Some Comments on Martirosyan's "Kaza of Vardo: Demography"

Martirosyan, T. (2019). Kaza of Vardo: Demography. Houshamadyan e. V., 28.

It is good that Academia notifies about papers of interest. Today's notification led me to Martirosyan's paper. I have a few comments on this paper:

Martirosyan concludes that the number of Armenian inhabitants was 1.7 times larger than the Ottoman figure (p. 4). This sentence may give the impression that the Ottoman figures were kept low on purpose to show the Armenian population smaller than it was. 

It may be useful to take into consideration a few points to be able to judge objectively: 

1. Mutlu states that census was important for the Ottomans for military recruitment and taxation purposes and therefore children and women were undercounted. However, “when corrected for undercounts of women and children, the census records prove to be reliable documents. Servet Mutlu's (2003). article titled "Late Ottoman  Population and Its Ethnic Distribution" (Nüfusbilim Dergisi\Turkish Journal of Population Studies, 25, 3-38.  http://www.hips.hacettepe.edu.tr/nbd_cilt25/mutlu.pdf) offers a comprehensive overview which is  useful to see the whole picture.

2. Not all Armenians were  relocated. Those who were in the service of the government and those who converted to Islam stayed. Also, the aged and the ill were not relocated either. Therefore, the relocation figures should not necessarily represent the whole population. Additionally separatists joined the Russian army as volunteers and they had left their homes at the beginning of WWI in late 1914 already. However, it should be noted that Bitlis had the highest ratio of Armenians (36 %).

3.It was indeed a relocation, but not deportation; because the Armenians were sent from the war zones or logistic routes to safer places in the South within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, and they were looked after as much as war time economic conditions allowed. Also Red Cros, other charities such as Near East Relief and consulates were allowed to support them. Muslim relocation was towards West,  they did not receive the same attendance unfortunately, and the loss rate amongst them was no less if not higher.