The millet specifically referred to the separate legal courts pertaining to personal law under which sections of the society were allowed to rule themselves with fairly little interference from the central system.
As People of The Book Armenians were able to maintain their houses of worship, obtain religious literature, and employ clergy of their faith for their congregations.
[citation needed] Around this time, instances of Armenian desires for self-determination emerged, such as Davit Bek's resistance to Ottoman and Safavid domination during the Syunik rebellion.
The 18th century generated new schools and libraries and a chance to study in the universities of Western Europe for well-connected Christians of the Ottoman Empire.
William Goodell settled in Constantinople in 1831 to the end of World War I, the missionaries made considerable contributions to the education of Armenians.
The European intellectual currents such as ideas of French Revolution were transmitted through the 23,000 Armenian students within 127 Protestant congregations with 13,000 communicants, and 400 schools.
Contacts with Western missionaries led him to become interested in translating material from the West into Armenian and setting up an order to facilitate education.
Amongst their countrymen the influence of the Mekhitarist Order not only connected Armenians closer to God but facilitated an early sense of national ambition.
Attempting to stem the tide of nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire, the Tanzimât period emerged from the minds of reformist sultans like Mahmud II and Abdul Majid as well as prominent reformers who were European-educated bureaucrats.
In 1880, the wealthy and influential Armenians signed an address of loyalty and devotion to the Sultan, condemning nationalist agitation as the work of misguided persons who have no authority or influence.
These emigrations brought tensions and changed the population distribution and balance of power within the local communities in eastern Anatolia.
Russia proclaimed itself protector of Christian Armenians and this created a relatively more hostile environment to the Muslims, mostly Kurdish, who were left under Russian control.
Supporting of these ideas by Western governments and publication through the inspiration and efforts of Armenian clerical men (Humanitarian intervention).
[7]According to one essentialist position, the breakdown of the "coexistence of the communities within the Ottoman Empire" was the direct result of the Christian Armenians and Muslims Turks and Kurds not being able to live together.
Armenian Patriarch Nerses Varjabedyan expresses his position to British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lord Salisbury on April 13, 1878.
This fact supports the "revolutionary view" instead of clash of civilizations, which showed the European powers the true nature of Ottoman rule.
[citation needed] The Greeks were thus the first of the Ottoman Empire's subject peoples to secure recognition as an independent sovereign power.
After a long and bloody struggle, and with the aid of the Great Powers, the Greek Revolution won independence for Greece from the Ottoman Empire granted by the Treaty of Constantinople in July 1832.
Ottoman subjects amounted to perhaps 1,200,000, and were mainly distributed through the six vilayets of Sivas, Bitlis, Erzerum, Harput, Diyarbekir, and Van.
[10] The Sultan trusted the Kurds in safeguarding the southern and eastern fringe of the empire and mountainous topography, and limited transportation and communication system.
[10] The state had little access to these provinces and were forced to make informal agreements with tribal chiefs, for instance the Ottoman qadi and mufti did not have jurisdiction over religious law which bolstered Kurdish authority and autonomy.
The first effective intervention had come by Woodrow Wilson who agreed to transfer what will be named as "Wilsonian Armenia" back to the Armenians in the Treaty of Sèvres.
Ottoman Armenians educated with the European Way began to make attempts in forming organizations – secret societies, local groups, such as the 'Protectors of the Fatherland' (1881) which was established in Erzurum.
The ARF adopted a decentralized modus operandi according to which the various chapters in different countries were allowed to plan and implement policies in tune with their local political atmosphere.
The Armenian diaspora, which lived in Europe mainly, was composed of the elite whom were being educated in European Universities or performing the trade.
These secret societies (or parties for some) which developed "National Policies" stated goals as "freeing the Armenians from the Ottoman Empire by any means possible".
[16] H. K. Vartanian wrote that the Armenian revolutionary movement was a direct and necessary response to the increasingly intolerable social, economic and political conditions of the 19th century decaying and declining Ottoman Empire.
The organization that was founded in Geneva (Europe), mostly by active Russian Armenians, took the idea of nationalism and gave it a clear imprint of Caucasian revolutionary thought in 1887.
[19] The Tsarist regime cracked down on any attempt by Russian Armenians to engage in action across the border, a leading example being the Gugunian Expedition of 1890.