Adana massacre The Adana massacre ( ) occurred in Adana Province , in the Ottoman Empire , in April 1909 . A massacre of Armenian Christians in the city of Adana amidst governmental upheaval resulted in a series of anti - Armenian pogroms throughout the district . Reportedly nearly 1 , 300 Assyrians were massacred during this event . Reports estimated that the massacres in Adana Province resulted in up to 30 , 000 deaths . Turkish and Armenian revolutionary groups had worked together to secure the restoration of constitutional rule , in 1908 . On 31 March ( or 13 April , by the Western calendar ) a military revolt directed against the Committee of Union and Progress seized Istanbul . While the revolt lasted only ten days , it precipitated a massacre of Armenians in the province of Adana that lasted over a month . The massacres were rooted in political , economic , and religious differences . The Armenian segment of the population of Adana was the " richest and most prosperous " , and the violence included the destruction of " tractors and other kinds of mechanized equipment . " The Christian - minority Armenians had also openly supported the coup against Sultan Abdul Hamid II , which had deprived the Islamic head of state of power . The awakening of Turkish nationalism , and the perception of the Armenians as a separatist , European - controlled entity , also contributed to the violence . Origins . In 1908 , the Young Turk government came to power in a bloodless revolution . Within a year , Turkey ' s Armenia n population , empowered by the dismissal of Abdul Hamid II , began organizing politically in support of the new government , which promised to place them on equal legal footing with their Muslim counterparts . Having long endured so - called dhimmi status , and having suffered the brutality and oppression of Hamidian leadership since 1876 , the Armenian minority in Cilicia perceived the nascent Young Turk government as a godsend . Christians now being granted the rights to arm themselves and form politically significant groups , it was not long before Abdul Hamid loyalists , themselves acculturated into the system that had perpetrated the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s , came to view the empowerment of the Christian minority as coming at their expense . The Countercoup of March 1909 wrested control of the government out of the hands of the secularist Young Turks , and Abdul Hamid II briefly recovered his dictatorial powers . Appealing to the reactionary Muslim population with populist rhetoric calling for the re - institution of Islamic law under the banner of a pan - Islamic caliphate , the Sultan mobilized popular support against the Young Turks by identifying himself with the historically Islamic character of the state . According to one source , when news of a mutiny in Istanbul arrived in Adana , speculation circulated among the Muslim population of an imminent Armenian insurrection . By April 14 the Armenian quarter was attacked by a mob , and many thousands of Armenians were killed in the ensuing weeks . Other reports emphasize that a " skirmish between Armenians and Turks on April 13 set off a riot that resulted in the pillaging of the bazaars and attacks upon the Armenian quarters . " Two days later , more than 2 , 000 Armenians had been killed as a result . The outbreaks spread throughout the district and by the end of the month as many as 30 , 000 Armenians were reported killed . At least one western historian has suggested that the origins of the Adana Massacre lie in an Armenian revolt . Erickson has suggested that the April 14 massacre was a product of an Armenian " uprising " , rather than the countercoup . In his August 1909 report on the massacre , Charles Doughty - Wylie asserts that " The theory of an armed revolution on the part of the Armenians is now generally discredited with the more intelligent people " . Doughty - Wylie explained that an uprising could not be said to be taking place without some concentration of forces , or without any effort to make use of the various available strongholds , and in any case the number of Armenians would be " an easy match for the regular Turkish army " . " They would not have left their sons and brothers scattered widely through the province for harvest without arms , without any hope of escape . " In those difficult times for the Ottoman Empire and its citizenry , the Armenians were also believed to be a target owing to their relative wealth , and their quarrels with imperial taxation . A report by England ' s Adana Vice - Consul Major Charles Doughty - Wylie considers " The Causes of the Massacre " . From this document the historian Vahakn Dadrian culls the text : The Turks , masters for centuries , found their great stumbling block in equality with the Christians . . . Among the fiercer professors of Islam resentment grew . Were God ' s adversaries to be the equals of Islam ? In every cafe the heathen were speaking great mouthing words of some godless and detested change . . . Abdul Hamid became celebrated , in this context , according to Doughty - Wylie , because he " had set the fashion of massacres " . From the same document , the Turkish political scientist Kamuran Gurun emphasizes that the right to bear arms had caused a popular fashion of arms - bearing . But , " worse followed " , in Doughty - Wylie ' s words : The swagger of the arm - bearing Armenian and his ready tongue irritated the ignorant Turks . Threats and insults passed on both sides . Certain Armenian leaders , delegates from Constantinople , and priests ( an Armenian priest is in his way an autocrat ) urged their congregations to buy arms . It was done openly , indiscreetly , and , in some cases , it might be said wickedly . What can be thought of a preacher , a Russian Armenian , who in a church in this city where there had never been a massacre , preached revenge for the martyrs of 1895 ? Constitution or none , it was all the same to him . ' Revenge , ' he said , ' murder for murder . Buy arms . A Turk for every Armenian of 1895 . ' Bloodshed . Nearly 4 , 437 Armenian dwellings were torched which meant nearly half the town was razed , which led in turn to descriptions of the incidents as a " holocaust " . The tension erupted into riots on April 1 , 1909 , which soon escalated into organized violence against the Armenian population of Adana and in several surrounding cities . By April 18 , over 1 , 000 people were reported dead at Adana alone , with additional unknown casualties in Tarsus and Alexandretta . Thousands of refugees filled the American embassy in Alexandretta , and a British warship was dispatched to its shores ; three French warships were dispatched to Mersin , where the situation was " desperate " , and many Western consulates were besieged by Armenian refugees . The Ottoman military was struggling to subdue the violence . Similar violence consumed Marash and Hadjin , and the estimates of the death toll soon grew to exceed 5 , 000 . Rose Lambert , an American missionary at Hadjin , wrote in her book how many sought refuge in the missionary compound for safety . The British cruiser Diana was hoped to provide a " tranquilizing " effect at the port of Alexandretta , where violence still raged . Reports surfaced that imperial " authorities are either indifferent or conniving in the slaughter . " Some order was restored by April 20 , as the disturbance in Mersina had abated , and the British cruiser Swiftsure was able to deliver " provisions and medicines intended for Adana " . A " threatening " report from Hadjin indicated that well - armed Armenians were held up in the town , " beleaguered by Moslem tribesmen who are only awaiting sufficient numerical strength to rush the improvised defenses erected by the Armenians . " 8 , 000 refugees filled the missions of Tarsus , where order had been restored under martial law , the dead numbering approximately 50 . An April 22 message from an American missionary in Hadjin indicated that the town was taking fire intermittently , that surrounding Armenian properties had been burned , and that siege was inevitable . The entirety of the Armenian population of Kırıkhan was reported to have been " slaughtered " ; the Armenian village of Deurtyul was burning and surrounded ; additional bloodshed flared up in Tarsus ; massacres were reported in Antioch , and rioting in Birejik . At least one report praised the " Turkish Government officials at Mersina " for doing " everything possible to check the trouble " , though " the result of their efforts has been very limited " . As Ottoman authorities worked to contain violence directed at the Christian minorities of the Empire , the Armenian population " look ( ed ) to the Young Turks for future protection . " An American missionary stationed in Tarsus but visiting Adana during the period , Reverend Herbert Adams Gibbons of Hartford , described the scene in the days leading up to the 27th of April : Adana is in a pitiable condition . The town has been pillaged and destroyed . . . It is impossible to estimate the number of killed . The corpses lie scattered through the streets . Friday , when I went out , I had to pick my way between the dead to avoid stepping on them . Saturday morning I counted a dozen cartloads of Armenian bodies in one - half hour being carried to the river and thrown into the water . In the Turkish cemeteries , graves are being dug wholesale . . . . On Friday afternoon 250 so - called Turkish reserves , without officers , seized a train at Adana and compelled the engineer to convey them to Tarsus , where they took part in the complete destruction of the Armenian quarter of that town , which is the best part of Tarsus . Their work of looting was thorough and rapid . The Ottoman government sent in the Army to keep peace , but it was alleged to have either tolerated the violence or participated in it . An unsigned newspaper report of 3 May 1909 indicated that Ottoman soldiery had arrived , but did not seem intent upon effecting a peace : Adana is terrorized by 4 , 000 soldiers , who are looting , shooting , and burning . No respect is paid to foreign properties . Both French schools have been destroyed , and it is feared that the American school , commercial , and missionary interests in Adana are totally ruined . The new Governor has not as yet inspired confidence . There is reason to believe that the authorities still intend to permit the extermination of all Christians . Aftermath . According to the official Ottoman data , there were a total of 3 , 521 casulties in Adana city . Of these , 2 , 093 were Armenians , 782 Muslims , 613 Assyrians and 33 Greeks . Grand Vizier Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha indicated that the massacre was a " political , not a religious question . . . Before the Armenian political committees began to organize in Asia Minor there was peace . I will leave you to judge the cause of the bloodshed . " While conceding that his predecessor , Abdul Hamid II , had ordered the " extermination of the Armenians " , he did articulate his confidence that " there will never be another massacre . " In July 1909 , the Young Turk government announced the trials of various government and military officials , for " being implicated in the Armenian massacres " . In the ensuing courts - marshal , 124 Muslims and seven Armenians were executed for their involvement in the violence . In response to the counterrevolution and the Armenian massacres in Adana , the CUP and Dashnak concluded an agreement in September 1909 whereby they promised to " work together for progress , the Constitution , and unity . " Both parties declared that rumor of Armenian efforts toward independence were false . The Unionists took care to have an Armenian minister present in the governments formed after 6 August 1909 , which could also be interpreted as an attempt to demonstrate the CUP ' s distance from the Adana events . Legacy . The government of Turkey , as well as some Turkish writers and nationalists , dispute this version of history , contending that the events of April 1909 were in fact an Armenia n " rampage of pillaging and death " targeting the Muslim majority that " ended up with about 17 , 000 Armenian and 1 , 850 Turkish deaths . " Historians question the factuality of the Turkish claims of an " Armenian rampage " due to the simple fact that if the Armenians had been the aggressors , significantly higher number of Turks would have been killed . In contrast to Turkey ' s official position , foreign eyewitnesses clearly stated that Armenians were the victims . The Turkish government has used similar fabrications to blame the Armenians for inciting the Turks to commit the Armenian Genocide by siding with the Russian Empire . The Sublime Porte claimed that the loss of the Muslims was greater than the loss of Armenians , 1 , 900 Muslims as compared to 1 , 500 Armenians . Another Ottoman commission was composed of Faik Bey , Mosdijian Efendi and Esad Rauf Bey , the Governor of Mersin , according to the registers they calculated the number of deaths , 4 , 196 non - Muslims and 1 , 487 Muslims including gendarmes and soldiers . However , they proposed the total figure of 15 , 000 with the non - registered and migrant workers , including Muslims . Ottoman authorities denied responsibility in the shooting deaths of two American missionaries in the city of Adana , indicating instead that " the Armenians " killed Protestant missionaries D . M . Rogers and Henry Maurer while they " were helping to put out a fire in the house of a Turkish widow . " The Ottoman account of the killings was later contradicted by an eyewitness , American priest Stephen Trowbridge of Brooklyn . Trowbridge indicated that the men were killed by " Moslems " as they attempted to extinguish a fire threatening to subsume their mission . The missionaries found themselves pinned down in their school amidst the pogrom . According to Elizabeth S . Webb , a missionary attached to the school , " It was a terrible situation , women and girls practically alone in the building , a murderous bloodthirsty mob outside , with knife and bullet for the Armenians and the torch for their homes . " Mr . Trowbridge returned from the school to say that the only hope for safety to any Americans seemed to be to return to the school , staying there alone , separated from the Armenians . He declared that we were powerless to save the Armenians . It seems that after we left the school , Miss Wallace , Mr . Chambers , and a young Armenian preacher attempted to cross the street from Miss Wallace ' s to the school . Just at this time a mob rushed around the corner . The infuriated Turks recognized the preacher as an Armenian , and although Mr . Chambers threw his arms about him and did all in his power to save the man ' s life , they shot him dead . Not a single Armenian would they leave alive , the assassins shouted , as Mr . Chambers dragged the murdered preacher into the building . The British Consul , Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty - Wylie , is recorded in many sources as having worked strenuously to stop the massacres , at great personal risk . He was shot in the arm during the conflagration .