Armenians in Turkey

Armenians in Turkey
*Türkiye Ermenileri*
Total population
	170,000 (70,000 Turkish citizens and 100,000 of other nationalities) (excluding Crypto-Armenians)
Regions with significant populations
	Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Kayseri, Mardin, Şanlıurfa, Vakıflı, Tercan, and Iskenderun, Tunceli, Kars, Iğdır, Van, Erzurum, Adana, Kahramanmaraş, Ankara, Erzincan
Languages
	Turkish (majority), Western Armenian (minority)
Religion
	Predominantly Armenian Apostolic with Armenian Catholic, Armenian Evangelical, and Muslim minorities.

Armenians in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Ermenileri; Armenian: Թուրքահայեր or Թրքահայեր, T’urk’ahayer lit. 'Turkish Armenians'), one of the indigenous peoples of Turkey, have an estimated population of 50,000 to 70,000,^[5] down from a population of over 2 million Armenians between the years 1914 and 1921. Today, the overwhelming majority of Turkish Armenians are concentrated in Istanbul. They support their own newspapers, churches and schools, and the majority belong to the Armenian Apostolic faith and a minority of Armenians in Turkey belong to the Armenian Catholic Church or to the Armenian Evangelical Church. They are not considered part of the Armenian Diaspora, since they have been living in their historical homeland for more than four thousand years.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Until the Armenian genocide of 1915, most of the Armenian population of Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) lived in the eastern parts of the country that Armenians call Western Armenia (roughly corresponding to the modern Eastern Anatolia Region).

Armenians are one of the four ethnic minorities officially recognized in Turkey, together with Jews, Greeks,^[9]^[10]^[11] and Bulgarians.^[12]^[13]^[14]

In addition to local ethnic Armenians who are Turkish citizens, there are also many recent immigrants from Armenia in Istanbul.^[1] There is also an unknown number of officially Muslim citizens of the Republic of Turkey who have recently started to identify as Armenians based on their Armenian roots, after being Islamised decades or centuries earlier.^[15] They are referred as crypto-Armenians.

^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference aljazeera2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Turkey threatens to deport 100,000 Armenians". NBC News. 2010-03-17. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
^ Cite error: The named reference community was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference unesco.org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Turay, Anna. "Tarihte Ermeniler". Bolsohays: Istanbul Armenians. Archived from the original on 6 December 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
^ Baronian, Marie-Aude; Besser, Stephan; Jansen, Yolande (2006-01-01). Diaspora and Memory: Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature, Arts and Politics. BRILL. doi:10.1163/9789401203807_006. ISBN 978-94-012-0380-7.
^ Baser, Bahar; Swain, Ashok (2009). "Diaspora Design Versus Homeland Realities: Case Study of Armenian Diaspora". Caucasian Review of International Affairs: 57.
^ "Minister denies calling Armenians 'Diaspora representatives' in Istanbul". www.tert.am. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
^ Kaya, Nurcan (2015-11-24). "Teaching in and Studying Minority Languages in Turkey: A Brief Overview of Current Issues and Minority Schools". European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online. 12 (1): 315–338. doi:10.1163/9789004306134_013. ISSN 2211-6117. Turkey is a nation–state built on remnants of the Ottoman Empire where non-Muslim minorities were guaranteed the right to set up educational institutions; however, since its establishment, it has officially recognised only Armenians, Greeks and Jews as minorities and guaranteed them the right to manage educational institutions as enshrined in the Treaty of Lausanne. [...] Private language teaching courses teach 'traditionally used languages', elective language courses have been introduced in public schools and universities are allowed to teach minority languages.
^ Toktas, Sule (2006). "EU enlargement conditions and minority protection : a reflection on Turkey's non-Muslim minorities". East European quarterly. 40: 489–519. ISSN 0012-8449. Turkey signed the Covenant on 15 August 2000 and ratified it on 23 September 2003. However, Turkey put a reservation on Article 27 of the Covenant which limited the scope of the right of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion or to use their own language. This reservation provides that this right will be implemented and applied in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Turkish Constitution and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. This implies that Turkey grants educational right in minority languages only to the recognized minorities covered by the Lausanne who are the Armenians, Greeks and the Jews.
^ Phillips, Thomas James (2020-12-16). "The (In-)Validity of Turkey's Reservation to Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights". International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. 27 (1): 66–93. doi:10.1163/15718115-02701001. ISSN 1385-4879. The fact that Turkish constitutional law takes an even more restrictive approach to minority rights than required under the Treaty of Lausanne was recognised by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Turkey. The CERD noted that "the treaty of Lausanne does not explicitly prohibit the recognition of other groups as minorities" and that Turkey should consider recognising the minority status of other groups, such as Kurds. 50 In practice, this means that Turkey grants minority rights to "Greek, Armenian and Jewish minority communities while denying their possible impact for unrecognized minority groups (e.g. Kurds, Alevis, Arabs, Syriacs, Protestants, Roma etc.)".
^ Bayır, Derya (2013). Minorities and nationalism in Turkish law. Cultural Diversity and Law. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 88–89, 203–204. ISBN 978-1-4094-7254-4.
^ Toktas, Sule; Aras, Bulent (2009). "The EU and Minority Rights in Turkey". Political Science Quarterly. 124 (4): 697–720. ISSN 0032-3195.
^ Köksal, Yonca (2006). "Minority Policies in Bulgaria and Turkey: The Struggle to Define a Nation". Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. 6 (4): 501–521. doi:10.1080/14683850601016390. ISSN 1468-3857.
^ Papazian, H. (2020). Contesting Armenianness: plurality, segregation and multilateral boundary making among Armenians in contemporary Turkey (PhD thesis). University of Oxford.

[aljazeera2015-1] Cite error: The named reference aljazeera2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[2] "Turkey threatens to deport 100,000 Armenians". NBC News. 2010-03-17. Retrieved 2023-10-07.

[community-3] Cite error: The named reference community was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[unesco.org-4] Cite error: The named reference unesco.org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[IA-5] Turay, Anna. "Tarihte Ermeniler". Bolsohays: Istanbul Armenians. Archived from the original on 6 December 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-04.

[6] Baronian, Marie-Aude; Besser, Stephan; Jansen, Yolande (2006-01-01). Diaspora and Memory: Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature, Arts and Politics. BRILL. doi:10.1163/9789401203807_006. ISBN 978-94-012-0380-7.

[7] Baser, Bahar; Swain, Ashok (2009). "Diaspora Design Versus Homeland Realities: Case Study of Armenian Diaspora". Caucasian Review of International Affairs: 57.

[8] "Minister denies calling Armenians 'Diaspora representatives' in Istanbul". www.tert.am. Retrieved 2023-10-08.

[Kaya2015-9] Kaya, Nurcan (2015-11-24). "Teaching in and Studying Minority Languages in Turkey: A Brief Overview of Current Issues and Minority Schools". European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online. 12 (1): 315–338. doi:10.1163/9789004306134_013. ISSN 2211-6117. Turkey is a nation–state built on remnants of the Ottoman Empire where non-Muslim minorities were guaranteed the right to set up educational institutions; however, since its establishment, it has officially recognised only Armenians, Greeks and Jews as minorities and guaranteed them the right to manage educational institutions as enshrined in the Treaty of Lausanne. [...] Private language teaching courses teach 'traditionally used languages', elective language courses have been introduced in public schools and universities are allowed to teach minority languages.

[Toktas2006-10] Toktas, Sule (2006). "EU enlargement conditions and minority protection : a reflection on Turkey's non-Muslim minorities". East European quarterly. 40: 489–519. ISSN 0012-8449. Turkey signed the Covenant on 15 August 2000 and ratified it on 23 September 2003. However, Turkey put a reservation on Article 27 of the Covenant which limited the scope of the right of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion or to use their own language. This reservation provides that this right will be implemented and applied in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Turkish Constitution and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. This implies that Turkey grants educational right in minority languages only to the recognized minorities covered by the Lausanne who are the Armenians, Greeks and the Jews.

[Phillips2020-11] Phillips, Thomas James (2020-12-16). "The (In-)Validity of Turkey's Reservation to Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights". International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. 27 (1): 66–93. doi:10.1163/15718115-02701001. ISSN 1385-4879. The fact that Turkish constitutional law takes an even more restrictive approach to minority rights than required under the Treaty of Lausanne was recognised by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Turkey. The CERD noted that "the treaty of Lausanne does not explicitly prohibit the recognition of other groups as minorities" and that Turkey should consider recognising the minority status of other groups, such as Kurds. 50 In practice, this means that Turkey grants minority rights to "Greek, Armenian and Jewish minority communities while denying their possible impact for unrecognized minority groups (e.g. Kurds, Alevis, Arabs, Syriacs, Protestants, Roma etc.)".

[Bayır2013-12] Bayır, Derya (2013). Minorities and nationalism in Turkish law. Cultural Diversity and Law. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 88–89, 203–204. ISBN 978-1-4094-7254-4.

[13] Toktas, Sule; Aras, Bulent (2009). "The EU and Minority Rights in Turkey". Political Science Quarterly. 124 (4): 697–720. ISSN 0032-3195.

[14] Köksal, Yonca (2006). "Minority Policies in Bulgaria and Turkey: The Struggle to Define a Nation". Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. 6 (4): 501–521. doi:10.1080/14683850601016390. ISSN 1468-3857.

[15] Papazian, H. (2020). Contesting Armenianness: plurality, segregation and multilateral boundary making among Armenians in contemporary Turkey (PhD thesis). University of Oxford.

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