Six vilayets

The Six Armenian Provinces in the Early 20th Century

The Six Armenian Vilayets or Six Provinces ( Ottoman ولايت سته İA Vilâyat-ı , German 'custom' ; Armenian Վեց հայկական վիլայեթներ Wez 'hajkakan wilajet'ner ; modern Turkish Altı vilâyet, Altı Ermeni ili ) were the Armenian populated provinces ( Vilâyets ) of the Ottoman Empire :

The term Six Armenian Provinces was first used at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Even if the Armenians no longer made up the majority of the population in any vilayet by the 20th century at the latest , this region as western Armenia was the main settlement area of the Armenians next to eastern Armenia (the area of today's republics of Armenia and Arzach in Nagorno-Karabakh ) until the Armenian genocide in 1915 .

population

Ethnic groups

Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire according to the official 1914 census

Different versions of the population statistics are shown below.

Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople 1912 :

The analysis excludes certain parts of this province in which the Armenians were only a very small proportion. These parts were as follows: um Hakkâri in the Vilâyet Van; southeast of Siirt in the Vilâyet Bitlis; the south of the Vilayets Diyarbakır; the south of Malatya in the Vilayet Mamuretül-Aziz; the northwest and west of the Vilâyets Sivas.

Ethnicity	Bitlis	Diyarbakır	Erzerum	Mamuretül-Aziz	Sivas	Van	total	proportion of
Armenians	180,000	105,000	215,000	168,000	165,000	185,000	1,018,000	38.9%
Turks ¹	48,000	72,000	265,000	182,000	192,000	47,000	806,000	30.8%
Kurds ²	77,000	55,000	75,000	95,000	50,000	72,000	499,000	19.1%
Others ³	30,000	64,000	48,000	5,000	100,000	43,000	290,000	11.1%
total	382,000	296,000	630,000	450,000	507,000	350,000	2,615,000	100%
¹ without Kizilbasch ² without Zazas ³ Assyrians ( Nestorians , Jacobites , Chaldeans ), Circassians , Greeks , Yazidis , Persians , Lasen , Roma

Official Ottoman Census 1914 :

The Ottoman census gives no information about different Muslim ethnic groups such as Turks, Kurds, Circassians etc.

Most Western scholars agree that the official Ottoman census underestimates the number of ethnic minorities, including the number of Armenians. In fact, the Ottoman census did not define a single ethnic group, only religious groups. So meant Armenians, followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church . Ethnic Armenians who identified themselves as Muslims were counted as Muslims, and Armenian Protestants as others.

Ethnicity	Bitlis	Diyarbakır	Erzerum	Mamuretül-Aziz	Sivas	Van	total	proportion of
Muslims	309,999	492.101	673.297	446.376	939.735	179,380	3,040,888	79.6%
Armenians	119.132	65,850	136,618	87,862	151,674	67,792	628.928	16.5%
Other	44,348	4,020	5,797	4,047	78.173	11,969	148.354	3.9%
total	473.479	561,971	815.712	538.285	1,169,582	259.141	3,818,170	100%

Maps
Armenian population, 1893-1896
Ethnic map of the Six Vilayets (Western Armenia) according to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople 1912
Armenian population in the six Vilayets.

Individual evidence

↑ Ismail Soysal: Türkiye'nin Siyasal Andlaşmaları . I. Cilt (1920-1945), Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1983, p. 14 (Turkish).
↑ James Viscount Bryce: The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916 . T. Fisher Unwin, London 1916.
^ Justin McCarthy : Muslims and Minorities: The Population of Ottoman Anatolia and the End of the Empire . New York University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-87150-963-6 , pp. 56-59 .
^ Servet Mutlu: Late Ottoman Population And Its Ethnic Distribution . (PDF) In: Nüfusbilim Dergisi (Ed.): Turkish Journal of Population Studies . 25, No. 1, 2003, p. 21. Retrieved November 3, 2011. “There is no evidence supporting the Patriarch's numbers. Conceivably they could have been based on church registers. But to date, neither any local church register nor any document showing the summation of local registers at the Patriarchate in İstanbul has been produced as proof (McCarthy, 1998a, pp.56- 59). More important, even if such records of the Armenian population existed, how could the local priests, and hence the Patriarch who would be getting his numbers from them, ever know how many Muslims existed short of a census. Yet, the census figures believes the Patriarch's. Hence, the Patriarch's figures were nothing but politically motivated constructions. "
↑ TC Genelkurmay Baskanligi, Ankara. ( Memento of October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ; PDF) Arşiv Belgeleriyle Ermeni Faaliyetleri 1914–1918, Cilt I. Armenian Activities in the Archive Documents 1914–1918, Volume I, pp. 603–628. (1914 census statistics, publisher: General Staff of Turkey )
↑ "[...] indicates (based on 1919 British estimates) that though Ottoman data were generally reliable they did underestimate the Armenian population in 1914 [...]". Steven T. Katz: The Holocaust in Historical Context . Vol. 1: The Holocaust and Mass Death before the Modern Age . Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1994, ISBN 0-19-507220-0 , p. 86.

[1] Ismail Soysal: Türkiye'nin Siyasal Andlaşmaları . I. Cilt (1920-1945), Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1983, p. 14 (Turkish).

[2] James Viscount Bryce: The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916 . T. Fisher Unwin, London 1916.

[McCarthy-3] Justin McCarthy : Muslims and Minorities: The Population of Ottoman Anatolia and the End of the Empire . New York University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-87150-963-6 , pp. 56-59 .

[4] Servet Mutlu: Late Ottoman Population And Its Ethnic Distribution . (PDF) In: Nüfusbilim Dergisi (Ed.): Turkish Journal of Population Studies . 25, No. 1, 2003, p. 21. Retrieved November 3, 2011. “There is no evidence supporting the Patriarch's numbers. Conceivably they could have been based on church registers. But to date, neither any local church register nor any document showing the summation of local registers at the Patriarchate in İstanbul has been produced as proof (McCarthy, 1998a, pp.56- 59). More important, even if such records of the Armenian population existed, how could the local priests, and hence the Patriarch who would be getting his numbers from them, ever know how many Muslims existed short of a census. Yet, the census figures believes the Patriarch's. Hence, the Patriarch's figures were nothing but politically motivated constructions. "

[1914-census-5] TC Genelkurmay Baskanligi, Ankara. ( Memento of October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ; PDF) Arşiv Belgeleriyle Ermeni Faaliyetleri 1914–1918, Cilt I. Armenian Activities in the Archive Documents 1914–1918, Volume I, pp. 603–628. (1914 census statistics, publisher: General Staff of Turkey )

[6] "[...] indicates (based on 1919 British estimates) that though Ottoman data were generally reliable they did underestimate the Armenian population in 1914 [...]". Steven T. Katz: The Holocaust in Historical Context . Vol. 1: The Holocaust and Mass Death before the Modern Age . Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1994, ISBN 0-19-507220-0 , p. 86.