by Benny Morris
the party that, in 1908, would topple Abdülhamid’s rule. Among them were
“some four of the worst characters in the place.” Hallward said they regarded
the situation as “revolutionary” and had sought to provoke disorder in order
to topple the sultan.272
The French ambassador reported that the 400 Armenian families still living
in the Diyarbekir area after the massacres were in dire need, but the authori-
ties were withholding aid. The local priest had refused to sign a tele gram to
the sultan blaming the Armenians for inciting the vio lence they had suffered.
Until he did so, the government wouldn’t help.273
Antep (Aintab)
In the fall of 1895, Antep, in Aleppo vilayet, was experiencing a by- now-
familiar tension between Armenians struggling under Turkish oppression,
and Turkish authorities perceiving in that strug gle only insurrectionary ac-
tivity. On October 9, under authority of Constantinople, officials there ar-
rested “the Protestant Pastor and a College professor” considered “guilty of
sedition and the organ ization of [revolutionary] socie ties.”274 Barnham, the
British consul in Aleppo, complained of revolutionaries stirring up “younger
The Massacres of 1894–1896
Armenians.” Led by a Hunchak called Aghasse, they were, Barnham thought,
trying to provoke Turkish “retaliation.”275 But he offered no concrete illus-
tration, and missionaries in Antep interpreted the situation differently. They
felt, quite to the contrary, that local Christians had behaved with the “greatest
forbearance” in the face of the “grossest and most wanton insult, abuse and
vio lence” from their Muslim neighbors.276 Barnham saw it himself. Shortly
after the October 9 arrests, he watched troops pass through the town “fol-
lowed by crowds of Mussulman women weeping and cursing the infidels.”277
Fear gripped local Christians, who worried that the fate of Trabzon and
Sason would soon befall them. They shut themselves in their homes. Unable
to work out of doors and shop in town, “thousands are without food,” a mis-
sionary reported. “Over 1,000 men” had fled to “mosques and khans and
houses of power ful Moslems” where they obtained shelter but lived as virtual
prisoners.278
Americus Fuller, a missionary and president of the town’s Central Turkey
College, believed—or hoped— that Antep would escape the suffering en-
dured by Armenians elsewhere. Circumstances in the town were diff er ent: the
Christians were “exceptionally intelligent and influential” and “the leading
Moslems . . . able men” who “have shown themselves to a degree tolerant of
and even friendly to Christians.” Furthermore, “the Governor has seemed dis-
posed beyond most Turkish officials to re spect the rights of Christians,” the
town had a relatively large contingent of foreigners “sure to be witnesses of
any vio lence done to Christians,” and the missionary hospital and college
had generated “good will” among “all classes.” Moreover, the town’s Chris-
tians had “given very little countenance to the ultra- revolutionists.”279 Still, there was no mistaking the repeated threats of anti- Christian vio lence, and the
local government largely disarmed Christians while arming Muslims, alleg-
edly to put down a pos si ble Armenian uprising.280
The vio lence caught up with Antep on November 16, when the mission-
aries, at breakfast, heard “a great noise of shouting and firing of guns . . . telling us that the work of blood and plunder had begun.” Crowds ran to and fro,
and the roofs were covered with “excited men, women and children.” Mis-
sionary physician Fred Douglas Shepard rode his horse through the town and
heard, “most terrible of all, the shrill, exultant lu- lu-lu of Kurdish and Turkish women cheering on their men to the attack.” Fuller too remarked on the “loud
Abdülhamid
II
shrill Zullghat . . . raised by Turkish women crowded on their roofs and
cheering on their men to attack.” He likened the sound to that “of our northern
loons, prolonged and sharpened.” Shepard and Fuller saw Armenians as-
saulted and their homes looted. Armenians, “ women . . . often foremost,”
defended their homes from the rooftops with “stones and firearms.”281
Some mobs were beaten back, but where Armenian houses were isolated,
the rioters broke through, plundering and torching. In certain areas, the “up-
roar went on till near midnight.” Hamidiyes took part in the massacre, while
other troops protected the missionary schools and hospital from the mob but
made no attempt to stop the vio lence. Indeed, they took part in the looting.
Missionaries watched villa gers leave the city loaded down with stolen goods.282
Weeks later army deserters were seen in the streets of Aleppo selling their
loot.283 A Franciscan priest who witnessed the massacre later told Barnham
that “butchers and tanners . . . armed with clubs and cleavers” were promi-
nent among the killers. They screamed “Allahu Akbar” as they broke down
doors “with pickaxes and levers or scaled the walls with ladders” and then
cut down the Armenians they encountered. “When mid- day came they knelt
down and said their prayers, and then jumped up and resumed the dreadful
work. . . . Whenever they were unable to break down the doors they fired the
houses with petroleum.”284
The plunder and massacre continued the next day, after Turkish villa gers
entered the town, brushing past a cordon of soldiers. Kurds, “waving a green
flag and beating tomtoms,” tried to join the villa gers but were blocked by the
mufti and soldiers “ because it was feared that they would plunder Moslems
as well as Christians.”285 This time the Christians were prepared and re-
pulsed their assailants. “At one point on the line of defense were a few Muslim
houses and we were delighted to learn that the men heartily and bravely
joined in the defense with their neighbors,” Fuller recorded. But “the gal-
lantry of this act was somewhat marred . . . by the demand which they made
the next day for a large sum of money for this ser vice.” The men received
“about five dollars apiece for this neighborly help.”286 Some Muslims “be-
haved with great humanity” and protected Armenians.287 Even so, “not less
than 400” Armenians were killed, according to Shepard.288 Fuller reported
that Muslim casualties amounted to no more than twenty- five killed or seri-
ously wounded.289
The Massacres of 1894–1896
Following the massacre, Antep’s prisons were crammed with Armenians.290
In January 1896 some 750 were still “shut up in the Armenian church,” and
all Armenian shops remained closed.291 Four thousand people depended on
charity “for daily bread.”292 Barnham suggested that the continuing, wholesale
arrest of wealthy Armenians was in large mea sure designed to enable expro-
priation.293 The arrests may also have been used to press for conversion. As
Antep’s leading Muslim notables, including the new kaymakam, told the Ar-
menians after the massacres, there was now “no hope of their living in secu-
rity unless they will become
Mohammedans.”294 By March, it was reported
that at nearby Cibin all but one of the 500 or so Christians were forced to pro-
fess Islam. The exception was a “lady over 110 years of age” who told her
tormentors, “I am too old to change my faith. I know no one but Christ.” Many
converts were robbed.295 Christian graveyards were desecrated, the bones
carried off and scattered, and Christian- owned trees were destroyed.296
No Antep Muslims were punished, and the authorities systematically por-
trayed the Christians “as the aggressors.”297 In June 1896 Lutfi Pasha, the
newly appointed commander of the reserve troops at Aleppo, tried to restore
Christian property and bring the plunderers to justice. But his efforts came to
naught after arrests of robbers led to a mass demonstration of Muslims in
Antep. The detainees were soon released. Some threw stolen property into
the street or burned it to protest Lutfi Pasha’s offenses against impunity.298
In the aftermath, Fuller was sure that the local government was “wholly in
sympathy with the rioters.” Indeed, there could “be no doubt that it has incited
and directed nearly all the disturbances.”299 A few weeks after the killings, an
American missionary described a firman ordering the massacre. Alterna-
tively, he suggested that there had been “a wink from Constantinople.” More
concretely, “the Mufti and Cadi [kadi, religious judge], together, issued a
Fetva [or fatwa] the eve ning before the massacre to the effect that the lives
and property of the Christians were lawful prey.”300 Barnham was later told
that “a number of persons from Constantinople dressed as dervishes” had ar-
rived shortly before the massacre and “ were received with extraordinary
honor” by the authorities, who then spent hours closeted with them.301 Even
if it could not be proven that orders had come from on high, at the very least,
the arrival in town of crowds of villa gers at the start of the massacre suggested that the disturbances “had been planned beforehand.”302
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II
Additional Massacres
There were hundreds, perhaps thousands, more attacks on Armenian com-
munities during 1895–1896. More, certainly, than we are able to discuss in
detail. What follow are brief summaries of some incidents about which docu-
mentation is available.
In the town of Tokat, in central Anatolia, a pogrom broke out on March 19,
1895, triggered by a brawl in the marketplace. Between five and ten Arme-
nians were killed, and about a hundred were wounded.303
Merzifon was the site of a massacre on November 14, 1895. Around noon,
a rumor spread that Armenians had attacked a mosque. Villa gers swarmed into
the city, and the mob descended on the market, goaded by cries from the min-
arets. The troops, according to all accounts, did not participate in the mas-
sacre but were “tardy” in protecting Armenians. An estimated 150 died.304
Gurun, in Sivas vilayet, was bathed in blood in November 1895. Replaying
a standard pattern, the Armenians there were duped into defenselessness by
official lies. The Armenians handed over their guns to the vali in exchange
for a promise of state protection. When the mob attacked, its members had
no trou ble breaking into homes, where reports indicate that they killed the
men “and outraged the young women and girls; they cut open mothers with
child, and tossed little children from knife to knife.” Then they torched the
houses, burning to death anyone hiding inside.305 Estimates of the death toll
range from 400 to as many as 2,000.306 The French ambassador sent home
word that “more than a thousand bodies lay on the ground for ten days.”307
The massacre in Kayseri began on November 30. A rumor spread that “the
Christians are killing the Mussulmans,” provoking vio lence. Rioters rushed
the markets and broke into houses.308 Women were murdered in a public
bath and men in a local factory. “ There is ample evidence,” wrote a Western
correspondent and witness, “that the Government deliberately gave per-
mission for plunder and murder to continue for four hours. Soldiers said
so plainly.”309 The number of dead was estimated at 500.310
On January 1, 1896, the Christian quarter of Birecik, in Aleppo vilayet, was
attacked by local Muslims, apparently with some soldiers participating and
others observing from the sidelines. According to Fitzmaurice, who investigated
these assaults as well, Birecik’s Armenians were “poor and hard- working”
The Massacres of 1894–1896
and had little “connection with po liti cal agitation” save “one or two so- called seditious documents” that had been “found among them.” The mob invaded
Armenian homes and demanded “money, trinkets and other valuables on
the promise of sparing their lives.” After valuables were handed over, many
adult males were killed “with ruthless savagery” and the houses and churches
pillaged. Armenian girls were taken “and much dispute and quarrelling oc-
curred in dividing them among the captors.” The authorities subsequently
restored almost all to their families.311
Altogether, about 150 Armenians were murdered, and one Muslim was
wounded “in a brawl over the plunder.”312 The dead were thrown into the
Euphrates. Armenians attempted to secure their lives by converting to Islam,
but even some converts were killed. About 1,600 Gregorian, Protestant, and
Catholic Armenians turned Muslim; the Gregorian church was converted into
a mosque; and some converts were circumcised. All “now wear turbans and
are apparently most zealous in their attendance at the mosque,” Fitzmaurice
reported.313
But, under Western pressure, the sultan in effect refused to recognize the
Birecik mass conversion. For months the local authorities, Western diplomats,
and the Sublime Porte waged a strug gle over the converts’ souls. “My task has
been a melancholy one,” Fitzmaurice wrote, “for the fanatical outburst, which
had at first some po liti cal colouring, gradually . . . degenerated here into a fierce crusade against Chris tian ity. It was conducted with . . . thoroughness
[and was] carefully planned.”314
Urban pogroms, some substantial, occurred throughout the period of Oc-
tober 1895– June 1896. On October 8, 31 Armenians were killed in Akhisar,
Izmit sanjak, and 55–60 went missing.315 “Nearly 800” were killed in Bitlis
on October 25–26.316 Gümüşhane, in Trabzon vilayet, lost between ten and
thirty Armenians to vio lence on October 25.317 Bayburt, Erzurum vilayet, was
the site of 650–900 killings on October 26 or 27.318 Erzincan (Erzingan) and
Erzurum, both in Erzurum vilayet, witnessed mass killings: 200 or more dead
on October 21 and 350 on October 30–31, respectively.319 Eight hundred
were killed in Severek, Diyarbekir vilayet, on November 2.320 Estimates of the
number killed in Arabkir, Harput vilayet, on November 1–5 range from
1,171321 to 2,800.322 The Armenians of Malatya, Harput vilayet, suffered mas-
sacres on November 4–7; between 1,580 and 3,000 were killed.323 In the
Abdülhamid
II
Harput town of Adıyaman, 410 were killed
between November 7–9.324
Sivas vilayet saw several massacres. On November 12, 1,200–1,500 were killed
in the town of Sivas.325 On November 15, forty were killed in Amasya;326
on November 26 or 28, perhaps 300 in Zile (Zela);327 and on June 20, 1896,
400–500 in Niksar.328
Armenian Rebellion?
As the killing unfolded, Constantinople repeatedly offered the same justifica-
tion: Armenians were not the victims of massacre, because they were engaged
in a rebellion that the state had a right and duty to suppress. Yet at only two
sites, Zeytun (Süleymanlı) and Van, did Armenians even arguably rebel. In-
deed, it might be more accurate to say that Armenians in these locations did
not rebel but only attempted to preempt massacres they sensed were coming.
Zeytun
The Armenians of Zeytun took up arms around October 20, 1895, in response
to the news of massacres elsewhere. During the following weeks, the Zeytunlis
killed dozens of Turkish prisoners and burnt a handful of Muslim villages
before being overwhelmed by Turkish troops.329
Built on a remote mountainside, Zeytun had a population of 8,000–9,000,
overwhelmingly Armenians, plus 400 troops garrisoned in a fort overlooking
the town. For centuries the residents had managed to preserve a mea sure of
autonomy.330 Zeytunlis were known as a hardy people and, in the parlance of
colonial times, backward. In 1881 a British diplomat wrote, “I find them to
be a semi- barbarous and depraved community, little better than savages . . .
ignorant, self- opinionated and conceited.”331 Barnham was more generous;
yes, they were “poor”, because “ignorant and lazy,” but they also were “brave
and in de pen dent.”332
Turkish ill- treatment primed the Zeytunlis for action. In 1894 a newly ap-
pointed kaymakam seized the possessions of local Armenians— whom he
dubbed “dogs”—in lieu of unpaid taxes. A handful of Hunchak agents arrived
from outside and exploited the discontent. According to Barnham, the rebel
leader here, too, was Aghasse, “who won over the villa gers by pres ents of
The Massacres of 1894–1896
money, and by telling them fairy tales about the En glish. They were made to
believe that the movement had the support of the British Government, which