ABSTRACT
There is yet one last chapter of events in the history of independent Armenia which took place in Cilicia, demonstrating the persistent nature and the adaptable character of its people. In spite of much blood-letting and distress after the depredations of the Orthodox Byzantine Greeks (who abhorred the heretical Armenians) and the Mohammedan Turks, many Armenians followed some of their princely leaders to the deep valleys of the Taurus and the narrow coastal plain of Cilicia, where they carved out for themselves a number of Armenian principalities, on Byzantine territory. A number of Armenian princes had been obliged by Byzantium to exchange their extensive native lands in the east for estates in the west, within the Byzantine empire in Anatolia even before the onslaught of the Seljuk Turks. Sir Steven Runciman’ succinctly explains the political positions of the main Armenian contenders for territories in Cilicia:
Between the Turks of Anatolia and the Frankish states of Northern Syria, was a group of Armenian principalities. (Many of which were established long before the appearance of the First Crusaders.) There was Oshin, who controlled the central Taurus mountains, and to the east of him the prince of the house of Roupen (Ruben). There was Kogh Vasil (the Robber Baron Vasil) in the Anti-Taurus, Thatoul at Marash and Gabriel at Melitene. Thatoul and Gabriel belonged to the Orthodox Church and were therefore inclined to co-operate with Byzantium. They and Oshin based their juridical position on titles conferred on them by the Emperor. But the Roupenians (Rubenids), who alone of the Armenians succeeded in founding an enduring state, were traditionally hostile both to Byzantium and the Orthodox Church. 1
