Turkish troops and Kurdish tribesmen kill thousands…

Turkish troops and Kurdish tribesmen kill thousands of the Armenians in Sasun when they refuse to pay the oppressive taxes in 1894, and burn their villages.

The Armenians' numbers in the late 1880s were estimated to be nearly two million.

The Armenians in the eastern provinces, encouraged by Russia, had begun promoting Armenian territorial autonomy.

As the movement grew various political groups had been organized, culminating in the formation of two revolutionary parties called Hënchak (“The Bell”) and Dashnaktsutyun (“Union”) in 1887 and 1890, respectively.

At the same time, Sultan Abdülhamid II, intent on suppressing all separatist sentiments in the empire, had drastically raised taxes on the Armenians and aroused nationalistic feelings and resentment against them among the neighboring Kurds.

This had given Armenian radicals a pretext to revolt.