Six Vilayets

Armenian population in the Six vilayets.

The Six vilayets or Six provinces (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت سته Vilâyat-ı Sitte) or Six Armenian vilayets (Armenian: Վեց հայկական վիլայեթներ Vyets' hahkakan vilahyet'nyer, Turkish: Altı Ermeni ili) were vilayets of the Ottoman Empire that had substantial Armenian populations and were once part of historical Armenia. They were the:

1. Van
2. Erzurum
3. Mamuretülaziz
4. Bitlis
5. Diyarbekir
6. Sivas

History

Most of Turkish Armenia was contained in six Ottoman vilayets (vilâyat-ı sitte), the vilayets of Vilayet of Erzurum, Vilayet of Van, Vilayet of Bitlis, Vilayet of Diyarbekir, Vilayet of Mamuretülaziz, and Vilayet of Sivas. During the decay of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century these vilayets suffered from chronic misgovernment, with their Christian population enduring particularly bad conditions. The 1878 Treaty of Berlin required the Ottoman Empire to urgently carry out reforms in "the provinces inhabited by the Armenians" - these provinces came to be known as the "six Armenian vilayets". However, the plight of the Armenian population became increasingly bad, suffering a series of massacres in the 1890s, and in 1915 the Ottoman Empire perpetrated systematic massacres and forced deportations resulting in the Armenian Genocide. The Administration for Western Armenia (Free Vaspurakan) was a provisional Armenian government in areas of Western Armenia under Russian occupation from 1915–1918.

After the Armenian genocide the distinct Western Armenian dialect of the Armenian language (recognized as one of the major dialects of Armenian) is spoken primarily in Istanbul, Lebanon, Egypt, other parts of Armenian diaspora, and formerly in eastern Turkey. It differs orthographically from Eastern Armenian, there are also phonological differences. In some parts of the diaspora, the Armenian schools, such as L'École Arménienne Sourp Hagop and the Armenian Sisters Academy instruct Western Armenian to the students, instead of Eastern Armenian, the official dialect of the Republic of Armenia.

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Proportion of nationalities in the vilayets of Ottoman Asia Minor according to the official Ottoman census of 1914.

Ethnic map of six vilayets in 1912 according to Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople

There were 1,219,323 Armenians in in the Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire according to the last Ottoman census 1914

Province (Vilâyets)	Muslim population	Armenian population
Sivas	939,735	151,674
Erzurum	673,297	136,618
Harput	446,376	87,862
Van	179,380	67,792
Bitlis	309,999	119,.132
Diarbekir	492,101	65,850

Ethnic groups in the Six Vilayets (Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Mamuretülaziz, Diyarbekir and Sivas vilayets) of Ottoman Empire. according to Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople

Ethnic groups	Erzurum	Van	Bitlis	Mamuretülaziz	Diyarbekir	Sivas	Total	%
Armenians	215,000	185,000	180,000	168,000	105,000	165,000	1,018,000	38.93
Turks	240,000	47,000	40,000	102,00	45,000	192,000	666.000	25.47
Sedentary Kurds	35,000	32,000	35,000	75,000	30,000	35,000	242,000	9.25
Nomadic Kurds	40,000	40,000	42,000	20,000	25,000	15,000	182,000	6.96
Qizilbash	25,000		8,000	80,00	27,000		140,000	5.35
Nestorians, Jacobites, Chaldeans		18,000	15,000	5,000	60,000	25,000	123,000	4.7
Zaza, Tambli, Tohariklis	30,000		47,000				77,000	2.94
Circassians	7,000		10,000			45,000	62,000	2.37
Greeks and other Christians	12,000					30,000	42,000	1.61
Yazidis	3,000	25,000	5,000		4,000		37,000	1.41
Persians	13,000						13,000	0.5
Lazs	10,000						10,000	0.38
Roma	3,000						3,000	0.11
TOTAL	630,000	350,000	382,000	450,000	296,000	507,000	2,615,000	100

See also

• Wilsonian Armenia
• Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman Armenian population
• Administration for Western Armenia
• Kingdom of Armenia
• Russian Armenia