Armenian massacres in Diyarbakir 1895 The Kurdish image in the diplomatic reports of the French Vice-Consul in Diyarbakir Gustave Meyrier

Abstract

The Armenian massacre in Diyarbakir (13- November 1895) is one of the first pages of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, and later became a bloody beginning in the history of the Ottoman Empire, which continued until the last quarter of the Ottoman era, It was also adopted in the republican era as a policy Ethnic genocide perpetrated by the Turkish state against many non-Turkish peoples and ethnic minorities. This study attempts, through diplomatic reports between the French Consulate in Diyarbakir and the French Embassy in Istanbul, which were exchanged during 18941896-, to shed light on the actual scene of the involvement of Kurdish tribes in the Diyarbakir massacre against the Armenians. These reports are an important historical source, because the consul himself was present in Diyarbakir and at the center of the events, moreover, the reports are written in a confidential manner and with the aim of giving as much real information as possible about the sequence of acts of massacre to the French government. Therefore, the exchange of secret diplomatic reports between the Vice-Consul of France Gustav Mayer in Diyarbakir and Paul Cambon, the French ambassador in Istanbul, clearly shows us the role of the auxiliary parties in participating in the Diyarbakir massacre in 1895, a picture that represents the participation of the Hamidiye regiments and Kurdish tribes. The Diyarbakir Massacre of 1895, according to most historical sources, resulted in 100,000 to 300,000 Armenian casualties, but the debate remains open to re-reading and re-history of the 1895 massacre. Our study is part of a research project on the actual picture of the involvement of Kurdish tribes in the Diyarbakir massacre for the Armenians in 1895.