Collaboration in Ottoman Governance: The c. 1907 Imperial Census and the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate of Istanbul
Ohanian argues that critical and uncritical scholars alike tend to treat Ottoman Armenians as a cohesive group, and sets out to disrupt that habit. He first critiques the millet-system paradigm, then turns to historiographic debates over late Ottoman demographic data, a topic that has generated considerable tension between Ottoman studies and Armenian studies. Using the c. 1907 imperial census as a case study, he documents cooperation between the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate of Istanbul and the Ottoman Ministry of the Interior. The example demonstrates the interdependence of the two bodies and shows that while some Armenians were victims or opponents of the late Ottoman state, others were deeply entrenched within it.