoman ( Turkish ) and Kurdish forces between 1914 and 1920 .