Six vilayets

The Six Armenian provinces in early 20th century.

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 Ermeni ili[1]) were the Armenian-populated vilayets (provinces) of the Ottoman Empire:

Term

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

Population

Ethnic groups

Ethnic map of Six vilayets according to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1912.
Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire according to the 1914 official population statistics.
Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, 1912[2]
Ethnic groups Bitlis Diyarbekir Erzurum Mamuretülaziz Sivas Van TOTAL %
Armenians180,000105,000215,000168,000165,000185,0001,018,00038.9
Turks148,00072,000265,000182,000192,00047,000806,00030.8
Kurds277,00055,00075,00095,00050,00072,000499,00019.1
Others330,00064,00048,0005,000100,00043,000290,00011.1
TOTAL382,000296,000630,000450,000507,000350,0002,615,000100

1 including Qizilbash
2 including Zaza
3 Assyrians (Nestorians, Jacobites, Chaldeans), Circassians, Greeks, Yazidis, Persians, Lazs, Roma

Ottoman official population statistics, 1914[3]

Note: The Ottoman population statistics 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 population statistics of 1914 that were based on an earlier census underestimated the number of ethnic minorities, including the number of Armenians.[4] The Ottoman figures 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 - like Pontic Greeks, Caucasus Greeks, and Laz - were counted as others.

Ethnic groups Bitlis Diyarbekir Erzurum Mamuretülaziz Sivas Van TOTAL %
Muslims309,999492,101673,297446,376939,735179,3803,040,88879.6
Armenians119,13265,850136,61887,862151,67467,792628,92816.5
Others44,3484,0205,7974,04778,17311,969148,3543.9
TOTAL473,479561,971815,712538,2851,169,582259,1413,818,170100

Largest cities

All figures are as of early 20th century.

City Vilayet Population Armenians %
Van[5] Van Vilayet 40,000 25,000 62.5%
Sivas[6] Sivas Vilayet 60,000 30,000 50%
Erzurum[7] Erzurum Vilayet 60,000 15,000 25%
Mezereh[8] Vilayet of Mamuret-ul-Aziz 12,200 6,080 49.8%
Bitlis[6] Bitlis Vilayet 30,000 7,000 23%
Diyarbakır Diyarbekir Vilayet
Arapgir[9] Vilayet of Mamuret-ul-Aziz 20,000 10,000 50%
Malatya[10] Vilayet of Mamuret-ul-Aziz 40,000 20,000 50%

See also

References

Notes
  1. (in Turkish) İsmail Soysal, Türkiye'nin Siyasal Andlaşmaları, I. Cilt (1920-1945), Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1983, p. 14.
  2. "The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916" by JAMES VISCOUNT BRYCE, London, T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1916
  3. "1914 Population Statistics" (PDF). Turkish General Staff. pp. 603–628. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  4. 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...
  5. Hakobyan 1987, p. 236.
  6. 1 2 Hakobyan 1987, p. 222.
  7. Hakobyan 1987, p. 163.
  8. Hakobyan 1987, p. 134.
  9. Hakobyan 1987, p. 51.
  10. Hakobyan 1987, p. 182.
Bibliography
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