Ottoman rule? help! how was it?

Question

how was life under the ottoman rule for armenians?!?!

[[bad, good, so so, (etc) ]] u get the point
ya i need help really badly!!
plzz help!

Answer 1

By reading this part of the History of Armenia You will learn how it started all, and this is only the summery of what turks did to an ancient country.

The Bagratid Dynasty was responsible for the second Golden Age of Armenia, a time when peace brought prosperity to the land and its people. Many monasteries, considered to represent the pinnacle of Armenian architecture, were commissioned by the Bagratid rulers for construction in Armenia and Georgia. A monk named Gregory wrote a book of prayers in the monastery of Narek on the shore of Lake Van. The depth and beauty of his prayers were unparalleled in the world. Peace and prosperity were shattered by the arrival of Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, who were proceeded by other Turkic tribes from the East. The Seljuk Turks fought against the Persians, using Armenia as their battlefield and wreaking havoc on the country. The last Armenian kingdom was forced to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, where it survived until the 14th century in Cilicia.

With the onset of the Mongols in the 13th century, successive waves of invasions continued to devastate the country. After Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, Armenia too was overtaken in the early 16th century. The Persians persisted to lay claims on Armenian soil, and Shah Abbas drove the Ottomans out of Tbilisi, Yerevan, Nakhichevan, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan. He also force marched tens of thousands of Armenians, noted for their artistic and business skills, out of their ancestral homeland of Nakhichevan from the prosperous city of Julfa to Esfahan. In the mid 1600s, The Ottomans and Persians settled their differences by dividing Armenia among their two empires. However, with the Russian Empire rise in power, the Persian Empire's stake in the region diminished in the 19th century, when Eastern Armenia was ceded to Russia under the Turkmanchai Treaty.
In the latter years of the 1800s, Sultan Abdul Hamid II sat at the head of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire. In 1820, Greece was able to break free of the Turkish yoke that had enslaved it for over three hundred years, but Abdul Hamid's empire still encompassed a vast amount of territory from Eastern Europe through the Near East, into the Middle East, and the Armenian Plateau. Ethnic groups in the Ottoman Empire were pressing for reforms that would give them equal rights or freedom from Ottoman rule altogether. Abdul Hamid decided that a wise course of action would be to make an example out of an ethnic group to keep the others in line. For this purpose, he chose the Armenians, long considered the "loyal millet" in the empire. Thus, in 1896, the Sultan ordered massacres, which took the lives of over 300,000 Armenians. This decree was to be just the beginning of the darkest page in Armenian history.

After the turn of the century, Ottoman Turkey's territorial boundaries continued to shrink despite the Sultan's previous warning to ethnic groups. Fearing the total collapse of their empire, a group of Turks, who were educated in Europe, planned and executed a coup against the Sultan and installed themselves at the helm of the empire. Though the new government had promised reforms that would give ethnic minorities such as the Armenians greater rights, the Young Turk (as they came to be called) regime failed to follow through, and in fact began to espouse an empire that joined all Turkic lands.

As the First World War commenced, the Young Turks allied their empire with Germany and the Axis Powers against the French, British, Russians, and eventually the US. The Young Turks saw the war as an opportunity to realize their Pan-Turkic ideals. As the first step in a long and bloody campaign, on April 24, 1915, the Young Turks gathered the intellectual leaders of the Armenian community living in Istanbul and executed most of them without giving any reason or proof of wrong-doing.

Next, the Young Turks turned their attention to the Armenian Plateau, where the largest portion of the Turkey's Armenians had lived for millennia. Armenian men were taken from their homes never to be seen again. Many served in the Turkish Army as unarmed laborers, being overworked and undernourished. Those who survived fatigue, illness, and starvation were forced to dig their own graves before Turkish soldiers killed them.

With most Armenian men gone, Turks and Kurds raided their homes, often raping, killing, or kidnapping Armenian women and children. Those who were left were made to march long, winding, arduous miles to the southern, Arab populated lands without any possessions, money, food, or water. These deportations took place under the false pretense of securing the Turco-Russian front. However, a secret letter that was dispatched from Istanbul belied the Young Turks true motivation. In it, Mehmet Talaat Pasha, the Young Turk Minister of the Interior, ordered the extermination of the Armenian population. The Turkish troops that escorted the defenseless Armenians away from their homes and into the desert heeded his call to near perfection.

By 1923, an estimated 1.5 million of the nearly two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire had been murdered or died due to the direct actions of the Turks. Most of the remaining Armenian population of Ottoman Turkey managed to flee to neighboring countries, some moving later to Europe or the Americas, and established Diaspora communities. After the tragedy that plagued Europe under Nazi rule, noted historian Rafael Lemkin coined the phrase "genocide" and cited the Armenian experience as one such example of man's inhumanity toward man.

All of our national songs from this part of the history is sad and talking about how ottoman empire was treating the people of a country who's first city is old about 3000 years.
It is talking about the daughters who where stolen and raped, about the young men who were killed because of defending their sisters or wives, children who were stolen and so much more, Armenian thought the young turks will do better than that but unfortunately they were same as their ancestors.

ottomans was known as "the sick man of Europe"

Answer 2

I should say, non-muslims were in a better condition than muslims(yeah believe me).Especially in the last 100-200 years,since they wanted to join those times European Union.

They were paying less taxes,freely trading,their religious practices specially protected. The armenians and greeks living in Turkey today are mostly very rich. This is because they were paying less taxes and had advantages.

And about cultural issues, Turks conquered armenians 1000 years ago,in early 11th century. Can you imagine there could be armanian language,armenian country armenian culture today at all if they were culturally pressed?

I suggest all people reading these answers consider these before taking all propagandas seriously. You can't learn history from wikipedia. Look at the facts.

Answer 3

It is not about being Turkish to kill people. People die in the war. It was not killing under the name of Allah, or a kind of genocide. Ottoman Empire owned all those areas (lebanon, syria etc..) in the ancient times. You can see the heritage of Ottoman Empire even in their foods and language..

Answer 4

Kudos to the previous answer. The Ottoman treatment of the Armenians was deplorable and not widely enough known. But as i understood the question, the person asking wants to know how more ethnicities were treated under Ottoman rule. Officially, the Ottomans followed the muslim custom of Dhiminis, or taxing people of the book (Jews and Christians) living in muslim lands. Those who paid the tax were usually left to practice their own beliefs, however that did not always happen. Many converted in order to gain a footing in the new regime and advance in government. Also, early in its history the Ottomans would kidnap the children of Greek Christians and force them to enter the ranks of an elite military corps known as the janissaries. The janissaries were forced to convert to Islam and provided invaluable military support for Ottoman armies marching into europe.

Answer 5

Armenians, as the first group to accept Christianity as an organized people, have lived in the areas that came under Ottoman control since the year 301. Similarly to the Greek Orthodox and Jewish minorities of the Empire they were considered a millet. This meant that they were considered second class citizens when it came to getting legal representation and were part of a higher tax bracket.

Between 1856-1876 Ottoman reforms granting equal rights to all citizens marked a peak as far as legal equality for the Armenian population. Overall the Armenian community was a significant portion of military leadership and middle class in the Empire eventhough it was a minority.

By 1876 and the rule of Hamid II things went really bad. Armenians protests for the rights they were promised earlier were broken up and Armenians were massacred. In 1895 in between 100,000 and 300,000 were killed. Another 20,000 were killed in the Adana massacres of 1909. Finally, the Armenians genocide, whatever the excuses given for it, of 1915 up to the end of world war 1 saw the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians out of the aprox 2 million.

So compared to the modern treatement in the end of the empire, the second class millet system was great. Overall though the entire period must be seen as so so to obviously the worst with the genocide.

Answer 6

Any way Ottomans were conquered by cossacks,we had been in war with turks by 6 ages,so christianism won and slavs beat them,Russia got 60% of Ottoman Empire...but in my Region a lot of armenians which got citizenship in 19 century by german-russian queen Ekaterina the second how i know.Turks even in 19 century raped armenians...

Answer 7

It is very sad to see crooked, 1-sided wrong information promoted by fanatic Armenians.
First of all, Ottoman empire was an empire of mixed races, religions, there was ano any different between aTurk or an Arab or an Armenian or a Greek. Once they were conquered by ottomans, they were ottoman's part and they were protected by ottoman Authority.
Unlike Other empires who changed their view after French revolution, ottoman empire has never been a ''national empire'' it was mostly Islam oriented, Great Empire who has never learnt nationalism until 1920s. Identitiy of ''Turkishness'' have never been used in Ottoman empire. Anyone who was belong to that empire was called ''ottoman''. One of the most noteworthy attributes of Ottoman Turkish rule was Ottoman toleration of different religious beliefs. The Turks of the Ottoman Empire were Muslims, but they did not force their religions on others. Christians and Jews in the Empire prayed in their own churches or synagogues, taught their religion in their own schools and seminaries, and went about their business, sometimes amassing great fortunes. At that time, Ottoman toleration was unique.

Today in Turkey you can see the same scenes. In Downtown there is an ancient church called ''Taksim portestant Church''. In front of it, there is a Big Taksim Mosque. People from both religions go there and pray.
That is WHY OTTOMAN EMPİRE LIVED FOR 700 YEARS.

They didnt learn capitalism and nationalism until 1900s. They were not colonized the countries they conquered but made them their states.
Pls make some research before believing in radikal Armenians who hate Turks and Turkey.


Please be aware that Armenians lived under Ottoman rules for more than 400 years. If ottoman turks wanted, they would assimiliate them whent hey were at their strongest time but it never happened. Cause Both Armenian and Turks Respected eachothers until World war 1.
In world war 1, armenians are given promises to have the East part of Whole ottoman empire so they were armed by russians and they were encouraged to fight against Turkish villagers and Ottoman troops.
As a Result, Armenian Legioners were killed by Turkish villagers and Gangs and Civilians were deported out of the country in 1915. Most of them died of illness on the way.

As a person, i feel sorry but Ottoman empire was in a war. WW1 and they did what they had to do in order to protect their country.
I assure you , you would do the same if your country was attacked, betrayed and tried to be captured by 1 of your Minority.

IT IS TRUE THAT NON-MUSLIMS PAID %4 MORE TAXES THAN MUSLIMS IN OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THAT WAS A LAW. IT IS CALLED ''VARLIK TAX'' AND COMPARE TO WHAT CRUSADERS DID TO NON-CHRISTIANS, OTTOMANS LAW WERE JUST SO PEACEFULL AND ENCOURAGING FOR THAT TIME.

DONT FORGET THAT IT WAS THE TIME OF RELIGIONS. CRUSADERS ATTACKED MUSLIMS, NON-CATHOLICS, JEWS, MUSLIMS ATTACKED OTHERS. THAT WAS THE SYSTEM OF THE WORLD AND IF YOU LOAD ALL THE GUILT ON TURKS, THAT IS YOUR ONE-SIDED BLIND VERSION GENERATED BY YOUR RADICAL GRANDPARENTS.

REGARDS

Answer 8

Life for Armenians, under the Ottoman Empire was miserable.
Since Armenians are Christians and not Muslims, they were considered infidels, and therefore inferior.
They were not given the same rights as Muslim Turks. Not only were they more heavily taxed than others, it was illegal for Armenians to bear arms (which explains why a lot of people could not defend themselves during the Genocide). The Genocide was a result of the Armenians asking for independence and equal rights with Muslims.

Armenians were known as the "loyal millet", and lived in general harmony with their Turkish neighbors. But the Ottoman Empire is a different story.

"In 1915 Armenians lived in all the major cities of the Ottoman Empire, Van, Bitlis, Erzerum, Kharpert, Sivas, Trebizond, Konya, Kayseri, Adana, Izmir, Bursa, Edirne, and many others. By 1923 the Armenian population of Turkey had been reduced to those living in Constantinople.

Armenians had participated in all aspects of Ottoman life and had made major contributions to Turkish commerce, industry, architecture, and music. Yet, in the final analysis, the centuries of Turkish rule resulted in the utter ruin of historic Armenia, the expulsion of the Armenians from Asiatic Turkey and the permanent exile of surviving Armenians. The net effect of the Ottoman era is summed up then in the violent transformation of historic Armenia into Turkey".

The cruelty of the Ottoman Empire dates back a long time.
In the 1600's, the King of Persia actually felt sorry for the Armenians living under Ottoman persecution, he felt that the Armenians were highly skilled and were good with money...so he brought 150,000 into Iran..and they created a new city in Iran called New Julfa.

Answer 9

Sweetie, I am assuming
you are very young, because
honestly I think you should
be able to logically deduce this
one for yourself. How would
you explain the life's of the
Armenian people while
the Ottoman turks
were murdering them.
Probably not good right?
Any treatment
before this point must
be assumed to be extremely
horrid to lead up to an
act of a complete annihilation
of the Armenians. I hope
I put it in a better perceptive
for you to understand.

Answer 10

bad..really bad