Armenian question

Main articles: Hamidian massacres, Yıldız assassination attempt, and Armenian question20 kuruş during the reign of Abdul Hamid II, dating 1878

Starting around 1890, Armenians began demanding implementation of the reforms promised to them at the Berlin Conference.[23] To prevent such measures, in 1890–91 Abdul Hamid gave semi-official status to the bandits who were already actively mistreating the Armenians in the provinces. Made up of Kurds and other ethnic groups such as Turcomans, and armed by the state, they came to be called the Hamidiye Alayları ("Hamidian Regiments").[24] The Hamidiye and Kurdish brigands were given free rein to attack Armenians – confiscating stores of grain, foodstuffs, and driving off livestock – confident of escaping punishment as they were subject only to court-martial.[25] In the face of such violence, the Armenians established revolutionary organizations: the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchak; founded in Switzerland in 1887) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (the ARF or Dashnaktsutiun, founded in 1890 in Tiflis).[26] Unrest ensued and clashes occurred in 1892 at Merzifon and in 1893 at Tokat. Abdul Hamid put these revolts down with harsh methods.[27] As a result, 300,000 Armenians were killed in what became known as the Hamidian massacres. News of the massacres was widely reported in Europe and the United States and drew strong responses from foreign governments and humanitarian organizations.[28] Abdul Hamid was called the "Bloody Sultan" or "Red Sultan" in the West. On 21 July 1905, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation attempted to assassinate him with a car bomb during a public appearance, but he was delayed for a minute, and the bomb went off too early, killing 26, wounding 58 (four of whom died during their treatment in hospital), and destroying 17 cars. This continued aggression, along with the handling of the Armenian desire for reform, led western European powers to take a more hands-on approach with the Turks.[1] Abdul Hamid survived an attempted stabbing in 1904 as well.

Foreign policy[edit]Pan-Islamism[edit]See also: Ottoman CaliphateAn example of what once hung on the Door of Repentance of the Ka'ba in 1897 until 1898. It was made in Egypt under Abdul Hamid II's ruling of the Ottoman Empire. His name is stitched into the fifth line following a verse from the Qur'an.[29]

Abdul Hamid did not believe that the Tanzimat movement could succeed in helping the disparate peoples of the empire achieve a common identity, such as Ottomanism. He adopted a new ideological principle, Pan-Islamism; since, beginning in 1517, Ottoman sultans were also nominally Caliphs, he wanted to promote that fact and emphasized the Ottoman Caliphate. Given the great diversity of ethnicities in the Ottoman Empire, he believed that Islam was the only way to unite his people.

Pan-Islamism encouraged Muslims living under European powers to unite under one polity. This threatened several European countries: Austria through Bosnian Muslims; Russia through Tatars and Kurds; France and Spain through Moroccan Muslims; and Britain through Indian Muslims.[30] Foreigners' privileges in the Ottoman Empire, which were an obstacle to effective government, were curtailed. At the very end of his reign, Abdul Hamid finally provided funds to start construction of the strategically important Constantinople-Baghdad Railway and the Constantinople-Medina Railway, which would ease the trip to Mecca for the Hajj; after he was deposed, the CUP accelerated and completed construction of both railways. Missionaries were sent to distant countries preaching Islam and the Caliph's supremacy.[31] During his rule, Abdul Hamid refused Theodor Herzl's offers to pay down a substantial portion of the Ottoman debt (150 million pounds sterling in gold) in exchange for a charter allowing the Zionists to settle in Palestine. He is famously quoted as telling Herzl's Emissary, "as long as I am alive, I will not have our body divided; only our corpse they can divide."[32]

Pan-Islamism was a considerable success. After the Greco-Ottoman war, many Muslims celebrated the Ottoman victory as their victory. Uprisings, lockouts, and objections to European colonization in newspapers were reported in Muslim regions after the war.[30][33] But Abdul Hamid's appeals to Muslim sentiment were not always very effective, due to widespread disaffection within the Empire. In Mesopotamia and Yemen, disturbance was endemic; nearer home, a semblance of loyalty was maintained in the army and among the Muslim population only by a system of deflation and espionage[citation needed].

America and the Philippines[edit]Map of the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Abdul Hamid II

In 1898, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay asked United States Minister to the Ottoman Empire Oscar Straus to request that Abdul Hamid, in his capacity as caliph, write a letter to the Sulu Muslims, a Moro subgroup, of the Sulu Sultanate in the Philippines, ordering them not to join the Moro Rebellion and submit to American suzerainty and American military rule. The Sultan obliged the Americans and wrote the letter, which was sent to Mecca, whence two Sulu chiefs brought it to Sulu. It was successful, since the "Sulu Mohammedans ... refused to join the insurrectionists and had placed themselves under the control of our army, thereby recognizing American sovereignty."[34][35][36][37][38][39]

Despite Abdul Hamid's "pan-Islamic" ideology, he had readily acceded to Straus's request for help in telling the Sulu Muslims to not resist America, since he felt no need to cause hostilities between the West and Muslims.[40] Collaboration between the American military and Sulu Sultanate was due to the Ottoman Sultan persuading the Sulu Sultan.[41] John P. Finley wrote:

After due consideration of these facts, the Sultan, as Caliph caused a message to be sent to the Mohammedans of the Philippine Islands forbidding them to enter into any hostilities against the Americans, inasmuch as no interference with their religion would be allowed under American rule. As the Moros have never asked more than that, it is not surprising, that they refused all overtures made, by Aguinaldo's agents, at the time of the Filipino insurrection. President McKinley sent a personal letter of thanks to Mr. Straus for the excellent work he had done, and said, its accomplishment had saved the United States at least twenty thousand troops in the field.[42][43]

President McKinley did not mention the Ottoman role in the pacification of the Sulu Moros in his address to the first session of the Fifty-sixth Congress in December 1899, since the agreement with the Sultan of Sulu was not submitted to the Senate until 18 December.[44] The Bates Treaty, which the Americans signed with the Moro Sulu Sultanate, and which guaranteed the Sultanate's autonomy in its internal affairs and governance, was then violated by the Americans, who then invaded Moroland,[45] causing the Moro Rebellion to break out in 1904, with war raging between the Americans and Moro Muslims and atrocities committed against Moro Muslim women and children, such as the Moro Crater Massacre.