Causes of the Armenian genocide

A 1910 British ethnographic map of the Middle East; Armenians shown in green, Kurds in yellow, Turks in brown. Many explanations of the Armenian genocide focus on the CUP's desire to resolve the Armenian question by eliminating the Armenians.

Differing views of what caused the Armenian genocide include explanations focusing on nationalism, religion, and wartime radicalization and continue to be debated among scholars. In the twenty-first century, focus has shifted to multicausal explanations. Most historians agree that the genocide was not premeditated before World War I, but the role of contingency, ideology, and long-term structural factors in causing the genocide continues to be discussed.