Armenians of Istanbul

History

Before 1453, the year that Fatih Sultan Mehmet conquerred Istanbul, there were a few Armenians settled in Istanbul. After the conquery, many inhabitants of the city either died or fled away. The Population of the city in 1453 was 40.000 and nearly all of them were Greeks. Fatih Sultan Mehmet brought many people from all sides of Anatolia to Istanbul to grow the population, sometimes by force. He prepared a mixture of races and religions by his own hands. Also he brought many Armenians from all over anatolia. Armenians were good at handicrafts, jewelry and merchandize.

After a while, the Patriarche of Armenians was established by the Sultan himself. The Patriarche continued to represent the Armenian community in Turkey till today. The Patriarchia is now at Kumkapi.

The Armenian Patriarche at Kumkapu

There were many ethnic groups living in the Ottoman Empire. They were either Muslim, Christian or Jew. The Armenian community was the most loyal community among others. For this reason, the Armenians were regarded as in Turkish millet-i sadika, meaning "the loyal nation". There were many Armenians serving the Ottoman Goverment and army. Some of them are listed below.

Gabriel NORADUNKYAN
foreign minister of Ottoman Empire(1912-1913)

Ohannes SAKIZ Pasha
Nazir-i Hazine-i Hassa(minister of economics)

Agop KAZASYAN Pasha
Nazir-i Hazine-i Hassa(minister of economics)

Ohannes KUYUMCUYAN Pasha
ayan azasi(senator)

During the Empire, the Armenian community prospered and grew in number. But during the regyme of the Sultan Abdoulhamed II, the suppression to the Armenians started and things went even worse at the Ittihat ve Terakki(Union and Progress) Party period. After Ittihat ve Terakki started their policy to constitute a homogenous pure Turkish nation(Turan), all the other ethnic groups uncluding Armenians suffered a lot. This suffering reached its peak during the first world war.
All the Armenians in Anatolia were exiled to Syria while the community in Istanbul was kept untouched but the intellectual and outspoken Armenians in Istanbul were killed by the government.
The community returned back to peaceful days after the constitution of the Republic of Turkey by Ataturk in 1923. The Armenian community enjoyed the freedom given by the Lausanne Treaty until the suppressions started in 1942.
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