Hamidiye (cavalry)
| Hamidiye | |
|---|---|
A major in the Hamidiye
|
|
| Active | 1890-1908 |
| Country | Ottoman Empire |
| Branch | Ottoman Army |
| Type | Cavalry |
| Size | 16,500+ in 1892. |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Zeki Pasha |
The Hamidiye corps (literally meaning "belonging to Hamid", full official name Hamidiye Hafif Süvari Alayları, Hamidiye Light Cavalry Regiments) were well-armed, irregular mainly Sunni Kurdish, but also Turkish, Circassian,TurkmenYörük and 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 had been often ascribed to the Hamidiye regiments, particularly during the bloody suppression of the revolt of the Armenians of Sasun (1894), but recent research contends that the Hamidiye played a less important role than previously assumed.
After Sultan Abdulhamids II reign the cavalry was not dissolved but given a new name, the Tribal Light Cavalry Regiments.
Abdul Hamid II's reign has the reputation of being “the most despotic and centralized era in modern Ottoman History.” Abdul Hamid is also considered the last sultan to have full control over Ottoman Empire. His reign struggled with the culmination of 75 years of change throughout the empire and an opposing reaction to that change.Abdul Hamid II was particularly concerned with the centralization of the empire. His efforts to centralize the Sublime Porte were not unheard of among other sultans. The Ottoman Empire’s local provinces had more control over their areas than the central government. Abdul Hamid II's foreign relations came from a “policy of non-commitment." The sultan understood the fragility of the Ottoman military, and the Empire’s weaknesses of its domestic control. Pan-Islamism became Abdülhamid’s solution to the empire’s loss of identity and power. His efforts to promote Pan-Islamism were for the most part unsuccessful because of the large non-Muslim population, and the European influence onto the empire. Abdul Hamid II's policies essentially isolated the Ottoman Empire, which further aided in its decline. Several of the elite who sought a new constitution and reform for the empire were forced to flee to Europe. After the Treaty of Berlin (1878), the Ottoman Empire began to contract and it lost certain territories. New groups of radicals began to threaten the power of the Ottoman Empire.
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