1894 Sasun rebellion

The Sassoun resistance of 1894, also known as First Sassoun resistance (Armenian: Սասնո առաջին ապստամբութիւն), was the conflict between Ottoman Empire's forces and the Armenian militia belonging to the Armenian national movement's Hunchak party in the Sassoun region.

First Sasun Resistance
Location of the 1894 and 1904 Sasun uprisings
Date 1894 Location Sason, Bitlis Vilayet, Ottoman Empire Result Ottoman victory Suppression of the Armenian resistance, followed by wholesale massacres of Armenian civilian population
Belligerents
Armenian rebels Hnchak Party	Ottoman Empire Hamidiye
Commanders and leaders
Mihran Damadian Hampartsoum Boyadjian Hrayr Dzhoghk	,
Strength
8,000[1]	10,000[1]
Casualties and losses
20,000 rebel and civilians[1]	550[1]

Background

See also: Armenian national movement and Armenian Question

The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party was an Armenian national movement active in the region. In 1894, Sultan Abdul Hamid II began to target the Armenian people in a precursor of the Hamidian massacres. This persecution strengthened nationalistic sentiment among Armenians.

In Sassoun Armenian nationalist ideas were organized by Hunchak activists, such as Mihran Damadian, Hampartsoum Boyadjian and Hrayr Dzhoghk.

Conflict

Medzn Mourad

The first notable battle in the Armenian resistance movement took place. The Armenians of Sassoun confronted the Ottoman army and Kurdish irregulars at Sassoun, succumbing to superior numbers.[2]

Foreign news agents protested vehemently against the Sassoun event; British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone called Hamid "the Great Criminal" or "the Red Sultan". The rest of the Great Powers also protested and demanded the execution of Hamid's promised reforms. An investigation committee composed of French, British, and Russian representatives were sent to the region in order to examine the event.[2]

Aftermath

In May 1895, the aforementioned foreign powers prepared a set of reforms. However, they were never carried out, because they were not actively imposed on Ottoman Turkey. The Russian Empire's policies vis-a-vis the Armenian question had changed. In fact, the Russian foreign minister Alexei Lobanov-Rostovsky supported Ottoman integrity. Moreover, he was so anti-Armenian that he wanted an "Armenia without Armenians". On the other hand, Britain had gained considerable influence and power in former Ottoman Egypt and Cyprus, and for Gladstone, good relations with the Ottomans were less important than before. Meanwhile, Turkey had found a new European ally, Germany's Bismarck. The Ottoman Empire thus felt free to commit further massacres, in 1896.[2]

See also

• Social Democrat Hunchakian Party

Footnotes

1. A Crime of Silence: The Armenian Genocide , p 133
2. Kurdoghlian, Mihran (1996). Hayots Badmoutioun, Volume III (in Armenian). Athens, Greece: Hradaragoutioun Azkayin Ousoumnagan Khorhourti. pp. 42–44.