Armenian national awakening

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Armenian national awakening" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Armenian Nation

"Hayk", the legendary founder of the Armenian nation, standing next to the tomb of Bel, with Hayk's arrow still in Bel's chest. The map depicts the Lake Van region and Mount Ararat, with Noah's ark.

The Armenian national awakening resembles that of other non-Turkish ethnic groups during the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman statesmen tried to negate Armenian nationalism during the Tanzimat era, first with the Ottomanism movement and then with transforming the state into a constitutional monarchy during the First Constitutional Era. However, the reorganization of the millets, or courts of law for confessional communities, further entrenched the problem of dualism in the Ottoman state.

During the Armenian national awakening, Sultan Abdul Aziz sanctioned the promulgation of a basic law for the Gregorian Armenian Millet, protecting Armenian rights and privileges. This corresponded with the opening of an Armenian National Assembly, which took over responsibility of temporal matters from the Armenian Patriarchate. As Armenian Ottomans had their own courts of law, collected their own taxes, and their own prisons, hospitals, and schools, some observers noted the community resembled a state within a state. Over the course of Ottoman Armenia, the Armenian elite grew more favorable for republicanism than allegiance to the Ottoman Dynasty, with some being interested in an autonomous region for themselves. During the Second Constitutional Era, parties like the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchak), Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (Ramgavar Party or Armenakan), and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnak) were the main representatives of Armenian interests in the Ottoman government, while sometimes also using violence to defend their constituents. After World War I and the Armenian genocide, the First Armenian Republic declared independence from the Ottoman Empire.