Relationships Between Gregorian Armenians And Protestant Armenians In Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire recognized Armenians who are connected to Gregorian denomination as an independent community like Orthodox and Jews and gave them many rights and privileges for religion and culture. But because of the affect of Catholic missioners who showed activity in Ottoman Empire the unity of denomination among Armenians had been disturbed since XVI century and Ottoman Empire recognized Catholic Armenians as a community in 1830. From the beginning of XIX century Protestant missioners tried to affect Armenians. As a result of this effort of Protestant missioners most Armenians embraced Protestantism and in 1850 Protestant Armenian Community disengaged from Armenian Church (patriarchate). Thus Armenians’ dimidiation of denomination for the second time received negative reaction from both Armenian Church (patriarchate) and Gregorian Armenians Community. Disagreement between these two denominations turned into conflicts and continued till XIX century.

Keywords

Missionary, Gregorian, Protestant, Armenians, Ottoman State.