User:Yerevantsi/Western Armenia



https://www.evnreport.com/raw-unfiltered/a-conceptual-gap-the-case-of-western-armenia

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Western Armenia (Western Armenian: Արևմտեան Հայաստան, Arevmdean Hayasdan), formerly known as Turkish Armenia (Թրքահայաստան, T’rk’ahayastan or Տաճկահայաստան Tačkahayastan, Daǰkahayasdan) is a term, primarily used by Armenians, to refer to the eastern parts of the Turkey (originally the Ottoman Empire) that are considered part of the traditional Armenian homeland. It held a significant Armenian population from antiquity to the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

The area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Influenced by the successful campaigns for independence of the Balkan nations, the Armenians began a struggle for independence. Sultan Abdul Hamid II reacted with widespread massacres of Armenians in the 1890s. The Armenians living in their ancestral lands were exterminated during the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and the following years. The over two thousand year Armenian presence in the area largely ended and the cultural heritage was mainly destroyed by the Turkish government.

Although virtually no Armenians live in the area today, some Armenian nationalist groups, most notably the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, claim it as part of United Armenia.

Pre-Ottoman history
After the first partition of the Kingdom of Armenia in 387 AD, the western parts of Armenian Kingdom became part of the Byzantine Empire, while the eastern parts after semi-independence fell to the Sasanian Empire in 428. The parts of Armenia under the Byzantine rule became known as Byzantine Armenia. It was also called Western Armenia. It was conquered by the Arabs in the 7th century, while in 885 the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia emerged. The Armenian kingdom fell in 1045. From the point on, Armenia was dominated by foreign empires and was often devastated by invasions.

Ottoman conquest
Most of the Armenian lands were conquered by the Ottoman Empire by the 16th century after a long series of Ottoman–Persian Wars. Armenia was first partitioed by the 1555 Peace of Amasya and then in 1639 by the Treaty of Zuhab. The rest of Armenia (also known as Eastern Armenia) remained part of Safavid Persia until 1828 when it was annexed by the Russian Empire.

The Ottoman Empire, which was divided into eyalets, called one of its provinces—the Erzurum Eyalet—Ermenistan (Armenia). French lexicographer Jacques Savary des Brûlons wrote the Dictionnaire universel de commerce, which was finished by his brother after his death in 1723. In a 1773 English version of the book published by Wyndham Beawes under the title Lex Mercatoria Rediviva: Or, The Merchant's Directory the city of Erzurum is called the "Capital of the Part of Turkish Armenia." Edward Gibbon as well called Erzurum the "capital of Turkish Armenia" in his famous book The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Until late 1600s, the overwhelming majority of Western Armenia was Armenian.


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19th century


Western Armenia is an undefined region. During various stages of history its borders have changed. From the late 19th century until the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the term Turkish Armenia generally referred to the the "Six vilayets" (Van, Erzurum, Mamuretülaziz, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Sivas). These vilayets (provinces) had significant Armenian populations. According to the Ottoman census of 1914, of the 3,818,170 people living in these provinces only 628,928 (16.5%) were Armenian, however, this data is often criticized by Armenian and non-Armenian historians. Kemal Karpat argues that the populates statistics were "manipulated for political purposes."


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Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin stated that "The Sublime Porte undertakes to carry out, without further delay, the improvements and reforms demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians and Kurds."

Extermination of the Armenian population


During World War I, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire, formally known as the Committee of Union and Progress, carried out a systematic extermination of the Armenian population of the declining empire. According to modern estimates around 1.5 million were killed in the deportations that started in mid-1915. Earlier, on April 24, 1915, the Armenian community leaders of Constantinople were deported into Anatolia and later killed. The male population was massacred, while the rest of the Armenian population was deported into the Syrian Desert.

Just before WWI, according to various estimates, around 2 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. By 1927 only some 140,000 Armenians lived in Turkey, mainly in Constantinople.

Outside of Constantinople, up to 30,000 Armenians lived in 1928.

Current status
Eastern Anatolia (Doğu Anadolu), which is one of the 7 geographical regions of Turkey, roughly corresponds to Western Armenia.


 * Armenians often call Western Armenia ergirə (էրգիրը), which literally means "the country".


 * One of the few official documents mentioning the term "Western Armenia" is the Armenian Declaration of Independence, passed on 23 August 1990 by the parliament. Article 11 of the declaration states that "The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia."

Armenian claims


The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF or Dashnak/Tashnag) claims Western Armenia.