Armenians in the Ottoman Empire

**Armenians in the Ottoman Empire** were people of Armenian origin who lived under Ottoman rule from the empire's original creation to its eventual collapse. 

Armenians in the Ottoman Empire lived under the millet system as a Christian minority up until the Tanzimat reforms which concluded in the construction of the first Ottoman constitution. When the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) became the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire, they vigorously enforced Ottomanism and saw the Turks as the dominant group. These developments caused more oppression and eventually led to the Armenian Genocide. 

## Initial years under Ottoman rule 
In 1453, the Ottoman Turks under the command of Sultan Mehmed II conquered the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Constantinople (later renamed Istanbul) became the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire for the remainder of its lifespan (1453-1922). Christianity is a firmly embedded central component of Armenian history and culture, which dates back to 301 C.E when Armenia became the first ever nation to implement Christianity as a state religion. Under Ottoman Islamic rule, Sultans allowed the Christian Armenian communities to preserve their culture, customs, language and religiosity so long as they remained loyal to the Ottoman sultan and the state. The Phanariots were elite Greek merchants that had a critical influence over internal political issues within the Ottoman Empire. The Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane was the brainchild of statesmen, Mustafa Reşid Pasha, the Ottoman minister of foreign affairs. More and more of the common Armenian population were educating themselves about reforms and laws within the community in which they previously had little to no say in. This group of intellectuals wanted written regulations defining the duties of the people at the top of the Armenian millet, such as the patriach.Reorganizingg the millet would help separate state and religion.

The Armenian National Constitution did not change much for the people in the millet, but it is one of the factors which led to the making of the First Ottoman Constitution in 1876. The period in which this constitution was implemented is called the First Constitutional Period and took from 1876-1878.

The Armenian National Constitution is still used in the Armenian Church in the diaspora. While the former massacres were often to scare and intimidate the Armenians, the genocide in 1915 had as goal to completely eliminate the Armenians from the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian Genocide is the name for the deportation and killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which ended in the death of 80,000 to 1,5 million Armenian people.

In 1913, the year before the genocide, around 2 million Armenians were living in the Ottoman Empire. At the start of World War I the Ottoman Empire was fighting with the Russians, as well as the British and French at the same time. The losses of the Balkan War included more than half of the European territory that used to be part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman government decided that it was not possible for the Muslim Ottomans to live alongside the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire and wanted to homogenize the population. 

Not everybody has agreed on the reason or a name for the events that happened to the Armenians in 1915 and during World War I. The Turkish government calls these deportations a defensive action against rebellion started by Kurds and local Muslim rebels, while the Armenian people call it a genocide.

## Related pages 
* Ottoman Empire
* Armenian Genocide

## References