Moneyed Armenians of yesteryears: Amiras and Effendis (2/2)

 Բնագիրը կցուած է։ Part 2/2: Amira’s and effendis, is my abridged translation of  Dr. Antranig Chalabian's article in «Marmara» Daily on Monday, November 7, 2005. Vahe H. Apelian

3. Amiras

An Amira

Before I present the Armenian Amiras and then the Effendis it's important that I digress from the subject matter and present a glimpse of Bolis, the Armenian Constantinople of the era. At the beginning of the 1800s, Bolis had 850,000 inhabitants of whom 374,000 were Muslims; 152,000 Creeks; 150,000 Armenians and 44,000 Jews. The remaining 80,000 were Europeans, Copts, Assyrians, and others.

In 1850's Bolis had become the financial, the political and the cultural center of the Western Armenians. The community was continuing to swell in numbers at the expense of the Armenian populated cities in Eastern Turkey. Everyone wanted to settle in Bolis. It should be noted, however, that a good segment of the Armenians who came to Bolis were migrant workers who would work, at times for years, to save money and return to their villages and homes.

The number of Armenians in Bolis between 1860-1880, had peaked to an all-time high estimated to be around 275,000. Bolis was unsurpassed among the Armenians worldwide, including Armenia. In 1859 there were 42 Armenian schools in Bolis with a total enrollment of 5531 students and 197 teachers. In 1871 the numbers were swelled to 48 schools with an enrollment of around 6000 students. The cultural and scholastic revival among the Armenians in Bolis may be better appreciated in stating that the famed American University of Beirut was established later, in 1886, and until 1945 had only 500 students; while in Yerevan the Eastern Armenians numbered 13,000 and were a minority overwhelmed by the presence of 17,000 Tatars. Most of the Eastern Armenians in the region lived in Tiflis and Baku.

The unprecedented cultural revival among the Armenians in Turkey was cut short from 1876 and onwards for reasons we all know too well.

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.

4. Effendis

Let me end this article with a few words about the Armenian Effendis who succeeded the Amrias of Bolis. According to Wikipedia "Effendi is a title of nobility meaning a lord or master. It is a title of respect or courtesy, equivalent to the English Sir, which was used in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey)."

In 1856 Sultan Adul Majid established banking in the Empire that came to be known as the Ottoman Bank. With this historic turn of events, the Sultan, the courtiers, the governors of the provinces and others started borrowing their monies from the Ottoman Bank instead of from the Amiras. With the establishment of the Ottoman Bank, the fortunes of the Amiras started dwindling and their influence eroding in the capital city. Along with the banking system came the various ministries that regulated finance, military, internal and external affairs. This gave rise to a cadre of government officials and to traders who were called Effendis. Some would also acquire considerable wealth and secure influential positions for themselves.

The Armenian traders, following the footsteps of the Khojas, would import scarves, spices, jewelry from India; clothing from Iran and muslin from Damascus. Other Armenian traders would import goods from England, France, Germany, Italy, and Venice. By 1861 the number of the Armenian traders in Manchester, England had reached 30. Within the next two years, the number of Armenian traders will increase further with the arrival of new Armenian traders from Istanbul, Izmir, Kayseri.

By the middle of the 19th century, there were 434 Armenian Effendis in Istanbul who were traders or high placed government officials. Among such officials is Gabriel Effendi Noradoungian. He was born in 1852. After attending local Armenian and French schools he went to France where from 1870-1875 he specialized in international law. Returning to Istanbul in 1875 he entered the Foreign Ministry. He was appointed as the Foreign Minister of the Ottoman Empire in 1912. His tenure ended with the outbreak of the Balkan War in 1913.

After Noubar Pasha, Gabriel Noradoungian headed the Armenian National Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. He spent the last few years of his life in Paris where he passed away in 1926.

Dr. Nazareth Daghavarian was a contemporary to Noradoungian and another Armenian social activist. He received his medical education from the famed Sorbonne University and Pasteur Institute. After which he returned to Istanbul and started working in the French St. Savoir hospital. The Turkish authorities arrested him on the allegations that he was involved in anti-state activities.  He was released by the mediation of the French Embassy. After sending his wife and children to Bulgaria, he managed to elude the authorities by disguising himself as a French Embassy employee and boarded a Greek ship to Marseille. From there he moved to Cairo with his family where he resumed his medical practice. In 1906 he and Boghos Noubar Pasha, along with several others, established the Armenian General Benevolent Union with Boghos Noubar Pasha acting the president and him as the secretary of the newly found organization.

Two years later, after the revolution of the Young Turks, trusting the new Turkish order, he returned to Istanbul with his family.  The rest is another tragic chapter in Armenian history...

In summing up this section of the article, I can without any hesitation conclude that the Bolis of the 19thcentury, with its unprecedented achievements in finance, education, literature popularizing the Western Armenian language, presents one of the most shining periods of our three millennia-old histories. 

Բնագիրը՝

Չելեպիներ, Խոճաներ, ԱՄԻՐԱՆԵՐ եւ ԷՖԷՆՏԻՆԵՐ - 3/3 -https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/02/33.html

Moneyed Armenians of yesteryears: Chalabis, Khojas (Part 1/2)

 Բնագիրը կցուած է։ Part 1/2: Chalabis and Khojas, is my abridged translation of  Dr. Antranig Chalabian's article in «Marmara» Daily on Monday, November 7, 2005. Vahe H. Apelian

1.    Chelebis

By the 17th century, not much was left from the old Armenian nobility; they were Amadounis, Arshagounis, Artzrounis, Broshians, Gamsaragans, Hassan-Jalalians, Mamikonians, Orpelians, Pakradounis, Rshdounis, Saharounis, Vahramians, Zakarians and other noble houses. During the 17th century new upper classes appeared among the Armenians; the Chalabis mostly in Constantinople and the Khojas in Old and New Julfas and their regions.

Even during the early days of the Ottoman Empire, in the 13thcentury, the Armenian feudal families saw that they were losing ground by the usurpation of their lands. They began trusting more in the mobility of monetary wealth. Over a period of time some of them, through the wealth they accumulated, were able to secure for themselves high positions within the Ottoman royalty. They were called the Chalabis.

In Constantinople the primary occupation of the Armenians who attained that honorific title was money exchange. The Chalabis, wrote Hagop S. Anasian “overwhelmingly were devoted to banking transactions, servicing the members of the Ottoman court”. The Chalabis at times were also involved in large-scale trade. However, even for those involved in trade, it was not their main occupation. “We will not be mistaken”, continues Anasian, “if we claim that the Armenian Chalabis of the 17th century became the predecessors of the Armenian Amiras in Constantinople in the coming centuries.”

The Armenian Chalabis, having deeply rooted in banking and money exchange, cultivated the mannerism of upper cast nobles and became fiercely conservative when it came to the social changes affecting the western Armenians.

Among the known Armenian Chalabis were the following: Maghakia and Iskendar Chalabis from Ameda or Dikgranagerd (the Armenian Diarbekir), Sanos Chalabi from Aleppo, Andon and Abro Chalabis from Bursa, Shahen Chalabi from Drabezon and Yeremia Chalabi Keumurdjian. The latter was born in Constantinople in 1637. He mastered Turkish, Greek, Latin and other European languages. He served as the secretary of two Patriarchs, Yeghiazar I (1651-1652) known as Yeghiazar of Aintab (ԵղիազարԱյնթապցի) and Mardiros II (1659-1660) known as Mardiros of Kefez (Մարտիրոս Բ Քեֆեցի). He was also the tutor of the wealthy Abro Chalabi’s children.

Yeremia Chalabi Keumurdjian authored historical works, poems, essays, and translations. Father Nerses Aginian, of the Mekhitarian Order, wrote extensively about him in 1930’s. In 1952, Hrant Der Antreasian translated into Turkish Yeremia Chalabi’s three volumes historical book about the history of Constantinople. The eminent Hagop Martayan wrote praising that he was a beacon of light in the prevalent darkness of his time.

The Chalabis exercised great influence especially in Bolis, the capital city that was the nerve center of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Because of their ties with the court and the influence they had there, they practically had the affairs of the Armenian Millet run at their discretion.

From the beginning of the 18th century and for the next 100 years the running of the Ottoman mint was the monopoly of the great Duzian family who were Chalabis themselves. The Duzian Chalabis minted the Empire’s gold and silver monies. The members of the family were also the jewelers of the court.  They were immensely wealthy.

During the 19th century Sarkis Chalabi Duz was one of the most noted member of the family. During the reign of Sultan Mahmud the Second, 1808-1839, Haled Effendi, a high placed official in the court envied the trust the Sultan had towards the members of the Christian Duzian family. With an Armenian accomplice who was an employee and a confidant of the Duzian family, Haled Effendi started spreading unfounded rumors that the Duzian family members plan to flee the country taking with them royal treasury or using their immense wealth and ties they intend to conspire with the Janissaries to have them rise against the Sultan himself. These rumors had their intended effects.

On the night of October 16, 1819, Sultan Mahmud had the Duzian palace surrounded and had all the members of the Duzian family apprehended. Two brothers were beheaded in front of the royal court and the other two brothers were hanged publicly. All that the Duzian family owned was confiscated and put at the disposal of the Sultan.

After the demise of the family the Armenian accomplice of this treason was elevated to high position within the court. Who was he who helped orchestrate the destruction of the Duzian dynasty? “It's better that his name be lost forever in the dark pages of history”, says the Mekhitarist Father Sahag Der Movsesian.

2. Khojas

On June 6, 1064, Alp Arslan ransacked Ani, the capital city of the Pakradouni dynasty. Most of the survivors fled to Crimea, Poland and elsewhere.

Some of the survivors of the devastation preferred to flee southbound and following the Akhourian River reached the southern end of Nakhijevan along the border of Persia, on the northern bank of the Arax River. That desolate area, cut off from the rest of the world, offered them a safe haven. The town they formed there came to be called Jugha.

The new inhabitants of Jugha were mostly artisans and traders. There was not enough fertile soil among the large boulders to sustain an economy based on agriculture.  To make a living they became peddlers buying good from the shops in Nachijevan and transporting them on the back of their donkeys, roaming from village to another to sell the goods. Over the years they expanded their trade forming caravan routes transporting goods to the Caucasus and by the 16thcentury the enterprising Khojas of Jugha were trading in the far east in India and beyond, and in the west they had established trading houses in Venice and Italy and as far north as in Holland.

Khoja is a Persian word and it means master or lord. It is bestowed upon persons of wealth. In Persia large land holders and traders carried the title. The same title was also used in Turkey.

Five hundred and forty years after the ransack of Ani, in 1604, when the inhabitants of Jugha welcomed the Persian Shah Abbas the Great, the thriving town had already around 2000 households and seven splendid churches. The Khojas of Jugha, headed by Khoja Khachig, bribed the local warlords to secure their trading. These warlords would fill their pockets and would let the Khojas continue on with their trades.

After their forced deportation by Shah Abbas into the interior of Persia, in the southern part of Isfahan, they formed a new settlement calling it New Jugha. By forcing the relocation of the inhabitants of Jugha to the interior of Iran, Shah Abbas wanted to expand Iran’s trade to the far reaches of the world. The Persians produced silk and other goods but they did not have the means and the connections to have their products sold in foreign markets.

The New Jugha prospered incredibly fast thanks also to monetary assistance by Shah Abbas. It soon overshadowed the fame the old Jugha had mustered after centuries of experience in trade. The Khojas of New Jugha, headed by Khoja Nazar, with the ships they owned, not only sailed to Bombay and Madras in India, but also to Java and the Philippine Islands in the East, and in the West they established trading centers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Poland and Russia as well. 

The Khojas of New Jugha took their sons to Holland for education. Some of them studied art and painted the churches of New Jugha. Over the years the Armenian community in Amsterdam swelled and prospered. It was there that the first Armenian bible was printed in 1666.

The French merchant and traveler Jean-Bapstise Tavernier noted: “These people (khojas) in a short span of time became so proficient that they initiated trade reaching as far as Tonkin, Java and Philippines.” Continuing his observations of the Armenian merchants, Tavernier wrote that the Armenians “have a knack for trade because they economize and are abstinent. I do not know if that is a virtue or a vice. When they, the Armenian khojas, are engaged in long lasting travels they carry with them dry food. Whenever they travel through mountainous region and come across a cheap goat or sheep, they purchase it. They also carry hooks with them to fish whenever they travel along riverbanks. When they reach a town they rent an empty room and five or six of them sleep in the same room, each of them carrying with them their own bedding and kitchen utensils.”

In 1667 the Khojas of New Jugha secured from Tsar Alexey Mikhalovitc the monopoly of importing silk without custom duties for selling in Russia. Until the end of the 17thcentury the Armenian merchants had permission to trade in Russia from Astrakhan in the south to far north.

Whenever the Khojas went to Moscow they would lavish gifts on the Tsar. On one occasion Khoja Nazar gifted Tsar Alexey a diamond laden crown that is kept to this day in the military history museum of Kremlin. The Armenian Khojas competed with English and European companies. The Armenian trade was family based. They did not have companies. Khoja Shahamir Shahamirian, for example, had settled from Nor Jugha into the Indian city Madras. From there he had trading centers in Persia, Mesopotamia and in European cities. Shah Abbas was so pleased with the enterprising Armenians that he would visit an Armenian church during Easter and would be hosted by the Khojas.

It is said that the Khojas of New Jugha had 24 churches erected of which 12 stand to this day. Khoja Khachig, who had hosted Shah Abbas in 1604 in the old Jugha, had financed the construction of one of the churches.

The prosperity of the New Jugha hardly lasted a century.  By the end of the 17th century the policies of the Persian shahs and Ayatollahs towards their Christian Armenian subjects changed altogether giving way to persecution and high taxes. A great number of Armenians emigrated to Bombay, Madras, Calcutta in India where they thrived much like they had in the Old and New Jugha. Others emigrated to Moscow, St. Petersburg where they inducted the local merchants into the silk trade.

In 1740 one of the former princes of New Jugha, Khoja Aghazar Lazarian, sent his son to Moscow. Shortly after, the rest of the family joined and settled in Moscow along with their other three sons. They established a silk factory.  In 1815 one of Aghazar’s sons established the Lazarian High School that later became Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages.  The building of the former institute nowadays houses the Embassy of Armenia in Moscow.

The Armenians from Jugha in India traded in silk, gold and diamond and became enormously wealthy. At the beginning not only they did not have any conflict with the mighty East India Company, but collaborated with its principals. Later on as the Armenian Khojas prospered enormously, a conflict started between them. The East India Company had received a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth in 1600, therefore it had the backing of the British Empire. With the support of the British Empire it defeated its rivals, including the Armenian Khojas, monopolizing trade to and from India.

Armenian Church in Madras,India

In order to find new trading grounds the Armenian Khojas spread to Dekka, Bangladesh; Rangoon, Burma; Singapore, Malaysia; Jakarta, Indonesia; Chinghai, China and to Harbin, Manchuria where they prospered, had beautiful churches constructed and faded away.

Presently not a trace has remained of the Armenian Khojas in the Asia Minor. Other than the Armenian cemetery that contains some ten thousand funerary monuments, not much is left of the Old Jugha, the birthplace of the Khojas. The New Jugha is still populated by few thousands of Armenians.

The Far East and the Pacific Ocean Armenian communities have all disappeared leaving behind churches that serve more as attractions to the interested tourists rather than houses of worship for the Armenians that do not exist there anymore. The rest of the Armenians from Yerevan to Los Angeles continue to growl repeating the poet that “we are, we will be and we will multiply.”

Multiply? Poor Baruyr Sevag. Had he been alive he would have witnessed that indeed the number of the Armenians in the Diaspora is increasing, certainly temporarily, due to massive exodus of the mostly able-bodied conscript age young men and women from his native land, Armenia. If Armenia continues to bleed this way, more likely than not it will house an Armenian minority living in the shadows of the Mount Ararat.

Armenian Church in Bangladesh

Բնագիրները՝

ՉԵԼԵՊԻՆԵՐ, (Խոճաներ, Ամիրաներ եւ Էֆէնտիներ) - 1/3 -

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/02/1.html 

ԽՈՃԱՆԵՐ, (Չելեպիներ, Ամիրաներ եւ Էֆէնտիներ) - 2/3 -

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/02/2.html

 

ԽՈՃԱՆԵՐ, (Չելեպիներ, Ամիրաներ եւ Էֆէնտիներ) - 2/3 -

Տօքթ. Անդրանիկ Չելեպեան (Պատմագետ, Անդրանիկագետ)  

Summarized English translation is attached. Մօրս արխիւներուն մէջ հանդիպեցայ իր եղբօրը՝ Տօքթ. Անդրանիկ Չելեպեանին յօդուածը որ լոյս տեսած էր Պոլսոյն ՄԱՐՄԱՐԱ օրաթերթին մէջ, 7 Նոյեմբեր 2006-ին, երկուշաբթի։ Յօդուածին վերնագիրն է՝ «17-19րդ դարերու Հայ քաղքենիութեան ներկայացուցիչներ՝ Չելեպիներ, Խոճաներ, Ամիրաներ, եւ Էֆէնտիներ»։ Այդ յօդուածը արտադրեցի պլակիս պատմութեան համար։ Սղագրուած Անգլերէն թարգմանութիւնս կցած եմ։ Վահէ Յ Աբէլեան

 

Խոճաներ

Note: 

Moneyed Armenians: Chalabis, Khojas, Amiras and Effendis (Part 1 of 2) https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/search?q=khojas

ՉԵԼԵՊԻՆԵՐ, (Խոճաներ, Ամիրաներ եւ Էֆէնտիներ) - 1/3 -

Տօքթ. Անդրանիկ Չելեպեան (Պատմագետ, Անդրանիկագետ) 

Summarized English translation is attached. Մօրս արխիւներուն մէջ հանդիպեցայ իր եղբօրը՝ Տօքթ. Անդրանիկ Չելեպեանին յօդուածը որ լոյս տեսած էր Պոլսոյն ՄԱՐՄԱՐԱ օրաթերթին մէջ, 7 Նոյեմբեր 2006-ին, երկուշաբթի։ Յօդուածին վերնագիրն է՝ «17-19րդ դարերու Հայ քաղքենիութեան ներկայացուցիչներ՝ Չելեպիներ, Խոճաներ, Ամիրաներ, եւ Էֆէնտիներ»։ Այդ յօդուածը արտադրեցի պլակիս պատմութեան համար։ Սղագրուած Անգլերէն թարգմանութիւնս կցած եմ։ Վահէ Յ Աբէլեան

ա.   Չելեպիներ

Note: 

Moneyed Armenians: Chalabis, Khojas, Amiras and Effendis (Part 1 of 2) https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/search?q=khojas

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

 

Moneyed Armenians: Amiras and Effendis (2/2)

Բնագիրը կցուած է։ Part 2/2: Amira’s and effendis, is my abridged translation of  Dr. Antranig Chalabian's article in «Marmara» Daily on Monday, November 7, 2005. Vahe H. Apelian

3. Amiras

An Amira

Before I present the Armenian Amiras and then the Effendis it's important that I digress from the subject matter and present a glimpse of Bolis, the Armenian Constantinople of the era. At the beginning of the 1800s, Bolis had 850,000 inhabitants of whom 374,000 were Muslims; 152,000 Creeks; 150,000 Armenians and 44,000 Jews. The remaining 80,000 were Europeans, Copts, Assyrians, and others.

In 1850's Bolis had become the financial, the political and the cultural center of the Western Armenians. The community was continuing to swell in numbers at the expense of the Armenian populated cities in Eastern Turkey. Everyone wanted to settle in Bolis. It should be noted, however, that a good segment of the Armenians who came to Bolis were migrant workers who would work, at times for years, to save money and return to their villages and homes.

The number of Armenians in Bolis between 1860-1880, had peaked to an all-time high estimated to be around 275,000. Bolis was unsurpassed among the Armenians worldwide, including Armenia. In 1859 there were 42 Armenian schools in Bolis with a total enrollment of 5531 students and 197 teachers. In 1871 the numbers were swelled to 48 schools with an enrollment of around 6000 students. The cultural and scholastic revival among the Armenians in Bolis may be better appreciated in stating that the famed American University of Beirut was established later, in 1886, and until 1945 had only 500 students; while in Yerevan the Eastern Armenians numbered 13,000 and were a minority overwhelmed by the presence of 17,000 Tatars. Most of the Eastern Armenians in the region lived in Tiflis and Baku.

The unprecedented cultural revival among the Armenians in Turkey was cut short from 1876 and onwards for reasons we all know too well.

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.

4. Effendis

Let me end this article with a few words about the Armenian Effendis who succeeded the Amrias of Bolis. According to Wikipedia "Effendi is a title of nobility meaning a lord or master. It is a title of respect or courtesy, equivalent to the English Sir, which was used in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey)."

In 1856 Sultan Adul Majid established banking in the Empire that came to be known as the Ottoman Bank. With this historic turn of events, the Sultan, the courtiers, the governors of the provinces and others started borrowing their monies from the Ottoman Bank instead of from the Amiras. With the establishment of the Ottoman Bank, the fortunes of the Amiras started dwindling and their influence eroding in the capital city. Along with the banking system came the various ministries that regulated finance, military, internal and external affairs. This gave rise to a cadre of government officials and to traders who were called Effendis. Some would also acquire considerable wealth and secure influential positions for themselves.

The Armenian traders, following the footsteps of the Khojas, would import scarves, spices, jewelry from India; clothing from Iran and muslin from Damascus. Other Armenian traders would import goods from England, France, Germany, Italy, and Venice. By 1861 the number of the Armenian traders in Manchester, England had reached 30. Within the next two years, the number of Armenian traders will increase further with the arrival of new Armenian traders from Istanbul, Izmir, Kayseri.

By the middle of the 19th century, there were 434 Armenian Effendis in Istanbul who were traders or high placed government officials. Among such officials is Gabriel Effendi Noradoungian. He was born in 1852. After attending local Armenian and French schools he went to France where from 1870-1875 he specialized in international law. Returning to Istanbul in 1875 he entered the Foreign Ministry. He was appointed as the Foreign Minister of the Ottoman Empire in 1912. His tenure ended with the outbreak of the Balkan War in 1913.

After Noubar Pasha, Gabriel Noradoungian headed the Armenian National Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. He spent the last few years of his life in Paris where he passed away in 1926.

Dr. Nazareth Daghavarian was a contemporary to Noradoungian and another Armenian social activist. He received his medical education from the famed Sorbonne University and Pasteur Institute. After which he returned to Istanbul and started working in the French St. Savoir hospital. The Turkish authorities arrested him on the allegations that he was involved in anti-state activities.  He was released by the mediation of the French Embassy. After sending his wife and children to Bulgaria, he managed to elude the authorities by disguising himself as a French Embassy employee and boarded a Greek ship to Marseille. From there he moved to Cairo with his family where he resumed his medical practice. In 1906 he and Boghos Noubar Pasha, along with several others, established the Armenian General Benevolent Union with Boghos Noubar Pasha acting the president and him as the secretary of the newly found organization.

Two years later, after the revolution of the Young Turks, trusting the new Turkish order, he returned to Istanbul with his family.  The rest is another tragic chapter in Armenian history...

In summing up this section of the article, I can without any hesitation conclude that the Bolis of the 19thcentury, with its unprecedented achievements in finance, education, literature popularizing the Western Armenian language, presents one of the most shining periods of our three millennia-old histories. 

Բնագիրը՝

Չելեպիներ, Խոճաներ, ԱՄԻՐԱՆԵՐ եւ ԷՖԷՆՏԻՆԵՐ - 3/3 -https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/02/33.html