The Hamidian massacres
Under Sultan Abdülhamid II, Ottoman troops, Kurdish irregulars and mobs kill tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Armenians across Anatolia after Armenians press for reform.
- "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide — Ronald Grigor Suny, Princeton University Press (2015)
- Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History — Ronald Grigor Suny, Indiana University Press (1993)
- Hamidian massacres — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Present — Simon Payaslian, Palgrave Macmillan (2007)
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
After the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–78, the Treaty of Berlin obliged the Ottoman government to carry out reforms to protect Armenians in the eastern provinces, but nothing was enforced. Armenian revolutionary parties, the Hunchaks (1887) and the Dashnaktsutyun (1890), began to organise. Sultan Abdülhamid II, fearing that Armenians would become another Balkan-style nationalist cause, created the Hamidiye, irregular cavalry regiments drawn from Kurdish tribes.
- "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide — Ronald Grigor Suny, Princeton University Press (2015)
- Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History — Ronald Grigor Suny, Indiana University Press (1993)
In 1894 Armenians at Sasun resisted tax demands and Kurdish attacks, and troops and Hamidiye massacred the villagers. In 1895–96, after a demonstration in Istanbul, killings spread across dozens of towns in eastern and central Anatolia, often after Friday prayers. In August 1896 Dashnak militants seized the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul; in revenge, mobs killed thousands of Armenians in the capital over the next days.
- Hamidian massacres — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide — Ronald Grigor Suny, Princeton University Press (2015)
Estimates of the dead range widely, from about 80,000 to 300,000, with many historians citing 100,000 or more; Ottoman figures were far lower. Tens of thousands more were forcibly converted or fled. Europe protested but did not act. The massacres convinced many Armenians that only self-defence or outside intervention could protect them, and convinced many Ottoman officials that Armenians were a dangerous internal enemy.
- "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide — Ronald Grigor Suny, Princeton University Press (2015)
- The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Present — Simon Payaslian, Palgrave Macmillan (2007)
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
An organised campaign of terror against a defenceless people, meant to crush hopes of reform and reduce the Armenian population of the eastern provinces, carried out while the European powers looked on.
- Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History — Ronald Grigor Suny, Indiana University Press (1993)
- "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide — Ronald Grigor Suny, Princeton University Press (2015)
Ottoman authorities described the violence as the suppression of Armenian revolutionary uprisings encouraged by foreign powers, and gave far lower casualty figures. Most historians do not accept this as an explanation for the scale of the killing.
- Hamidian massacres — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Turkey: A Modern History (4th edition) — Erik J. Zürcher, I.B. Tauris (2017)
Why it matters today
For Armenians, these massacres were the prelude to 1915: proof that the threat to their existence began well before the First World War, and that European promises of protection meant little. Many families' migration stories, to America, France or the Caucasus, start in the 1890s.