Armenians in Turkey

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Armenians in Turkey (Turkish: Ermeniler, Armenian: Թրքահայեր, Պոլսահայեր), estimated from 40,000 (1995) to 70,000^[1], are a remnant of a once-larger community. Before World War I, some 1.5 million Armenians lived in eastern Anatolia. Starting in the late nineteenth century, intergroup tensions prompted the emigration of possibly as many as 100,000 Armenians in the 1890s and a number more were killed due to the Hamidian massacres. In 1915 the Ottoman government ordered all Armenians deported from eastern Anatolia; at least 1 million of the Armenians, who numbered up to 2 million, died during a forced march southward beginning in the spring of 1915. Armenians and most historians contend — and Turkey denies — that the catastrophe that befell their community was the result of atrocities committed by Ottoman government directives, and that it constituted a genocide.

Most Armenians living in Turkey are concentrated in and around İstanbul. Like the Greeks, they are bankers and merchants with extensive international contacts. The Armenians support their own newspapers and schools. They are attached to their Armenian Apostolic faith and they identify as Armenians rather than Turks. In addition, they have relatives in the Armenian diaspora throughout the world. The establishment of an independent Armenia on Turkey's eastern border following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a source of ethnic pride for the Armenians of Turkey. However, Armenia's conflict with Turkic Azerbaijan, combined with the jingoistic support of Azerbaijan in the Turkish media, has raised apprehensions among the Armenian minority about their future status in Turkey.

The number of people of Armenian ethnic origins currently living in Turkey may be actually more than the official numbers given, which comprise Armenians as per the definition of a Christian minority (ekalliyet). Following the tragic events of 1915-1917, some Armenian children became orphans. Many of the Armenian orphans were adopted by local Muslim families, who changed their names and converted them to Islam. While Western Christian missionaries and surviving Armenians started to search for and claim back these Armenian orphans after World War I, only a percentage were found and reunited, while many others continued to live as Turks. Additionally, some of the Armenian families had converted to Islam in order to escape the genocide. Therefore, there are a number of people of Armenian origin in Turkey today who are not aware of their ancestors and also a number of "secret" Armenians, who are Crypto-Christians (or Hamshenis).^[2] In the 1960s, some of these families converted back to Christianity and changed their names.