From Riches to Racism: The Enduring Legacy of Armenian Merchants

Raised in France and the United Kingdom, the Anglo-Armenian writer Michael J. Arlen felt alienated from his Armenian heritage. His only point of reference to that heritage came from occasional comments from his father. In the 1970s, persuaded by close friends to visit Soviet Armenia, Arlen began reading about the history of Armenia and the Middle East. He followed the traditional trajectory of Armenian history from Urartu to the Artaxiad and Bagratid dynasties, to Cilicia. But the tales of kings, warriors and battles soon gave way to far less dramatic—and far less traditionally “European”—stories detailing the rise of the Armenian merchant class.

During a conversation with his guide Sarkis, an Armenian repatriate from Egypt, Arlen asked why there were not stronger ties between Armenia and Europe. Sarkis responded that: “There should have been a kinship, but there was not. For one thing Armenia was so far away. For another…we were the rug merchants, the traders…I remember that when I was a boy in Cairo, they used to tease me about selling rugs….It is something we Armenians have to get accustomed to, do we not?”[1] Something about Sarkis’s story bothered Arlen. Despite reassuring his wife that he was never called a “rug merchant” in his youth, Arlen recalls bitterly: “A great rush of memories overwhelmed me: small anecdotes from the past…many of them so petty I was ashamed to recall them…just before we embarked on this voyage I remembered an old friend of mine, wishing us well, [saying], with a laugh, ‘Now, don’t get taken by any of those wily Armenians!’”[2] Arlen realized that while he was afforded the “values of the Europeans,” many of those same Europeans still “despised the Armenians” for their mercantile skill.[3]

Indeed, the stereotype of the Armenian merchant, with its negative implications, was already deeply ingrained by the 1970s. European travel writers between the 16th and 20th centuries almost exclusively portrayed Armenians as merchants—obviously wealthy, but inherently shrewd, greedy, and dishonest.[4] Understanding the origins of these stereotypes and how they have been used against Armenians in the past can help inform and counteract current perceptions of Armenians, both in the Republic and in the Diaspora; an often-overlooked aspect of contemporary analyses of Turkey and the South Caucasus.

One of the first references to Armenian merchants in European literature can be found in Marco Polo’s 13th century writings.[5] Polo described Armenians in the Near East as a degraded yet wealthy minority, echoing the contemporary European antisemitic stereotypes of Jews as financially savvy and deceptive.

Polo’s narrative begins at the Cilician Armenian port of Ayas (now Yumurtalık, Turkey). He describes Cilician Armenia as a once flourishing region with noble people but who have since been reduced to “poor creatures … good at naught, unless it be at boozing.”[6] Nevertheless, Polo acknowledges the Armenians’ trade success in Ayas, which naturally appealed to him as a Venetian merchant seeking oriental wealth. When Polo traveled north into “Turcomania” (Central Anatolia) he categorized its inhabitants into three groups: Turcomans, Armenians and Greeks. The Turcomans, a term encompassing both Seljuk Turks and ethnic Turkmen, lived a pastoral life between the mountains and plains. The Armenians and Greeks, on the other hand, “live mix[ed] with the former in the towns and villages, occupying themselves with trade and handicrafts. They weave the finest and handsomest carpets in the world, and also a great quantity of fine and rich silks of cramoisy and other colors, and plenty of other stuff.”[7]

Over the next two centuries, Armenians found themselves dispersed across the Near East, caught between the warring Ottoman and Persian empires, often unwillingly. As Europe entered its Early Modern age, it sought to expand its influence and profits to the east.[8] English traders and observers in the Ottoman and Persian Empires recorded their observations, which contained a noxious mix of Islamophobia, antisemitism and Armenophobia. Historian Daniel Goffman has detailed how the English considered the various peoples of the Near East, including Armenians as “abstractions,” explaining that “[t]he Englishman was forced into professional reliance upon an utterly unfamiliar sort of person, one whom English society had marked as naturally mendacious and even demonic.”[9] For example, in a report to the British East India Company in 1633 from Isfahan, Persia, three English traders wrote back to London: “Whereas you would have us deal with the Armenians, knew your worships the baseness of the nation in all degrees…we…vow never to have to do with them again, so unfaithful in word and deed….”[10] But potential profits were far too great to risk losing, as a 1690 letter from the British East India Company later proclaimed: “The Armenian contract is of so great advantage to the nation and this Company, that we would have you indulge them by all means whatsoever.”[11]

Despite the overall decline of Ottoman and Persian power from the 17th to 19th centuries, the Armenian merchant class continued to flourish. Armenian merchant communities were widespread,[12] from Singapore to Calcutta to Manchester.[13]

During the Ottoman Tanzimat period, as urbanization and industrialization began to develop, Armenians in the major western cities of Anatolia quickly reaped the benefits of social and technological changes.[14] However, this was not the case in the eastern Ottoman provinces, where Armenians were primarily peasants and less affluent tradesmen. In her latest book, Talin Suciyan describes how the Ottoman authorities in Istanbul, with the help of local Kurdish tribal lords, began to divide Armenian-owned land in the east. This turned most of the Armenian population into sharecroppers and serfs, leaving them with almost no legal rights and subject to daily harassment by Ottoman authorities.[15]

Despite these struggles, stereotypes of Armenians as shrewd merchants persisted. In 1869, American writer Mark Twain commented on the perceived lack of scruples among eastern peoples, writing that “[t]here is no gainsaying that Greek, Turkish and Armenian morals consist only in attending church regularly on the appointed Sabbaths, and in breaking the ten commandments all the balance of the week. It comes natural to them to lie and cheat in the first place….”[16]

In the 19th century, the Russian Empire expanded southwards into regions populated with Armenians. This development concerned England, France, and the Ottoman Empire. Specifically, England feared Russian expansion into Persia and India, which would threaten their valuable imperial financial assets.[17] To counter this, the British Empire, under Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, built a strong relationship with the Ottoman Empire.[18] This sudden interest in the “Eastern Question” in England prompted a cottage industry of oriental travel literature.[19] Authors began portraying Armenian mercantilism as a direct threat to the well-being of Ottoman Empire and its newly-minted British ally.[20] Sometimes, these writers completely ignored stereotypes of Armenian mercantilism altogether, replacing it with casual, racist vitriol.[21] For example, a young Mark Sykes, who would later become known for drafting the infamous Sykes-Picot treaty, which established the modern borders of Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, complained during a visit to the Ottoman Empire in 1900: “I feel such an intense prejudice against Armenians; that I am certain that anything I might say would only be biased and therefore not worth reading; and I think anyone who has had dealings of any kind with this abominable race would probably be in the same position.”[22]

During the early 20th century, as the Armenian Genocide unfolded, Talaat Pasha, one of the chief perpetrators, stated unequivocally to American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau Sr. that the Genocide had to occur because the Armenians had “enriched themselves at the expense of Turks” and that the Genocide was undertaken, in part, as a means of “destroying business competition” between Turks and Armenians.[23] Ambassador Morgenthau, putting aside “the human considerations” of the Genocide, questioned the economic consequences of the Genocide on the Ottoman Empire. But Talaat replied that the Ottoman Empire “care[ed] nothing about the commercial loss” resulting from the Genocide.[24]

Despite popular outrage about the Genocide, European newspapers, intellectuals, and “experts” from both Allied and Central powers continued to propagate the narrative of the Armenian merchant as a national threat out of political allegiance to the Ottoman Empire.[25] One German newspaper claimed, “[t]he Armenian is known in the Orient[] as a cunning exploiter and a leech on the Ottoman population…it is obvious that [] the Armenians are the least worthy of the compassion and emotional uproar of the civilized world. This is true even in peacetime….”[26] English Orientalist Marmaduke Pickethall further vilified Armenians in The New Age Journal, a “progressive” publication, referring to them as “[a] race of traitors, spies, blacklegs, perjurers, lick-spittles, liars, utterly devoid of shame or honor.”[27]  In response to Pickethall’s vitriol, Michael Arlen Sr. (the father of Michael J. Arlen) attempted a dignified rebuttal writing under his birth name, Dikran Koumoujian: “Even in a cesspool, a flower sometimes rises to the surface…the Armenian is no mean intelligence, and that even in international finance, to which he had been debased by the money-grubbing facilities of England and America, he has…A degree of eminence in the abyss.’’[28]

By 1923, the Ottoman Empire and the successor Turkish Republic had seized millions of dollars’ worth of Armenian property and land, along with 1.5 million Armenian lives. It is perhaps unsurprising that one of the few times Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first president of the Turkish Republic, mentioned the Ottoman Armenians was during an address to the trader’s guild of Adana. He proclaimed, “Armenians…acted as if they were the owners of this country. Without a doubt, there couldn’t be a greater injustice and audacity than this. Armenians have no rights in this prosperous country. This country is yours; it belongs to the Turks.”[29]

Today, traces of the Armenian mercantilism stereotypes echo in modern Turkish and Azerbaijani political and online discourse. Armenian financial power is often perceived as a major obstacle to Turkish and Azerbaijani discourse gaining traction in public intellectual spheres. On platforms like X, NGOs like Freedom House and the Lemkin Institute are perceived as influenced by Armenians who are often described as having a propensity for theft and deceit. In 2018, an Azerbaijani scholar, Amrali Ismailov wrote that “[t]he Armenians lie, sham, steal, and betray. Despite them being cut from loathsome fabrics, there are still many sincere, honest, and decent people in the world who believe in the Armenians, who can see also a human in an Armenian.” Azerbaijani TV host Elchin Alibeyli similarly complained, “[w]herever the Armenians have lived, they have always stolen the culture and even the language of those peoples.”[30] These sentiments have permeated into the diplomatic and lobbying spheres as well. Bruce Fein, a former U.S. Justice Department Official in President Reagan’s administration and a vocal denier of the Armenian Genocide, stated in an interview with Turkish state-operated Anadolu Agency that the primary issue with promoting denialist narratives of the Armenian Genocide is the “wealth” of the Armenian diaspora which has used its power and influence to deceive governments into acknowledging the Genocide.[31]

Vasily Grossman, whose biases against Armenians were challenged when he visited the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic after World War II wrote: “What a distance there is between the caricature of Armenians…and the thousands and thousands of real Armenian peasants, soldiers, scientists, doctors, and engineers, each with their own complexities and idiosyncrasies.”[32]

European stereotypes of the mercantile Armenians over the last 500 years echo loudly today from Armenia’s neighbors. Understanding the proliferation of these stereotypes and their origin is imperative for lasting peace in the South Caucasus. Modern analysts should consider how Armenians are perceived by their neighbors and how historical perceptions by the Western world subconsciously influence contemporary political decision making.

Footnotes:

[1] Arlen, Michael J. (1976). Passage to Ararat. p. 100
[2] Ibid. p. 101
[3] Ibid
[4] See generally Goffman, D. (2004). The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire.
[5] Marco Polo. (1993). The Travels of Marco Polo (H. Cordier, Ed., & H. Yule, Trans.). Dover Publications
[6] Ibid
[7] Ibid
[8] Frankopan, P. (2017). The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
[9] Goffman, D. (2004). The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire. p. 23
[10] Baladouni, V., Makepeace, M. (1998). Armenian Merchants of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries, English East India Company Sources. p. 34
[11] Ibid. p.103
[12] Panossian, R. (2006). The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars. pp. 81-82
[13] George, J. (2202). Merchants in Exile: The Armenians in Manchester, England 1835-1935.
[14] Kurt, U. (2021). The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province. p. 27
[15] Suciyan, T. (2023). Outcasting Armenians: Tanzimat of the Provinces. p. 103
[16] Twain, M. (1869). The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrim’s Progress. p. 267
[17] Bloxham, D. (2005). The Great Game of Genocide Imperialism, Nationalism and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians. p. 34
[18] Ibid. pp. 37-38.
[19] See generally Sykes, M. (1900). Through the Five Turkish Provinces.
[20] Hepworth, G. (1898). Through Armenia on Horseback. p. 154
[21] Suny, R. (2015). They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else. p. 49
[22] Sykes, supra note 20 at 80.
[23] Morgenthau, H. (1919). Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story. p. 337
[24] Ibid. p.338
[25] See generally Ihrig, S. (2016). Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians From Bismark to Hitler.
[26] Ibid. p.172
[27] Pickethall, M. (1917). Asia and the Armenians. The New Age 25(3), 49.
[28] Koumoujian, D. (1919). Pickethall and Armenia. The New Age 25(4),71.
[29] Ulgen, F. (2010). Reading Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on the Armenian Genocide of 1915. p. 390
[30] Ibid. p. 17
[31] Anadolu Agency. (2021, May 3). Eski ABD Adalet Bakanlığı Müşaviri Bruce Fein, Biden’ın 24 Nisan Açıklamasını Eleştirdi [Former U.S. Department of Justice Counselor Bruce Fein Criticized (President) Biden’s April 24 Statement]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mei9S5Mwa8M.
[32] Grossman, V. (1988). An Armenian Sketchbook. p. 14