During the 13th century, when the Ottoman Turks were no more than a small Turanian tribe, they were constantly at war with their neighbours, namely the Seljuk Turks and the Mongols and only passed through Armenia. It was only in the 16th century that the Ottoman Turks engaged in conflict with the Armenians, 50 years after the conquest of Constantinople and after, in their wars against Persia, having conquered Asia Minor. But in western Asia Minor, where they settled down in the 14th century, they had been in contact with the Armenian settlements. Apparently the Ottoman Turks discovered then, during their battles against their mighty relatives, that these Armenian settlers were excellent comrades in war, and they recognised their warrior spirit and courage. It was not long before the Armenians entered the service of the Ottoman Turks, among the Janissaries, the Turkish elite units which consisted only of Christians. From the reign of Osman I onwards the Armenians obtained the trust of the Ottoman Turks. The Armenians also had respect for the Ottoman Turks and thought that they, in comparison with other Turanian people, the Seljuk, the Mongols and the Turkmen, were more flexible, active, disciplined and organized. In their turn, the Ottomans Turks, as we will see later, named the Armenians "the honest people".
When sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople, he provided the Greek Catholicos with social and religious privileges. The Greek patriarch of Constantinople was granted jurisdiction in the civil affairs over all the Greeks and other Orthodox Christians who were subject to the Ottoman Empire (Bulgarians, Serbs and Romanians). These were those Christians whom the Ottoman sultans did not regarded as having an independent church and therefore had been placed under the jurisdiction of the religious and civil superiority of the Greek Church.
Sultan Mehmet II, known as the Conqueror, wished to find a Christian counterweight to the Greek patriarch and found that the Armenians were best suited to this end. Hence he brought the Armenian bishop in Brousse to Constantinople, announced him as the Armenian Catholicos and provided him with the same rights and privileges regarding the civil jurisdiction over the Armenians in the empire. 26
Afterwards the Turks placed all the mono-physical Christians in the empire, the Jacobins in Syria and the Copts, under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Catholicos. Thereby the Turks recognized two significant Christian churches, the Greek Church under the heading of which the Bulgarians, the Serbs and the Rumanians were included, and the Armenian Church under which, apart from the Armenians, all other mono-physical Christians were included.
Given that the Ottoman Empire did not encompass Armenia, it is clear that the Ottoman Turks, for political reasons as well as a token of appreciation for the services of the Armenians, gave the Armenians an disproportionally high office in comparison with their number. Once they had annexed Armenia and Cilicia to the Ottoman Empire this privilege was justified.
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