ABSTRACT
During the First World War, the Assyrians endured massacres not only inside the Ottoman realm but on its periphery as well. The destruction of Assyrian villages accompanied German and Turkish military operations in Persia, now known as Iran. The German-Ottoman alliance intended to use Persia as a corridor to the oil regions of Baku, and thereafter to invade Central Asia. Thus, Persia became a battleground on which acts of mass violence were perpetrated against undesirable elements. The Assyrians of the Urmia region saw their homeland devastated as a result. This chapter provides a chronological analysis of these events, focusing on important turning points and new archival evidence.
