Armenians and the land question in the Ottoman Empire, 1870-1914

Abstract

This dissertation examines the emergence and transformation of the land question in the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century, focusing on the extent and characteristics of land disputes concerning Armenians. Views on the land question, which emerged as a distinct social problem in the 1870s, varied among the central government, local authorities, the Armenian politi-cal elite, Armenian institutions, Kurdish powerholders, and the Kurdish polit-ical elite. Based on Armenian, British, and Ottoman sources, this study demonstrates that there were significant changes in the extent and character-istics of land disputes during and after the massacres of 1894-97. These novel-ties include the massification of the problem, participation of ordinary people in the seizures of Armenian properties, dispossession of Armenian large land-owners, and the development of a state policy directed at changing the demo-graphic characteristics of the population in the region.