By the second half of the 19th century , living conditions for the Armenian population in the Mush valley had become intolerable . Added to central government official and unofficial taxes and dues , and Kurdish chieftains extorting their traditional tributes , where predatory Kurdish tribesmen given an official status after being incorporated into the semi-regular Kurdish cavalry units known as the Hamidiye . As a result , thousands of Armenian farmers lost their lands and eked out a living as transient hired labourers or migrated to Constantinople and other cities to live in impoverished squalid conditions . The repeated failures of promised reforms by Constantinople led to some Armenians initiating local measures for self-defense . The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party and Armenian Revolutionary Federation were two Armenian political groups active in the region . After the massacres of Armenians in Sasun in 1894 , and the more widespread massacres in the plain of Mush in 1895 and 1896 during the events known as the Hamidian massacres , the political activity of the 1880s developed into armed self-defense units , known as fedayee , who used the mountains as safe havens and as areas for political agitation
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery