The number of Armenians in the world in 1914 was approximately 4,000,000, roughly distributed thus: 2,000,000 in the Ottoman Empire, 1 700,000 in the Russian Empire, 100,000 in Persia, and 200,000 elsewhere.
1,300,000 lived in Eastern Armenia (Kars, Nakhichevan, Karabakh and Akhalkalak) while 1,400,000 lived in Western Armenia and Cilicia.
In Western Armenia, the Armenians had an absolute majority in the province of Van, but were in relative majority in the provinces of Erzurum and Bitlis. After the massacres of 1894-1896, the number of Turks and Kurds combined in the two latter provinces exceeded the number of Armenians, but considered separately, the Armenians were the prominent ethnic group. In Cilicia the Armenians were in relative majority. In the other Western Armenian provinces (Sivas, Diyarbakir and Kharpout) Armenians were the minority by only a small margin.
In other words, around 2,000,000 out of 4,000,000 Armenians lived within the borders of historical Armenia. In comparison, of the 7,500,000 Greeks living worldwide in 1915, only 4,000,000 lived in Greece itself, with the remaining 3,500,000 living in areas such as Asian Tracia and Constantinople.
The dispersion of Armenians was in many ways a fundamental weakness, especially as the two largest communities were based in the cities of Constantinople and Tbilisi, both outside of Armenia proper. Along with Baku and Izmir, Constantinople and Tbilisi were home to the most active Armenian cultural and business communities. Like the Greeks, the Armenian communities put their economic assets, influence and services at the disposal of the Armenian nation.
The other Armenian population centres, cities such as Erzurum and Van in Western Armenia, and Yerevan and Alexandropol (Gyumri) in Eastern Armenia, were also vital to the maintenance of the Armenian nation. As Elyssé Redus writes, these cities, with their progressive Armenian culture and school of thought, were archetypes for the civilisation of less developed peoples such as Turks, Kurds and Tatars, of whom some were still tent-living nomads.
The Armenians were important forerunners for culture and development in the region, prompting regional experts such as Buxton, Chantre, Lynch and Rohrbach to predict that the Armenians could turn their country into the Switzerland of the Orient.
A staunch supporter of Armenia, the Italian politician Luzzati, writes: "A free Armenia will not only be a guardian of civilisation in the East, but also a centre for securing the economy in this part of the world, and the entire Orient will learn from Armenia, both for its material and its moral needs. A nation who labours and creates is better than a thousand teachers for educating its poor and ignorant neighbours. It is just this that brought great significance to the resurrection of Armenia."
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