ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

The Nineteenth Century:
A Golden Age for Armenians and
Ottomans, in Spite of the
Beginnings of Nationalistic
Agitating from Abroad
After the conquest o f Istanbul, Sultan Mehmed Fatih strove to
establish a good working relationship with all the peoples subject
to him and to grant wide-ranging autonomy. (It would
actually be more correct to speak o f religious communities
instead o f "peoples". Ethnic and racial concepts hardly existed
at the time.) Just eight years after the conquest o f Istanbul,
Sultan Mehmed Fatih summoned the Armenian Orthodox archbishop
of Bursa, Hovakim, to Istanbul. He had been chosen by
the Ottomans, and the Sultan named him patriarch.
Patriarch Hovakim became the spiritual (and to a large extent
also the secular) leader of all non-Islamic, non-Greek Orthodox
inhabitants o f the Ottoman Empire. His power greatly surpassed
that o f the Armenian Catholicoses of Echmiadzin and
Sis. Never in the history o f the Armenian people had an
Armenian possessed as much power and authority as Patriarch
Hovakim (and his successors until well into the nineteenth century).
The Armenians always got along better with the Ottoman
Sultans than did the Greeks. The Greek Orthodox patriarchs of
Constantinople, such as Gennadios II Scholarios, Isidores II
Xanthotiulos, and Sophro-nios I Syropolos, came and went so
fast that they seemed to be developing a revolving-door patriarchate.
The Armenians, on the other hand, found the right tone
for dealing with the Ottomans from the start, and their power
grew ever greater.
Photos: His Beatitude the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch of
Istanbul Snork Kalutsyan; scenes from the 29th o f May, the
anniversary o f the conquest o f Constantinople in 1453.
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A golden age for Ottoman-Armenian cooperation. From
the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, the Armenians are
the Sultan's "loyal millet", and the Armenian Patriarchate
of Istanbul is the Sultan-Caliph's very own creation.