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Establishing of Ottoman Empire |
The Ottoman Turks were one of the tribes of the Turanian race; their main
homeland was central Asia, from the Ural mountains to the plain of Turkistan
of China. Kyrgyzes, Turkmens, Mongols, Seljuk Turks, Tajiks,Tartars, ...
could be named as other tribes of the Turanian race. They were nomad and
tent-dweller tribes that always had been wandering from place to place and
subsisting of |
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robbing and plundering the villagers and
non-wanderers. Because of successive attacks of Mongols, drought and some
other reasons, they had to leave their homeland, which was the Turkistan of
China. During the domination of the Seljuk Turks in the 13th century, they
wandered to Asia Minor and Anatolia (present day Turkey) and in a very short
period of time, created a huge empire. It was spread on one side from Greece
and all the Christian Balkan countries to the gates of Vienna in Europe, and
on the eastern side to Iran and Armenia. In the south it dominated all the
Arabian countries, such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Palestine, and
Saudi Arabia; also in northern Africa, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia.After the conquest of Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, by Sultan Muhamed II in 1453, the dream Byzantine empire was annihilated. Then for
about 350 years, up to the end of the 18th century, the Ottomans made Europe
their invasion land and during this time, the realm of the empire was not
tampered with.
After that, the Ottoman, in the fight against Safavid Iran, occupied all of
Armenia and even some
parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan of Iran; the king of Iran
-Shah Abass- tried to retrieve Armenia, and during 20 years of war, Iranians
managed to capture the eastern parts of Armenia and some important regions
such as Yerevan, Nakhichevan and Karabakh. So Armenia divided into two
parts: Eastern Armenia under rule of Iran and Western Armenia under rule of
Ottoman Turkey. Although later on, in the course of wars between Iran and
Russia, by two treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay in 1828, most parts of
Eastern Armenia including Nakhichevan and Karabakh were committed to Russia.
But our discussion is about Western Armenia which in present days is not
seen in geographical maps and is counted a part of modern Turkey.
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