The Complexity of the Assyrian Genocide

The Assyrian Genocide involved many non-Armenian Christian groups native to eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia. Among them were the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Church, the Syriac Orthodox, and some smaller sects. Massacres and ethnic cleansing culminated during the summer and fall of 1915. Using archival documents from the Prime Ministerial Ottoman Archive (Istanbul) and the Military History and Strategic Studies Directorate Archives (Ankara), this article discusses the involvement of the Young Turk government and the Ottoman army in two extreme cases of Assyrian resistance. It then takes up possible explanations as to why these groups were targeted.