Post by depletedreasons on Jun 21, 2008 8:56:57 GMT -5
If I am not wrong the Armenians were at that time called the "loyal nation" only because they didnt make protests or quests for autonomy/independance at the time as some of other Christians such as Greeks and maybe Assyrians, but of course eventually they would.
Armenians received this title long before the decline of the Ottomans. Ottomans did see the Armenians as a "separate nation" even in the 15th Century. They had their patriarch, schools, and exemptions, such as the one from "Blood Tax". So, Ottomans did not even require them to give children to Janissary Troops. Instead, Armenians were encouraged to conduct trade and crafts. Abdulhamid's personal friends and loyal architects were Armenians although he was the one who suppressed the revolting Armenians in 1890s. The deterioration of the Ottoman-Armenian relations stemmed from the emergence of the nation states that coupled with the decline of the Ottoman administration.
Its interesting use of language that they were called "loyal nation" after all where was their nation in that time ?
In these land reforms were the Kurds and others moved into traditional Armenian regions.
Armenians settlements proliferated all over Anatolia after the Turkish conquest, but the major Armenian settlements were in areas at where Kurds also lived. With the rise of nationalism and with the decline of Ottoman Empire, the tensions between two ethnic groups were escalated by various factors. Land reform was one of them, but it was not the entire reason. Armenians were angry of the tax increases due to the financial burdens that the Ottoman Empire fell into within the 19th Century. After all, lost wars meant more refuges, more debt, but less tax payers to cover the deficits. Thus, Armenians were not happy about their deterioration of their overall situation resulted from the inflow of new migrants, and drastic changes in the demographic and economic structure of the Ottoman Empire.
I have read that Armeninans had issue with Kurds due to ferocious attacks from Kurds on Armenians. At first I think Armenians went to Turkish Government requesting some protection and security against these acts of agression, were they provided with any assistance from Turkish Government on these matters?
Ottoman Empire was not a centralized state, it had administrative tools operating in the vassal states and districts (Sancak). Kurds had various autonomous privileges in the areas they lived and the Ottomans did not interfere local administrators, particularly the Kurds, that is why, they avoided to take the side of the Armenians particularly when the empire was getting flooded by the Muslim refuges arriving from the lost territories.
Is this also because they felt the Ottomans didnt support them or gave favour to other Muslim people such as Kurds on occasions where i.e Kurdish attacks on Armenians.
I think it was because they started to receive increasing level of external support after the wars prevailed by the European powers, particularly the wars against Russia. Armenian migration to the Russian Armenia started in early 1800s due to privileges offered by the Russian Empire. So, Russia emerged as the Orthodox authority protecting the rights of the Armenians in a Muslim dominated empire, and the trust in Russia as an authority paved the ways to the conflicts and crisis in line with the collapse of the Ottoman power.