Editing Persecution of Christians (section)

===Ottoman Empire===
{{Main|Christianity in the Ottoman Empire|Persecution of Eastern Orthodox Christians#Persecution in the Ottoman Empire|Late Ottoman genocides|Armenian genocide|Seyfo|Great Famine of Mount Lebanon|Greek genocide}}
{{See also|1843 and 1846 massacres in Hakkari}}
During the modern era, relations between Muslims and Christians in the [[Ottoman Empire]] were largely shaped by broader dynamics which were related to European colonial and neo-imperialist activities in the region, dynamics which frequently (though by no means always) generated tensions between the two communities. Too often, growing European influence in the region during the nineteenth century seemed to disproportionately benefit Christians, thus, it triggered resentment on the part of many Muslims, likewise, many Muslims suspected that Christians and the European powers were plotting to weaken the [[Muslim world|Islamic world]]. Further exacerbating relations was the fact that Christians seemed to disproportionately benefit from efforts at reform (one aspect of which generally sought to elevate the political status of non-Muslims), likewise, the various Christian nationalist uprisings in the Empire's European territories, which often had the support of the European powers.<ref>{{ cite book | author= Erik Freas | title= Muslim-Christian Relations in Late-Ottoman Palestine: Where Nationalism and Religion Intersect | place= New York | publisher= Palgrave Macmillan | date= 2016 | isbn =978-1137570413}}</ref> [[File:1895erzurum-victims.jpg|upright=1.32|thumb|Corpses of massacred Armenian Christians in [[Erzurum]] in 1895]]Persecutions and forced migrations of Christian populations were induced by Ottoman forces during the 19th century in the European and Asian provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The [[Massacres of Badr Khan]] were conducted by [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] and [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] forces against the [[Assyrian Christian]] population of the Ottoman Empire between 1843 and 1847, resulting in the slaughter of more than 10,000 indigenous Assyrian civilians of the [[Hakkari (historical region)|Hakkari]] region, with many thousands more being sold into [[slavery]].<ref>{{ cite book | last= Aboona | first= H |date=2008 | title= Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: intercommunal relations on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire| publisher= Cambria Press | isbn = 978-1-60497-583-3}}</ref>{{sfn|Gaunt|Beṯ-Şawoce|2006|p=32}}

[[File:Adana Massacre in Le Petit.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|[[Adana massacre of 1909]]]]
On 17 October 1850 the Muslim majority began rioting against the [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Uniate Catholics]] – a minority that lived in the communities of Judayda, in the city of Aleppo.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Masters|first=Bruce|title=The 1850 Events in Aleppo: An Aftershock of Syria's Incorporation into the Capitalist World System|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|volume=22}}</ref>

During the [[April Uprising|Bulgarian Uprising (1876)]] against Ottoman rule, and the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)]], the persecution of the [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] Christian population was conducted by Ottoman soldiers. The principal locations were [[Panagurishte]], [[Perushtitza]], and [[Bratzigovo]].<ref name="Chisholm 1911, p. 781">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bulgaria/History|display=Bulgaria § Political History|volume=4|page=871}}</ref> Over 15,000 non-combatant [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] civilians were killed by the Ottoman army between 1876 and 1878, with the worst single instance being the [[Batak massacre]].<ref name="Chisholm 1911, p. 781" /><ref>{{ cite book | title= Religion, Ethnicity and Contested Nationhood in the Former Ottoman Space| editor1=Jørgen S. Nielsen | publisher= Brill | date= 2011 | isbn= 978-9004211339 | chapter=The Short History of Bulgaria for Export | first=Evelina |last= Kelbecheva | pages=223–247 |doi=10.1163/9789004216570_013 
}}</ref>{{rp|228}}
During the war, whole cities including the largest Bulgarian one ([[Stara Zagora]]) were destroyed and most of their inhabitants were killed, the rest being expelled or enslaved. The atrocities included impaling and grilling people alive.<ref>{{Cite book | first= William | date= 1896 |chapter-url=https://depts.washington.edu/cartah/text_archive/miller/m2_c5.html|title=The Balkans| chapter= Chapter 5: Bulgaria under the Turks | last= Miller | archive-date=16 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016151348/https://depts.washington.edu/cartah/text_archive/miller/m2_c5.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Similar attacks were undertaken by Ottoman troops against Serbian Christians during the [[Attacks on Serbs in the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78)|Serbian-Turkish War (1876–1878)]].

[[File:Anatolian Metropolises 1880.svg|thumbnail|upright=1.32|Greek-Orthodox metropolises in Asia Minor, ca. 1880. Since 1923 only the [[Metropolis of Chalcedon]] retains a small community.]] [[File:Assyrianmassacres.jpg|thumbnail|upright=1.24|The Assyrian genocide was a mass slaughter of the Assyrian population.<ref>{{ cite book | first= Martin van | last= Bruinessen | title=Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan| date= 1992 | publisher= Bloomsbury Academic | pages= 25, 271 | isbn =9781856490184 }}</ref>]]

The abolition of ''jizya'' and emancipation of formerly ''dhimmi'' subjects was one of the most embittering stipulations the Ottoman Empire had to accept to end the [[Crimean War]] in 1856. Then, "for the first time since 1453, church bells were permitted to ring... in Constantinople," writes M. J. Akbar. "Many Muslims declared it a day of mourning." Indeed, because superior social standing was from the start one of the advantages of conversion to Islam, resentful Muslim mobs rioted and hounded Christians all over the empire. In 1860 up to 30,000 Christians were massacred in the Levant alone.<ref>{{cite book | first = M.J. | last= Akbar | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5R3PwAACAAJ | isbn=9788174362919 | title=The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict Between Islam and Christianity | year=2003 | publisher=Lotus Collection }}</ref>
Mark Twain recounts what took place in the levant:<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3-RTAAAAcAAJ | isbn=9781495902291 | title=The Innocents Abroad | year=1869 | publisher=Collins Clear-Type Press | author1= Mark Twain | author-link= Mark Twain }}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text=Men, women and children were butchered indiscriminately and left to rot by hundreds all through the Christian quarter... the stench was dreadful. All the Christians who could get away fled from the city, and the Mohammedans would not defile their hands by burying the 'infidel dogs.' The thirst for blood extended to the high lands of Hermon and Anti-Lebanon, and in a short time twenty-five thousand more Christians were massacred.|}}

Between 1894 and 1896 a series of ethno-religiously motivated Anti-Christian [[pogrom]]s known as the [[Hamidian massacres]] were conducted against the ancient [[Armenians|Armenian]] and [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] [[Christians|Christian]] populations by the forces of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{ cite book
| orig-date= 2002 | isbn = 978-0-8108-6096-4
| last= Adalian | first=Rouben Paul | date= 2010| title= Historical Dictionary of Armenia | edition=2nd | place= Lanham, MD | publisher= Scarecrow | page=154}}</ref> The motives for these massacres were an attempt to reassert [[Pan-Islamism]] in the Ottoman Empire, resentment of the comparative wealth of the ancient indigenous Christian communities, and a fear that they would attempt to secede from the tottering Ottoman Empire.<ref>{{Citation
 | last1 =Morris
 | first1 =Benny
 | last2 =Ze'evi
 | first2 =Dror
 | author2-link=Dror Ze'evi
 | title =[[The Thirty-Year Genocide]]
 | publisher =Harvard University Press
 | year =2019
 | page =672
 | isbn =9780674916456}}</ref> The massacres mainly took place in what is today southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria and northern Iraq. Assyrians and Armenians were massacred in [[Diyarbakir]], [[Hasankeyef]], [[Sivas]] and other parts of Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia, by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The death toll is estimated to have been as high as 325,000 people,<ref>[[Taner Akçam|Akçam, Taner]] (2006) [[A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility]] p. 42, [[Metropolitan Books]], New York {{ISBN|978-0-8050-7932-6}}</ref><ref>Angold, Michael (2006), O'Mahony, Anthony, ed., Cambridge History of Christianity, 5. Eastern Christianity, Cambridge University Press, p. 512, {{ISBN|978-0-521-81113-2}}.</ref> with a further 546,000 Armenians and Assyrians made destitute by forced deportations of survivors from cities, and the destruction or theft of almost 2500 of their farmsteads towns and villages. Hundreds of churches and monasteries were also destroyed or forcibly converted into mosques.<ref>Cleveland, William L. (2000). A History of the Modern Middle East (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview. p. 119. {{ISBN|0-8133-3489-6}}.</ref> These attacks caused the death of over thousands of Assyrians and the forced "Ottomanisation" of the inhabitants of 245 villages. The Ottoman troops looted the remains of the Assyrian settlements and these were later stolen and occupied by south-east Anatolian tribes. Unarmed Assyrian women and children were raped, tortured and murdered.<ref>{{cite book|last=de Courtois|first=S|title=The forgotten genocide: eastern Christians, the last Arameans|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|year=2004|isbn=978-1-59333-077-4|pages=105–107}}</ref> According to H. Aboona, the independence of the Assyrians was destroyed not directly by the Turks but by their neighbours under Ottoman auspices.<ref>Aboona, H (2008). Assyrians and Ottomans: intercommunal relations on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire. Cambria Press. {{ISBN|978-1-60497-583-3}}. p.284</ref>

The [[Adana massacre]] occurred in the [[Adana Vilayet]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in April 1909. A massacre of [[Armenians|Armenian]] and [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] Christians in the city of [[Adana]] and its surrounds amidst the [[31 March Incident]] led to a series of anti-Christian [[pogrom]]s throughout the province.<ref>Raymond H. Kévorkian, "The Cilician Massacres, April 1909" in ''Armenian Cilicia'', eds. [[Richard G. Hovannisian]] and Simon Payaslian. UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series: Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, 7. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 2008, pp. 339–69.</ref> Reports estimated that the Adana Province massacres resulted in the death of as many as 30,000 Armenians and 1,500 Assyrians.<ref>{{cite book|last=Adalian|first=Rouben Paul|title=Century of Genocide|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|isbn=9780415871914|editor1-last=Totten|editor1-first=Samuel|pages=117–56|chapter=The Armenian genocide|editor2-last=Parsons|editor2-first=William S.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XYp-z5aP4MC&pg=PA132}}</ref><ref name="Adalian2010">{{cite book|last=Adalian|first=Rouben Paul|title=Historical Dictionary of Armenia|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2010|isbn=9780810874503|pages=70–71|chapter=Adana Massacre|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QS-vSjHObOYC&pg=PA70}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.seyfocenter.com/index.php?sid=2&aID=36|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131018023706/http://www.seyfocenter.com/index.php?sid=2&aID=36 | archive-date= 18 October 2013 | date= 18 April 2009 | last = Gaunt | first= David | work = Assyrian Genocide Research Center | title= The Assyrian Genocide of 1915}}</ref>

Between 1915 and 1921 the [[Young Turks]] government of the collapsing [[Ottoman Empire]] persecuted [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern Christian]] populations in [[Anatolia]], [[Persia]], Northern [[Mesopotamia]] and [[The Levant]]. The onslaught by the Ottoman army, which included Kurdish, Arab and Circassian irregulars resulted in an estimated 3.4&nbsp;million deaths, divided between roughly 1.5&nbsp;million [[Armenians|Armenian]] Christians,<ref>{{cite web|title=Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex|url=http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/Description_and_history.php|publisher=[[Armenian genocide Museum-Institute]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Kifner|first=John|author-link=John Kifner|date=7 December 2007|title=Armenian Genocide of 1915: An Overview|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_armeniangenocide.html}}</ref> 0.75 million [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] Christians, 0.90&nbsp;million [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox Christians]] and 0.25&nbsp;million [[Maronites|Maronite Christians]] (see [[Great Famine of Mount Lebanon]]);<ref>Hatzidimitriou, Constantine G., ''American Accounts Documenting the Destruction of Smyrna by the Kemalist Turkish Forces: September 1922'', New Rochelle, [[New York (state)|NY]]: Caratzas, 2005, p. 2.</ref> groups of [[Georgians|Georgian]] Christians were also killed. The massive ethnoreligious cleansing expelled from the empire or killed the [[Armenians]], [[Greeks]] and [[Thracian Bulgarians|Bulgarians]] who had not converted to Islam, and it came to be known as the [[Armenian genocide]],<ref>{{Citation|last1=Kieser|first1=Hans-Lukas|title=Der Völkermord an den Armeniern und die Shoah|page=114|year=2002|trans-title=The Armenian Genocide and the Shoah|publisher=Chronos|language=de|isbn=3-0340-0561-X|last2=Schaller|first2=Dominik J}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Christopher J. Walker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KNEOAAAAQAAJ|title=Armenia, the Survival of a Nation|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=1980|isbn=978-0-312-04944-7}} * {{cite book|last=Akçam|first=Taner|title=A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility|title-link=A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility|year=2007|page=327|author-link=Taner Akçam}} – [https://books.google.com/books?id=E-_XTh0M4swC Profile at] [[Google Books]]</ref> [[Assyrian genocide]],<ref name="Aprim2005">{{cite book|last=Aprim|first=Frederick A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4glAQAAMAAJ|title=Assyrians: the continuous saga|date=January 2005|publisher=F.A. Aprim|page=40|isbn=9781413438574}}</ref> [[Greek genocide]].<ref name="Rummel">{{Citation|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|title=Death by Government|year=1994}}</ref> and [[Great Famine of Mount Lebanon]].<ref>Ghazal, Rym (14 April 2015). "Lebanon's dark days of hunger: The Great Famine of 1915–18". The National. Retrieved 24 January 2016.</ref><ref>Harris 2012, p. 174</ref> which accounted for the deaths of Armenian, Assyrian, Greek and Maronite Christians, and the deportation and destitution of many more. The Genocide led to the devastation of ancient [[indigenous peoples|indigenous]] Christian populations who had existed in the region for thousands of years.<ref>The Plight of Religious Minorities: Can Religious Pluralism Survive? – p. 51 by United States Congress</ref><ref>The Armenian Genocide: Wartime Radicalization Or Premeditated Continuum – p. 272 edited by Richard Hovannisian</ref><ref>Not Even My Name: A True Story – p. 131 by [[Thea Halo]]</ref><ref>The Political Dictionary of Modern Middle East by Agnes G. Korbani</ref>

[[Benny Morris]] and [[Dror Ze'evi]] argue that the [[Armenian genocide]] and other contemporaneous [[#Ottoman Empire|persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire]] ([[Greek genocide]], and [[Assyrian genocide]]) constitute an extermination campaign, or [[genocide]], carried out by the [[Ottoman Empire]] against [[Christianity in the Ottoman Empire|its Christian subjects]].<ref name="Morris">{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |author-link1=Benny Morris |last2=Ze'evi |first2=Dror |author-link2=Dror Ze'evi |year=2019 |title=The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924 |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-24008-7 |pages=3–5}}</ref><ref name="Gutman">{{cite journal|author=Gutman, David|year=2019|title=The thirty year genocide: Turkey's destruction of its Christian minorities, 1894–1924|journal=[[Turkish Studies]]|publisher=[[Routledge]]|volume=21|pages=1–3|doi=10.1080/14683849.2019.1644170|s2cid=201424062}}</ref><ref name="Morris-Zeevi 2021"/>

In the aftermath of the [[Sheikh Said rebellion]], the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]] and the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] were subjected to harassment by Turkish authorities, on the grounds that some [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] allegedly collaborated with the rebelling [[Kurds]].<ref>J. Joseph, Muslim-Christian relations and Inter-Christian rivalries in the Middle East, Albany, 1983, p. 102.</ref> Consequently, mass deportations took place and Assyrian Patriarch [[Mar Ignatius Elias III]] was expelled from the [[Mor Hananyo Monastery]] which was turned into a Turkish barrack. The patriarchal seat was then temporarily transferred to [[Homs]].