Excerpts about the Ottoman Bank and Armenians– 1

-The following can be unequivocally said about the Ottoman Bank:

1. The Ottoman Bank was Ottoman by name only.  Greeks and Armenians used it as a metaphor, being Ottoman by name only but otherwise disfranchised. It was a European conglomerate. 

2. The Ottoman Bank put an end to the glorious era of the Armenian Amiras, the rothschilds of the Ottoman Empire who oversaw the financing of the Sultan’s Ottoman Empire.

3. And, quoting Wikipedia, “On Wednesday, 26 August 1896, 13:00 o'clock, 26 Armenians from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, armed with pistols and grenades and led by Papken Siuni, attacked and occupied the Ottoman Bank of Constantinople. The men entered the great hall of the Ottoman Bank armed with revolvers, daggers and dynamite bombs.”

 During my early youth, as member of Papken Siuni Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association), every year, may be more than once, we had a debate whether Papken Siuni occupation of the Ottoman Bank was justified or it was a reckless act. None of us wanted to be in the team that debated against the occupation. Those who did were assigned to that team by the ARF Zavarian Student Association member who oversaw our group.

I have put together the many excerpts about the Ottoman Bank and Armenians dealing with the Ottoman bank,  Mano Chil posted on his Facebook page. They give an interesting and fascinating insight about the Ottoman Armenian relations with the Ottoman Bank and and the banking of the Ottoman Empire. They are reproduced it here randomly.   Vahe H Apelian

The Ottoman Bank 

Administering the Ottoman Empire before the establishment of the Ottoman Bank.

I quote: “The Amiras were a powerful class of Armenian commercial, industrial, and professional elites in the Ottoman capital between the 18th and 19th centuries. They ran the treasury, mint and armaments factories, built palaces, mosques and public buildings, and operated many monopolies. Because of their unique position, they had good relations with Ottoman Sultans and administrators, and played an important role in the development of the Armenian and Armenian Catholic millets.” (The Amiras: Lord of Ottoman Empire, Pascal Carmont).

The American missionary Rev. Williiam Goodell, claims he was the first American missionary to set foot in the Ottoman Empire in 1823. He played a decisive role in the establishemen to of the Armenian Evangelical community in Constantinopel in 1846. He said the following about the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. 

He wrote the following in his memoir: “The Armenians were an enterprising people, and the great wealth of the bankers, who were nearly all Armenians, made them very influential throughout the empire, even with the Turkish officials, who were largely dependent upon them for pecuniary advances and assistance. The various connections of this people with different parts of the country, and the influence which they were in a position to exert, in promoting the spread of the Gospel in Turkey, made it exceedingly desirable that they should embrace the truth."

The Ottoman Bank put the Amiras out of commission. Much like East India Company snatched the far East trade from the Armenian khojas, the Ottoman Bank, a European conglomerate, snatched the administration of the Ottoman Empire away from the Amiras, who were mostly Armenians from Agn. See the link below.

Vahe H Apelian

                                                        ***

Did the Ottoman Bank ruin the lives of Armenian money changers? ( Mano Chil posted on July 2, 2022)

Abraham Pasha, originally Abraham Eramyan, (Istanbul, 1833 - Istanbul, 1918) was an Ottoman civil servant and diplomat of Armenian origin.

The son of an Armenian banker family, he was a close friend of Sultan Abdülaziz. He spoke fluently Turkish, Arabic and French, and was a prominent figure of Pera high society in Istanbul.

The mansion built by Abraham Pasha in Beyoğlu and rented to the Cercle d'Orient Club and the Kocataş Mansion in Büyükdere are among the most magnificent structures of the period.

1883 marked the beginning of Pasha's financial decline, he was financially ruined and unable to repay his debts. Abraham Pasha was forced to surrender his investments on the Bourse and all his properties to the Ottoman Bank in 1898. His personal properties were sold by the bank in 1919 to a stockbroker named Manouk Manoukian. 

— Mesut Kara (translated from Turkish)

                                                        ***

When was the Ottoman Bank Established? (Mano Chil posted it on November 15, 203)

In 1856, (Vahe: 10 years after the establishment of the Armenian Evangelical community),  Sultan Abdulmejid called for modern banks to be established in the Ottoman Empire. He hoped that creating the institutions would improve the empire’s financial system and foster economic development. The sultan’s call was heeded by European bankers who, seeing opportunity, flocked to Constantinople.

The Ottoman authorities gave a group of English and French suitors permission to establish a bank that would operate under the name “The Imperial Ottoman Bank.” Negotiations between the Ottoman authorities and European stakeholders on the bank’s governance resulted in the latter group receiving great influence.

As per the agreed-upon terms, the position of general manager had to be occupied by a European. The manager reported to two committees. One committee was based in London and was accountable to British shareholders. The other was based in Paris and was accountable to French shareholders. Decisions made by one committee became effective once ratified by the other committee.

The Ottoman Authorities agreed to have limited influence over the bank’s governance because of the perceived benefits the bank would grant them. For example, the Ottoman authorities could borrow from the newly established Imperial Ottoman Bank at a time when many creditors started to doubt their creditworthiness as a debtor.

The Imperial Ottoman Bank was to serve as the empire’s central bank. It would execute all financial operations of the Ottoman Treasury in Constantinople and would be the government’s financial agent both domestically and abroad. The Ottoman authorities also granted the institution the exclusive right to issue bank notes.

The negotiations over the Imperial Ottoman Bank were indicative of a trend that saw the Ottoman government surrender authority over economic matters to foreigners in exchange for financial services and access to funds.

Many of the loans that the Ottoman authorities had taken since 1854 were obtained under stern conditions. The interest on domestic and foreign loans was often over 6 percent, with some loans having an interest rate exceeding 10 percent.

On many occasions, the Ottoman government was not able to repay a loan in time. These delays strengthened rumors of bankruptcy, causing Ottoman bonds to become nearly unsellable.

The empire’s economic outlook worsened in 1873 when the European stock market crashed. A financial crisis that became known as the “Panic of 1873” followed. As a result, it became even harder for the Ottoman Government to procure new credit.

Economic circumstances were so dire that in 1874 Galata bankers refused to lend to the government even if the interest rates would be set at 25 percent.

By 1875, the situation had become untenable. The Ottoman authorities announced they would pay back their debt, half in cash and half in 5 percent yielding treasury bonds. As a result of this implicit admission of bankruptcy, the Ottoman State’s credit plummeted. The empire formally defaulted shortly thereafter.

The economic crisis was felt throughout the whole empire. Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, was in such dire need of money that he sold his shares in the Suez Canal to the British government.

The proposed solution involved the state surrendering tax revenues to repay loans. The state agreed to earmark the revenues from its stamp, spirits, fishing taxes, silk tithe, salt, and tobacco monopolies.

The plan worked as intended. The tax proceeds proved sufficient to meet the installments of the debt. Foreign creditors, seeing that domestic loans were being repaid, felt left out of a good deal. They opened negotiations with the Ottoman government in the hopes of securing a similar arrangement. The talks resulted in an agreement signed in 1881, known as the Muharrem Decree, which gave foreign creditors claims to Ottoman tax revenues.

In return for ceding the tax revenues irrevocably, the outstanding debt of the empire was reduced by almost 40 percent. In addition, the yearly charges on the debt were cut by over 80 percent.

In the years following 1881, the tax revenues specified in the Decree of Muharrem were brought under the control of the OPDA (Ottoman Public Debt Administration). The institution’s primary functions were collecting taxes and distributing them to foreign bondholders.

The OPDA also served as an intermediary for European companies seeking to invest in the Ottoman Empire. As such, the institution helped foreign companies secure lucrative contracts for railway development. These contracts sometimes included rights of ownership of mineral deposits and forests near the to-be-constructed railways.

To act out its mandate, the OPDA employed thousands of people. At its peak, the institution had 9000 employees, which was more than the Ottoman finance ministry.

The Ottoman Public Debt Administration was successful in paying out the debt owed to foreign creditors. Between 1882 and 1914, the OPDA paid out the equivalent of 113 million British pounds in debt.

As time passed, the Ottoman Empire slowly began recovering from its precarious economic situation. With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1929, a third of the outstanding debt was forgiven.

Turkey paid the last installment of its debt to the OPDA in 1954, exactly a century after the Ottoman Empire had taken on its first foreign loan.

--  Ilias Luursema

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Berch Kererteliyan became general manager of the Ottoman Bank. (Mano Chil posted it on June 16, 2024)

Berch Kerestejiyan (Türker) was born in 1870 in Istanbul. He first attended Galatasaray Lycee, a French-language public school, and later transferred to Robert College, an American private school. After graduation, he served for two years at the Ministry of Finance and was later employed by the Ottoman Bank. He was the co-founder of the Ottoman Red Crescent, which was established in 1911.

During World War I, he became the general manager of the Ottoman Bank. During the Armistice years, he actively participated in the National Movement by organising aid campaigns through the Ottoman Red Crescent and providing loans to the Nationalists through his position at the bank. 

Following the surname reform, Mustafa Kemal bestowed on him the family name Türker (Turk man) in recognition of his patriotism and support for the Nationalist cause. 

An anecdote is being told about his contribution to save the life of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as he informed Atatürk's lawyer about a British plot to sink his ship SS Bandırma in the Black Sea, on which Atatürk left Constantinople in 1919 to initiate the Turkish War of Independence. He was awarded the white stripe Medal of Independence after the war.

Encouraged and supported by Atatürk, he run as an independent candidate for a deputy seat from Afyonkarahisar at the 1935 general elections and became a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on March 7, 1935 as the first Armenian and one of the four non-Muslims in total.

— Ari Şekeryan

The Armenian Amiras: http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2018/08/agn-and-agnetsis_9.html

 

Excerpts about the Ottoman Bank and the Armenians – 2/ -

I have put together excerpts about the Ottoman Bank and Armenians dealing with the Ottoman bank, from Mano Chil’s postings on his Facebook page. They give an interesting and fascinating insight about the Ottoman Armenian relations with the Ottoman Bank.

The following can be unequivocally said about the Ottoman Bank:

1. The Ottoman Bank was Ottoman by name only. 

2. The Ottoman Bank put an end to the glorious era of the Armenian Amiras.

3. On Wednesday, 26 August 1896, 26 Armenians from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, occupied the Ottoman Bank of Constantinople.  Vahe H Apelian

Image: Imperial Ottoman Bank Headquarters, 1896. Designed by Alexander Vallaury.

Armenian achievements in the Ottoman Empire (posted on December 7, 2021)

“Armenian achievements in the [Ottoman] Empire were not only in trade.

In the 19th century, various Armenian families became the Sultan's goldsmiths, Sultan's architects and took over the currency reserves and the reserves of gold and silver, including customs duty. 

16 of the 18 most important bankers in the Ottoman Empire were Armenian.

-- Astrig Tchamkerten”

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Armenian assets confiscated from all Ottoman Bank branches (posted on September 4, 2023

“All Imperial Ottoman bank branches complied with the strict government orders and delivered all of the bank assets, valuables and safe deposits, cash deposits and jewelry belonging to the deported Armenians. These patently illegal acts were justified by the so-called “Abandoned Properties Act.” The clout and the machinery of two powerful ministries, Interior and Finance, were fully exploited in the execution of what appears to be the twentieth century’s first state-sponsored massive robbery of its citizens.

The confiscated assets from all Ottoman bank braches were systematically transferred to the Central Ottoman Bank in Constantinople. Upon the insistence of the bank’s executives, Finance Minister Djavid provided receipts for the loot, which stated that the assets would be returned to the owners when they return to their homes. However, in September 1916 the Ittihadist leaders secretly transferred five million Turkish gold pounds ($22 million in 1915) to Berlin’s Reichsbank and deposited them… to the personal accounts of the triumvirate Talât, Enver, and Djemal.

—A Perfect Injustice: Genocide and Theft of Armenian Wealth”

                                        *** 

Europe’s chuck-hold of  the Ottoman Empire Economy (posted on September 14, 2023)

“The two main instruments of France’s economic penetration during this period are the Imperial Ottoman Bank and the Ottoman debt. 

The Imperial Ottoman Bank, which is acting both as a central bank and as a business bank, is established in 1863 and controlled at 80% by French banks, a majority which precisely marks the transition from the British preponderance to a return to the French one. It helps the French investors to have the biggest share in the railways (46.9% in 1914) and in the banks sector (37.77% the same year).

The Ottoman public finances are carelessly treated until the reign of Abdülhamit II and the situation leads in 1881 to the creation of an Administration of the Ottoman public debt (Düyun-u Umumiye), partly controlled by the creditors, to collect a part of the taxes directly and to reimburse, as a result, the debt. Yet, from 1880 to 1909, the French investors represent around 70% of the capital invested in the Ottoman debt, and 63% for the period 1910-1914.

-- Maxime Gauin”

                                            ***

Mr. Berj Kerestejian, Armenian chief of the operations service of the Imperial Ottoman Bank (posted on January 2, 2023)

“Thursday, 16 July, 1914.

During a conversation with Mr. Berj Kerestejian, Armenian chief of the operations service of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, said that he always warned his countrymen against rash actions and too exaggerated demands from the Turkish government.

"There are always hot-headed persons and these are dangerous." He spoke, for instance, about the bomb attack on the bank in 1896; he was still young then and worked "upstairs"; it was an incredible audacity, and it had been successful, in spite of all of Abdul Hamid's spies.

But what did the Armenians obtain through this bomb attack? The next day thousands of Armenians were massacred in Constantinople. The Armenian officials of the bank got off relatively well — they were moved to the Ottoman Bank in Egypt — but all Armenian civil servants and officials were dismissed, driven off, and the business of the Armenians was crippled for at least ten years.

I told him my opinion on the work over there in Armenia.

"Excellent . . . tell my countrymen that they should not get involved in politics; let them do two things, which we Armenians are permitted and able to do: work and make money, nothing else. Hotheaded persons are needed for overthrowing governments, but not in Armenia."

-- L.C. Westenenk

He served for a period as a Deputy at the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Ottoman Parliament.

An anecdote is being told about his contribution to save the life of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as he informed Atatürk's lawyer about a British plot to sink his ship SS Bandırma in the Black Sea, on which Atatürk left Constantinople (today-Istanbul) in 1919 to initiate the Turkish War of Independence. He was awarded the white stripe Medal of Independence after the war.

In 1923, Berj Kerestejian sent a telegram to Atatürk in his capacity as the honorary president of the Turco-Armenian Friendship Association and a member of the secular council of the Armenian Patriarchate, confirming the loyalty and the support of his community to the political authority of the government in Ankara.

According to Fehmi Akin, following the surname reform on June 21, 1934, Atatürk gave Berj Kerestejian the family name Türker (Turkish for Turk man) for his patriotism.

Encouraged and supported by Atatürk, he run as an independent candidate for a deputy seat from Afyonkarahisar at the 1935 general elections and became a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on March 7, 1935 as the first Armenian and one of the four non-Muslims in total. The same day, he also became a member of the economic commission of the parliament thanks to his expertise. He repeated his membership of the parliament twice more after the general elections in 1939 and 1943.

During his political career in the parliament, Berj Türker Kerestejian made significant contributions to issues of general political, economic, social and international developments.

After his retirement in 1947, he lived at Büyükada, Istanbul. Berj Türker Kerestejian died in Istanbul, on 27 July 1949, and interred on 29 July in the same city.”

 

The debate I will never forget: The seizure of the Ottoman Bank

Vaհe H Apelian

This blog is not about rendering a judgement. It is about the encouraging the young to be critical, as we were invited in our youthful days to do so.

The Ottoman Bank, those who took part in the occupation, Papken Siuni, Armen Garo

The debate I will never forget is the debate we had in my youth about the occupation of the Ottoman Bank led by Papken Siuni, that took place on August 14, 1896” .

My father enrolled me in the Papken Siuni Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association), early in my youth. We held our meetings on Wednesday and Saturdy afternoons in the Beirut's ARF  Community Center that remained central in our lives until the unset of the Lebanese Civial War in 1975, when Ara  Yerevanian community came about in 1972. 

Every year we debated, maybe more than once, whether Papken Siuni led occupation of the Ottoman Bank was justified or it was a reckless act. None of us wanted to be in the team that debated against the occupation. A representative from the ARF Zavarian Student Association oversaw the Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association). He took the matters into his hand and assigned a few  of us to the team that would argue against the occupation. 

Over sixty years have come and gone by from my youthful days as a member of Papken Siuni Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association). I have vivid recollection of not only the debate but also of the corner room  where we had our meetings and held the debates. 

I also remember the debate and the uneasiness we felt to be in the team debating against the seizure of the bank by Papken Suni, as the rest of the members remained seated in the room and watched us take turn to present our case. In 1972, Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association) came to an end and the Lebanese youth Association came about as part of YOARF (Youth Organization of ARF). 

The occupation of the Ottoman Bank took place some 130 years ago. . This blog is not about rendering a judgement. It is about the encouraging the young to think for themselves and be critical, as we were invited in our youthful days to do so. Honestly, I wonder if members of YOARF nowadays are encouraged to question history and are urged to debate historical events without being concerned for backlash or the ridicule they may face on social media. Of course in my days there was not the social media we have nowadays. But I can attest that the social circle we had, was as all-encompassing and as wide as social media is nowadays. It was the world we knew.

The Bank of Ottoman occupation's leader Papken, who was killed during the mayhem, became an idol. 

Over the years, I have come to learn more about the Ottoman Bank and its occupation. I was astonished to learn that the Turkish authorities not only knew the exact timing of the occupation of the Ottoman Bank, but facilitated its seizure. After all, the Ottoman Bank was owned by Europeans.  Here are some tidbits about the bank and its occupation.

*

The Ottoman Bank was a European conglomerate. It was Ottoman by name only. Greeks and Armenians used it as a metaphor, being Ottoman by name only but otherwise disfranchised.  The Ottoman authorities, the Sultan's Sublime Porte  would have cared the less that the Ottoman Bank was occupied. 

*

The Ottoman Bank put an end to the glorious era of the Armenian Amiras, the Rothschilds of the Ottoman Empire who for almost two centuries became trusted financiers of the Sultan and functionaries of the Ottoman Empire, until the Europeans put an end to their prominence.

*

Protestant missionaries wrote about the occupation of the Ottoman Bank. I quote the following: 

“Who originated this plot I do not know, but it is certain that the Turkish government knew all about it many days before, even to the exact time when the bank was to be entered; and the Minister of Police had made elaborate arrangements, not to arrest these men or prevent the attack on the bank, but to facilitate it and make it the occasion of a massacre of the Armenian population of the city. This was to be the crown of all the massacres of the year, one worthy of the capitol and the seat of the Sultan, a final defiance to the Christian world. Not many minutes after the attack on the bank the bands of Turks, who had been organized by the Minister of Police in Stamboul and Galata, commenced the work of killing every Armenian they could find, protected by large bodies of troops, who in some cases took part in the slaughter.” (Fifty Years in Constantinople and Recollections of Robert College. Front Cover. George Washburn. Houghton Mifflin, 1909 – Turkey – 316 pages)

*

“The Ottoman government again unleashed the mob. Softas and thugs started attacking Armenians in Haskoy, Tophane and Galata. The army and the police stood by, or assisted. Most people shut themselves up in their houses or behind the heavy iron doors.

An official of the Ottoman Bank, Louis Rambert, wrote in his diary: 'All Armenian houses are attacked and their little shops, people enter and pillage everything. It happens almost without a sound [since the killers used clubs, not guns]. Every Armenian found in the street is killed' - even on the Grande Rue de Pera. Carts took the corpses away. With his own eyes he saw the murder of rowers of a kayik, watched with visible pleasure by a large crowd on Galata bridge.” — Philip Mansel

 

 

Պանք Օթօմանը գրաւած էր.....

Պանք Օթօմանը գրաւած էր Դաշնակցութեան Կոմիտէն` ըսեմ որ Պանք Օթօմանի գրաւումին երգը, տակաւին կ՚ունկդեմ, թերեւս ալ նոյն այն խառն զցացումներով երբ կ՚երգէի խմբովին իմ պատանեկութեանս որպէս անդամ Պէյրութի Բաբգէն Սիւնի Պատանեկան Միւթեան։ 

Բայց, Պանք Օթօմանի գրաւումին պատմական ճշմարտութիւններուն, անոր անդրարձներուն մասին, որեւէ այլ ակնարկ չունիմ,  չեմ ալ ուզէր ունենալ։ (տեսնել կցած ագոյցները ներքեւը)։ Վահէ Յ Աբէլեան

Լinks:

1.   The debate I will never forget: The seizure of the Ottoman Bank - https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-debate-i-will-never-forget-va-e-h.html 

2.   THIS PHOTO: https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2026/08/this-photo.html

3.   Excerpts about the Ottoman Bank and Armenians– 1: https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/search?q=Ottoman+Bank

4.   Excerpts about the Ottoman Bank and the Armenians – 2/ -: https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/search?q=Ottoman+Bank

THIS PHOTO

Attached is a translation of Ara Sanjian’s post today on his Facebook page, titled, ԱՅՍ ԼՈՒՍԱՆԿԱՐԸ.

 

Courtesy Wikipedia

"Since it was the anniversary of the seizure of the “Bank Ottoman”, many Armenian Facebook users, and not only they, had reposted this famous photo on their pages.

There is a widespread belief that this group photo shows the Dashnak youth who seized the bank, photographed after arriving in Marseille from Constantinople. I have also shown this photo to my students in the past, during my lectures. I must admit, however, that I was always puzzled as to why these young people were dressed in the typical attire of peasant farmers. It seemed somewhat illogical to me that they would have worn such clothes in their daily lives in the mid-1890s, or that they would have been able to enter the bank building and take it under their control while wearing such clothes.

A few months ago, Zeynep Devrim Gürsel’s study “Portraits of Unbelonging” was published in the United States, about some circumstances of the history of Western Armenians during the Hamidian era. I have not yet seen the published volume, but I read an early version of it in unpublished form. The author also referred to this photograph, which was printed in the French newspaper L’Illustration on October 31, 1896. Based on Ottoman archives, the author shows that the Ottoman chief diplomat in France was closely interested in this photograph, as he wanted to identify the individuals involved in the incident. In the end, he found out that the people in the photograph were not the young men who had seized the bank, but Armenian villagers from the Ottoman Empire who were emigrating to the United States at about the same time.

Therefore, from now on, this photograph should be presented within the framework of the Armenian migration from the Ottoman Empire to North America at the end of the 19th century.

I fear, however, that it has already become so widespread that, due to inertia, it will continue to be circulated for a long time as a group photo of young Armenian Dashnaks who seized the “Bank Ottoman”.

In the initial version of Kursel's book that I saw, there were copies of other documents and photographs related to the capture of Ottoman Bank", although not of individuals. I hope they are included in the printed copy and will later be circulated by Armenian history buffs. "

Amiras: Lords of Ottoman Armenia

Vahe H. Apelian 

Sometime ago, I ordered "The Amiras: Lords of Ottoman Armenia" book from Amazon.com (but had to cancel my order because of unavailability). Reading about the book before requesting a copy, I came across a comment made by the author of the book Pascal Garmont. He said that most of the Amiras hailed from the city of Agn and he wondered whether the Armenian Agnetsis were inheritors of a special gene pool that put them on top of the fiscal game in the Ottoman Empire.

The Amiras were bankrollers of the Ottoman Empire. In other words, they were the Rothschilds of the Ottoman Empire. Their prominence was so obvious that the first American missionary Rev. William Goodell to set foot in Constantinople (on on June 9, 1831), on behalf of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM), noted the following in his memoir "The Armenians were an enterprising people, and the great wealth of the bankers, who were nearly all Armenians, made them very influential throughout the empire, even with the Turkish officials, who were largely dependent upon them for pecuniary advances and assistance."

It was the European powers that put an end to this influential class of Armenian Amiras when they established the Ottoman Bank in 1856. The bank was Ottoman by name only. The European powers and their big bankrollers owned and operated the bank that the Armenians occupied for 14 hours on August 14, 1896, under the leadership of young Papken Sunni who hailed from Agn. 

Wikipedia notes that on September 15, 1896, three weeks after the raid of the Ottoman Bank by members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation as a response to the Hamidian massacres, Turkish authorities organized a new massacre in the city of Ağın. Ottoman troops killed "upwards of 2000 Armenians" including "many women and children" according to a report by the French ambassador. Of the 1500 houses located in the Armenian quarter of Ağın, 980 were pillaged and burned. Ağın was chosen to be the target of the massacre because the leader of the bank raiding party who was killed at the start of the raid, Papken Siuni, was native to the city of Ağın. According to a report by the British Consul at Harput, the pretext used to attack the city's Armenian quarter was that the Armenians of the said city were "set to cause trouble" but it would not surprise me that the real cause was the wealth of the Armenian inhabitants of the city. 

It should be noted here that the financially well-to-do Agnetsis had bought their safety a few years earlier and thus had spared their city from the widespread killing and ransacking during the early Hamidian massacres (1894-1897).

Armenian authors have written a number of books about the Amiras, the great enterprising Armenian bankrollers of the Ottoman Empire who mostly hailed from Agn. I have my own interpretation as to why the cunning sultans bestowed upon these Armenians the special title that distinguished them as a class. Amira is derived from an Arabic word and it means princess. The sultans trusted and valued the services of these enterprising Armenians and yet they would not have wanted to draw the envy of the Turks. Hence the ever-cunning sultans came with the title Amira, princess. No self-respecting Turk would have liked to be titled, princess. The Turks must have envied the special relationship these Armenians had with the prevailing Sultan and yet they would not have wanted to be caught dead with such a "demeaning" title.

As to the Amiras, Dr. Chalabian wrote: "During this time trade in Constantinople was in the hands of Greeks and Armenians. For many years the pulse of Ottoman royalty was in Armenian hands and its distinguished denizens were titled "Amira". The word is Arabic in origin and was bestowed upon the wealthy and influential Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire. A disproportionate number of the Amiras, whose number ranged between 80 to 100 individuals, came from modest provincial backgrounds notably good many of them hailed from the small town of Agn (today's Kemaliye) in Anatolia's Erzincan province. They were a remarkable group of enterprising and ambitious Armenians who rose to the forefront of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th, and 19th centuries. At times, the succeeding generations of the same Amira family served the reigning Sultans faithfully and accomplished great things. They also became enormously influential in running the affairs of the Armenian community and became the link between the Sultan's palace and the Armenian Patriarch who had legal jurisdiction over the entire Armenian subjects of the Sultan.

Some of the Amiras were also put in charge of tax collection in the empire. Up to 1856, there was no banking system in the Empire. The Amiras filled in the void and made financial transactions with traders, trading houses, government offices and even with the reigning Sultans at exuberant rates. In 1795, the head of the Dadian family, Arakel Dad Amira, was appointed to oversee the armament factories of the Empire. From that date on for the next 75 years, the descendants inherited the position and ran the Ottoman munitions and artillery along with the production of paper and military uniforms. The members of the family thus exercised enormous influence given the size of the Empire and its armed forces. 

In the first half of the 19th century, one of the Armenian titans in Bolis was Harutyun Amira Bezdjian who was nicknamed "Kazaz Artin". He became a confidant of Sultan Mahmud II and was trusted with handling the personal wealth of the Sultan. His influence on running the affairs of the Empire was so strong that historians would call the era as the "Bezdjian Era". 

Through Harutyun Amira Bezdjian's financial contributions the following institutions were built in Bolis: the new building of the Bolis Patriarchate in 1823; Sourp Prgitch (Saint Savior) Armenian National Hospital in 1832; The women's school of Peria in 1826; the central school of Kumkapi in 1828; Saint Arakelots (Holy Disciples) Armenian school in 1830; Boghossian Boys' School in 1832; Varvarian Women's School in 1832; Bezdjian School in Kumkapi in 1832; Ayoubian Co-Ed School in 1832; a total seven schools and three major institutions. In 1836 he established the first trade – tailoring- school for the Armenian women of Bolis. Along with these monumental charitable contributions, he also undertook the expenses for the publication of many literary works, especially that of Krikor Pashdimaljian, the noted Armenian pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. Harutyun Amira Bezdjian was buried in the Virgin Mary Patriarch Cathedral by the special permission of Mahmud II. 

Limited space does not allow us to elaborate more on the amazing accomplishments of other Amiras such as the Balians, who became court architects and built such masterpieces as the Dolmabahçe Palace, the Yildiz Mosque, and the Imperial College of Medicine, which today houses the famed Galatasaray Lisesi. The Arpiarian Amira family clan, who also hailed from Agn, oversaw the silver mining in the Ottoman Empire. 

For some two hundred years the Amiras served the Sultans faithfully and were accorded privileges no others possessed in the Empire. 

Courtesy Houshamadyan

The Armenian word "ag" means spring and ‘agn" would mean "the spring". The Armenian Wikipedia notes the following about the city of Agn: According to tradition, after the destruction of Ani, part of its population came to the location and finding a cold water spring, next to it, formed a new city naming it Agn. During 1300 to 1311, the Armenians arriving from Ani founded their own neighborhood with Saint Hagop Church".

Agnetsis were not only money smart as great bankrollers.  The Armenian Wikipedia further notes that the Agnetsis have had a number of prominent persons in culture, medicine, education, arts, law and as civic and clerical leaders. Along with young idealist revolutionary Papken Sunni, other prominent Armenians are:

Arpiar Arpiarian (Արփիար ԱրփիարեանՕ (1851-1908), - novelist, publisher, literary critic and editor.  

Missak Medzarents (Միսաք Մեծարենց) (1886-1908) - poet

Krikor Zohrand (Գրիգոր Զոհրապ) (1861-1915) – writer, statesman, lawyer and philanthropist.

Siamanto (Սիամանթո) (1878-1915) - poet

Arshag Chobanian (Արշակ Չոպանյան) (1872-1954) – writer, literary critic, philologist, journalist and civic leader.

Minas Cheraz (Մինաս Չերազ) (1852-1928) – writer, editor, translator, civic leader.

Nikol Kalenderian (Նիկոլ Գալանտերյան) (1881-1944) - compositor

 Yeghia Chelebi Keumurjian (Երեմիա Չելեպի Քյոմուրճյան) – Note: Chelebi was an honorific title given to persons of prominence.

Archbishop Ardavazt Surmelian (Արտավազդ արքեպիսկոպոս Սյուրմելյան) - clergy

Levon Kasparian (Լևոն Գասպարյան) – Medical doctor.

Many regard the great middle-age poet Nahabed Kouchag (Նահապետ Քուչակ) hailing from Agn.

The Armenian Wikipedia further notes: "For almost 200 years, the great dynasties of Amiras in Constantinople and Smyrna hailed from Agn."

Those who hail from Agn may shed further light on this unique city and its famous Armenian inhabitants, the Agnestsis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agn and Agnetsis, the Amiras: Lords of Ottoman Armenia

Vahe H. Apelian

Sometime ago, I ordered "The Amiras: Lords of Ottoman Armenia" book from Amazon.com (but had to cancel my order because of unavailability). Reading about the book before requesting a copy, I came across a comment made by the author of the book Pascal Garmont. He said that most of the Amiras hailed from the city of Agn and he wondered whether the Armenian Agnetsis were inheritors of a special gene pool that put them on top of the fiscal game in the Ottoman Empire.

The Amiras were bankrollers of the Ottoman Empire. In other words, they were the Rothschilds of the Ottoman Empire. Their prominence was so obvious that the first American missionary Rev. William Goodell to set foot in Constantinople (on on June 9, 1831), on behalf of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM), noted the following in his memoir "The Armenians were an enterprising people, and the great wealth of the bankers, who were nearly all Armenians, made them very influential throughout the empire, even with the Turkish officials, who were largely dependent upon them for pecuniary advances and assistance."

It was the European powers that put an end to this influential class of Armenian Amiras when they established the Ottoman Bank in 1856. The bank was Ottoman by name only. The European powers and their big bankrollers owned and operated the bank that the Armenians occupied for 14 hours on August 14, 1896, under the leadership of young Papken Sunni who hailed from Agn. 

Wikipedia notes that on September 15, 1896, three weeks after the raid of the Ottoman Bank by members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation as a response to the Hamidian massacres, Turkish authorities organized a new massacre in the city of Ağın. Ottoman troops killed "upwards of 2000 Armenians" including "many women and children" according to a report by the French ambassador. Of the 1500 houses located in the Armenian quarter of Ağın, 980 were pillaged and burned. Ağın was chosen to be the target of the massacre because the leader of the bank raiding party who was killed at the start of the raid, Papken Siuni, was native to the city of Ağın. According to a report by the British Consul at Harput, the pretext used to attack the city's Armenian quarter was that the Armenians of the said city were "set to cause trouble" but it would not surprise me that the real cause was the wealth of the Armenian inhabitants of the city. 

It should be noted here that the financially well-to-do Agnetsis had bought their safety a few years earlier and thus had spared their city from the widespread killing and ransacking during the early Hamidian massacres (1894-1897).

Courtesy Houshamadyan.org

Armenian authors have written a number of books about the Amiras, the great enterprising Armenian bankrollers of the Ottoman Empire who mostly hailed from Agn. I have my own interpretation as to why the cunning sultans bestowed upon these Armenians the special title that distinguished them as a class. Amira is derived from an Arabic word and it means princess. The sultans trusted and valued the services of these enterprising Armenians and yet they would not have wanted to draw the envy of the Turks. Hence the ever-cunning sultans came with the title Amira, princess. No self-respecting Turk would have liked to be titled, princess. The Turks must have envied the special relationship these Armenians had with the prevailing Sultan and yet they would not have wanted to be caught dead with such a "demeaning" title.

As to the Amiras, Dr. Chalabian wrote: "During this time trade in Constantinople was in the hands of Greeks and Armenians. For many years the pulse of Ottoman royalty was in Armenian hands and its distinguished denizens were titled "Amira". The word is Arabic in origin and was bestowed upon the wealthy and influential Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire. A disproportionate number of the Amiras, whose number ranged between 80 to 100 individuals, came from modest provincial backgrounds notably good many of them hailed from the small town of Agn (today's Kemaliye) in Anatolia's Erzincan province. They were a remarkable group of enterprising and ambitious Armenians who rose to the forefront of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th, and 19th centuries. At times, the succeeding generations of the same Amira family served the reigning Sultans faithfully and accomplished great things. They also became enormously influential in running the affairs of the Armenian community and became the link between the Sultan's palace and the Armenian Patriarch who had legal jurisdiction over the entire Armenian subjects of the Sultan.

Some of the Amiras were also put in charge of tax collection in the empire. Up to 1856, there was no banking system in the Empire. The Amiras filled in the void and made financial transactions with traders, trading houses, government offices and even with the reigning Sultans at exuberant rates. In 1795, the head of the Dadian family, Arakel Dad Amira, was appointed to oversee the armament factories of the Empire. From that date on for the next 75 years, the descendants inherited the position and ran the Ottoman munitions and artillery along with the production of paper and military uniforms. The members of the family thus exercised enormous influence given the size of the Empire and its armed forces.

 

In the first half of the 19th century, one of the Armenian titans in Bolis was Harutyun Amira Bezdjian who was nicknamed "Kazaz Artin". He became a confidant of Sultan Mahmud II and was trusted with handling the personal wealth of the Sultan. His influence on running the affairs of the Empire was so strong that historians would call the era as the "Bezdjian Era".

 

Through Harutyun Amira Bezdjian's financial contributions the following institutions were built in Bolis: the new building of the Bolis Patriarchate in 1823; Sourp Prgitch (Saint Savior) Armenian National Hospital in 1832; The women's school of Peria in 1826; the central school of Kumkapi in 1828; Saint Arakelots (Holy Disciples) Armenian school in 1830; Boghossian Boys' School in 1832; Varvarian Women's School in 1832; Bezdjian School in Kumkapi in 1832; Ayoubian Co-Ed School in 1832; a total seven schools and three major institutions. In 1836 he established the first trade – tailoring- school for the Armenian women of Bolis. Along with these monumental charitable contributions, he also undertook the expenses for the publication of many literary works, especially that of Krikor Pashdimaljian, the noted Armenian pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. Harutyun Amira Bezdjian was buried in the Virgin Mary Patriarch Cathedral by the special permission of Mahmud II.

 

Limited space does not allow us to elaborate more on the amazing accomplishments of other Amiras such as the Balians, who became court architects and built such masterpieces as the Dolmabahçe Palace, the Yildiz Mosque, and the Imperial College of Medicine, which today houses the famed Galatasaray Lisesi. The Arpiarian Amira family clan, who also hailed from Agn, oversaw the silver mining in the Ottoman Empire.

For some two hundred years the Amiras served the Sultans faithfully and were accorded privileges no others possessed in the Empire.

The Armenian word "ag" means spring and ‘agn" would mean "the spring". The Armenian Wikipedia notes the following about the city of Agn: According to tradition, after the destruction of Ani, part of its population came to the location and finding a cold water spring, next to it, formed a new city naming it Agn. During 1300 to 1311, the Armenians arriving from Ani founded their own neighborhood with Saint Hagop Church".

Agnetsis were not only money smart as great bankrollers.  The Armenian Wikipedia further notes that the Agnetsis have had a number of prominent persons in culture, medicine, education, arts, law and as civic and clerical leaders. Along with young idealist revolutionary Papken Sunni, other prominent Armenians are:

Arpiar Arpiarian (Արփիար ԱրփիարեանՕ (1851-1908), - novelist, publisher, literary critic and editor.  

Missak Medzarents (Միսաք Մեծարենց) (1886-1908) - poet

Krikor Zohrand (Գրիգոր Զոհրապ) (1861-1915) – writer, statesman, lawyer and philanthropist.

Siamanto (Սիամանթո) (1878-1915) - poet

Arshag Chobanian (Արշակ Չոպանյան) (1872-1954) – writer, literary critic, philologist, journalist and civic leader.

Minas Cheraz (Մինաս Չերազ) (1852-1928) – writer, editor, translator, civic leader.

Nikol Kalenderian (Նիկոլ Գալանտերյան) (1881-1944) - compositor

 Yeghia Chelebi Keumurjian (Երեմիա Չելեպի Քյոմուրճյան) – Note: Chelebi was an honorific title given to persons of prominence.

Archbishop Ardavazt Surmelian (Արտավազդ արքեպիսկոպոս Սյուրմելյան) - clergy

Levon Kasparian (Լևոն Գասպարյան) – Medical doctor.

Many regard the great middle-age poet Nahabed Kouchag (Նահապետ Քուչակ) hailing from Agn.

The Armenian Wikipedia further notes: "For almost 200 years, the great dynasties of Amiras in Constantinople and Smyrna hailed from Agn."

Those who hail from Agn may shed further light on this unique city and its famous Armenian inhabitants, the Agnestsis.