Historically, the ancient Christian Armenians were amongst the most progressive people in the East, but in the nineteenth century Armenia was divided between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Sultan Abdulhamit II organized the massacres of 1895-97 but it was not until the spring of 1915, under the cover of the First World War, that the Young Turks’ nationalistic government found the political will to execute a true genocide.
从历史角度来看，古代的基督教亚美尼亚人是东方最先进的民族之一，但是亚美尼亚在十九世纪分裂成了奥斯曼帝国和俄国。阿布都哈米提二世（Sultan Abdulhamit II）在1895-97年间曾组织过大屠杀，但是一直到1915年春天，第一次世界大战前夕，青年土耳其党人的民族主义政府才找到实施一场真正的种族屠杀的政治决心。