Hamidian massacres
The Armenian Massacres of 1894-1896, also known as the Hamidic Massacres, were mass crimes against the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire during the years from 1894 to 1896.
The massacres of the Armenians from 1894 to 1896 were instigated by the Ottoman government - namely Sultan Abdülhamid II. The massacres began in the Sason region and then spread to all Armenian settlement areas. The death toll ranged from 80,000 to over 300,000. With the help of the local Muslim population and Hamidiye units, deportations and looting were also carried out and attempts were also made to force Christian sections of the population to convert to Islam.
Unlike the genocide of the 20th century, it was not yet an attempt to expel or murder all the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire; instead, the old order of Muslim dominance over Christians was to be restored. Robert F. Melson referred to the anti-Armenian riots as "partial genocide." Bernard Lazare, writing in a Parisian journal in 1898, referred to the mass murder as holocauste.
The perpetrators' reasons lay in the conviction that the long-lasting weakening of the Ottoman Empire could be stopped by transforming it into a purely Turkish-Islamic bastion, which was to be implemented, among other things, through "genocide-tinged religiozides".
Although the massacres were mainly directed against the Armenians, they turned into general anti-Christian pogroms, as in the Diyarbakır massacre. The Ottomans also suppressed revolts by other minorities, but the harshest measures were directed against the Armenians. Those in charge of the Ottoman Empire did not distinguish between nationalist dissidents and the Armenian population as a whole. The U.S. missionary and contemporary witness Corinna Shattuck described the massacre of December 28, 1895 in Urfa, in which about 1,500 of 4,000 victims were burned alive in a church, in a letter of 1896 as "a massacre that became a great holocaust."
The events did receive topical attention in Western Europe and the United States, with the New York Times reporting on September 10, 1895, under the headline "Another Armenian Holocaust." William Mitchell Ramsay described the massacre in detail in 1897, concluding, "The Armenians will in all probability be exterminated, unless they can escape to other countries." Both Europe and America were outraged, but ultimately stood by and watched the persecution.
Armenians killed in the Erzurum massacre, November 1895.
Settlement Areas of the Armenians in the Northeast of the Ottoman Empire 1896
Questions and Answers
Q: What were the Hamidian massacres?
A: The Hamidian massacres took place between 1895 and 1897, during which an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Armenians were killed. They are also known as the "Great Massacres" by the Armenian people.
Q: What caused the Armenian revolutionary groups to form?
A: The Armenian revolutionary groups formed at the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1878 and grew with the introduction of Article 166 of the Ottoman Penal code 166, and a raid on Erzerum Cathedral.
Q: How was Article 166 used against Armenians?
A: Article 166 was meant to control possession of arms but it was used to target Armenians by not allowing them to possess arms. Local Kurdish tribes were armed in order to attack defenseless Armenian populations.
Q: What did some diplomats suggest about these events?
A: Some diplomats suggested that these events were committed in order to show counter-measures and invite foreign powers to intervene, as Istanbul's British Ambassador Sir Philip Currie saw in March 1894.
Q: Do Turkish authors admit that this was a pretext for massacres?
A: Yes, some Turkish authors do admit that this was just a pretext for massacres.
Q: Who initiated these attacks against Armenians?
A: These attacks against Armenians were initiated by local Kurdish tribes who had been armed by Article 166 of the Ottoman Penal Code.
Q: When did these events take place?
A: The Hamidian Massacres took place between 1895 and 1897.
