page_title: Hamidiye (cavalry)
hierarchical_section_title: Hamidiye (cavalry)
context_page_description: The Hamidiye regiments were well-armed, irregular, mainly Sunni Kurdish, but also Turkish, Circassian, Turkmen,
  Yörük and Arab cavalry formations that operated in the south 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 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 Eastern Provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Even though the Ottomans intended to also include Arab and Turkmenian tribes in the cavalry, almost all the tribes that joined were Kurdish.
  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, 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.
context_section_description: The Hamidiye regiments (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, Turkmen,
   Yörük and Arab cavalry formations that operated in the south 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 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 Eastern Provinces of the Ottoman Empire (Western Armenia in some sources). Even though the Ottomans intended to also include Arab and Turkmenian tribes in the cavalry, almost all the tribes that joined were Kurdish. 
  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.
caption: A major in the Hamidiye
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