Abdul Hamid II Era: Opening session on a conference on the Abdul Hamid II Era

Ronald Suny and Stephan Astourian who make a clear distinction between the massacres of the   1890s and  1915.  Professor Suny refers to the massacres as exemplary violence intended to terrorize a people as distinct from the exterminationist violence of the genocide.  Both speakers stress that there was only a small minority of Armenians pressing for nationalist aims.  Also, Professor Astourian stresses that the massacres resulted from the failure of the Tanzimat program for reform on the Ottoman Empire.