The General Amnesty of Sultan Abdulhamid II for Political Prisoners, Dated to 1896

Abstract

In particular, general amnesty issued after political crises aims to ensure the peace of the society by pardoning those involved in political crimes and to end the unrest. During his reign of 33 years, Sultan Abdulhamid has declared general and partial amnesty many times. Before the general amnesty of 1896, the unrest between Armenians and Muslims increased its violence, the unrest escalated with the Ottoman Bank attack in August 1896, and the number of political prisoners in prisons increased considerably as a result of these events. Then, Sultan Abdulhamid declared a public amnesty for political prisoners in December 1896, at the request of the Armenian Patriarchate, to maintain peace and balance. Shortly after the announcement of the pardon, Great Powers made an attempt on the Ottoman State in the immediate execution of the amnesty and repeated these attempts at short intervals. These states followed their usual policies in the execution of the amnesty and advocated for the Armenians through their ambassadors, and their representatives in the provinces. They put pressure on the Ottoman state by turning any disruption in the execution of the pardon into an opportunity