At the onset of World War 1, the CUP brought pro-Turkey nationalism to new heights throughout the empire. Turkey, having suffered decades of slow economic and geopolitical decline, sided with Germany in hopes that their alliance could defeat the Russians and they could rebuild and expand their empire.

In December of 1914, the Ottoman Turks suffered a devastating defeat in their first offensive, invading Russia. More than eighty percent of the Turkish forces were destroyed turning the entire campaign into a national humiliation. In the days following this disastrous operation more than 100,000 Russian troops stormed across the border into Turkey, and with them an estimated 5,000 Armenians, took up arms. Once those Armenian soldiers joined forces with the Russian Army, all Armenians were seen as an enemy of the state.

The Turkish government took immediate action and the Three Pashas put their devastating plan into motion.