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104-828: Armenians were a significant minority in the Ottoman Empire . They belonged to either the Armenian Apostolic Church , the Armenian Catholic Church , or the Armenian Protestant Church , each church serving as the basis of a millet . They played a crucial role in Ottoman industry and commerce, and Armenian communities existed in almost every major city of the empire. The majority of the Armenian population made up

208-783: A reaya , or peasant, class, in Eastern Anatolia . The Tanzimat reforms in the nineteenth century sought to manifest the doctrine of equality before the law . Despite their importance, Armenians were persecuted by the Ottoman authorities, especially from the latter half of the 19th century, culminating in the Armenian Genocide . In the Byzantine Empire , the Armenian Church was not allowed to operate in Constantinople ( Istanbul ), because

312-582: A state organization began to take a more definite shape in the first half of the sixteenth century under Suleyman I . The Ottomans allowed the establishment of an Armenian Patriarchate to govern the Armenian people. This meant the beginning of the Armenian millet ; a millet being a confessional community under Ottoman protection which was allowed to govern itself using its own religious laws . Ottoman legal theory understood two separate "establishments" to share state power, one responsible for governing

416-730: A brief period, from 1918 to 1920, Armenia was an independent republic plagued by socio-economic crises such as large-scale Muslim uprisings . In late 1920, the communists came to power following an invasion of Armenia by the Red Army ; in 1922, Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian SFSR of the Soviet Union , later on forming the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1936 to 21 September 1991). In 1991, Armenia declared independence from

520-439: A common origin of the Armenian and Greek languages. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ) and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). This has led some scholars to propose a hypothetical Graeco-Armenian-Aryan clade within

624-614: A few elements regarding identification of its pantheon with Greco-Roman deities). In the early years of the 4th century, likely 301 CE, partly in defiance of the Sassanids it seems. In the late Parthian period, Armenia was a predominantly Zoroastrian-adhering land, but by the Christianisation, previously predominant Zoroastrianism and paganism in Armenia gradually declined. This is the period that an Armenian community

728-570: A longer waiting period for minorities to seek legal recourse in the courts. Under Ottoman rule, Armenians formed three distinct millet s: Armenian Orthodox Gregorians , Armenian Catholics , and Armenian Protestants (in the 19th century). After many centuries of Turkish rule in Anatolia and Armenia (at first by the Seljuks , then a variety of Anatolian beyliks and finally the Ottomans),

832-655: A memorandum of an interview with a member of the London Committee of the Ottoman Bank: "... we had no interest in Sir Ernest Cassel's Bank. The Turks had taken the initiative and had arranged the matter independently with Sir Ernest Cassel... I had certainly supported the scheme to the extent of encouraging Sir Henry Babington Smith to accept Sir Ernest Cassel's offer. The selection had been made by Sir Ernest Cassel himself." and when asked whether

936-785: A monopoly over gunpowder production, putting them in a key position in the munitions industry of the Ottoman Empire. Calouste Gulbenkian became one of the main advisors of the National Bank of Turkey and the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, which later became the Iraqi Oil Corporation. Historian A. Tchamkerten writes "Armenian achievements in the Empire was not only in trade, however. They were involved in almost all economic sectors and held

1040-442: A nation's citizens and the other its military. In addition, Islam did not separate religious and secular matters. Armenians were administered by the civil administration . In the Ottoman Empire, townspeople, villagers, and farmers formed a class called the reaya , including Armenians. Civil and judicial administration was carried out under a separate parallel system of small municipal or rural units called kazas . The civil system

1144-496: A philanthropist and active member of the Armenian General Benevolent Union was from Smyrna ( İzmir ), and Arthur Edmund Carewe , born Trebizond, become an actor in the silent film era . The Eastern Question (normally dated to 1774) refers to the diplomatic and political problems posed by the decline of the Ottoman Empire during the 18th century; including instability in the territories ruled by

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1248-458: A power struggle to safeguard their strategic and commercial interests in the Empire, this gave motivation to the powers to help people in need. The rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire was a direct result of enlightenment of Christian millets through education. Armenians, for the most part, remained passive during these years, earning them the title of millet-i sadıka or the "loyal millet". The Eastern Question gained even more traction by

1352-806: A symbol of factual Armenian autonomy, Zeitoun (Ulnia) was located between the Six Vilayets and Cilicia , which also had a strong Armenian presence since the creation of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia . However, the destruction of the Kingdom by the Ramadanids and the subsequent rule by Muslim powers such as the Dulkadirids , the Mamluks , and the Ottomans led to ever increasing numbers of Muslims in

1456-513: A village. It was not uncommon to have three priests for thirty-five families. Most Armenians traveled on horseback to neighbouring villages, sometimes for religious ceremonies (like the Van festival), sometimes to fetch a bride, accompanying her, with musical instruments and clapping of hands, to their own village. Armenians preserved their culture, history, and language through the course of time, largely thanks to their distinct religious identity among

1560-767: The Anatolian Railway Company had mineral and oil exploration rights in a 20 km strip either side of the proposed route from Konia to the Persian Gulf. William D’Arcy , who had the Persian oil concession since 1901, also sought a concession in Mesopotamia and by 1907, were in the running due to the German side having been lax in procedure. The same year, Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) opened a Constantinople office, run by Gulbenkian. In 1908, following

1664-736: The Armenian Highland . Each of the aforementioned nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Under Ashurbanipal (669–627 BCE), the Assyrian empire reached the Caucasus Mountains (modern Armenia , Georgia and Azerbaijan ). Luwianologist John D. Hawkins proposed that "Hai" people were possibly mentioned in the 10th century BCE Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from Carchemish . A.E. Redgate later clarified that these "Hai" people may have been Armenians. The first geographical entity that

1768-599: The Armenian highlands of West Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and constituted the main population of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and the subsequent flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians . There is a wide-ranging diaspora of around five million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia ,

1872-523: The Armenian language is classified as an Indo-European language , its placement within the broader Indo-European language family is a matter of debate. Until fairly recently, scholars believed Armenian to be most closely related to Greek and Ancient Macedonian . Eric P. Hamp placed Armenian in the "Pontic Indo-European" (also called Graeco-Armenian or Helleno-Armenian) subgroup of Indo-European languages in his 2012 Indo-European family tree. There are two possible explanations, not mutually exclusive, for

1976-644: The Armenian nobles by development of the political strata in the society. The Armenian Question , a derivative of the Eastern Question, became a common place among diplomatic circles and in the popular press after the Congress of Berlin (1878). In 1863, the Armenian National Constitution was promulgated. It was a form of a "Code of Regulations," composed of 150 articles drafted by the Armenian intelligentsia, which defined

2080-693: The Bronze Age Trialeti-Vanadzor culture and sites such as the burial complexes at Verin and Nerkin Naver are indicative of an Indo-European presence in Armenia by the end of the 3rd millennium BCE. The controversial Armenian hypothesis , put forward by some scholars, such as Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov , proposes that the Indo-European homeland was around the Armenian Highland. This theory

2184-661: The Bronze Age , several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire (at the height of its power in the 14th century BCE), ( Mitanni (South-Western historical Armenia, 1500–1300 BCE), and Hayasa-Azzi (1500–1200 BCE). Soon after Hayasa-Azzi came Arme-Shupria (1300s–1190 BCE), the Nairi Confederation (1200–900 BCE), and the Kingdom of Urartu (860–590 BCE), who successively established their sovereignty over

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2288-824: The Entente Cordiale in 1904; in Constantinople, the French financiers were predominant through the Imperial Ottoman Bank leading to an attempt to improve the British position via the creation of a new Anglo-French financial enterprise, the Ottoman Society. Progress was slow due to French reluctance to dilute their competitive position and then overtaken by news in late 1908 of the proposed National Bank of Turkey (NBT) which, according to

2392-706: The Greek Orthodox Church regarded the Armenian Church as heretical . The Ottoman Turks early on encountered Armenians , and their conquest of Constantinople gave them legitimacy in ruling over them. Armenians were thus governed as dhimmis , or People of the Book , in the Ottoman legal system . At first, the Sultan was the highest power in the land and had control over almost everything. However,

2496-584: The Mushki and the Kaskians . The Urumu apparently settled in the vicinity of Sason , lending their name to the regions of Arme and the nearby lands of Urme and Inner Urumu. The location of the older site of Armani is a matter of debate. Some modern researchers have placed it in the same general area as Arme, near modern Samsat , and have suggested it was populated, at least partially, by an early Indo-European-speaking people . The relationship between Armani and

2600-848: The Proto Indo-European words póti (meaning "lord" or "master") or *h₂éyos / *áyos (meaning "metal"). Khorenatsi wrote that the word Armenian originated from the name Armenak or Aram (the descendant of Hayk). Khorenatsi refers to both Armenia and Armenians as Hayk‘ (Armenian: Հայք) (not to be confused with the aforementioned patriarch, Hayk). Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European While

2704-554: The Russian Empire following Iran's forced ceding of the territories after its loss in the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) and the outcoming Treaty of Turkmenchay . Western Armenia however, remained in Ottoman hands. The ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire is widely considered a genocide , resulting in an estimated 1.2 million victims. The first wave of persecution

2808-647: The Tehcir Law (29 May 1915), eventually a large proportion of Armenians living in Western Armenia perished in what has become known as the Armenian genocide . There was local Armenian resistance in the region, developed against the activities of the Ottoman Empire. The events of 1915 to 1917 are regarded by Armenians, Western historians, and some Turkish writers and historians like Taner Akçam and Orhan Pamuk , to have been state-sponsored and planned mass killings, or genocide . The Armenian Genocide laid

2912-570: The USSR and established the second Republic of Armenia. Also in 1991, the ethnic Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (later the Republic of Artsakh ), declared independence from Azerbaijan which lasted until 2023. Armenians are believed to have had a presence in the Armenian Highland for over 4,000 years. According to legend, Hayk , the patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation, led Armenians to victory over Bel of Babylon and settled in

3016-593: The United States , France , Georgia , Iran , Germany , Ukraine , Lebanon , Brazil , Argentina , Syria , and Turkey. The present-day Armenian diaspora was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian genocide with the exceptions of Iran, former Soviet states , and parts of the Levant . Armenian is an Indo-European language . It has two mutually intelligible spoken and written forms: Eastern Armenian , today spoken mainly in Armenia, Artsakh, Iran , and

3120-728: The Young Turk revolution , everybody had to start over. In 1908, D'Arcy incorporated as D'Arcy Exploration Co. and transferred all his oil claims in Mesopotamia and Persia to Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC). More interested parties and more schemes appeared on the scene, though by 1912, nothing had really changed. During 1912, Gulbenkian was setting the foundation for a new scheme, the Turkish Petroleum Company , owned as to 50% by NBT (inclusive 15% nonvoting beneficial to Gulbenkian), 25% RDS and 25% Deutsche Bank (in consideration of their oil claims). On 19 March 1914,

3224-507: The 19th century, having disastrous effects for the native inhabitants of these regions, including the Armenians of Western Armenia. Owing to these events, Armenians constituted, over the whole extent of their ancient homeland, no more than a quarter of the total inhabitants. Despite this they kept and defended factual autonomy in certain isolated areas like Sasun , Shatakh (Çatak), and parts of Dersim (Tunceli). An Armenian stronghold and

Armenians in the Ottoman Empire - Misplaced Pages Continue

3328-616: The 4th century in the Holy Land , and one of the quarters of the walled Old City of Jerusalem is called the Armenian Quarter . An Armenian Catholic monastic community of 35 founded in 1717 exists on an island near Venice , Italy. The region of Western Armenia was an influential part of the Eastern Roman Empire , which was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. The Armenian population of

3432-454: The Armenian Highland. Today, with a population of 3.5 million (although more recent estimates place the population closer to 2.9 million), they constitute an overwhelming majority in Armenia, Armenians in the diaspora informally refer to them as Hayastantsi s ( Armenian : հայաստանցի ), meaning those that are from Armenia (that is, those born and raised in Armenia). They, as well as

3536-677: The Armenian National Assembly. Beginning in 1863, education was available to all subjects, as far as funds permitted it. Such education was under the direction of lay committees. During this period in Russian Armenia , the association of the schools with the Church was close, but the same principle obtains. This became a problem for the Russian administration, which peaked during 1897 when Tsar Nicholas II appointed

3640-556: The Armenian quarter of Kumkapı , the seat of the Armenian Patriarch, who was spared through the prompt action of the commandant, Hassan Aga. On 27 July 1890, Harutiun Jangülian , Mihran Damadian and Hambartsum Boyajian interrupted the Divine Liturgy to read a manifesto and denounce the indifference of the Armenian patriarch and Armenian National Assembly to national liberation. Jangülian then tried to assassinate

3744-543: The Armenians of Iran and Russia, speak the Eastern dialect of the Armenian language. The country itself is secular as a result of Soviet domination, but most of its citizens identify themselves as Apostolic Armenian Christian. While the largest Armenian diaspora populations reside in Russia , the United States , France , and other countries, small Armenian trading and religious communities have existed outside Armenia for centuries. A prominent community has continued since

3848-547: The Armenophobic Grigory Sergeyevich Golitsin as governor of Transcaucasia, and Armenian schools, cultural associations, newspapers and libraries were closed. The Armenian charitable works, hospitals, and provident institutions were organized along the explained perspective. The Armenians, in addition to paying taxes to the state, voluntarily imposed extra burdens on themselves in order to support these philanthropic agencies. The taxes to

3952-481: The Bank's claims I should do what I could to encourage co-operation with French finance." The Young Turks had asked Boghos Nubar Pasha and Calouste Gulbenkian to form NBT, as evidenced by a letter of 7 December 1908 that included an NBT prospectus, from Frederick Lane (shipping broker, Rothschilds’ agent and Gulbenkian associate ) to Hugo Loudon of Royal Dutch Shell . In the early 1900s Deutsche Bank , through

4056-734: The British and German governments signed an agreement whereby the interest of NBT in TPC was transferred to APOC. In 1918-1919 the NBT was acquired by the British Trade Corporation (BTC), an investment bank that had been created in 1917 to support the war effort. BTC in turn merged in 1926-1927 with the Anglo-Austrian Bank (established in 1863) to form the Anglo-International Bank . What remained of

4160-424: The Dashnak Party also played a significant role in arming the people of the region. The Armenians of Sasun confronted the Ottoman army and Kurdish irregulars , succumbing to superior numbers. This was followed by the Zeitun Rebellion , in which Hunchak activists toured various regions of Cilicia and Zeitun to encourage resistance, and established new branches of the Hunchak Party. The 1896 Ottoman Bank takeover

4264-410: The Dashnaks to plan an assassination attempt on the sultan to enact vengeance. Dashnak members, led by ARF founder Christapor Mikaelian , secretly started producing explosives and planning the operation in Sofia , Bulgaria . The assassination attempt was unsuccessful in killing Abdul Hamid II, although it resulted in the death of 26 people and a further 58 wounded. The Second Constitutional Era of

Armenians in the Ottoman Empire - Misplaced Pages Continue

4368-410: The Eastern Mediterranean world suddenly and violently collapsed. Armenians have since remained isolated and genetic structure within the population developed ~500 years ago when Armenia was divided between the Ottomans and the Safavid Empire in Iran. A genetic study (Wang et al. 2018) supports the indigenous origin for Armenians in a region south of the Caucasus which he calls "Greater Caucasus". In

4472-412: The Empire , ruling from 31 August 1876 until he was deposed on 27 April 1909. He was the last Ottoman Sultan to rule with absolute power. The Bashkaleh clash was the bloody encounter between the Armenakan Party and the Ottoman Empire in May 1889. Its name comes from Başkale , a border town of Van Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. The event was important, as it was reflected in main Armenian newspapers as

4576-445: The Empire began shortly after Sultan Abdul Hamid II restored the constitutional monarchy after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution . The period established many political groups . A series of elections during this period resulted in the gradual ascendance of the Committee of Union and Progress 's (CUP) domination in politics. This period also marked the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire . On 24 July 1908, Armenians' hopes for equality in

4680-400: The Foreign Office intended to give exclusive support to Cassel's Bank in obtaining concessions at Constantinople, Grey replied: "..that if need be, we should certainly represent to the Turks that an institution which had been brought into existence as a direct result of their own initiative and representations ought not to be excluded from concessions. But when occasion arose for me to support

4784-438: The Foreign Office was "not initiated or suggested by us, and is carried out independently of us". Cassel, who was to have been involved in the Ottoman Society, also turned out to be involved with NBT, later bringing in Henderson and then Revelstoke. The Foreign office was kept informed at all stages and Edward Grey later in 1909 played a part in securing the services of Henry Babington Smith as President of NBT, later saying in

4888-486: The Great of Persia refers to Urashtu (in Babylonian ) as Armina ( Old Persian : 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴) and Harminuya (in Elamite). In Greek , Armenios ( Αρμένιοι ) is attested from about the same time, perhaps the earliest reference being a fragment attributed to Hecataeus of Miletus (476 BC). Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC. Some have linked

4992-457: The Great , a member of the Artaxiad (Artashesian) dynasty , the Kingdom of Armenia extended from the Caucasus all the way to what is now central Turkey , Lebanon , and northern Iran . The Arsacid Kingdom of Armenia , itself a branch of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia , was the first state to adopt Christianity as its religion (it had formerly been adherent to Armenian paganism , which was influenced by Zoroastrianism , while later on adopting

5096-399: The Great Powers, and the Ottoman Empire. It aimed to introduce reforms to the Armenian citizens of the empire. This agreement, which was solidified in February 1914 was based on the arrangements nominally made in 1878. According to this arrangement the inspectors general, whose powers and duties constituted the key to the question, were to be named for a period of ten years, and their engagement

5200-502: The Indo-European language family from which the Armenian, Greek, Indo-Iranian, and possibly Phrygian languages all descend. According to Kim (2018), however, there is insufficient evidence for a cladistic connection between Armenian and Greek, and common features between these two languages can be explained as a result of contact. Contact is also the most likely explanation for morphological features shared by Armenian with Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages . It has been suggested that

5304-406: The Muslim population. The Softas took no part in it, and many Armenians found refuge in the Muslim sections of the city. The first notable battle in the Armenian resistance movement took place in Sasun, where nationalist ideals were proliferated by activists of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party , or Hunchak , activists, such as Damadian and Boyajian. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation , or

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5408-407: The Ottoman Empire is estimated to have been between 1.5 and 2.5 million in the early 20th century. Most of the modern Armenian diaspora consists of Armenians scattered throughout the world as a direct consequence of massacres and genocide in the Ottoman Empire . However, Armenian communities in Iran , Georgia ( Tbilisi ), and Syria existed since antiquity . During the Middle Ages and

5512-486: The Ottoman Empire's treatment of its Christian minorities and increasingly pressured the Sublime Porte to extend equal rights to all its citizens. Beginning in 1839, the Ottoman government implemented the Tanzimat reforms, among its many goals to improve the situation of non-Muslim minorities, although these would prove largely ineffective. In 1856, the Imperial Reform Edict promised equality for all Ottoman citizens irrespective of their ethnicity and confession, widening

5616-406: The Ottoman Empire. The position of educated and privileged Christians within the Ottoman Empire improved in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the Ottomans increasingly recognized the missing skills which the larger Ottoman population lacked, and as the empire became more settled it began to feel its increasing backwardness in relation to the European powers. European powers on the other side, engaged in

5720-401: The Ottoman government; a public declaration of the Western Bureau printed in the official announcement was directed to "Ottoman Citizens". The June issue of Droshak ran an editorial about it. There were overwhelming numbers of Armenians who served the Empire units with distinction during Balkan wars. The Armenian reform package was an arrangement negotiated with Russia, acting on behalf of

5824-407: The Patriarch. The goal was to persuade the Armenian clerics to bring their policies into alignment with the national politics. They soon forced the patriarch to join a procession heading to the Yildiz Palace to demand implementation of Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin . It is significant that this massacre, in which 6000 Armenians are said to have perished, was not the result of a general rising of

5928-446: The State did not have direct return to Armenians in such cases. The national liberation movement of the Balkan peoples (see: national awakenings in Balkans ) and the immediate involvement of the European powers in the Eastern question had a powerful effect on the hitherto suppressed national movement among the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire – on the development of a national liberation ideology. The Armenian national liberation movement

6032-420: The Tanzimat reforms had given Armenians more rights, the ARF hoped to gain autonomy to govern Armenian populated areas of the Ottoman Empire as a "state within a state". The "Second Congress of the Ottoman opposition" took place in Paris, France, in 1907. Opposition leaders including Ahmed Riza (CUP), Sabahheddin Bey (Liberal), and Khachatur Maloumian (Dashnak) attended. During the meeting, an alliance between

6136-434: The campaigns of Tamerlane . In addition, there were the century-long Ottoman-Persian Wars between the rival empires, the battlegrounds of which ranged over Western Armenia (therefore large parts of the native lands of the Armenians), causing the region and its peoples to be passed between the Ottomans and Persians numerous times. The wars between the arch-rivals started from the early 16th century and lasted till well into

6240-399: The centres with a high concentration of Armenians lost their geographic continuity (parts of Van , Bitlis , and Kharput vilayets ). Over the centuries, tribes of Turks and Kurds settled into Anatolia and Armenia, which was left severely depopulated by a slew of devastating events such as the Byzantine-Persian Wars , Byzantine-Arab Wars , Turkish migration , Mongol Invasions and finally

6344-493: The centuries prior to the genocide, additional communities were formed in Greece , Bulgaria , Hungary , Kievan Rus' and the territories of Russia, Poland , Austria , and Lebanon . There are also remnants of historic communities in Turkey ( Istanbul ), India , Myanmar , Thailand , Belgium , the Netherlands , Portugal , Italy , Israel-Palestine , Iraq , Romania , Serbia , Ethiopia , Sudan and Egypt . National Bank of Turkey Britain and France had signed

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6448-509: The centuries. Armenian involvement on the international stage would have to wait until the Armenian national awakening , which the Armenian Question , as used in European history, became commonplace among diplomatic circles and in the popular press after the Congress of Berlin (1878). While Armenian nationalism developed later than Greek nationalism , the two movements share more similarities than those of other ethnic groups. The Great Powers Great Britain, France and Russia took issue with

6552-465: The dead ranging from 80,000 to 300,000. The Hamidian massacres are named for Sultan Abdul Hamid II, whose efforts to reinforce the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire resulted in the massacres. Ottoman officials involved in the Sasun uprising , who were previously defeated in the First Zeitoun Rebellion , did not want the formation of another semi-autonomous Armenian region in the Eastern vilayets. In Sasun, Armenian activists were working to arm

6656-478: The efforts of two of his apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew . In the early 4th century, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first state to adopt Christianity as a state religion, followed by the first pilgrimages to the Holy Land where a community established the Armenian Quarter of Old Jerusalem . The earliest attestations of the exonym Armenia date around the 6th century BC. In his trilingual Behistun Inscription dated to 517 BC, Darius I

6760-405: The empire brightened when the country returned to constitutional monarchy. Two of the largest revolutionary groups trying to overthrow Sultan Abdul Hamid II had been the Dashnak and the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) a group part of the Young Turks movement. In a general assembly meeting in 1907, the ARF acknowledged that the Armenian and Turkish revolutionaries had the same goals. Although

6864-436: The entire building itself. However, intervention on part of the European diplomats in the city managed to persuade the government to give safe passage to the survivors to France. Despite the level of violence the incident had wrought, the takeover was reported positively in the European press, praising the men for their courage and the objectives they attempted to accomplish. The years between 1894 and 1896 ended, with estimates of

6968-449: The folk and to recruit young men by motivating them to the Armenian cause. 50,000 Turkish and Kurdish troops started the offensive in Sasun, where 500 fedayees had to defend 20,000 unarmed people. The Armenians were headed by Andranik Ozanian along with Kevork Chavoush , Sepasdatsi Mourad , Keri, Hrayr Tjokhk , and others. The events of the Hamidian massacres and Sultan Abdul Hamid II's continued anti-Armenian policies gave way for

7072-475: The former Soviet republics; and Western Armenian , used in the historical Western Armenia and, after the Armenian genocide, primarily in the Armenian diasporan communities. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots . Most Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church , a non-Chalcedonian Christian church, which is also the world's oldest national church . Christianity began to spread in Armenia soon after Jesus' death, due to

7176-480: The groundwork for the Turkish nation-state to become more homogeneous. By the end of World War I, over 90 percent of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were gone with most traces of their existence erased. The women and children who survived were frequently forced to convert to Islam and give up their Armenian identities. Armenians Armenians ( Armenian : հայեր , romanized :  hayer , [hɑˈjɛɾ] ) are an ethnic group and nation native to

7280-405: The highest levels of responsibility. In the 19th century, various Armenian families became the Sultan's goldsmiths, Sultan's architects and took over the currency reserves and the reserves of gold and silver, including customs duty. Sixteen of the eighteen most important bankers in the Ottoman Empire were Armenian". Ottoman Armenians were overrepresented in commerce. As middleman minorities , despite

7384-424: The influence of the Constantinople Patriarchate surpassed that of the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin , this shifted the center of Armenian ecclesiastical and national life from Etchmiadzin (and Sis ) to Constantinople. It is theorized that no Armenian churches existed in Constantinople before the Ottoman conquest, but after 1453, 55 Armenian churches were built. Until the promulgation of the Edict of Gülhane in 1839,

7488-533: The late 1820s, due to the Greek Enlightenment and Greek War of Independence setting an example of non-Muslims gaining independence against the Ottoman Empire. Russia stood to benefit from the decline of the Ottoman Empire; on the other hand, Austria and the United Kingdom deemed the preservation of Empire to be in their best interests. The position of France changed several times over

7592-590: The later Arme-Shupria, if any, is undetermined. Additionally, their connections to Armenians is inconclusive as it is not known what languages were spoken in these regions. It has also been speculated that the land of Ermenen (located in or near Minni ), mentioned by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III in 1446 BCE, could be a reference to Armenia. Armenians call themselves Hay ( Armenian : հայ , pronounced [ˈhaj]; plural: հայեր, [haˈjɛɾ]). The name has traditionally been derived from Hayk ( Armenian : Հայկ ),

7696-727: The learned professions taught at the schools that had opened throughout the Ottoman Empire , the chief occupations of Armenian Ottomans were trade and commerce, industry, and agriculture. In the empire, Armenians were raised to higher occupations, like Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian was a businessman and philanthropist. He played a major role in making the petroleum reserves of the Middle East available to Western development. The Armenian Press and literature during this period established institutions that were critical; this attitude has been invaluable in reforming abuses and introducing improvements in Armenian communities. Thus their critical instinct

7800-550: The legendary patriarch of the Armenians and a great-great-grandson of Noah , who, according to Movses Khorenatsi (Moses of Khorene) , defeated the Babylonian king Bel in 2492 BC and established his nation in the Ararat region. It is also further postulated that the name Hay comes from, or is related to, one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states— Hayasa -Azzi (1600–1200 BC). Ultimately, Hay may derive from

7904-601: The name Armenia with the Early Bronze Age state of Armani (Armanum, Armi) or the Late Bronze Age state of Arme (Shupria) . Armini , Urartian for "inhabitant of Arme" or "Armean country", referring to the region of Shupria, to the immediate west of Lake Van. The Arme tribe of Urartian texts may have been the Urumu, who in the 12th century BC attempted to invade Assyria from the north with their allies

8008-587: The neighboring Turks and Kurds . Like the Greek Orthodox and Jewish minorities of the Ottoman Empire , they constituted a distinct millet . Under this system, non-Muslims were considered second-class citizens ; they were subjected to elevated taxation, but in return they were granted autonomy within their own religious communities and were exempted from military service. Growing religious and political influence from neighboring communities necessitated implementation of security measures that often required

8112-610: The next few centuries, Djenghis Khan , Timurids , and the tribal Turkic federations of the Ak Koyunlu and the Kara Koyunlu ruled over the Armenians. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell under Iranian Safavid rule . Owing to the century long Turco-Iranian geo-political rivalry that would last in Western Asia, significant parts of the region were frequently fought over between

8216-613: The oppressed peoples of Armenia and Macedonia. Andranik participated in the First Balkan War alongside Nzhdeh as a Chief Commander of 12th Battalion of Lozengrad Third Brigade of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan militia under the command of Colonel Aleksandar Protogerov . His detachment consisted of 273 Armenian volunteers. On 5 May 1912, the Dashnak Party officially severed the relations with

8320-462: The patriarch, within limits, possessed penal authority over the Armenian people. At the capital, the patriarchate had its own jail and maintained a small police force. Its authority over the clergy being absolute, the patriarch could imprison or exile Armenians at will; and while they were compelled to secure the consent of the Sultan to imprison or exile laymen of their community, the necessary firman

8424-467: The powers of the Patriarch, the newly formed Armenian National Assembly , and the rights and privileges of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Patriarch Mikrtich issued a decree permitting women to have equal votes with men and asking them to take part in all elections. The Armenian National Assembly had wide-ranging functions. Muslim officials were not employed to collect taxes in Armenian villages, but

8528-527: The recovered documents on the Armenakans showed an extensive plot for a national movement. Ottoman officials believed that the men were members of a large revolutionary apparatus and the discussion was reflected on newspapers, ( Eastern Express , Oriental Advertiser , Saadet , and Tarik ) and the responses were on the Armenian papers. In some Armenian circles, this event was considered as a martyrdom and brought other armed conflicts. The Bashkaleh Resistance

8632-695: The region. After the Ottoman conquests many Armenians also moved west and settled in Anatolia, in large and prosperous Ottoman cities like Constantinople and Smyrna ( İzmir ). The remaining Ottoman Armenia, composed of the Six vilayets ( Erzurum , Van , Bitlis , Diyarbekir , Kharput , and Sivas ) up to World War I, under Ottoman rule, was also referred to as Western Armenia . There were also significant communities in parts of Trebizond and Ankara vilayets bordering Six Vilayets (such as in Kayseri ). Aside from

8736-507: The right to establish their own prisons for the incarceration of offending Armenians, and in no case should an Armenian be imprisoned in an Ottoman prison. The Armenian National Assembly also had the power to elect the Armenian Governor by a local Armenian legislative council. The councils later will be part of elections during Second Constitutional Era . Local Armenian legislative councils were composed of six Armenians elected by

8840-580: The rivaling Byzantine and Sassanid Persian empires, until the Muslim conquest of Persia overran also the regions in which Armenians lived. In 885 CE the Armenians reestablished themselves as a sovereign kingdom under the leadership of Ashot I of the Bagratid Dynasty . A considerable portion of the Armenian nobility and peasantry fled the Byzantine occupation of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, and

8944-525: The scope of the 1839 Edict of Gülhane . The reformist period peaked with a Constitution written by members of the Young Ottomans , which was promulgated on 23 November 1876. It established freedom of belief and equality of all citizens before the law. "Firman of the Reforms" gave immense privileges to the Armenians, which formed a "governance in governance" to eliminate the aristocratic dominance of

9048-550: The subsequent invasion of the region by Seljuk Turks in 1064. They settled in large numbers in Cilicia , an Anatolian region where Armenians were already established as a minority since Roman times. In 1080, they founded an independent Armenian Principality then Kingdom of Cilicia , which became the focus of Armenian nationalism. The Armenians developed close social, cultural, military, and religious ties with nearby Crusader States , but eventually succumbed to Mamluk invasions. In

9152-426: The taxes in all the Armenian villages were to be collected by Armenian tax-collectors appointed by the Armenian National Assembly. Armenians were allowed to establish their own courts of justice for the purpose of administering justice and conducting litigation between Armenians, and for deciding all questions relating to marriage, divorce, estate, inheritance, etc., appertaining to themselves. Also Armenians were allowed

9256-632: The three parties was officially declared. The Dashnaks decided to cooperate with the CUP, hoping that if the Young Turks came to power, autonomy would be granted to the Armenians. Andranik Ozanian participated in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 alongside general Garegin Nzhdeh as a commander of Armenian auxiliary troops. Andranik met revolutionist Boris Sarafov and the two pledged to work jointly for

9360-518: The trust of the Sultans and were able to achieve important positions in the Ottoman government and the Ottoman economy. Even though their numbers were small compared to the whole Ottoman Armenian population, this caused some resentment among Ottoman nationalists. Those elite Armenians that did achieve great success were individuals such as Abraham Pasha , and Gabriel Noradunkyan who became Minister of Foreign Affairs . The Dadian family were granted

9464-613: The two rivalling empires. From the mid 16th century with the Peace of Amasya , and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century, Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Iranian Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule. In the late 1820s, the parts of historic Armenia under Iranian control centering on Yerevan and Lake Sevan (all of Eastern Armenia) were incorporated into

9568-486: The way of a war, or that killings of Armenians were justified by their individual or collective support for the enemies of the Ottoman Empire. Passage of legislation in various foreign countries, condemning the persecution of the Armenians as genocide, has often provoked diplomatic conflict. (See recognition of the Armenian genocide ) Following the breakup of the Russian Empire in the aftermath of World War I for

9672-596: The wealth of some Armenians, their overall political power was low, making them especially vulnerable. After Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Armenian Patriarchate was established to govern the Apostolic faithful living in the Ottoman Empire. Hovagim I was brought to Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II and established the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople . As

9776-673: Was called Armenia by neighboring peoples (such as by Hecataeus of Miletus and on the Achaemenid Behistun Inscription) was the Satrapy of Armenia , established in the late 6th century BCE under the Orontid (Yervanduni) dynasty within the Achaemenid Persian Empire . The Orontids later ruled the independent Kingdom of Armenia . At its zenith (95–65 BCE), under the imperial reign of Tigran

9880-416: Was considered a check on the military system, since beys , who represented executive authority on reaya, could not carry out justice without a sanction from the religious leader of the person's faith. Armenians became religious leaders and bureaucrats under the Ottoman Empire, allowing them to become more influential than just their own community. Certain elite Armenian families in the Ottoman Empire gained

9984-422: Was easily obtained. The patriarchal system of government, in placing civil powers in the hands of high ecclesiastics, was an outcome of the fact that the Sultan made no distinction between church and community, and often lent the weight of its authority to maintain the integrity of the church. The Bey or elder was something of a leader for the village, and their house was typically the most luxurious dwelling in

10088-532: Was established in Judea (modern-day Palestine -Israel), leading to the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem . Later on, to further strengthen Armenian national identity, Mesrop Mashtots invented the Armenian alphabet , in 405 CE. This event ushered the Golden Age of Armenia , during which many foreign books and manuscripts were translated to Armenian by Mesrop's pupils. Armenia lost its sovereignty again in 428 CE to

10192-575: Was in the years 1894 to 1896, the second one culminating in the events of the Armenian genocide in 1915 and 1916. With World War I in progress, the Ottoman Empire accused the (Christian) Armenians as liable to ally with Imperial Russia , and used it as a pretext to deal with the entire Armenian population as an enemy within their empire. Governments of the Republic of Turkey since that time have consistently rejected charges of genocide, typically arguing either that those Armenians who died were simply in

10296-476: Was not to be revocable during that period. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire and Russian Empire engaged each other in Caucasus and Persian Campaigns , and the CUP began to look on the Armenians with distrust and suspicion. This was due to the fact that the Russian army contained a contingent of Armenian volunteers . On 24 April 1915, Armenian intellectuals were arrested by Ottoman authorities and, with

10400-479: Was on the Persian border, which the Armenakans were in communication with Armenians in the Persian Empire . The Gugunian Expedition , which followed within the couple months, was an attempt by a small group of Armenian nationalists from the Russian Armenia to launch an armed expedition across the border into the Ottoman Empire in 1890 in support of local Armenians. The Kum Kapu demonstration occurred at

10504-684: Was partially confirmed by the research of geneticist David Reich (et al. 2018), among others. Similarly Grolle (et al. 2018) supports not only a homeland for Armenians on the Armenian highlands, but also that the Armenian highlands are the homeland for the "pre-proto-Indo-Europeans". A large genetic study in 2022 showed that many Armenians are "direct patrilineal descendants of the Yamnaya ". Genetic studies explain Armenian diversity by several mixtures of Eurasian populations that occurred between 3000 and 2000 BCE. But genetic signals of population mixture cease after 1200 BCE when Bronze Age civilizations in

10608-484: Was perpetrated by Dashnaks armed with pistols, grenades, dynamite and hand-held bombs against the Ottoman Bank in Constantinople. The seizure of the bank lasted 14 hours, resulting in the deaths of 10 of the Armenian men and Ottoman soldiers. The Porte's reaction to the takeover saw further massacres and pogroms of the several thousand Armenians living in Constantinople and Sultan Abdul Hamid II threatening to level

10712-607: Was positive, rather than negative. Armenians organized themselves into civil society organizations, including clubs and political parties. Hovsep Pushman was a painter who became very famous in the Empire. During this period Armenians would establish churches, schools, libraries, and newspapers. Sargis Mubayeajian was a prolific and multifarious writer educated in Constantinople. Many of his works are still scattered in Armenian periodicals. Many Armenians, who after having emigrated to foreign countries and becoming prosperous there, returned to their native land. Alex Manoogian , who became

10816-408: Was the Armenian national effort to free the historic Armenian homeland of eastern Asia Minor and Transcaucasus from Russian and Ottoman rule and re-establish the independent Armenian state . Those Armenians who did not support national liberation aspirations or who were neutral were called chezoks . Abdul Hamid II was the 34th Sultan and oversaw a period of decline in the power and extent of

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