Armenians in The Ottoman Empire - Ottoman Armenia 1453 To 1829

Ottoman Armenia 1453 To 1829

Armenians preserved their culture, history, and language through the course of time, largely thanks to their distinct religious identity among the neighboring Turks and Kurds. Like the Greek Orthodox and Jewish minorities of the Ottoman Empire, they constituted a distinct millet, led by the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople. Under this system, Christians and Jews were considered religious minorities/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 a longer waiting period for minorities to seek legal recourse in the courts. Under the Ottoman rule, Armenians formed three distinct millets: Armenian Orthodox Gregorians, Armenian Catholics, and Armenian Protestants (which was formed in the 19th century).

After many centuries of Turkish rule in Anatolia (at first the Seljuks, then the rule of a variety of Anatolian beyliks and finally the Ottomans), 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 the historic Armenian land, which was left severely depopulated by the a slew of devastating events such as the Byzantine-Persian Wars, Byzantine-Arab Wars, Turkish Invasions, Mongol Invasions and finally the bloody campaigns of Tamerlane. Owing to these events the composition of the population had undergone, ever since the second half of the medieval period, a transformation so profound that the 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 Sassoun, Shatakh, and parts of Dersim. An Armenian stronghold and a symbol of factual Armenian autonomy, Zeitoun (Ulnia) was located between the Six Vilayets and Cilicia, which also had a strong Armenian presence ever since the creation of the Principality (and then Kingdom) of Lesser Armenia. However, the destruction of the Kingdom by Ramadanid tribe and the subsequent rule of Muslim powers such as the Dulkadirids, the Mamluks and the Ottomans led to an ever increasing numbers of Muslims in the region until finally the genocide removed the remaining vestiges of Armenians.

There were also significant communities in parts of Trebizond and Ankara vilayets bordering Six vilayets (like in Kayseri). After the Ottoman conquests many Armenians also settled in Western Anatolia, in large and prosperous Ottoman cities like Istanbul and Izmir.