ABSTRACT
When Khrimian became patriarch of the Armenians of Turkey in 1869, in his first visit to Grand Vizier Ali Pasa he not only detailed the sufferings of the Armenian population of the provinces, but underscored the fact that compared to the Muslims the Armenians were relatively lucky. Disillusioned and alienated, the patriarch resigned in less than four years, however, as two successive reports had failed to bring about any relief for the Armenians. The circumstances of this abortive effort merit a brief review. The voluminous debates and the associated literature relative to the enacted Ottoman reforms have not resolved the serious doubts surrounding the nature and intent of these reforms. Without exaggeration, one may contend that the most central, the most quintessential challenge in matters of reform was the urgency, and the European pressures attached to it, of placing the non-Muslim subjects on an overall equal footing with the dominant Muslims.
