Twisting Tanzimat: The Breaking of the Millet System and the New Politics in Van, 1881-96

Like all historical literatures, Ottoman historiography has settled on a set of assumptions that underpin much of the subsequent analysis. The notion that the nineteenth century reform program collectively known as the Tanzimat(reordering) fostered feelings of nationalism among the Empire’s non-Muslims communities is one such example. Very recently none other than the eminent Ottomanist Carter Findley argued “under Ottoman conditions communal reforms could not be carried out without reinforcing separatism and thus undermining Ottomanism.”

The reforms did, however, inculcate a feeling of Ottomanism among the non-Muslims. By standardizing the role of religious institutions as imperial intermediaries (i.e. the millet system), non-Muslims gained unprecedented access to the government. Moreover, these reforms tied the non-Muslims more closely to the imperial center in Istanbul. It was only after the Russo-Turkish War in 1878 and the subsequent rebellion by an alliance of Sunni Kurdish tribes that the state scrapped the “imperial repertoire of toleration” in favor of realpolitik in the borderland. Trading legitimacy for loyalty, the Ottoman state bestowed numerous honors on brigands and incorporated them into the government. Armenians who protested this new arrangement, especially priests, found themselves accused of sedition and either locked away or in exile. The gradual neutralization of the Church meant the erosion of the milletsystem and the political marginalization of Armenians.

This paper analyzes strategies used by Armenians in the eastern city Van to maneuver this changing political environment. By shedding a light on subaltern actions, I show how different forms of political dissent shaped state institutions. Without the Church, Armenians searched for alternate paths to political representation. These constituted a new kind of Ottoman politics, one ignored by the top-down narratives hegemonic in the literature.