Wikipedia
The Hamidiye corps (literally meaning "belonging to Hamid", full official name Hamidiye hafif süvari alayları, Hamidiye light cavalry regiments) were well-armed, irregular Sunni Kurdish, Turkish, Turkmen and Yörük, also Arab cavalry formations that operated in the 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 Russian 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 Turkish Armenia.
A major role in the Armenian massacres of 1894-96 has 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.
Hamidiye may refer to:
- Hamidiye (cavalry), Kurdish cavalry of the Ottoman era, established 1890
- Ottoman cruiser Hamidiye, a warship of the Balkan wars and World War I
- Hamidiye, Bolvadin, a village in the District of Bolvadin, Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey
- Hamidiye, Ceyhan, a village in the District of Ceyhan, Adana Province, Turkey
- Hamidiye, Pozantı, a village in the District of Pozantı, Adana Province, Turkey
- Mesudiye, Ordu, former name