The persecution of Armenians in Anatolia was committed over several years by several actors. While your question may refer to the events in 1915, it is important to understand that these were not isolated events conceived by a solitary actor.

Systematic persecutions were allowed by the government of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the 1880’s and 1890’s as many Armenians were dispossessed of their lands. Occasionally, Armenians would resort to armed resistance against government officials and Kurds who were seizing their property. One such event captured international attention at the time: "A certain Kurdish chieftain, one Moussa Bey, burned Armenian villages, waylaid and robbed merchants and carried away young girls. Moved by the cries of the peasants, echoed through the Patriarch in Constantinople, the Turkish government summoned the chieftain to the capital for a pretended trial, but we was acquitted, despite overwhelming proofs against him" (Kurkjian 295) Here’s an article about Moussa Bey’s sham trial

In 1895, amidst a series of alleged reforms, Abdul Hamid II issued secret orders for the massacre of Armenians in the provinces of: Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Diarbekir, Sivas and Kharput. In 1895 and 1896 between 63,000 and 100,000 Armenians were killed in those regions. In 1896 the Sultan ordered the murder of 8000 Armenians in Constantinople.

After a few years of internal political turmoil, revolution, and counter-revolution Sultan Abdul Hamid was exiled, and The Committee of Union and Progress, also known as The Young Turks, became the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire. The CUP was headed by a triumvirate, consisting of Enver Pasha, Talaat Pasha, and Javid Pasha. Talaat Pasha held the role of Minister of the Interior and was charged with dealing with the (supposedly rebellious) Armenian minority in the Empire. Upon solidifying power in 1909, the Young Turks ordered massacres at Adana and parts of Cilicia during which 30,000 Armenians were killed.

After entering World War I in 1914, the CUP decided to exterminate the entire Armenian population in Turkey. On April 24, 1915, Talaat Pasha ordered the “arrest and deportation of the intellectuals of Constantinople and their subsequent murder in a remote area. Then followed the systematic massacres in towns and villages of all young and able-bodied Armenians.” (Kurkjian 298) Over the next several months, an estimated 1 million-1.5 million Armenians perished during mass deportations into the Syrian Desert.

Kurkjian, V. M. (1958). A History of Armenia. New York: Armenian General Benevolent Union of America.

Tl;dr There is no single “face of the Armenian Genocide.” Massacres and deportations of Armenians occurred over a 20+ year period, by several governments. The events of 1915 were sparked by a direct order from Interior Minister, Mehmed Talaat Pasha, a member of the ruling triumvirate from the Committee of Union and Progress political party.

edit: formatting