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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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The expansion of the Ottoman Empire beyond Persia was less extensive during the reign of Sultan Suleiman II and his successor, Sultan Murad III. Nevertheless, by1585, the Ottoman Turks had won control over Armenia, Georgia and Persian Azerbaijan.



At the beginning of the 17th century, Shah Abbas I attempted to recapture Armenia, sparking a war between Persia and the Ottoman Empire which lasted from 1602 to 1620. Initially the Persians occupied the eastern part of Armenia, but were soon forced to withdraw due to a Turkish counter-offensive. Finally the treaty of 1620 was signed, according to which the Ottoman Empire kept the majority of Armenia, while the important areas of Yerevan, Nakhichevan and Karabakh were given to Persia.

Thus Armenia, for more than a century, was a stage for many battles between the forces of the Ottoman Empire and Persia, and suffered the unavoidable consequences of war: destruction, plundering, theft and shootings (which was more extreme in the Orient).

Fortunately however, hatred for Christianity, rife in the Orient, was subdued during the wars between these two camps. The Turks and the Persian belonged to two different branches of Islam, the Turks being Sunnites, and the Persians Shiites. The religious animosity between these two dominations was so intense that they concentrated their efforts on burning down the other's mosques, leaving no time for the incineration of Armenian churches. 28

Armenia Under the Rule of the Ottoman Turks

From the 16th century onwards, the majority of Armenia was in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were, as we already have mentioned, the most advanced, serious and active people among the Turanian tribes. Having taken control of Constantinople, they wisely reproduced certain Byzantine institutions, especially the administrative ones. At the peak of its power, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the city of Vienna as far as the city of Tabriz.

In contrast to the experience under the other Turanian tribes (Seljuk, Mongol and Turkmen), under the rule of the Ottoman Turks Armenia undoubtedly underwent a relative development. The Ottoman Turks had a competent sultan and centralised power and organization in emulation of the Byzantine model. Building on these advantages, the Ottomans created a relatively proficient rule of the empire, which extended to northern Armenia; southern Armenia, however, had been delegated to the nomadic Kurds, and there anarchy and plundering were everyday occurences.

The Ottoman rule, though progressive in comparison to earlier Turkish regimes, still favoured populations who were or had been tent-living nomads. Peoples with established historical backgrounds, who had known great civilization, on the other hand, could not subject themselves to this rule. Thus the Christian people in the Balkans could not accept the Ottoman rule.