Armenian Genocide, campaign of deportation and mass killing conducted against the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire by the Young Turk government during World War I (1914–18). Armenians charge that the campaign was a deliberate attempt to destroy the Armenian people and, thus, an act of genocide. The Turkish government has resisted calls to recognize it as such, contending that, although atrocities took place, there was no official policy of extermination implemented against the Armenian people as a group.
Armenians have a long and complex history in Turkey, dating back thousands of years. Today, they constitute one of the largest ethnic minorities in the country. But exactly how many Armenians live in Turkey? Getting accurate population statistics is challenging, but estimates range from 50,000 to over 100,000 Armenians currently living within Turkey’s borders.
A Brief History of Armenians in Turkey
Armenians are indigenous to the Eastern Anatolia region, with historical Armenian kingdoms existing in what is now Turkey as early as the 6th century BC. For centuries, Armenians lived as citizens within the Ottoman and Seljuk Turkish empires.
The population of Armenians in Turkey exploded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1914, there were an estimated 1 to 1.5 million Ottoman Armenian citizens though official Ottoman statistics claimed there were only 1.3 million. They lived in communities across eastern and central Turkey with large populations centers in Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Van, and Erzurum.
This all changed with the Armenian Genocide, beginning in 1915. Ottoman authorities launched a systematic campaign of deportations and mass killings targeting the empire’s Armenian subjects. By 1922, an estimated 1-1.5 million Ottoman Armenians had been killed, while most of the survivors had fled to other countries. Only around 100,000 Armenians remained in Turkey by the 1920s.
Today, Turkey’s Armenian population consists of the descendants of those Armenians who remained after the genocide, plus immigrants from Armenia and other countries. Let’s take a closer look at the statistics.
Estimating Turkey’s Armenian Population Today
Determining the number of Armenians in Turkey is challenging for several reasons
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Many Armenians hide their identity Due to past persecution, some Armenians conceal their ethnicity and pretend to be ethnic Turks or Kurds. These “crypto-Armenians” are not counted in official statistics.
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Illegal immigration: A large number of Armenians from Armenia illegally immigrate to Turkey for work. These immigrants are also left out of population counts.
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Emigration: Turkey’s Armenians have high emigration rates, moving abroad to Europe, America, and Australia. Population figures can lag behind these shifts.
Keeping these limitations in mind, here are some estimates on the number of Armenians in Turkey:
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50,000-70,000 Armenian citizens: This is the official estimate for the number of Armenian Turkish citizens, according to Turkish government statistics.
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70,000-100,000 total Armenian residents: Factoring in illegal immigrants and short-term foreign residents, some estimates place the total Armenian population as high as 100,000.
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Up to 2.5 million crypto-Armenians: By some accounts, there may be over 1 million Turkish citizens who are secretly of Armenian descent but hide their identity. Factoring in their families, some argue the number of individuals with Armenian roots could number as high as 2.5 million. However, this is an extremely speculative figure that is impossible to verify.
Overall, most experts estimate the number of Armenians living in Turkey today to be somewhere between 50,000-100,000. The upper figure may reach as high as 200,000 when including crypto-Armenians and short-term residents.
Where do Armenians Live in Turkey?
Armenians in Turkey are concentrated in a few major population centers:
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Istanbul – The Armenian community of Istanbul numbers around 50,000, making it the largest urban Armenian population in Turkey. The traditional Armenian districts are Kumkapı, Pangaltı, and Yeşilköy.
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Diyarbakir – Diyarbakir hosts a small but active Armenian population of around 30 families. The Surp Giragos Church was recently reopend here, drawing Armenian visitors.
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Vakifli – This village in Hatay province is Turkey’s last remaining fully Armenian village, with about 130 residents.
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Other areas – Smaller Armenian populations exist in provinces like Adana, Trabzon, Malatya, and Gaziantep. Ancient Armenian cultural sites also dot the landscape in eastern Turkey.
Armenians once lived in large numbers across all of Turkey. Today, tragically, their presence is limited to just a few communities. Protecting and celebrating these remaining Armenian populations is vital for preserving Armenian heritage in Turkey.
Challenges Facing Turkey’s Armenians
Turkey’s Armenian community faces an array of challenges threatening its future in the country:
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Emigration – High rates of outmigration to Europe, America, and Armeniacontinuously shrink Turkey’s Armenian population.
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Islamization – Crypto-Armenians face pressure to assimilate into Turkish and Kurdish Muslim culture. Many hide their Christian faith.
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Discrimination – Armenians report widespread discrimination in Turkish society, including hate speech and job discrimination.
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Property seizures – The Turkish state has seized numerous Armenian churches and properties since 1915. Armenians fight ongoing legal battles to reclaim this property.
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Genocide recognition – Turkey still actively denies the Armenian Genocide, compounding the trauma and anger felt by the survivors’ descendants.
Considering their history and the continued obstacles they face, the persistence of Armenians in Turkey today is remarkable. But sustaining a viable Armenian presence in Turkey remains an uphill battle.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Armenians in Turkey
The outlook for Armenians in Turkey remains uncertain. But there are some positive developments that provide hope:
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Growing civil society activism by Turkish Armenians increases their visibility and gives the community a political voice.
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Increasing numbers of crypto-Armenians are rediscovering their roots and openly embracing their Armenian identity again.
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Armenian immigrants from Armenia provide an influx of new life and energy into Turkey’s Armenian community.
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Armenian cultural centers, like the Surp Giragos Church, are being rebuilt, serving as icons of Armenian heritage.
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Many Muslim Kurds in eastern Turkey express solidarity with Armenians and support greater recognition of Armenian history.
The Armenian presence in Turkey has diminished from millions to just tens of thousands today. But despite everything, Armenians cling to their identity and communities within Turkey today. With openness, reconciliation and justice, perhaps one day their population and prosperity may grow again within Turkey’s borders.
Armenians in Eastern Anatolia History and denial of the Armenian Genocide
For centuries the great mountain plateau of Eastern Anatolia—in present-day eastern Turkey—was inhabited primarily by Christian Armenians who shared the area with Muslim Kurds. In antiquity and the Middle Ages the area was ruled by a succession of Armenian dynasties, although it often faced incursions by outside powers. Armenian political independence was largely brought to an end by a wave of invasions and migrations by Turkic-speaking peoples beginning in the 11th century, and in the 15th and 16th centuries the region was secured by the Ottoman Turks and integrated into the vast Ottoman Empire. Armenians retained a strong sense of communal identity, however, embodied in the Armenian language and the Armenian Church. That sense of distinctiveness was fostered by the Ottoman millet system, which accorded non-Muslim minorities significant administrative and social autonomy.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 2.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire, mostly concentrated in the six provinces of Eastern Anatolia. A significant number of Armenians also lived beyond the eastern border of the Ottoman Empire, in territory held by Russia. In Eastern Anatolia Armenians lived intermixed with the dominant Kurdish nomads. Armenians did not constitute a majority in any of the regions in which they lived, although they often resided in homogeneous villages and neighborhoods within towns and cities.
Life for Armenian villagers and townspeople in the Ottoman Empire was difficult and unpredictable, and they often received harsh treatment from the dominant Kurdish nomads. Because local courts and judges often favoured Muslims, Armenians had little recourse when they were the victims of violence or when their land, livestock, or property was taken from them.
The great majority of Armenians were poor peasants, but a few found success as merchants and artisans. Armenians’ involvement in international trade led in the 17th and 18th centuries to the establishment of significant Armenian settlements in Istanbul and other Ottoman port cities and as far away as India and Europe. Although Ottoman society was dominated by Muslims, a small number of Armenian families were able to attain prominent positions in banking, commerce, and government. For several generations in the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, the chief architects of the Ottoman court were in the Armenian Balian family. The prominence and influence of the well-educated and cosmopolitan Armenian elite had a drawback, however, in that it became a source of resentment and suspicion among Muslims. In the 19th century Armenians struggled against the perception that they were a foreign element within the Ottoman Empire and that they would eventually betray it to form their own independent state.
Young Armenian activists, many of them from Russian Caucasia, sought to protect their compatriots by agitating for an independent state. They formed two revolutionary parties called Hënchak (“Bell”) and Dashnaktsutyun (“Federation”) in 1887 and 1890. Neither one gained wide support among Armenians in Eastern Anatolia, who largely remained loyal and hoped instead that sympathizers in Christian Europe would pressure the Ottoman Empire to implement new reforms and protections for Armenians. The activities of the Armenian revolutionaries, however, did stoke fear and anxiety among the Muslims. Are you a student? Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.
Anti-Armenian feelings erupted into mass violence several times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When, in 1894, the Armenians in the Sasun region refused to pay an oppressive tax, Ottoman troops and Kurdish tribesmen killed thousands of Armenians in the region. Another series of mass killings began in the fall of 1895, when Ottoman authorities’ suppression of an Armenian demonstration in Istanbul became a massacre. In all, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed in massacres between 1894 and 1896, which later came to be known as the Hamidian massacres. Some 20,000 more Armenians were killed in urban riots and pogroms in Adana and Hadjin in 1909.
Discreet but proud: The Armenians of Istanbul
FAQ
Where is the largest Armenian population?
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Total population
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Russia
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1,182,388–2,900,000
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United States
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1,000,366–1,500,000
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France
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250,000–750,000
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Georgia
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168,191
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