This site highlights an ongoing project concerning the Armenian diaspora communities worldwide. It represents only a small percentage of the material that have been catalogued. For each country/region, there is a brief history, a map selected randomly, and 10 entries also selected randomly.
Quick background:
When Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople and proclaimed it his new capital in 1453, he faced the challenge of ruling over a city with a hostile Greek population. To diversify the demographic mix, he ordered the transfer of Armenians in mass and usually by force from Western Armenia, Cilicia, Crimea and Bessarabia. The Armenian refugees were resettled mainly in six districts (later referred to as the six parishes). By the end of the 19th century, the Armenians of Constantinople (in Armenian: Polisahay) numbered approximately 250,000 out of the total population of 900,000 making them the 2nd largest ethnic group after the Turks.
The Armenian community of Constantinople/Istanbul was one of the most prosperous, organized and dynamic Armenian diaspora communities in the 17th-19th centuries. Interestingly, they did not perceive themselves as a diaspora community because they lived in the capital of the Empire that included Western Armenia and Cilicia. By the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the community had around 50 churches, 65 schools, 30 printing presses, 350 cultural and sports associations, over 250 newspapers and magazines. The political events in the 20th century had an extremely damaging effect on the community, in terms of both numbers and quality.
Map:
Map of Constantinople (1893) modified to highlight the main six Armenian neighborhoods in the old city: Koum-kapi (in blue) where the Patriarchate is located, the other five: Samatia, Yeni-kapi, Narli-kapi, Edirne-kapi and Balat (in red). Starting in the 2nd half of the 19th century, the new Armenian middle classes gradually moved away from the old city to the northern neighborhoods such as Shishli and Beshiktash.
1.
Meeting of the community elders at the reception hall of the Patriarchate, date and photographer unknown. In 1461, eight years after conquering Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II invited bishop Hovakim I of Bursa to move to the new capital to establish the Armenian Patriarchate. Thus, together with the Turks, the Greeks and the Jews, the Armenians became one of the four main organized communities (the so-called millet system) in the new capital. The patriarch was considered the religious as well as secular leader of Armenians.
2.
The cover of a trilingual (Turkish, Armenian, French) program of “Leblebidji Hor-Hor Agha” (meaning “the chickpea seller Mr. Horhor” in Turkish), circa 1910, that was staged at Shark Theater. Tigran Chukhajian (1837-98) composed Leblebidji, his most popular opera, in 1875. The libretto was written by Tagvor Nalian. It is sometimes considered, by mistake, the first opera in Turkish whereas Chukhajian composed and staged “Arifin Hilesi”, another operetta in Turkish, three years earlier. Tigran Chukhajian also composed the first Armenian opera in 1868 ("King Arshak II"). He was inspired by the Italian opera traditions, particularly the works of Giuseppe Verdi, but also integrated Armenian folk melodies in his work. "King Arshak II" was partially staged in the same year.
3.
Serbouhi Dussap (née Vahanian) (1840-1901) was a feminist activist and the first female Armenian novelist. In her debut novel “Matia” as well as in the following novels and essays Dussap treated the themes of female subordination and inferior education. As a result, she faced resentment from certain Armenian male intellectuals. The Armenian feminism emerged in Constantinople/Istanbul in the mid-19th century, influenced largely by the feminist movement in France. The early feminists such as S. Dussap focused on family-related issues such as the arranged marriage and women’s right to divorce. They also promoted the education of girls and the recognition of women’s rights to work and to earn income.
4.
Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church of Galata/Karakoy is the oldest extant Armenian Apostolic church in Constantinople/Istanbul. It was founded by an Armenian merchant from Kaffa/Feodosia, Crimea, in 1391 during the Genoese (pre-Ottoman) period. Next to the church, the Patriarchate founded Kentronakan (meaning central in Armenian) boys' high school in 1886. This was in order to compete with Istanbul-based European schools that, thanks to their bigger budgets and higher standards, enrolled many bright and ambitious Armenian students. In 1961-1965, the church went through a fundamental resizing and restructuring.
5.
A Koum-kapi silk and metal-thread prayer rug, circa 1910, 156 cm x 106 cm, private collection. The Armenian quarter of Koum-kapi was known not only for its fishermen and as the seat of the Patriarch, but also for its rug weavers. The workshops run by masters such as Zareh Benyamin, Hakob Kapoudjian and Avetis Tamishjian, created the most luxurious silk carpets of their time. Produced in 1880-1924, these rugs are considered the most sophisticated types. Among them, the prayer rugs bearing the signature of master weaver Zareh Benyamin (1890-1949) are the most appreciated ones. The estimated number of surviving Koum-kapi rugs is in the few hundred; most of them are in private collections worldwide but a few are displayed at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, Istanbul.
6.
Woman Reading on the Couch, date unknown, Mariam Shahinian, Galatasaray Photography. M. Shahinian (1911-1996) is considered Turkey’s first female studio photographer. She managed the Galatasaray Photography Studio for 50 years and left behind an impressive archive of over 200,000 images. Given the conservative climate in the country, many of her clients felt safe at her studio and lent themselves freely in front of her camera. Shahinian’s clients were mainly women and children, members of various disenfranchised religious, ethnic and social groups, including Armenians, Kurdish migrants from Anatolia, Jews, descendants of African slaves, transgender people, gays, nuns, circus and cabaret performers, and acrobats. In most of her work she added a strong artistic touch, particularly when she had to capture one of her favorite themes: women with very long hair, individuals posing in front of a mirror, and twins.
7.
A Group of Students with Their Teacher at Dadian School, 2016, school official photograph. The school was established in Bakirkoy, a town west of Istanbul, by Hovhannes Bey Dadian in 1844, and reconstructed in 2015. The school includes a kindergarten, a primary school and a secondary school. The Dadians were one of the elite Armenian families in the Ottoman Empire known as “Amira.” In 1795, Arakel Dadian (the father of Hovhannes) resolved a complex technical problem at the royal gunpowder factory following which Sultan Selim III appointed him factory director and gave him the title “Baroutchubashi” (meaning chief gunpowder maker in Turkish). Arakel’s descendents continued to manage state arms factories or were high ranking Ottoman diplomats. The Dadians accumulated enormous wealth.
8.
Commemoration of the 101st anniversary of April 24 on Istiklal Street in central Istanbul, 2016, photographer unknown. Since the beginning of the 21st century the authorities tolerate the public commemoration of April 24; the first day of the Armenian Genocide. Many non-Armenians participate in these ceremonies in solidarity with the Armenian community. On April 24, 1915, the authorities arrested and deported over 250 Constantinople/Istanbul-based Armenian intellectuals and politicians. Their objective was to eliminate the community leaders before deporting and exterminating the Armenian population of Anatolia. The Genocide lasted 3 years; until the end of the First World War that led to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Other than the first day of purge, the extermination campaign did not directly affect the Armenian community of Istanbul.
9.
Kids enjoy ice cream on the Kinali Island, 2018, Perj Arabian. The Kinali Island (Proti in Greek) is one of the nine islands composing the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara and is the closest one to the European shore. Armenians started to settle in this small, calm and picturesque island in 1833. Kinali became a resort place for Armenian middle and upper classes. Saint Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church was erected in 1857, next to the Armenian cemetery. Armenians continue to own approximately 90 per cents of the property but very few are permanent residents.
10.
Bust of Tigran Voskan, 1880, Yervand Voskan, bronze. Yervand Voskan (1855-1914), known by the Turks as Osgan Effendi, was a painter, a sculptor and an archeologist. He was the first modern-day Armenian sculptor, the first sculptor in the history of the Ottoman Empire, and a co-founder of the Imperial School of Fine Arts of Constantinople (1882) along with Turkish painter Osman Hamdi Bey.
