ABSTRACT
The Armenians are an Indo-European people emerging into history in the sixth century BCE, when they occupied territory in the Lake Van area of present-day eastern Turkey. The roots of the present-day Armenian question are to be looked for in more recent times. Two things merit special consideration. The first is the so-called 'capitulations', i.e. the right of European powers to exert jurisdiction over their citizens in the Ottoman Empire. The second factor is the nationalism that led to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The foundation of the Turkish view is that there did not exist in the Ottoman Empire so many Armenians as the number of victims claimed. It started in Serbia and Greece and spread during the 19th century over the Balkans, where nationalism, religion and the ambitions of the great powers collaborated to deprive the Sultan-Caliph of one territory after the other.
