Forget Me Not Pin, Armenian Genocide 100th Year (Large) The Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians,mostly Ottoman citizens within the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey.The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders from Constantinople to the region of Ankara, the majority of whom were eventually murdered.