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Chapter 1
THE ARMENIANS OF DIYARBAKIR
HISTORICAL SURVEY
Diyarbakir (the ancient Amida) lies on the western bank of the Tigris and includes the larger part of the regions of Dzophq and Aghzniq (Arzanena, Arzan) of ancient Armenia. In 94-93 BC Dzophq was joined to Greater Armenia by the King Tigran II. Later it was occupied by the Romans and Byzantines, and in AD 536 the Emperor Justinian made it a Byzantine province calling it Fourth Armenia.
In 19H/640, during the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattâb and under the commandment of Iyâd ibn Ghannâm al-Nahrî the Arabs conquered Diyarbakir. In 958 the Byzantines succeeded in regaining it, but in 1070 the Seljuk Alp Arslan, and in 1093 the Melik of Syria Tâdj al-Dawla Tutush took possession of it. In 1183 Salâh al-Dîn b. Ayyûb occupied Diyarbakir, ceding it to his ally the Artuqid Nûr al-Dîn Muhammad. In the thirteenth century it fell to the Mongol domination, but after 1335 it was governed by Turkomans.
In 908H/1502-3 Diyarbakir was vanquished by the Safawî Shâh Ismâ’îl who appointed the Qara Hasan Ustâclu-oglu as ‘vali’. The Persian control, however, did not last long. The Ottomans taking advantage of the insubordination of the inhabitants, during 921-3H/ 1515-17 under the leadership of the vizier of the Sultan Selîm I (1512-20), Biyikli Mehmed Paşa, finally brought Diyarbakir under the direct government of the Sublime Porte.
ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE
The ‘vilâyet’ of Diyarbakir was first created in 1867. It had four administrative subdivisions: Diyarbakir, Ergani, Mardin, and Malatya. In 1297H/1879-80 one part of Diyarbakir was made the ‘vilâyet’ of Elâzig which included Malatya. The remaining three ‘sancaks’, were divided into fourteen ‘kazas’ as follows. The ‘kazas’ of the ‘sancak’ of Diyarbakir (Diyârbakir):
Diyarbakir
Siverek
Derik
Lice
Beşiri
Silvan with its centre at Miyafarkin (now called Silvan). Miyafarkin (previously named Maipheracta, Npherkert and Martyropolis), is the ancient Tigranocerta, which was built by the Armenian King Tigran II about 80 BC. It was a notable centre for trade and transport. (1)
‘Sancak’ of Ergani (formerly called Argana Ma’den, Argana and some-times Osmaniye), had three ‘kazas’:
Ergani
Palu
Çermik which included the ‘nahiye’ of Cüngüş.
The ‘kazas’ of the ‘sancak’ of Mardin:
Mardin
Nüaybin
Cizre
Midyat
Avine
POPULATION
In the second half of the nineteenth century the total population of the ‘vilâyet’ of Diyarbakir, according to Cuinet (2) was 471,462, Muslims, Christians and others. The non-Muslim population was as follows:
| Armenians | | |
| Apostolic (3) | 57,890 | |
| Catholic | 10,170 | |
| Protestant | 11,069 | |
| | 79,129 |
| Greeks | | |
| Orthodox | 9,250 | |
| Catholic | 190 | |
| | 9,440 |
| Chaldeans | | 16,420 |
| Syrians (mostly Orthodox) | | 27,544 |
| Latins | | 16 |
| Jews | | 1,269 |
| Total | 133,818 |
Something which becomes apparent in considering the population of Ottoman Empire is the great difference between the figures quoted by Turkish and Armenian publications. In Turkish sources the number of Armenians in Turkey has been underestimated in order to minimize the importance of the Armenian Question and to divert the attention of Europeans. Cuinet, who has used mainly Turkish sources, gives the number of Armenians in Diyarbakir as 79,129. (4) Published at the same time, an Armenian booklet (5) records that 355,000 people, of whom 120,000 were Armenians, were living in Diyarbakir. Also the almanac of Theodik informs us that the Armenians in Diyarbakir before the First World War were 124,000. (6) It will be seen that while the Turks have reduced the number of Armenians, some Armenians have exaggerated their statistics. Therefore we can only approximate the total of the Armenians in Diyarbakir, by taking the mean between the number given by Cuinet and the figures by the Armenian sources mentioned above. Thus we have a total estimated population of Armenians in the region of 100,000.
It is worthy of note that the statistical analysis of the racial elements in Eastern Anatolia, drawn up in 1912 by the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, attests to the fact that the Armenians of Diyarbakir numbered 105,000, which confirms our estimate. The following are the figures taken from this statistical analysis concerning Diyarbakir: (7)
| Armenians | 105,000 |
| Nestorians, Jacobites and Chaldeans | 60,000 |
| Turks | 45,000 |
| Kurds | 50,000 |
| Kizilbash (Shiites) | 27,000 |
| Yezidis | 4,000 |
| Total | 291,000 |
J. Lepsius (8) also gives the same figure of 105,000 for the number of Armenians in the province of Diyarbakir, but 63,000 for the Turks, thus:
| Armenians | 105,000 |
| Syrians (Nestorians and Chaldeans) | 60,000 |
| Greeks | 1,000 |
| Kurds | 200,000 |
| Turks | 63,000 |
| Kizilbash | 27,000 |
| Circassians | 10,000 |
| Yezidis | 4,000 |
| Jews | 1,500 |
| Total | 471,500 |
It appears from these statistics that the Armenians living in Diyarbakir were more numerous than the Turks.
TRADES AND PROFESSIONS OF ARMENIANS
In the second half of the nineteenth century, in the province of Diyarbakir, especially at the towns of Diyarbakir and Mardin, trade and industry were in a flourishing state. The main productions were silk and cotton textiles, articles of copper and earthenware, and morocco leather. The Armenians took an active part in local trade and manufacturing as skilled craftsmen, merchants and artisans. Martiros Attarian was a famous manufacturer of Turkish linen, Tchavrashian was a well-known tailor, while architecture was practised almost entirely by Armenians. We have an interesting eyewitness account of a traveller on the business of the Armenians of Diyarbakir as early as the seventeenth century. The scribe Simêon from Lwow who visited there in 1612 describes the situation of Armenians in the town of Diyarbakir itself as the following:
There are 1,000 Armenian houses and all of them are wealthy, luxurious and glorious. And whatever business and riches exist, they possess: the mint, the customs, caravanserais and the rest. Also the cooks, restaurant proprietors, bakers, grocers and the butchers, are all Armenian. And, when it is Sunday or a holiday, and the Armenians do not open their shops and do not work, you think [the town] is empty and desolated. (9)
The ‘kaza’ of Palu in the ‘sancak’ of Ergani which was densely populated by Armenians, was also a centre of commerce and crafts. Nathanian, having visited Palu in 1878-9, attests the following concerning the activity of Armenians there:
Merchandise for twelve thousand Turkish pounds per annum is imported into Palu. Most of the importers and exporters of the articles are Armenian. There is a market of medium size where there are about three hundred shops, two caravanserais built of brick and stone, and four bakeries. Most of the craftsmen and traders of this market are Armenian. (10)
Members of the Armenian community were also occupied in different professions, especially in law, medicine and pharmacy, of whom the names of Boghos Efendi Der-Gabrielian (lawyer, fl.c. 1890), Karapet (Garabed) Efendi Dabaghian (lawyer, fl.c. 1890), Kirakos Efendi Enovchian (lawyer, fl.c. 1890), Dr Tchibukdjian (municipal doctor, fl.c. 1892), Dr Artin Helvadjian (army physician, fl.c. 1890), Yakob Hekimian (municipal chemist, fl.c. 1892), and Artin Aghkekian (municipal chemist, fl.c. 1892) can ...
