A genocide because they were Christians.
Via Daily Mail:
This is a shocking collection of harrowing photographs of the death and destruction reaped on Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago that were taken by an American and a colleague who risked imprisonment to smuggle them out and show the world the full horror of what happened.
John Elder and Armin T. Wegner both documented the unimaginable suffering they witnessed in images which helped build a case against a Turkish government which still denies the slaughter of up to 1.5million Armenians constituted genocide.
As Armenians mark 100 years since the atrocities, many Western countries still do not use that word, and US president Barack Obama is once again unlikely to do so in his upcoming statement marking the anniversary despite pledging he would during his election campaign.
This is part of the Dudan Crevasse. 10,000 Armenians were marched here, shot or bayonetted and tossed in.
To understand more, here’s a video posted by our friends at Right Scoop to give you more of the history.