Armenia

===World War I and the Armenian genocide===
{{main|Armenian genocide}}
[[File:Morgenthau336.jpg|thumb|[[Armenian genocide]] victims in 1915]]
The outbreak of World War I led to confrontation between the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the [[Russian Empire]] in the [[Caucasus campaign|Caucasus]] and [[Persian campaign (World War I)|Persian campaign]]s. 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 volunteer units|Armenian volunteers]]. On 24 April 1915, [[Deportation of Armenian intellectuals 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]].

The genocide was 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 infirm on [[death march]]es 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.<ref>{{Citation|first1=Hans-Lukas|last1=Kieser|first2=Dominik J.|last2=Schaller|language=de|title=Der Völkermord an den Armeniern und die Shoah|trans-title=The Armenian genocide and the Shoah|publisher=Chronos|year=2002|isbn=978-3-0340-0561-6|page=114}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title = Armenia: The Survival of A Nation |first = Christopher J. |last = Walker |publisher = Croom Helm |place = London |year = 1980 |pages = 200–03}}</ref> There was local [[Armenian resistance during the Armenian genocide|Armenian resistance]] in the region, developed against the activities of the Ottoman Empire. The events of 1915 to 1917 are regarded by Armenians and the vast majority of Western historians to have been state-sponsored mass killings, or genocide.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts/gen_bib1.html|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20011116212954/http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts/gen_bib1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 November 2001|title=Extensive bibliography by University of Michigan on the Armenian genocide |publisher=Umd.umich.edu |access-date=30 December 2010}}</ref>

Turkish authorities deny the genocide took place to this day. The Armenian Genocide is acknowledged to have been one of the first modern [[genocide]]s.<ref name="24.04.1998">{{cite web |url = http://www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.153/current_category.7/affirmation_detail.html |title = Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Resolution |publisher = Armenian genocide |access-date = 10 February 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171925/http://www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.153/current_category.7/affirmation_detail.html |archive-date = 3 March 2016 |url-status=live |df = dmy-all }}</ref><ref name="Ferguson">{{Cite book |author-link = Niall Ferguson |last = Ferguson |first = Niall |title = The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West |place = New York |publisher = Penguin Press |year = 2006 |isbn = 978-1-59420-100-4 |page = [https://archive.org/details/warofworldtwenti00nial/page/177 177] |url = https://archive.org/details/warofworldtwenti00nial/page/177 }}</ref> According to the research conducted by [[Arnold J. Toynbee]], an estimated 600,000 Armenians died during deportation from 1915 to 1916. This figure, however, accounts for solely the first year of the Genocide and does not take into account those who died or were killed after the report was compiled on 24 May 1916.<ref>[[Robert Melson (political scientist)|Robert Melson]], ''Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust'', University of Chicago Press, 15 October 1992, p. 147</ref> The [[International Association of Genocide Scholars]] places the death toll at "more than a million".<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6045182.stm Q&A: Armenian genocide dispute] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301211630/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6045182.stm |date=1 March 2007 }}. BBC News. 10 July 2008.</ref> The total number of people killed has been most widely estimated at between 1 and 1.5 million.<ref>{{cite web|title = Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex|url = http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/Description_and_history.php|publisher = [[Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute]]|access-date = 10 February 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160120092829/http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/Description_and_history.php|archive-date = 20 January 2016|url-status=live|df = dmy-all}}</ref>

Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have been campaigning for [[Recognition of the Armenian genocide|official recognition]] of the events as genocide for over 30&nbsp;years. These events are traditionally commemorated yearly on 24 April, the Armenian Martyr Day, or the Day of the Armenian genocide.<ref name="Matiossian2021">{{cite book | author = Vartan Matiossian | date = 23 September 2021 | title = The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide: Language, History and 'Medz Yeghern' | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | pages = 125– | isbn = 978-0-7556-4109-3 | oclc = 1247655673 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-j9DEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA125}}</ref>