Appointment of Mehmed Reshid

Date: March 25, 1915 • Location: Sur, Turkey

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1915–1918.

The appointment of Mehmed Reshid as governor of Diyarbekir, Turkey, intensified the genocide of Syriac Christians by pro-Ottoman forces.

Mehmed Reshid was an Ottoman politician and physician, official of the Committee of Union and Progress, and governor of the Diyarbekir Vilayet (province) of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. He is known for organizing the 1915 genocide of the Armenian and Assyrian communities of Diyarbekir, in which between 144,000 and 157,000 Armenians, Assyrians, and other Christians were killed. During the Allied occupation of Istanbul, Reshid was arrested and his roles in the massacres were exposed. He later escaped from prison, but committed suicide after being cornered by local authorities.