page_title: Armenian Genocide
section_title: Arrest and deportation of Armenian notables, April 1915
hierarchical_section_title: Armenian Genocide / World War I / Arrest and deportation of Armenian notables, April 1915
caption_attribution_description: English: Armenian intellectuals jailed and later executed on the night of April 24, 1915: 1st row: Krikor Zohrab, Daniel Varoujan, Rupen Zartarian, Ardashes Harutunian and Siamanto; 2nd row: Ruben Sevak, Dikran Chökürian, Diran Kelekian, Tlgadintsi, and Erukhan.
context_page_description: The Armenian Genocide was the systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians carried out in Turkey and adjoining regions by the Ottoman government between 1914 and 1923. The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported from Constantinople to the region of Angora, 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. Most Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a direct result of the genocide.
context_section_description: By 1914, Ottoman authorities had already begun a propaganda drive to present Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire as a threat to the empire's security. An Ottoman naval officer in the War Office described the planning:
  In order to justify this enormous crime the requisite propaganda material was thoroughly prepared in Istanbul. [It included such statements as] 'the Armenians are in league with the enemy. They will launch an uprising in Istanbul, kill off the Ittihadist leaders and will succeed in opening up the straits [of the Dardanelles]'.
  On the night of 23–24 April 1915, known as Red Sunday (Armenian: Կարմիր Կիրակի Garmir Giragi), the Ottoman government rounded up and imprisoned an estimated 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders of the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, and later those in other centers, who were moved to two holding centers near Angora (Ankara). This date coincided with Allied troop landings at Gallipoli after unsuccessful Allied naval attempts to break through the Dardanelles to Constantinople in February and March 1915.
  Following the passage of Tehcir Law on 29 May 1915, the Armenian leaders, except for the few who were able to return to Constantinople, were gradually deported and assassinated. The date 24 April is commemorated as Genocide Remembrance Day by Armenians around the world.
caption: Some Armenian intellectuals arrested on 24 April 1915, and following weeks, then deported and killed.
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