Editing Armenian genocide (section)

== Onset ==
{{further|Causes of the Armenian genocide#Wartime radicalization}}
[[File:Leavening the Levant (1916) (14586438289) restored.jpg|thumb|left|Armenian defenders in Van, 1916|alt=Men with guns crouching in a trench and leaning against a defensive wall]]
[[File:Russian soldiers Sheykhalan 1915.jpg|thumb|left|Russian soldiers pictured in the former Armenian village of Sheykhalan near [[Muş|Mush]], 1915|alt=Two armed men standing by a ruined wall, surrounded by skulls and other human remains<!-- alt=Photograph of two Russian soldiers in a ruined village looking at skeletal remains -->]]
Minister of War Enver Pasha took over command of the Ottoman armies for the invasion of Russian territory, and tried to encircle the [[Russian Caucasus Army (World War I)|Russian Caucasus Army]] at the [[Battle of Sarikamish]], fought from December 1914 to January 1915. Unprepared for the harsh winter conditions,{{sfn|Suny|2015|pp=241–242}} his forces were routed, losing more than 60,000 men.{{sfn|Akçam|2012|p=157}} The retreating Ottoman army destroyed dozens of Ottoman Armenian villages in Bitlis vilayet, massacring their inhabitants.{{sfn|Üngör|2016|p=19}} Enver publicly blamed his defeat on Armenians who he claimed had actively sided with the Russians, a theory that became a consensus among CUP leaders.{{sfn|Üngör|2016|pp=18–19}}{{sfn|Suny|2015|p=243}} Reports of local incidents such as weapons caches, severed telegraph lines, and occasional killings confirmed preexisting beliefs about Armenian treachery and fueled paranoia among CUP leaders that a coordinated Armenian conspiracy was plotting against the empire.{{sfn|Suny|2015|p=248}}{{sfn|Kieser|2018|pp=235–238}} Discounting contrary reports that most Armenians were loyal, the CUP leaders decided that the Armenians had to be eliminated to save the empire.{{sfn|Suny|2015|p=248}}

Massacres of Armenian men were occurring in the vicinity of [[Bashkale]] in Van vilayet from December 1914.{{sfn|Akçam|2019|p=472}} ARF leaders attempted to keep the situation calm, warning that even justifiable self-defense could lead to escalation of killing.{{sfn|Suny|2015|p=255}} The governor, [[Djevdet Bey]], ordered the Armenians of [[Van, Turkey|Van]] to hand over their arms on 18&nbsp;April 1915, creating a dilemma: If they obeyed, the Armenians expected to be killed, but if they refused, it would provide a pretext for massacres. Armenians fortified themselves in Van and repelled [[defense of Van (1915)|the Ottoman attack]] that began on 20&nbsp;April.{{sfn|Suny|2015|p=257}}{{sfn|Kévorkian|2011|p=319}} During the siege, Armenians in surrounding villages were massacred at Djevdet's orders. Russian forces captured Van on 18&nbsp;May, finding 55,000 corpses in the province—about half its prewar Armenian population.{{sfn|Suny|2015|pp=259–260}} Djevdet's forces proceeded to Bitlis and attacked Armenian and Assyrian/Syriac villages; the men were killed immediately, many women and children were kidnapped by local Kurds, and others marched away to be killed later. By the end of June, there were only a dozen Armenians in the vilayet.{{sfn|Suny|2015|pp=287, 289}}

The first deportations of Armenians were proposed by [[Djemal Pasha]], the commander of the [[Fourth Army (Ottoman Empire)|Fourth Army]], in February 1915 and targeted Armenians in [[Cilicia]] (specifically [[Iskenderun|Alexandretta]], [[Dörtyol]], Adana, [[Hadjin]], [[Süleymanlı|Zeytun]], and [[Kozan, Adana|Sis]]) who were relocated to the area around [[Konya]] in central Anatolia.{{sfn|Dündar|2011|p=281}} In late March or early April, the [[CUP Central Committee]] decided on the large-scale removal of Armenians from areas near the front lines.{{sfn|Suny|2015|pp=247–248}} During the night of 23–24&nbsp;April 1915 hundreds of Armenian political activists, intellectuals, and community leaders were [[Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915|rounded up in Constantinople and across the empire]]. This order from Talaat, intended to eliminate the Armenian leadership and anyone capable of organizing resistance, eventually resulted in the murder of most of those arrested.{{sfn|Kieser|2018|p=10}}{{sfn|Kévorkian|2011|pp=251–252}}{{sfn|Suny|2015|pp=271–272}} The same day, Talaat banned all Armenian political organizations{{sfn|Suny|2015|p=273}} and ordered that the Armenians who had previously been removed from Cilicia be deported again, from central Anatolia—where they would likely have survived—to the [[Syrian Desert]].{{sfn|Suny|2015|pp=274–275}}{{sfn|Akçam|2012|p=188}}
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