Centuries of Foreign Rule and the Survival of Armenian Political Aspirations

13. Armenia Between Ottoman and Persian Empires

From the late medieval period onward, much of historic Armenia became divided among larger regional powers.

The Ottoman and Safavid empires emerged as the dominant rivals controlling Armenian territories during the early modern era.

The Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 helped stabilize their frontier, leaving most western Armenian territories under Ottoman rule and much of eastern Armenia under Persian control.

Armenian communities experienced different legal, economic, and religious conditions depending on their location.

Under Ottoman rule, Armenians formed an important Christian population with ecclesiastical, commercial, and communal institutions.

Under Persian rule, Armenian communities also maintained religious and economic networks, although political conditions varied considerably.

Neither empire established a uniform system across all Armenian territories, and local experiences differed according to time, region, class, and political circumstances.

14. The Armenian Church as a National Institution

The Armenian Apostolic Church played a central role in preserving Armenian identity during the absence of independent statehood.

Its monasteries and schools transmitted language, religious practices, historical memory, and literary traditions.

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin became especially important as a religious center.

Armenian ecclesiastical institutions also connected communities separated by imperial borders.

The Armenian patriarchates of Constantinople and Jerusalem, along with other church structures, exercised considerable influence over communal life.

Church leadership did not always support the same political objectives as revolutionary or nationalist movements, but ecclesiastical institutions provided continuity during periods when secular Armenian state institutions were absent.

15. Armenian Merchant Networks and Cultural Exchange

Armenian merchants developed extensive commercial networks linking the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Russia, India, the Mediterranean, and parts of Europe.

The Armenian community of New Julfa, established near Isfahan after Shah Abbas I's forced deportations of Armenians from the Ararat region in the early seventeenth century, became particularly important in international commerce.

Armenian merchants contributed to economic exchange, printing, education, and cultural transmission.

Diaspora communities also helped introduce new political ideas into Armenian intellectual life.

Exposure to European Enlightenment thought, constitutionalism, and modern nationalism gradually influenced Armenian reform movements.

16. Early Armenian Liberation Projects

Armenian aspirations for political restoration existed well before the nineteenth century.

In the late seventeenth century, Israel Ori pursued diplomatic initiatives seeking European and Russian assistance for Armenian liberation.

During the eighteenth century, Armenian leaders such as David Bek and Mkhitar Sparapet organized resistance in Syunik amid the collapse of Safavid authority and regional warfare.

These movements did not produce a lasting independent Armenian state.

However, they demonstrated the persistence of Armenian political ambitions and helped sustain traditions of armed resistance and diplomacy.