Adana massacres | |
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Part of the Armenian genocide, persecution of Assyrians and the late Ottoman genocides | |
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Location | Adana, Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey). |
Date | April 1909 |
Target | Armenian civilians, some Greeks and Assyrians[1] |
Attack type | Pogrom, genocidal massacre, ethnic cleansing |
Deaths | 20,000,[2] mostly Armenians |
Injured | unknown |
Motive | Anti-Christian sentiment, ethnic cleansing, forced acquisition of property, business, and agricultural resources. |
The Adana massacres (Armenian: Ադանայի կոտորած, Turkish: Adana Katliamı) occurred in the Adana Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire in April of 1909. Many Armenians were slain by Ottoman Muslims in the city of Adana as the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 triggered a series of pogroms throughout the province.[3] Around 20,000 to 25,000 ethnic Armenians were killed and tortured in Adana and surrounding towns, [4] it was reported that about 1,300 Assyrians were also killed during the massacres.[5] Unlike the previous Hamidian massacres, the events were not officially organized by the central government, but culturally instigated via local officials, Islamic clerics, and supporters of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP).
After the Hamidian massacres, The Great Powers (Britain, France, Russia) forced Hamid to sign a new reform package designed to curtail the powers of the Hamidiye in October 1895 which, like the Berlin treaty, was never implemented. On October 1, 1895, two thousand Armenians assembled in Constantinople (now Istanbul) to petition for the implementation of the reforms, but Ottoman police units converged on the rally and violently broke it up.[6] Upon receiving the reform package, the sultan is said to have remarked, "This business will end in blood."[7]
After revolutionary groups had secured the deposition of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the restoration of the Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire) in 1908, a military revolt directed against the Committee of Union and Progress seized Constantinople. While the revolt lasted only ten days, it reignited anti-Armenian sentiment in the region and precipitated the mass destruction of Armenian businesses and farms, public hangings, sexual violence, and executions rooted in political, economic, and religious prejudice. These massacres continued for more than one month. [8] The Armenian quarter of Adana was described as the "richest and most prosperous"; the violence included destruction of "tractors and other kinds of mechanized equipment."[9]
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