Click to listen to Greek and Turkish historians explain the larger historical picture around the 1914 events: the final decade of the Ottoman Empire was marked by external wars, intra-communal violence, religious conflicts, ethnic cleansing, mass population movements, boycotts, and secret societies that tried to either precipitate or avert such disasters.
Ten Years of War 1912-1922
From the Balkan Wars to The Catastrophe: a constant conflict between Greece and Turkey
Violence in a Crumbling Empire
Violent acts within the Empire were also precipitated by paramilitary organisations and revolutionary guerrillas
RIVAL ETHNO-RELIGIOUS NATIONALISMS
Radicalised Young Turks vs. Radicalised Ottoman Greeks inside Anatolia
TEŞKILÂT-I MAHSÛSA (SPECIAL ORGANIZATION)
A top-down paramilitary organisation that was behind many persecutions and massacres
THE ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS
Before the persecutions, there were the boycotts.
1914: A PRELUDE TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?
Were the Greeks targeted for a broader extermination, like the Armenians afterwards?