Abdul Hamid II

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Abdul Hamid II (1842–1918) Last Ottoman sultan (1876–1909). On his accession, Abdul Hamid suspended Parliament and the new constitution. At the Treaty of San Stefano (1878), he concluded the Russo-Turkish Wars by ceding vast lands to Russia. Abdul Hamid is known as the ‘Great Assassin’ for his part in the Armenian massacres (1894–96) – it is estimated that more than 200,000 Armenians were killed in 1896 alone. In 1908 the Young Turks forced him to reimplement the 1876 constitution, and he was deposed shortly after.