The millet system furnished, degree of religious, cultural, and ethnic continuity within these communities, while on the other it permitted their incorporation into the Ottoman administrative, economic and political system. An ethnic-religious group preserved its culture and religion while being subject to continuous 'Ottomanization' in other spheres of life."
Non-Muslim minority groups, like the Armenians, were kept distinct from mainstream society, while at the same time performing functions that contributed to the well-being of the Ottoman society. The effect was one in which the Armenians, and others, became components in a kind of organic machine, each becoming associated with a specialized function within the Empire. To a considerable extent, they controlled their own affairs, and maintained their separate customs and legal and religious traditions.
The leadership of the community at the grass-roots level, that is, in the villages and in the town quarters ("mahalle"), consisted of the representative of the religion, the priest, and the actual administrative head of the community itself, usually a prominent layman living there.... The communal leaders at the town level formed the second layer of leadership and enjoyed greater authority and influence, not only because of their connection with the higher Ottoman authorities and their own ecclesiastical heads, but also because of their wealth and their responsibility in collecting taxes and supervising the distribution of state lands to cultivators. They represented the community in its day-to-day dealings with the Ottoman administration and were responsible for order, security, collection of taxes, etc., in the community.
The community-based organization of the millet meant, as well, that no two millets were organized in exactly the same way. Rules and customs differed from group to group, and the millets existed much as miniature nations within the larger Ottoman polity. Identification with the individual millet was so strong that the millet's origin and later historical development were seen in almost cosmologic terms. After his conquest of Constantinople, and his establishment of that city as the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet II appointed a patriarch for the Armenian Church. The existence of the Catholicos in Echmiadzin notwithstanding, the new Patriarch was given authority over Armenians throughout the Ottoman realms - Patriarchate and Sultanate were joined from the beginning.
Members of the Armenian millet spoke a common language, Armenian, followed a common religion, and considered themselves to belong to a single, coherent ethnic group. They were, in effect, members of one great big Armenian family, all sharing a common ancestry and history.
Wherever they lived in the Empire, they shared common interests, and possessed a sense of solidarity that set them apart from members of other millets, or from the majority Muslim sections of the population. However, as far as the sultans were concerned, all Armenians were not created equal. The Armenian millet displayed a feature that set it apart from the other Christian millet. Whereas both Greek and Armenian clergy were reckoned a separate class from the common run of the population, within the Armenian millet there existed, as well, a distinct class of secular community leaders - the amira.
These amiras played a major role in the economy and government of the Ottoman Empire. Especially significant was the role of sarraf - a banker or moneylender whose primary responsibility involved the Ottoman iltizam system of taxation.
Sarrafs were overwhelmingly Armenians of the amira class.
Iltizam was essentially a form of tax farming in which,
The right to collect taxes from imperial or state-owned lands... was sold at auction to the highest bidder. The successful bidder had to have the guarantee of an Armenian sarraf, for the sum that was bid had to be deposited in the state treasury, either immediately as a lump sum or in installments.... The sarraf, as banker, would provide the [Ottoman officials]... with the necessary capital and the guarantee for payment. In addition to the interest on the money loaned, the sarraf was entitled to a commission or agency on the sale of commodities given in lieu of cash by taxpaying villagers, thus acting both as a banker and merchant.
The system was a recipe for stirring up public animosity against the Armenian population. The vast majority population of Turkish peasants would view the Armenians as grasping tyrants, stealing their hard-earned pittances. Armenians would be viewed as Christian parasites in a Muslim empire; the situation further exacerbated that most of those Armenian who lived outside of the Armenian homeland indeed lived in the Muslim territories of the Ottomans.
Worse still for the Armenian people, the Empire was only...
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