This paper will examine the local, imperial and international dynamics and actors that contributed to the anti-Armenian pogroms and massacres that took place in the province of Bitlis during the Hamidian Massacres of 1895-6. In doing so, it seeks to revisit and go beyond the question of imperial responsibility in the massacres, addressing additional issues such as the impact of real and perceived breaches in social and cultural hierarchies (such as the announcement of the Provincial Reform Proposal pushed for by the British, French, and Russian governments), the organizational role of local notables and officials, and the imperial efforts at framing the widespread outbreak of anti-Armenian violence as "disorders" as a part of a general revolutionary and missionary conspiracy . The issue of the proportional representation of Armenians in provincial administration and the protection of their lives and property against pastoralist Kurds, or the so-called “Armenian Question” had gained international significance for a brief period of time after the Treaty of Berlin (1878). Increasing foreign involvement in the “Armenian Question” also resulted in the reconceptualization of the Ottoman Armenians as a potential security threat in official circles. Particularly, the last decade of the nineteenth century marked the criminalization of Ottoman Armenians at an unprecedented scale. Ottoman Armenians of different classes and professions came to be viewed by imperial authorities as foreign proteges. Furthermore, various Muslim groups and notables in Constantinople and the provinces adopted increasingly hostile attitudes towards Armenians, influenced by and reinforcing imperial perspectives. Policies were enacted and pursued at the imperial and local levels in order to monitor the movement of provincial Armenians, and their disposession at the hands of pastoralist tribes and local officials were tolerated. These developments coincided with the formation and expansion of the Armenian revolutionary movement in the form of two separate political parties. The Hamidian massacres of 1895-6 occurred within this context. The outbreak of violence in the province of Bitlis during 1895-6 is an appropriate case study of the Hamidian massacres, because of the critical significance of massacres in Sasun and Talori (both rural districts in the province) in 1894 in re-internationalizing the Armenian Question. In addition, local and imperial attitudes and shifts in policies can be discerned by the simultaneous use of imperial (governorate of Bitlis, sub-governorate of Muş, military commandants in Muş and Bitlis), consular (British vice-consul in Muş), and missionary records (Protestant missionaries in Sasun and Bitlis).