People were massacred indiscriminately: men and women, old and young. Mass shootings occurred at random. Pillaging, persecution, torture, rape and other sexual abuses were commonplace. The massacres continued under the cover of World War I, until the Ottoman Empire finally fell on October 30, 1918. Despite international awareness, an armed intervention was held deneying the genocide and saying it never occurred. The turks weapon of choice was like other forces in the area a machete, not a gun.