Western Armenia

This article is about the historical region. For the Armenian dialect, see Western Armenian.

The distribution of Armenians in the early 17th century, a few decades after its conquest by the Ottomans, within the current borders of Turkey:^[1]

Armenian majority

Significant Armenian presence

History of Armenia

Etymology Timeline Traditional Urheimat
Prehistory Stone & Copper Age Shulaveri-Shomu culture c.6500–3400 BCE Areni-1 Cave Complex Kura–Araxes culture c.3400–2000 BCE Legend of Hayk (?) 2492 BCE Bronze & Iron Age Hayasa-Azzi c.1500–1290 BCE Arme-Shupria c.1300s–1190 BCE Ararat/Urartu Nairi Tribes 1114–860 BCE Kingdom of Van 860–590 BCE Scythian & Mede Invasions 6th Century BCE
Antiquity Achaemenid Period Satrapy of Armina 549–331 BCE Orontid Dynasty Ancient Armenia Kingdom of Armenia 321 BCE–428 CE Artaxiad dynasty 189 BCE–12 CE Empire 84–34 BCE Arsacid dynasty 52–428 CE Roman–Parthian War 58–63 CE Roman Province of Armenia 114–118 CE Christianization 301 CE Armenia Minor 331–72 BCE Kingdom of Sophene c.200–94 BCE Kingdom of Commagene 163 BCE–72 CE Marzpanate period Byzantine Armenia 387–536 Persian Armenia 428–646 Mamikonian dynasty Battle of Avarayr 451
Middle Ages Arabic Period Emirate of Armenia 653–884 Hamamshen 700s–1300s Amatuni Dynasty Medieval Armenia Bagratid Armenia 884–1045 Bagratid dynasty 861–1118 Kingdom of Vaspurakan 908–1021 Artsruni dynasty Sajid dynasty 889–929 Sallarid dynasty 919–1062 Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget 979–1118 Kingdom of Artsakh 1000–1261 House of Hasan-Jalalyan Battle of Manzikert 1071 Cilician & Turco-Mongol Period Seljuq rule 1071–1201 Georgian union 1201–1236 Ilkhanid rule 1236–1335 Principality of Khachen 1261–1750 Turkmen rule 1335–1508 Kingdom of Cilicia 1198–1375 Rubenid dynasty 1000–1261 Hethumid dynasty 1226–1373 Lusignan dynasty 1341–1375
Early modern age Perso-Ottoman Period Safavid & Qajar rule 1502–1828 Five Melikdoms Nakhichevan deportation 1606 Ceding of Eastern Armenia 1828 Ottoman rule 1548–1915 Six Vilayets 1878 Hamidian massacres 1895–1896 Armenian Genocide 1909–1918 Russian period Russian rule 1828–1918 Armenian Oblast 1828–1840 Western Armenia 1915–1918 National Liberation Movement Armenakan 1885 S.D. Hunchakian Party 1887 ARF (Dashnaktsutyun) 1890 Caucasus Campaign 1914–1918 Battle of Sardarapat 1918 Battle of Karakilisa 1918 Modern Armenia First Republic of Armenia 1918–1920 Treaty of Batum 1918 War with Azerbaijan 1918–1920 War with Georgia 1918 Wilsonian Armenia 1920 Turkish-Soviet Invasion 1920
Modern age Soviet Period Armenian S.S.R. 1920–1991 February Uprising 1921 Republic of Mountainous Armenia 1921 Treaty of Moscow 1921 Treaty of Kars 1921 Territorial claims against Turkey 1945–1953 Independence Armenian diaspora Hidden Armenians Republic of Armenia since 1991 Nagorno-Karabakh Republic since 1994 Nagorno-Karabakh War 1989–1994
Armenia portal

Western Armenia (Western Armenian: Արեւմտեան Հայաստան, Arevmdian Hayasdan) is a term used to refer to eastern parts of Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) that were part of the historical homeland of Armenians.^[2] Western Armenia, also referred to as Byzantine Armenia, emerged following the division of Greater Armenia between the Byzantine Empire (Western Armenia) and Sassanid Persia (Eastern Armenia) in 387 AD.

The area was conquered by the Ottomans in the 16th century during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555) against their Iranian Safavid arch-rivals. Being passed on from the former to the latter, Ottoman rule over the region became only decisive after the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1623–1639.^[3] The area then became known as Turkish Armenia or Ottoman Armenia. During the 19th century, the Russian Empire conquered all of Eastern Armenia from Iran,^[4] and also some parts of Turkish Armenia, such as Kars. The region's Armenian population was affected during the widespread massacres of Armenians in the 1890s.

The Armenians living in their ancestral lands were exterminated or deported during the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and the following years. The over two thousand year^[5]^[6] Armenian presence in the area largely ended and the cultural heritage was mainly destroyed by the then Ottoman government.^[7]^[8]

Only assimilated and crypto-Armenians live in the area today, and some irredentist Armenians claim it as part of United Armenia. The most notable political party with these views is the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

Etymology

Armenia Turkomania on 1810 map

In Armenian, there are several names for the region. Today, the most common is Arevmtyan Hayastan (Արևմտյան Հայաստան) in Eastern Armenian (mostly spoken in Armenia, Russia, Georgia, Iran) and Arevmdean Hayasdan (Արեւմտեան Հայաստան) in Western Armenian (spoken in the Diaspora: US, France, Lebanon, Syria, Argentina, etc.). Archaic names (used before the 1920s) include Tačkahayastan (Տաճկահայաստան) in Eastern and Daǰkahayasdan in Western Armenian. Also used in the same period were T'urk'ahayastan (Թուրքահայաստան) or T'rk'ahayastan (Թրքահայաստան), both meaning Turkish Armenia.

In Turkish, the literal translation of Western Armenia is Batı Ermenistan, but the region is referred to as Doğu Anadolu (Eastern Anatolia), one of the seven geographical regions of Turkey, despite not being part of Anatolia.

The Kurds refer to the region as Bakurê Kurdistanê (Northern Kurdistan).

History

The Six Armenian vilayets (provinces) of the Ottoman Empire were defined as Western Armenia.

Ottoman conquest

After the Ottoman-Persian War (1623–1639), Western Armenia became decisively part of the Ottoman Empire.^[9] Since the Russo-Turkish War, 1828–1829, the term "Western Armenia" has referred to the Armenian-populated historical regions of the Ottoman Empire that remained under Ottoman rule after the eastern part of Armenia was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Qajar Persians following the outcome of the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813) and Russo-Persian War (1826–1828).^[10]

Western (Ottoman) Armenia consisted of six vilayets (vilâyat-ı sitte) — the vilayets of Erzurum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Kharput, and Sivas.^[11]

The fate of Western Armenia — commonly referred to as "The Armenian Question" — is considered a key issue in the modern history of the Armenian people.^[12]

World War I and later years

Armenian Genocide: map of massacre locations and deportation and extermination centers

Armenian Genocide

Main article: Armenian Genocide

During the collapse of the Ottoman Empire Western Armenia remained under Turkish rule, and in 1894–96 and 1915 the Ottoman Empire perpetrated systematic massacres and forced deportations of Armenians^[13] resulting in the Armenian Genocide. The massive deportation and killings of Armenians began in the spring 1915. On April 24, 1915 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were deported from Constantinople. Depending on the sources cited, about 1,500,000 Armenians were killed during this act.

Caucasus Campaign

The area of Russian occupation of Western Armenia in summer 1916.

Main article: Caucasus Campaign

During the Caucasus Campaign of World War I, the Russian Empire occupied most of the Armenian-populated regions of the Ottoman Empire. A temporary provincial government was established in occupied areas between 1915 and 1918.

The chaos caused by the Russian Revolution of 1917 put a stop to all Russian military operations and Russian forces began to conduct withdrawals. The first and second congresses of Western Armenians took place in Yerevan in 1917 and 1919.

Current situation

The modern concept of United Armenia as used by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun).

Currently, the Republic of Armenia does not have any territorial claims against the Republic of Turkey, although, one political party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the largest Armenian party in the diaspora, claims the area given to the Republic of Armenia (1918–1920) by US President Woodrow Wilson's arbitral award, as part of the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, also known as Wilsonian Armenia.

Since 2000, an organizing committee of the congress of heirs of Western Armenians who survived the Armenian Genocide is active in diasporan communities.^[14]

References

↑ State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre of the Republic of Armenia (2007). Հայաստանի Ազգային Ատլաս (National Atlas of Armenia), Yerevan: Center of Geodesy and Cartography SNPO, p. 102 see map
↑ Myhill, John (2006). Language, Religion and National Identity in Europe and the Middle East: A historical study. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. p. 32. ISBN 978-90-272-9351-0.
↑ "Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and Case Studies of Mass Death". Retrieved 30 December 2014.
↑ Timothy C. Dowling Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond pp 728-729 ABC-CLIO, 2 dec. 2014 ISBN 1598849484
↑ Marie-Aude Baronian, Stephan Besser, Yolande Jansen (2007). Diaspora and Memory: Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature, Arts and Politics. Rodopi. p. 174. ISBN 9789042021297.
↑ Shirinian, Lorne (1992). The Republic of Armenia and the rethinking of the North-American Diaspora in literature. E. Mellen Press. p. ix. ISBN 9780773496132. This date is important, for it marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, which destroyed the over two-thousand-year Armenian presence in historical, Western Armenia.
↑ Hovannisian, Richard G. (2008). The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. p. 22. ISBN 9781412835923.
↑ Jones, Adam (2013). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Routledge. p. 114. ISBN 9781134259816.
↑ "Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and Case Studies of Mass Death". Retrieved 30 December 2014.
↑ Timothy C. Dowling Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond pp 728-729 ABC-CLIO, 2 dec. 2014 ISBN 1598849484
↑ Armenia
↑ Arman J. Kirakossian, British Diplomacy and the Armenian Question, from the 1830s to 1914
↑ Britannica Online: Armenia
↑ WESTERN ARMENIANS ARE PREPARING, A1plus, 16 November, 2007

External links

Armenian Genocide

Background	Armenians in the Ottoman Empire Armenian Question Hamidian masscres (1894–96) Ottoman Bank (1896) Yıldız (1905) Adana (1909) Young Turk Revolution (1908)

The Genocide	Congress at Erzurum Red Sunday Tehcir Law Forced labour Mass rape Genocide casualties Deportation camps Deir ez-Zor Ra's al-'Ayn Foreign aid and relief Near East Foundation National Armenian Relief Committee

Demography	Pre-genocide population Post-genocide population Secret Armenians Islamized Armenians

Resistance	Armenian militia Zeitun Van Musa Dagh Urfa Shabin-Karahisar

Responsible parties	Young Turks: Committee of Union and Progress Talaat Enver Djemal Behaeddin Shakir Special Organization Reshid Djevdet Topal Osman Kurdish Irregulars

Trials	Courts-Martial Malta Tribunals Soghomon Tehlirian

See also	Operation Nemesis Recognition "I Apologize" campaign Denial Reparations Timeline Witnesses and testimonies Contemporaneous press coverage Subsequent media coverage Cultural portrayal 100th anniversary Memorials Prominent visitors to Tsitsernakaberd

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