24 April 1915: Turkish government begins systematic extermination of Armenians with the arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople. The program of extermination will continue through the duration of the war and afterwards. The majority of able-bodied males will be executed or detained in forced labor camps. Women, children and the elderly will be forcibly marched hundreds of miles into the Syrian desert, while deprived of food and water and subjected to robbery, rape and murder along the way. From one million to one and a half million Armenians will die as a result of Turkish actions during this time.
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LINKS:
Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915.
A Chronology of the Armenian Genocide.
Map of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Turkish Empire.
History & Lore of the Old World War 
Just finished reading The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian – a very interesting and well-written novel about the Armenian genocide. A despicable tragedy and a huge land grab by the Turks.