Hamidian massacres

Hamidian massacres, series of atrocities carried out by Ottoman forces and Kurdish irregulars against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1894 and 1896. They are generally called the Hamidian massacres—after the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II, during whose reign they were carried out—to distinguish them from the later Armenian Genocide, which began in 1915.

The last decades of the 19th century saw the emergence of an Armenian national movement, culminating in the formation of two revolutionary parties called Hënchak (“The Bell”) and Dashnaktsutyun (“Union”) in 1887 and 1890. Although neither party enjoyed widespread support from the Armenian populace, the developments alarmed Abdülhamid II, who was intent on suppressing separatist sentiments in the empire. The Ottoman authorities increased their repression of Armenians, raising taxes on Armenian villages and arousing nationalistic feelings and resentment against Armenians among the neighbouring Kurds. When, in 1894, the Armenians in the Sasun region refused to pay an oppressive tax, Ottoman troops and Kurdish tribesmen killed thousands of them and burned their villages.

Another wave of killing began in September 1895, when the Ottoman authorities’ repression of an Armenian protest in Istanbul turned into a massacre. The incident was followed by a series of massacres in towns with Armenian communities that culminated in December 1895, when nearly 3,000 Armenians who had taken refuge in the cathedral of Urfa (modern Şanlıurfa) were burned alive.

In the hope of calling attention to their cause, Armenian revolutionaries staged another demonstration in 1896, seizing the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul. In the mayhem that followed, more than 5,000 Armenians were killed by mobs of Muslim Turks whose actions were apparently coordinated by government troops.