25 - The Ottoman Massacres of Armenians, 1894–1896 and 1909

Summary

The academic literature on the two major phases of violence preceding the Armenian genocide (1915-1923), namely the Hamidian Massacres (1894-1896) and the Adana Massacres of 1909, remains in its infancy. While most historians have embraced the continuity approach which claims that the Armenian genocide was the culmination of the two other periods of massacres, only a handful of historians have argued that these episodes of violence should be analyzed and assessed as separate historical events by positioning them in their respective historical contexts. Following the latter approach the following entry analyzes the Hamidian Massacres (1894-1896) and the Adana Massacres of 1909 both of which had catastrophic impact on the Armenians of the Empire. While the former took place during the despotic period of Sultan Abdülhamid II and led to the massacring of more than 200,000 Armenians in different parts of the Ottoman Empire, the latter took place after Young Turks Revolution of 1908 in the provinces of Adana and Aleppo leading to the death of more than 20,000 Armenians. The Hamidian massacres demonstrates the premediated nature of the massacres and the role of the central government. The Adana massacres were organized locally with the participation of the both the provincial authorities as well as local agents and their cronies.