Between 1914 and 1918, approximately 250,000 Assyrians were the victims of genocide. This work documents local and western eyewitness reports about systematic attempts by Turkish, Persian and Kurdish troops to deport and massacre their Assyrian neighbours in Eastern Turkey and Western Iran.

Between 1914 and 1918, approximately 250,000 Assyrians were the victims of genocide. The author of this book documents local and western eyewitness reports about systematic attempts by Turkish, Persian, and Kurdish troops to deport and massacre their Assyrian neighbors in Eastern Turkey and Western Iran. This sad chapter in the First World War became known as the "Assyrian Tragedy." Although the Turkish authorities were the perpetrators responsible for this genocide, the German government acted as co-conspirator. The Germans trained and commanded Turkish troops and encouraged their Turkish ally to proclaim Jihad against the Christians, as Yonan ably documents in this book. As a consequence, the Christian minorities allied with Russia, the main enemy of Turkey, which took gruesome revenge on the civilian population. Yonan's meticulous research and commentary provide readers with previously inaccessible documents from British, American and German archives, and are complemented by a revealing selection of historical maps and photos.