Ottoman Empire distorted demography of Western Armenia from 1878-1914

Ottoman Empire distorted demography of Western Armenia from 1878-1914  –

Armenian family from Van

ARMENPRESS – Author Robert Tatoyan in his newly published book “The question of Western Armenian population in 1878-1914”, proves that the data on Armenian population in the Ottoman Turkey was distorted by Ottoman authorities for political reasons. After the presentation of the book at the Armenian Genocide MuseumInstitute, Robert Tatoyan emphasized that1878-1914 was the period when the Armenian reform package together with the issues of the Armenian population and the ratio of ethnic groups in 6 Provinces of Western Armenia were on the agenda of international diplomacy. The government of the Ottoman Empire distorted the number of the population in Western Armenia under those conditions. “The book is comprised of three chapters. In the first chapter I have introduced the distortion of the number of Western Armenia population by the Ottoman government for political reasons. I also introduced the factors that had an objective impact on distorting the number of the population. The matter is that the Armenian population avoided taxation. Hence, they avoided being registered as well. In the second chapter I have introduced the statistical data of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, censuses, and the factors that had an impact on those data. In the third chapter I have introduced raising those data in diplomatic procedures”, Tatoyan mentioned.

 He emphasized that the main results are that the Ottoman Empire, and also the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople to a lesser extent, miscalculated the Armenian population for different reasons. “According to the data of Ottoman authorities, nearly 1 million and 200-300 thousand Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire during those years, and according to data of Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople – 2 million and 100 thousand. Both data have been miscalculated. The Ottoman Empire had political reasons to miscalculate, presenting a number twice as less as the reality, and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, regardless of its attempts to avoid miscalculation, it was unable for objective reasons, because in many cases it had an underdeveloped system and the data it was able to collect during the census were also incomplete, though to a lesser extent”, Robert Tatoyan added.

 The author attaches great importance to his monograph as until now one of the pretexts for Turkish denial is that 1.5 million Armenians could not be killed in the Ottoman Empire as there were not so many Armenians there. “We have criticized that pretext from different platforms. With the help of this book I will support that criticism. To what extent I managed to do it will decide the reader”, Tatoyan concluded.