Concept
Armenians in Turkey (Türkiye Ermenileri; Թուրքահայեր, also Թրքահայեր, "Turkish Armenians"), one of the indigenous peoples of Turkey, have an estimated population of 50,000 to 70,000, down from a population of over 2 million Armenians between the years 1914 and 1921. Today, the overwhelming majority of Turkish Armenians are concentrated in Istanbul. They support their own newspapers, churches and schools, and the majority belong to the Armenian Apostolic faith and a minority of Armenians in Turkey belong to the Armenian Catholic Church or to the Armenian Evangelical Church. Until the Armenian genocide of 1915, most of the Armenian population of Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) lived in the eastern parts of the country that Armenians call Western Armenia (roughly corresponding to the modern Eastern Anatolia Region). Armenians in the Ottoman EmpireOttoman Armenian population and Ottoman Armenian casualties Armenians living in Turkey today are a remnant of what was once a much larger community that existed for thousands of years, long before the establishment of the Sultanate of Rum. Estimates for the number of Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire in the decade before World War I range between 1.3 (official Ottoman data) and 3 million (independent estimates). When Constantinople finally became part of the Ottoman Empire, financial support was given to the Apostolic Church by the Sultan, so it could build churches in the city, which prior to that the Byzantines refused as they viewed the church as heretical. Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were viewed as a separate millet, and given the status of second-class citizens, but were not usually mistreated until later in the empire's history. Many Armenians gained significant positions in the empire in professions such as banking, which they almost had a monopoly in. The oldest Turkish company, Zildjian, was founded by an Armenian in the 17th century. Starting in the late 19th century, political instability, dire economic conditions, and continuing ethnic tensions prompted the emigration of as many as 100,000 Armenians to Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.