Six vilayets

The Six Armenian provinces in early 20th century.

The Six vilayets or Six provinces (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت سته‎ Vilâyat-ı Sitte) or the Six Armenian vilayets (Armenian: Վեց հայկական վիլայեթներ Vets' haykakan vilayet'ner, Turkish: Altı vilayet, Altı Ermeni ili^[1]) were the Armenian-populated vilayets (provinces) of the Ottoman Empire:

• Van
• Erzurum
• Mamuretülaziz
• Bitlis
• Diyarbekir
• Sivas

The term

The term Six Armenian provinces was first used in the Congress of Berlin in 1878.

Population

Ethnic groups

Ethnic map of Six vilayets according to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1912.

Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire according to the 1914 official census.

Reliable population statistcs do not exist. Different versions are shown below.

Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, 1912

^[2]

Note: The analysis excludes certain portions of these provinces where the Armenians are only a minor element. These portions are as follows: Hakkari, in the Vilayet of Van; the south of Sairt, the Vilayet of Bitlis; the south of Vlayet of Diyarbekir; the south of Malatia, in the Vilayet of Mamouret-ul-Aziz; the north-west and west of the Vilayet of Sivas.

There is no evidence supporting the data of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, as the methods of gathering of data was never cited.^[3] Also, the Patriarch had issued statistics of Six Vilayets in 1882 stating a total of 1.63 million Armenians in the area, 2.55 times the number they reached in the 1914 Census Report, but disowned 1882 figures in 1912 to publish new figures.^[3][4]

Ethnic groups	Bitlis	Diyarbekir	Erzurum	Mamuretülaziz	Sivas	Van	TOTAL	%
Armenians	180,000	105,000	215,000	168,000	165,000	185,000	1,018,000	38.9
Turks^1	48,000	72,000	265,000	182,000	192,000	47,000	806,000	30.8
Kurds^2	77,000	55,000	75,000	95,000	50,00	72,000	499,000	19.1
Others^3	30,000	64,000	48,000	5,000	100,000	43,000	290,000	11.1
TOTAL	382,000	296,000	630,000	450,000	507,000	350,000	2,615,000	100
^1 including Qizilbash ^2 including Zaza ^3 Assyrians (Nestorians, Jacobites, Chaldeans), Circassians, Greeks, Yazidis, Persians, Lazs, Roma

Ottoman official census, 1914

^[5]

Note: The Ottoman census doesn't give information for separate Muslim ethnic groups such as the Turks, Kurds, Circassians, etc.

Most modern Western scholars agree that the official Ottoman census underestimated the number of ethnic minorities, including the number of Armenians.^[6] In fact Ottoman census didn't define any ethnic groups, only religious ones. So Armenian meant an adherent of Armenian Apostolic Church. Ethnic Armenians who claimed to be Muslims were counted as Muslims, Armenian Protestants - like Pontic Greeks, Caucasus Greeks, and Laz - were counted as others.

Ethnic groups	Bitlis	Diyarbekir	Erzurum	Mamuretülaziz	Sivas	Van	TOTAL	%
Muslims	309,999	492,101	673,297	446,376	939,735	179,380	3,040,888	79.6
Armenians	119,132	65,850	136,618	87,862	151,674	67,792	628,928	16.5
Others	44,348	4,020	5,797	4,047	78,173	11,969	148,354	3.9
TOTAL	473,479	561,971	815,712	538,285	1,169,582	259,141	3,818,170	100

• Maps
• 

  1893-96, Armenian population

• 

  Armenian population in the Six vilayets.

Largest cities

All figures are as of early 20th century.

City	Vilayet	Population	Armenians	%
Van[7]	Van Vilayet	40,000	25,000	62.5%
Sivas[8]	Sivas Vilayet	60,000	30,000	50%
Erzurum[9]	Erzurum Vilayet	60,000	15,000	25%
Mezereh[10]	Vilayet of Mamuret-ul-Aziz	12,200	6,080	49.8%
Bitlis[8]	Bitlis Vilayet	30,000	7,000	23%
Diyarbakır	Diyarbekir Vilayet
Arapgir[11]	Vilayet of Mamuret-ul-Aziz	20,000	10,000	50%
Malatya[12]	Vilayet of Mamuret-ul-Aziz	40,000	20,000	50%

See also

• Western Armenia
• Wilsonian Armenia
• Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman Armenian population
• Administration for Western Armenia
• Kingdom of Armenia
• Russian Armenia

References

Notes

1. (Turkish) İsmail Soysal, Türkiye'nin Siyasal Andlaşmaları, I. Cilt (1920-1945), Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1983, p. 14.
2. "The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916" by JAMES VISCOUNT BRYCE, London, T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1916
3. McCarthy, Justin (1983). Muslims and Minorities : The Population of Ottoman Anatolia and the End of the Empire. New York University Press. pp. 56–59. ISBN 0-87150-963-6.
4. Mutlu, Servet (2003). "LATE OTTOMAN POPULATION AND ITS ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION" (PDF). Turkish Journal of Population Studies (Nüfusbilim Dergisi) 25 (1): 21. Retrieved 3 November 2011. There is no evidence supporting the Patriarch’s numbers. Conceivably they could have been based on church registers. But to date, neither any local church register nor any document showing the summation of local registers at the Patriarchate in İstanbul has been produced as proof (McCarthy, 1998a, pp.56- 59). More important, even if such records of the Armenian population existed, how could the local priests, and hence the Patriarch who would be getting his numbers from them, ever know how many Muslims existed short of a census. Yet, the census figures belie the Patriarch’s . Hence, the Patriarch’s figures were nothing but politically motivated constructions."
5. "1914 Census Statistics" (PDF). Turkish General Staff. pp. 603–628. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
6. Steven T. Katz,The Holocaust in Historical Context, 1994, p. 86 ...indicates (based on 1919 British estimates) that though Ottoman data were generally reliable they did underestimate the Armenian population in 1914...
7. Hakobyan 1987, p. 236.
8. Hakobyan 1987, p. 222.
9. Hakobyan 1987, p. 163.
10. Hakobyan 1987, p. 134.
11. Hakobyan 1987, p. 51.
12. Hakobyan 1987, p. 182.

Bibliography

• Hakobyan, Tadevos (1987). Պատմական Հայաստանի քաղաքները (Cites of historic Armenia) (in Armenian). Yerevan: "Hayastan" Publishing.