Why does the Turkish government reject the description of the 1915 events as genocide?

The Turkish government rejects the classification of the 1915 events as genocide, maintaining that the mass killings and deportations were not the result of a state-directed policy of extermination.123

Instead, the government contends that the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire acted as a rebellious element during a critical national security crisis in World War I. Officials argue that the deportation of Armenians from Eastern Anatolia was a necessary measure to pacify a group they viewed as a dangerous, disloyal element conspiring with enemy forces.124

While the Turkish government has acknowledged that atrocities and some killings occurred during this period, it denies that these actions were initiated or orchestrated by the Young Turk leadership. This stance stands in contrast to the consensus among most historians, who conclude that the systematic deportations and massacres meet the definition of genocide—the intentional killing of an ethnic or religious group.123