May 1915 Triple Entente declaration

On 24 May 1915, on the initiative of Russia, the Triple Entente—Russia, France, and the United Kingdom—issued a declaration condemning the ongoing Armenian genocide carried out in the Ottoman Empire and threatening to hold the perpetrators accountable.

After some areas were captured by Russia, which publicized the atrocities, these massacres, as well as the Armenian defense of Van, were widely covered in world newspapers during March and April 1915.

[6] Throughout the spring of 1915, information had been reaching Russia about the genocide of the Armenians, most notably a detailed report that arrived in Tbilisi, the capital of the viceroyalty of the Caucasus on 18 April 1915.

[7] At the suggestion of the Viceroy Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov, on 20 April 1915, Gevorg V, the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, sent an appeal to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov asking him to publicize the genocide.

On April 27 1915, Count George Bakhmeteff, the Russian ambassador in Washington, passed on Gevorg's appeal to President Woodrow Wilson asking for the United States "in the name of humanity and our holy Christian faith" to do something to stop the genocide.

In February, the Muslim 5th Light Infantry regiment of the Indian Army mutinied in Singapore, an incident that at the time was believed to be a response to the Ottoman call for jihad.

[9] The final version of the declaration read: For about a month the Kurd and Turkish populations of Armenia has been massacring Armenians with the connivance and often assistance of Ottoman authorities.

[9] On 4 June 1915, Said Halim Pasha presented Morgenthau with a note that was largely written by diplomats from the German embassy in Constantinople that denied all massacres, claimed that the Armenian community were collectively guilty of treason, and stated that it was necessary for the Sublime Porte to forcibly relocate them for their own good.

[9] The Ottoman government issued a lengthy response to the declaration, dismissing all the charges as lies and claiming, "It is completely false that there have been massacres of Armenians in the Empire.