ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses problems in the history and historiography of relations between Kurds and Armenians. For many centuries Kurds and Armenians have shared a territory both consider part of their fatherland. During the last five centuries they were both subjects of the Ottoman Empire, which shaped the larger outline of their histories. It is important to point out that most liberal and leftist historians too seem to appreciate the opportunity to analyze a Turkish society unburdened of its heterogeneity. Yet rigid and simplistic "Marxist" formulas on economic stratification are difficult to apply to the mosaic of the Middle East. Armenian society gradually looked at Western culture to provide the terminology to describe its problems, to define the principles why the status quo was unacceptable; it was also in the West that Armenians sought their most congenial political alliances. The nature of Armenian society and its economic concerns—agricultural, local, and international trade—required security, continuity, and protection.
