Adana massacre
| Adana massacres | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides; the late Ottoman genocides | |
| Location | Adana Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey) |
| Date | April 1909 |
| Target | Mostly Armenians, but also Greeks and Assyrians |
Attack type | Pogrom, genocidal massacre, ethnic cleansing |
| Deaths | 20,000–30,000 |
| Injured | Unknown |
| Perpetrators | Factions of the Committee of Union and Progress, Ottoman Turkish civilians |
| Motive | Anti-Christian sentiment, ethnic cleansing, Turkification, forced acquisition of property, business, and agricultural resources |
The Adana massacres (Armenian: Ադանայի կոտորած; Turkish: Adana Katliamı) occurred in the Adana vilayet of the Ottoman Empire in April 1909. Many Armenians were slain by Ottoman Muslims in the city of Adana as the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 triggered a series of pogroms throughout the province. Between 20,000 to 30,000 ethnic Armenians and 1,300 Assyrians. were killed and tortured in Adana and the surrounding towns. Unlike the previous Hamidian massacres, the events were not officially organized by the central government, but culturally instigated via local officials, Islamic clerics, and supporters of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP).
After revolutionary groups had secured the deposition of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the restoration of the Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire) in 1908, a military revolt directed against the Committee of Union and Progress seized Constantinople. While the revolt lasted only ten days, it reignited anti-Armenian sentiment in the region and precipitated the mass destruction of Armenian businesses and farms, public hangings, sexual violence, and executions rooted in political, economic, and religious prejudice. These massacres continued for more than one month.
In July 1909, the Young Turk government announced the trials of various government and military officials, for being implicated in the massacres; however, the modern Turkish government and certain Turkish nationalists, deny the massacre happened.