ABSTRACT
In nineteenth century political diplomacy, the phrase "Armenian Question" referred to a complex set of issues involving the efforts of the European powers to deal with the treatment of Christian Armenians in Turkey while at the same time preserving the stability of the Ottoman state and its status as a quasi-ally of Britain and France. In the aftermath of the 1915 disaster, the exiled Armenians had more to contend with than the psychological trauma of losing their homes and families plus the need to adapt to the strange new lands in which they had taken refuge. The political situation had been deadly for Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. In the nineteenth century, when the empire was disintegrating and the Greeks and other Europeans were breaking away from it, the Armenians formed their own political parties, each one having an agenda of pressing the Ottoman government to enact reforms of some kind that would relieve Armenians' status as an oppressed people.
