Six vilayets

The Six vilayets or Six provinces (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت سته Vilâyat-ı Sitte) or the Six Armenian vilayets (Armenian: Վեց հայկական վիլայեթներ Vets' haykakan vilayet'ner, Turkish: Altı vilayet, Altı il[1]) were the Armenian-populated vilayets (provinces) of the Ottoman Empire:

  1. Van
  2. Erzurum
  3. Mamuretülaziz
  4. Bitlis
  5. Diyarbekir
  6. Sivas

Contents

The term

The term Six Armenian provinces was first used in the Congress of Berlin in 1878.

Ethnic groups

Reliable population statistcs do not exist. Different versions are shown below.

French estimation, 1897[2]
Ethnic groups Bitlis Diyarbekir Erzurum Mamuretülaziz Sivas Van TOTAL %
Armenians 131,390 79,129 134,967 69,718 170,433 80,798 666,435 15,6
Muslims 398,625 471,462 645,702 575,814 1,086,015 430,000 3,607,618 84,4
TOTAL 530,015 550,591 780,669 645,532 1,256,448 510,798 4,274,053 100
Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, 1912[3]

Note: The analysis excludes certain portions of these provinces where the Armenians are only a minor element. These portions are as follows: Hakkari, in the Vilayet of Van; the south of Sairt, the the Vilayet of Bitlis; the south of Vlayet of Diyarbekir; the south of Malatia, in the Vilayet of Mamouret-ul-Aziz; the north-west and west of the Vilayet of Sivas.

There is no evidence supporting the data of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, as the methods of gathering of data was never cited.[4] Also, the Patriarch had issued statistics of Six Vilayets in 1882 stating a total of 1.63 million Armenians in the area, 2.55 times the number they reached in the 1914 Census Report, but disowned 1882 figures in 1912 to publish new figures.[4][5]

Ethnic groups Bitlis Diyarbekir Erzurum Mamuretülaziz Sivas Van TOTAL %
Armenians 180,000 105,000 215,000 168,000 165,000 185,000 1,018,000 38.9
Turks1 48,000 72,000 265,000 182,000 192,000 47,000 806,000 30.8
Kurds2 77,000 55,000 75,000 95,000 50,00 72,000 499,000 19.1
Others3 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 including Qizilbash
2 including Zaza
3 Assyrians (Nestorians, Jacobites, Chaldeans), Circassians, Greeks, Yazidis, Persians, Lazs, Roma
Ottoman official census, 1914[6]

Note: The Ottoman census doesn't give information for separate Muslim ethnic groups such as the Turks, Kurds, Circassians, etc.

Most modern Western scholars agree that the official Ottoman census underestimated the number of ethnic minorities, including the number of Armenians.[7] In fact Ottoman census didn't define any ethnic groups, only religious ones. So Armenian meant an adherent of Armenian Apostolic Church. Ethnic Armenians who claimed to be Muslims were counted as Muslims, Armenian Protestants as others.

Ethnic groups Bitlis Diyarbekir Erzurum Mamuretülaziz Sivas Van TOTAL %
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
Others 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

See also

References

  1. ^ (Turkish) İsmail Soysal, Türkiye'nin Siyasal Andlaşmaları, I. Cilt (1920-1945), Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1983, p. 14.
  2. ^ Crime of numbers: the role of statistics in the Armenian question (1878-1918), Fuat Dündar, page 184, 2010
  3. ^ "The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916" by JAMES VISCOUNT BRYCE, London, T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1916
  4. ^ a b McCarthy, Justin (1983). Muslims and Minorities : The Population of Ottoman Anatolia and the End of the Empire. New York University Press. pp. 56–59. ISBN 0871509636. 
  5. ^ Mutlu, Servet (2003). "LATE OTTOMAN POPULATION AND ITS ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION". Turkish Journal of Population Studies (Nüfusbilim Dergisi) 25 (1): 21. http://www.hips.hacettepe.edu.tr/nbd_cilt25/mutlu.pdf. Retrieved 3 November 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 belie the Patriarch’s . Hence, the Patriarch’s figures were nothing but politically motivated constructions."" 
  6. ^ "1914 Census Statistics". Turkish General Staff. pp. 603–628. http://www.tsk.tr/8_TARIHTEN_KESITLER/8_1_Ermeni_Sorunu/konular/ermeni_faaliyetleri_pdf/Arsiv_Belgeleriyle_Ermeni_Faaliyetleri_Cilt_1.pdf. Retrieved 29 January 2011. 
  7. ^ Steven T. Katz,The Holocaust in Historical Context, 1994, p. 86 ...indicates (based on 1919 British estimates) that though Ottoman data were generally reliable they did underestimate the Armenian population in 1914...
Six vilayets of the Ottoman Empire
The Six vilayets