Bitlis Vilayet

ولایت بتليس Vilâyet-i Bitlis
Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire
← 1875–1923 →
Bitlis Vilayet in 1892
Capital		Bitlis
History
•	Established	1875
•	Declaration of the Republic of Turkey	1923
Population
•	Muslim, 1914[1]	309,999
•	Armenian, 1914[1]	117,492
Today part of		Turkey

Bitlis Vilayet (Armenian: Բիթլիսի վիլայեթ Bit'lisi vilayet' Ottoman Turkish: ولایت بتليس) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. Before the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) it had been part of the Erzurum Vilayet, it was then made a separate vilayet by the Porte.^[2] It was one of the six Armenian vilayets of the Empire.

At the beginning of the 20th century it reportedly had an area of 11,522 square miles (29,840 km²), while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 388,625.^[3] The accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.^[3]

Bitlis and Muş were formerly included in the Eyalet of Erzurum. In 1875 they were detached and made a separate vilayet. The sanjak of Siirt was joined to the vilayet of Bitlis in 1883-84.^[4]

Administrative divisions

Sanjaks of Bitlis Vilayet:^[2]

1. Sanjak of Bitlis (Bitlis, Ahlat, Hizan, Mutki)
2. Sanjak of Muş (Muş, Bulanık, Sason, Malazgirt, Varto)
3. Sanjak of Siirt (Siirt, Eruh, Pervari, Şirvan, Kurtalan)
4. Sanjak of Genç (Genç, Çapakçur, Kulp)

References

1. "1914 Census Statistics" (PDF). Turkish General Staff. pp. 605–606. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
2. First encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936, p. 715, at Google Books By M. Th Houtsma
3. Asia by A. H. Keane, page 460
4. Krikorian, Mesrob K. "Armenians in the Service of the Ottoman Empire: 1860-1908".

External links

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bitlis". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Media related to Vilayet of Bitlis at Wikimedia Commons