Massacres of Diyarbekir (1895)
| Massacres of Diyarbakır (1895) | |
|---|---|
| Part of Hamidian massacres | |
| Location | Diyarbekir Vilayet, Ottoman Empire |
| Date | 1895 |
Attack type | Mass murder |
| Deaths | 25,000 |
| Perpetrators | Kurdish irregulars, Ottoman governors |
| Motive | Anti-Armenian and Anti-Assyrian agitation |
| Part of a series on |
| Assyrians |
|---|
| Assyrian culture |
| By country |
| Assyrian diaspora |
| Language |
| Subgroups |
| Religion |
| By location |
| Persecution |
Massacres of Diyarbakır were massacres that took place in the Diyarbekir Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire between the years of 1894 and 1896 by Muslims, a majority of whom were ethnic Kurds. The events were part of the Hamidian massacres and targeted the vilayet's Christian population – mostly Armenians and Assyrians.
The massacres were initially directed at Armenians, instigated by Ottoman politicians and clerics under the pretext of their desire to dismantle the state, but they soon changed into a general anti-Christian pogrom as the killing moved to the Diyarbekir Vilayet and surrounding areas of Tur Abdin, which were inhabited by ethnic Assyrian Christians. Contemporary accounts put the total number of Assyrians killed between 1894 and 1896 at around 25,000.