Armenians in Turkey - History

History

Armenians presently living in Turkey are a remnant of what once was a much larger community that existed for hundreds of years and long before the establishment of the Sultanate of Rum. Estimates for the number of Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire in the decade before World War I range between 1.3 to 1.8 million. During the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians of Turkey were active in business and trade, just like the Greeks and Jews of Turkey.

When Constantinople finally became a part of Ottoman Empire, financial support was given to Orthodox Armenians by the Sultan, so they could build their churches on the land of the Empire. Many of the Armenian churches in Anatolia and Istanbul, were built in 1453 or after reflecting tolerance of the Ottoman Empire to other ethnic groups and various religions living under their control during that time.

Starting in the late nineteenth century, political instability, dire economic conditions, and continuing ethnic tensions prompted the emigration of as many as 100,000 Armenians to Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. This massive exodus created the modern Armenian diaspora worldwide based on mainly Ottoman Armenian populations emigrating in large numbers, in addition to some emigration from the Caucasus which was more towards Russia.

There was conflict between Armenians and Turks between 1892 and 1915. The Armenian Genocide followed in 1915–1916 until 1918, during which the Ottoman government of the time ordered the deportation and killing of 0.9 to 1.2 million Armenians because of alleged political and security considerations. These measures affected a huge majority of Armenians, an estimated 75%-80% of all the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Many died directly through Ottoman massacres and atrocities, while others died as a result of mass deportations and forced population movements, and more through Kurdish militia attacks.

As for the remaining Armenians in the Eastern parts of the country, they found refuge by 1917–1918 in the Caucasus and eventually within the areas controlled by the newly established Democratic Republic of Armenia and never returned to their original homes in Eastern Turkey (composed of the 6 vilayets, namely (Erzurum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Mamuretülaziz, and Sivas).

Some Armenians, about 300,000 according to some estimates, were adopted by Turks and Kurds or married into Muslim populations in a process of Turkification and Kurdification to avoid facing a similar fate.

Most of the Armenian survivors ended up in northern Syria and the Middle East in general, with some temporarily returning to their homes in Turkey at the end of World War I particularly during the French Mandate, as a result of France being allocated the control of southeastern Turkey and all of Cilicia according to the Sykes–Picot Agreement. The Armenian population suffered a final blow with ongoing massacres and atrocities throughout the period 1920–1923, during the Turkish War of Independence, those suffering the most being the remnants of the Armenians remaining in the East and the South of the country, in addition to the Greeks in the Black Sea Region. Mass deportations of Turkey's surviving Armenian population continued especially after the withdrawal of the French forces from the area. The few remaining Armenians mostly fled.

By the end of the 1920s, only a handful of Armenians were left in Turkey scattered sparsely throughout the country, with the only viable Armenian population remaining in the Istanbul area and its environs.