Armenian cultural heritage in Turkey

Armenian community in Turkey
Armenian...	1914	2011
population	1,914,620^[1]	60,000^[2]
churches and monasteries	2,538^[1]	34 (functioning only)^[3]
schools	1,996^[1]	18^[3]

The eastern part of the current territory of the Republic of Turkey is part of the ancestral homeland of the Armenians.^[4] Along with the Armenian population, during and after the Armenian genocide the Armenian cultural heritage was targeted for destruction by the Turkish government. Of the several thousand churches and monasteries (usually estimated from two to three thousand) in the Ottoman Empire in 1914, today only a few hundred are still standing in some form; most of these are in danger of collapse. Those that continue to function are mainly in Istanbul.

Most of the properties formerly belonging to Armenians were confiscated by the Turkish government and turned into military posts, hospitals, schools and prisons. Many of these were also given to Muslim migrants or refugees who had fled from their homelands during the Balkan Wars. The legal justification for the seizures was the law of Emval-i Metruke (Law of Abandoned Properties), which legalized the confiscation of Armenian property if the owner did not return.^[5]

^ ^a ^b ^c Kévorkian, Raymond H. (2011). The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. London: I. B. Tauris. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-84885-561-8. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
^ "Foreign Ministry: 89,000 minorities live in Turkey". Today's Zaman. 15 December 2008. Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
^ ^a ^b Bedrosyan, Raffi (1 August 2011). "Bedrosyan: Searching for Lost Armenian Churches and Schools in Turkey". Armenian Weekly. Archived from the original on 11 July 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
^ Melvin Ember; Carol R. Ember; Ian A. Skoggard (2004). Encyclopedia of diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9. Currently, only one-sixth of that land [ancestral territory] is inhabited by Armenians, due first to variously coerced emigrations and finally to the genocide of the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1915.
^ Biner, Z. Ö. (2010). Acts of defacement, memory of loss: Ghostly effects of the "Armenian crisis" in Mardin, southeastern Turkey. History and Memory, 22(2), 68–94, 178.

[Kévorkian-1] Kévorkian, Raymond H. (2011). The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. London: I. B. Tauris. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-84885-561-8. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2016.

[2] "Foreign Ministry: 89,000 minorities live in Turkey". Today's Zaman. 15 December 2008. Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2013.

[armenianweekly-3] Bedrosyan, Raffi (1 August 2011). "Bedrosyan: Searching for Lost Armenian Churches and Schools in Turkey". Armenian Weekly. Archived from the original on 11 July 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2013.

[Encyclopedia_of_diasporas-4] Melvin Ember; Carol R. Ember; Ian A. Skoggard (2004). Encyclopedia of diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9. Currently, only one-sixth of that land [ancestral territory] is inhabited by Armenians, due first to variously coerced emigrations and finally to the genocide of the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1915.

[5] Biner, Z. Ö. (2010). Acts of defacement, memory of loss: Ghostly effects of the "Armenian crisis" in Mardin, southeastern Turkey. History and Memory, 22(2), 68–94, 178.

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