Assyrians (aka Syriacs, Nestorians, Chaldeans) were Christian minorities living before World War I in Southeastern Turkey and Northwestern Iran. They had a history of being victims of religious persecution and massviolence dating back to the 1840s. This culminated in systematic massacres in 1895-96 (the Hamidian massacres) and the 1915-1916 genocide often referred to as the Armenian genocide. This article describes the nature of this violence and the extent to which these CHristians were forced out of their homelands.