The Bloody Sultan: How Abdul Hamid II Orchestrated the 1890s Armenian Massacres
In short: Between 1894 and 1896, the Ottoman Empire descended into a state-sponsored campaign of violence against its Armenian population. Orchestrated by Sultan Abdul Hamid II to suppress demands for civil reform, the massacres claimed up to 300,000 lives, leaving behind a trail of destruction that shocked the Western world.
The Hamidian massacres were rooted in the Ottoman Empire's late 19th-century decline and a surge in Armenian nationalism. As Armenians sought equal rights and autonomy, Sultan Abdul Hamid II viewed these demands as existential threats to the empire's Islamic character. He famously labeled Armenian complaints as 'treachery' and, in 1890–91, formalized the 'Hamidiye Regiments'—armed Kurdish irregulars given free rein to plunder Armenian villages and seize property.
The violence escalated significantly in 1894, spreading from the interior to major provinces including Bitlis, Diyarbekir, and Van. The state utilized religious rhetoric to incite local Muslim populations, framing Armenians as enemies of Islam. By 1895, the situation was dire; eyewitnesses like American journalist William Sachtleben described scenes of systematic butchery, noting that victims were often stripped of clothes and mutilated. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, with historians citing figures between 80,000 and 300,000, while approximately 25,000 Assyrians were also killed in the Diyarbekir region.
Despite widespread international outrage and media coverage in Europe and North America, the Great Powers failed to intervene. Even after Armenian revolutionaries seized the Ottoman Bank in 1896 to force global attention, the resulting diplomatic pressure yielded no concrete action. Abdul Hamid II successfully managed the narrative by censoring information and even enlisting figures like Theodor Herzl to improve his image abroad. By 1897, the Sultan declared the 'Armenian Question' closed, having effectively suppressed the movement through terror and forced conversions, leaving a legacy of state-sanctioned violence that remains a dark chapter in imperial history.
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