Vilayet Sivas

Vilâyet Sivas in the Ottoman Empire

Map of the Vilayet Sivas from 1890

The Vilayet Sivas , ( Ottoman سیواس Sivas ) was one of the provinces of the Ottoman Empire . It was one of the so-called Six Armenian Vilayets . The capital of the province was Sivas .

geography

The Vilâyet was bordered in the east by the Vilâyet Erzurum , by the Vilâyet Mamuretül-Aziz in the southeast, by the Vilâyet Trapezunt in the north and by the Vilâyet Angora in the west. The geographical predecessor of the Vilâyets Sivas was the Eyâlet Rûm .

population

At the end of the 19th century, the population was recorded and Ottoman statistics were published. Overall, the Sivas province had a population of between 1,170,000 and 1,470,000 before the Armenian genocide in 1915. Most of the population was Turkish, and the number of Armenians ranged from 152,000 to 200,000, with other minorities being Kurds , Greeks, and Syrian Orthodox Christians . Most of the Armenians lived in Sanjak Sivas . The provincial capital, the city of Sivas, had a population of 45,000, more than a third of whom were Armenians.

In 1914, 939,735 of the population were Muslim, 147,099 were Armenians and 75,324 were Greeks.

Administrative division

At the beginning of the 20th century (1907) the Vilayet Sivas consisted of four sanjaks : Sanjak Sivas, Sanjak Tokat , Sanjak Amasya and Sanjak Karahisar-ı Şarkî . These sanjaks were further divided into kazas:

• Sancak Sivas: Kazas Sivas, Aziziye, Bünyan-ı Hamid (now Bünyan , capital: Sarımsaklı) Tonos (main town: Şarkışla ) Yildizeli (main town: Yenihan) Hafik (main town: Koçhisar), Zara (Koçgiri), Divriği , Darende , Gürün , Kangal
• Sancak Amasya: Kazas Amasya , Merzifon , Köprü (main town: Vezirköprü ), Mecitözü (main town: Hacıköy), Ladik , Havza , Gümüşhacıköy (main town: Gümüș Madeni)
• Sancak Karahisar-ı Șarkî: Kazas Karahisar-ı Șarkî (main town: Şebinkarahisar ), Suşehri (main town: Anderyas), Hamidiye (main town: Çardak), Koyulhisar (main town: Mișak), Alucra (main town: Zil)
• Sancak Tokat (Tokad): Kazas Tokad, Erbaa (main town: Herek), Zile , Niksar

Unless the Kazas of that time were named after their main towns, in many cases the localities were later given the name of the administrative district of which they were the administrative center. Herek became Erbaa and Koçhisar became Hafik. However, today's administrative centers are not necessarily in the same place as their predecessors in Ottoman times. In other cases, the place name has also established itself as the name of the administrative district.

During its history, the Vilayet Sivas had a varying number of sanjaks. At the beginning of the 20th century there were 3,160 villages in Vilâyet Sivas.

See also

• Sivas (province)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} 1914 Census Statistics (PDF) General Staff of Turkey . Pp. 605-606. Archived from the original on October 7, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 29, 2011. 
2. ↑ Mehmet Nasrullah et al .: Osmanlı Atlası. XX. Yüzyıl Başları. Hazırlayanlar: Rahmi Tekin / Yaşar Baş. Osmanlı Araştırmaları Vakfı, İstanbul 2003, ISBN 978-975-7268-34-5 , p. 71
3. ↑ Mehmet Nasrullah et al .: Osmanlı Atlası. XX. Yüzyıl Başları. Hazırlayanlar: Rahmi Tekin / Yaşar Baş. Osmanlı Araştırmaları Vakfı, İstanbul 2003, ISBN 978-975-7268-34-5 , p. 71