Turkey / Armenia / Kurdistan: Kurdish Hamidiye cavalry in the service of the Ottoman Empire, 1901

The Hamidiye corps, full official name Hamidiye hafif süvari alayları, Hamidiye light cavalry regiments, were well-armed, irregular Sunni Kurdish, Turkish, Turkmen and Yörük, also Arab cavalry formations that operated in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

Established by and named after Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1891, they were intended to be modeled after the Russian Cossacks and were supposedly tasked to patrol the Russo-Ottoman frontier. However, the Hamidiye were more often used by the Ottoman authorities to harass and assault Armenians living in Turkish Armenia.

A major role in the Armenian massacres of 1894-96 has been often ascribed to the Hamidiye regiments, particularly during the bloody suppression of the revolt of the Armenians of Sasun (1894).

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History

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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE