The Hamidiye Light Cavalry Regiments

Introduction:

In the spring of 1891 dressed in their special attire, the Kurdish chiefs proclaimed their loyalty to the Sultan Abdülhamid II. Named after the sultan, the indoctrination of the Kurdish tribal cavalry unit (Hamidiye) into the Ottoman fold was met with protests from both foreign and domestic observers over the nature of the unit. Early critics of the Hamidiye questioned the discipline and sincerity of the militia.

The Hamidiye Light Cavalry Regiments were an irregular militia composed of select Kurdish tribes under the command of the sultan’s trusted brethren, Sakir Pasha and Zeki Pasha. Historically, the Kurds were always suspicious of the intentions of the Ottomans but those that volunteered were quick to understand the advantages of belonging to the militia. The advantages included ownership of modern firearms, immunity from all civil law, and military rank given to their chiefs, but the real benefit for the Kurds was the opportunity to advance their own goals.

The objections from foreign and domestic observers surrounded the activities for which the militias came later to be interconnected with - violence, land grabbing, and lawlessness. Klein questions, “under what conditions does the state empower a group that it would rather suppress, and does this undermine the state’s authority in the region? What are the factors that would allow the state to consider the formation of these undisciplined militias?”

In the late 19th and early 20th century the Ottoman Empire was under a constant external threat from the Russians in the east and the perceived internal threat from the Armenian nationalist-revolutionaries working against the state. The Armenian threat was deemed not only a threat to the state, but also se...

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...vernment had on its agenda. The Hamidiye would be renamed the Tribal Light Cavalry Regiments, but other than the name, nothing really changed. Similar to the visions of the sultan, the “Young Turks” wanted to “turkify” the Kurds into the Ottoman sphere. There were both supporters and opposition of the policy, primarily in the Kurdish realm. Those who eventually supported the policy, mainly the Kurdish peasants and Armenians, came to oppose it later and those that were the opposition, were predominantly the benefactors of the old Hamidiye regiments, came to support the new policies. The new government failed to modernize and provide better facilities much like their predecessor. The power structure in the borderlands remained the same.

Works Cited

Klein, Janet. The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias In The Ottoman Tribal Zone. Stanford University, 2011. Print.