Thus , Robert Melson ( 1982 ) in the context of the " Hamidian massacres " used a " basic working definition " of " by massacre we shall mean the intentional killing by political actors of a significant number of relatively defenseless people ... the motives for massacre need not be rational in order for the killings to be intentional ... Mass killings can be carried out for various reasons , including a response to false rumors ... political massacre ... should be distinguished from criminal or pathological mass killings ... as political bodies we of course include the state and its agencies , but also nonstate actors ... " Similarly , Levene ( 1999 ) attempts an objective classification of " massacres " throughout history , taking the term to refer to killings carried out by groups using overwhelming force against defenseless victims . He is excepting certain cases of mass executions , requiring that massacres must have the quality of being morally unacceptable
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
Massacre