Համիտիէ զօրախումբերու կազմակերպութեան ծագումը (1890-1894)
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Date
1994
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Although the Russo-Turkish War of 1876 came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano, and the weapons were put down with some relief to the warring sides, the treaty was at last discarded at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and its Clause No XVI was changed to Clause No LXI of the Treaty of Berlin, and if the first treaty made sure that needed reforms in the Armenian provinces in Eastern Anatolia should be carried out while the Russian forces present in the provinces, the second made it clear that they would be carried out after the Russians evacuated the Armenian provinces they had occupied.
In spite of the change in the wording and content of the clause pertaining to the Armenian reforms, it created a deep friction and anti-Armenian feeling not only between the Turks and Armenians in the Ottoman empire, out also between Abdul Hamid and the Armenians.
The question of reforms in the six Armenian provinces in Eastern Anatolia was not a novelty, because for the last half a century or so it had come to the foreground and western diplomacy had dealt with more than once. The western powers did now and again make use of it and imposed their will upon the master of the Ottoman World and guaranteed diplomatic and economic gains for themselves.
In face of this situation the Sultan decided to get rid of the problem by getting rid of the Armenian population of his empire. To achieve this end, between 1890-1894, he organized a task - and striking -- force by making use of the unruly Kurdish tribes, and called it Hamidiye after his name.
According to the findings of Dr. Arthur Beylerian, this force was composed of 34350 men divided into 55 regiments and 72 cavalry contingents.
On this Kurdish army, the Sultan soon added some 24800 Ottoman regulars to have the real capacity of the striking force. The first expression of this combined force of some 60,000 was witnessed at Sassoun in 1894 when some 6000 Armenians were massacred. In protest to the ferocity and massacres, the Henchakist party organized an unarmed demonstration in Constantinople and met arms, bayonets, firearms and weapons, and swords, daggers and clubs of the Ottoman regulars, the softas, the Kurdish tribes and the scum of the Ottoman capital. These latter soon turned over the peaceful Armenian population of Constantinople and started to kill. Soon the massacre spread all over the Ottoman empire, and, as the author states, “with the participation of the fanatic mob, the Hamidiye cavalrymen did everywhere totally fulfill the Sultan's hopes bound to them, and between 1894 and 1896 they destroyed the Western Armenian provinces by exterminating hundreds of thousands unarmed Armenian peasants.”
The article published here deals with the creation and organization of this some 60,000 Kurdish and Ottoman forces, their military regulations, their divisions and regiments, and the first ceremony and parade of the Kurdish tribes and forces. In writing the article, Dr. Beylerian has made use of official and archival material and various other works of historical research and evidence.
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Պէյլերեան, Ա., «Համիտիէ զօրախումբերու կազմակերպութեան ծագումը (1890-1894)», «Հայկազեան հայագիտական հանդէս», Պէյրութ, 1994, էջ 81-98