Sassoun Massacre

The Sassoun Massacre refers to several mass murders that were committed during the Hamidian Massacres of the 1890s and the Armenian genocide of 1915. It took place in the Sassoun region of the Ottoman Empire, which is now part of Eastern Turkey.

Armenian orphans who arrived from Sassoun in Gyumri.

History

In 1894, Sultan Abdul Hamid II began to target the Armenian people in a precursor to the Hamidian massacres. This persecution strengthened nationalistic sentiment among Armenians. The first notable battle which was waged by the Armenian resistance took place in Sasun. Hunchak activists, such as Mihran Damadian, Hampartsoum Boyadjian, and Hrayr Dzhoghk, encouraged resistance against double taxation and Ottoman persecution. The ARF armed the people of the region. The Armenians confronted the Ottoman army and Kurdish irregulars at Sasun, finally succumbing to superior numbers and to Turkish assurances of amnesty, which never materialized.[1]

In response to the resistance in Sasun, the governor of Mush responded by inciting the local Muslims against the Armenians. Historian Lord Kinross wrote that massacres of this kind were often achieved by gathering Muslims in a local mosque and claiming the Armenians had the aim of "striking at Islam".[2]

This statement was made by Edward Atkin of the Armenian Relief Fund on August 31, 1895:[3]

Our agent in Constantinople has provided reports that substantiate the claims of the Ottoman government's intention to forcibly relocate the Armenian population from the Sassoun region. The Committee wishes to bring to the attention of Lord Salisbury the dire situation that has arisen as a result of the actions of Turkish officials.

Medzn Mourad lead groups to defend civilians against Ottoman armies.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II sent the Ottoman army into the area and he also armed groups of Kurdish irregulars. The violence spread and it also affected most of the Armenian towns in the Ottoman Empire.[4]

Upon investigation, a European mission concluded that Armenians were not at fault, but rather acted in self-defense. The mission called for the sultan to enforce the reforms that were previously pledged.[5]

Some Ottoman officials went against orders to massacre and terrorize. Ibrahim of Akhlat reported violence to the British, while Celaleddin Bey of Muş wrote a report criticizing the use of armed forces against Armenians and stating that 10,000 people had been killed. Celaleddin was later transferred and removed from office. Ferik Edhem Paşa also refused to carry out palace orders.[6]

British Vice Consul Shipley's report wrote "the Armenians were massacred without distinction of age or sex were absolutely hunted like wild beasts, being killed wherever they were met, an it was not so much the suppression of a pseudo revolt which was desired by Turkish authorities as the extermination pure and simple of the Armenians in Sassoon".[7]

The Ottoman Empire was in decline, and the ruling Young Turks saw the Armenian population as a threat to their vision of a unified Turkish state. In 1915, the Ottoman government began a systematic campaign to eliminate the Armenian population. This campaign was characterized by mass deportations, forced marches, and massacres.[8]

The Sassoun Massacre was one of the most significant events of this campaign. The Ottoman government sent a large military force to the region, which began to systematically attack Armenian villages and towns.

Women have been stolen, their breasts cut off, their stomachs ripped, children impaled, old men dismembered. Young girls withdrew in uncountable set ... since May 5th, Turkish armies have wiped out one village after another in Berdakh, Mkragom, Alikrpo, Avazakhiubr and Arnist.[9]

References
  1. Kurdoghlian, Mihran (1996). Պատմութիւն Հայոց [History of Armenia] (in Armenian). Vol. III. Athens: Council of National Education Publishing. pp. 42–44.
  2. Lord Kinross (1977). The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: Morrow, p. 559.
  3. Tuscan, Michelle (2017). The British Empire and the Armenian Genocide Humanitarianism and Imperial Politics from Gladstone to Churchill. p. 3.
  4. Hovannisian, Richard G (1997). "The Armenian Question in the Ottoman Empire, 1876–1914" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian. New York: St. Martin's Press, p. 223. ISBN 0-312-10168-6.
  5. David P Forsythe. Encyclopedia of Human Rights (1 ed.). p. 93.
  6. Morris, Benny. The Thirty-Year Genocide - Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924. p. 56.
  7. Gordon Severance, Diana Severance (2012). Against the Gates of Hell The Life & Times of Henry Perry, a Christian Missionary in a Moslem Land. p. 214.
  8. Suny, Ronald. "Armenian Genocide History".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. Correspondence on events in Sasun. May 22, 1904//Sassoun et les atrocités hamidiennes, interpellation. Les atrocités. Rapport officiel. Genéve, 1904, p. 27–32.

Further reading

  • Mehmet Polatel. The Complete Ruin of a District: The Sasun Massacre of 1894.
  • Vahakn N. Dadrian (2003). The History of the Armenian Genocide Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus.
  • Martirosyan, Tigran. The 1894 Sasun Massacre: Revisiting the Number of Victims.

See also
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