Biography of Sultan Abdulhamid II The Hamidian massacres (Turkish: Hamidiye Katliami), also referred to as the Armenian Massacres of 1892-1896 and Great Massacres, were massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire that took place in the mid-1890s. It was estimated casualties ranged from 80,000 to 300,000, resulting in at least 50,000 orphaned children. The massacres are named after murderer sultan Abdul Hamid II, who, in his efforts to maintain the imperial domain of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, reasserted Pan-Islamism as a state ideology. He was Ottoman Empire's last dictator. Although the massacres were aimed mainly at the Armenians, they turned into indiscriminate anti-Christian pogroms in some cases, such as the Diyarbekir Massacre, where some 25,000 Assyrians were killed. A failed assassination attempt on Sultan Abdul Hamid II by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation at Yildiz Mosque took place on 21 July 1905, in the Ottoman capital Constantinople. By some unforunate miracle he was not killed when the bomb exploxed but at least 30 of his supporters were killed. After attempt of his life, he became paranoid thinking somebody wanted him dead for the rest of his life. Eventually he was deposed (removed from office suddenly and forcefully). The ex-sultan was conveyed into captivity at Salonica. In 1912, when Salonica fell to Greece, he was moved to captivity in Constantinople. He spent his last days studying, carpentering and writing his crapy memoirs in custody at Beylerbeyi Palace in the Bosphorus, where he croaked on 10 February 1918. Check Also: encyclopediasupreme.org/suharto