Message on Forthcoming Genocide Awareness Month Project: “Ottoman Multiculturalism and the Armenian Genocide”

Starting April 1, 2026, the Zoryan Institute will release weekly press releases providing an overview of the lives of non-Muslim minority communities in Ottoman Turkey, from the 18th century through April 1915. These periodic releases aim to offer historical context and deepen understanding of the experiences of the 4.5 million non-Muslims who once lived in Anatolia, now modern-day Türkiye.

This release serves as the introductory piece of “Ottoman Multiculturalism Through the Armenian Experience” to reflect the experiences of various ethnic and religious groups in Anatolia. Each press release will present historical examples, documents, and images illustrating patterns of shared daily life, shared economic life, cooperation, cultural exchange, institutional development, governing orders, stability, certain constraints of minorities, and the eventual rupture within the Ottoman system that killed and forcibly displaced 4.5 million Christians from Anatolia. Today, the non-Muslim community currently residing in Türkiye consists roughly of a mere 100,000.

Stay tuned for our first official installation in the series detailing the project’s scope as a case for understanding the strength and institutional fragility of the Ottoman Empire.