The Young Turks Genocide

The perpetrators of the genocide were the Young Turks. They were progressives that motivated by Turkish nationalism. Military officers established the Young Turk Movement was against Sultan Abdul-Hamid II’s absolutist rule. The Young Turks were seeking change to the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, they overthrew the sultan’s rule when the Ottoman armies in European Turkey began to espouse them. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), formed in 1895, aligned itself with the Young Turks in 1906. In the west, members of the CUP were known as Young Turks. However, in the Ottoman Empire, members were referred to as Unionists. They recruited individuals who were willing to relinquish themselves for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. In January 1913, the CUP seized power in a coup d'etat.
Three men from the CUP controlled the government: Mehmet Talaat, Ismail Enver, Minister of War, and Ahmed Jemal.
The triumvirate depended on other members of the CUP to execute out the Armenian Genocide. As the Minister of War and Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Enver maintained control over the Ottoman armies that were responsible for carrying out atrocities. Ismail Enver utilized German support to arrange the development of the Turkish armed forces. As Minister of the Interior, Talaat organized the agencies of the Ottoman government. As Minister of the Navy and commander of Syria, Jemal controlled the southern part of the Ottoman Empire, and he had complete authority over the concentration camps and extermination sites. In addition to the government ministries, the CUP also relied on the secret groups such as the Special Organization for penetrating through enemy territory and for promoting Pan-Turkism. After the defeat in World War I, the perpetrators responsible for mass killings against the Armenians were tried in absentia and were eventually found
guilty.
Victims

The Ottoman Turks feared that Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire would offer help to the Russians during World War I. They also wanted to create a homogenous Turkish empire. Thus, in 1915, the Christian Armenian population was deported from their homes. Convoys filled with the Armenians were driven miles toward the Syrian desert. Most deportees were forced to walk to concentration camps known as Deir ez-Zor camps. These walks were known as death marches because many Armenians died from starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion. Those that were unable to complete the march were shot on the spot.
Because Armenian soldiers in the Ottoman forces were forced to demilitarize, there was little resistance from the Armenians. However, the mountaineers of Musa Dagh once defended themselves in the heights above their villages. When French naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean saw them, they transported the Armenians back. In addition, Armenians in the city of Van resisted until relieved by Russian forces. In May 1915, they Armenians left the city of Van when the Russian Army withdrew. Through deportation, starvation, dehydration, and brutalization, approximately 1.5 million Armenians died between 1915-1917.