Being a Christian minority in a Muslim empire, Armenians have been the target of discrimination in the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians faced types of discrimination like being treated as second class citizens, being denied security in property, being denied political offices, and bring forced to pay taxes for the sole reason of being a non-muslim. By 1914 the Ottoman Empire had lost nearly all of its territory in Europe and Africa, causing political and economic issues and intensifying racial issues.
The Young Turks
In 1908, the Ottoman Empire's Sultan was forced by Turkish nationalists, known as the Young Turks, into forming a constitutional government. This new government guarenteed basic rights for both Turks and Aremnians alike. Unfortunately, in 1913, Mehmed Talaat, Ismail Enver, and Ahmed Djemal, three Young Turks, took over the new government by becoming dictators. The group's goal was to reconstruct the Ottoman Empire into a new Turkish empire that would stretch from the Caucasus to Central Asia, and would live by one langauge and religion.