The massacres of 1909: Violence in revolutionary context in Adana and its hinterland

This study is a reconsideration of the Massacres of 1909 in the light of the ethnoreligious relations in four urban centers (Kayseri, Maraş, Zeytun, and Antakya) from its hinterlands. Based on mainly Ottoman, British, and American Board Commission archival documents, it scrutinizes the history of these urban centers in the first year of the Young Turk period and explains the two massacres in Adana town center with the conclusions drawn from them. Demonstrating the ethnoreligious tensions, the protests against local governments, the role of religion, the agency of the commoner Muslims, and the power of Muslim notables between the Revolution and the Massacres; the study calls for a reevaluation of some predominant paradigms of causation, which are the dominance of the center over the regions, base over superstructure, and patrician over plebeian in interpreting the Young Turk regime's abstract principles, specifically on the rights of Ottoman Armenians. Also, the study investigates the relationship between the Massacres and the 31 March Incident and suggests going beyond the historiography that belittles the conception of reaction by dividing it into three stages: absorption, antirevolution, and counterrevolution. The study argues that Massacres of 1909 were reactionary movements in the stage of anti-revolution, and their potential of turning into counterrevolution was a vital factor in making the already reluctant Young Turk policymakers abandon the realization of universalist principles regarding Ottoman Armenian rights.