by Hratchik Simonyan One of the greatest massacres in late Ottoman history took place in April 1909, when Armenians were the target of two massive waves of violence organized by Ottoman authorities. These massacres took place in Cilicia (i.e. Adana province and surrounding areas) with an estimated 30,000 victims plus huge material losses. Most Armenian historians consider these massacres to have been a prelude to the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Hrachik Simonyan’s The Destruction of Armenians in Cilicia, April 1909 is a detailed account of the 1909 massacres based mainly on a range of Armenian primary and secondary sources. His work helps us to better understand the victimization of Armenians and the polarization of Ottoman society along ethno-religious lines barely a year after the Ottoman constitutional revolution of 1908.

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