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The Pontic Armenian Communities In The Nineteenth Century, Bedross Der Matossian

Department of History: Faculty Publications

The Pontic Armenian communities of the nineteenth century were distinguished from those of previous centuries in that they were exposed to major social, economic, and political transformations. Social transformation entailed enlightenment of an emerging middle class and revival of Armenian national consciousness; economic transformation was characterized by advancement in the standard of living and growing prosperity; and political transformation entailed participation in the local administration, the adoption in Constantinople of an Armenian "National Constitution," which broadened the administration of the confessional-based Armenian millet to include the middle class, and in the latter part of the century the emergence of Armenian …