Abstract

This article looks to civil architecture in Bitlis and Erzurum – namely to the Bitlis municipality and government house built 1897-98 and to the Erzurum government house and municipality constructed in 1889, the subsequent government house of 1904, and the final (and present) government house of 1920. Charting the relationship of these new buildings with the architecture of the Armenian communities and the changing fortunes of these communities following the rise of the revolutionary parties, the Hamidian Massacres (1894-6) and the increased ‘securitization’ of the urban environment in the Eastern provinces, the article argues for a more widespread appreciation of the impact of local social dynamics on the development of the architecture of the state. Architectural borrowing between Armenian communal buildings and civic architecture in Bitlis and Erzurum shows how Armenians were at the vanguard of developing new forms of civic representation in the Ottoman East, – often at unexpected times and in hostile environments. These buildings communicate that, at crucial times in the histories of these two cities, the loyalty of Armenian elites was harnessed by the state, but also that the ‘rival symbols’ that they developed in their communal buildings were appropriated in case of their becoming too salient or powerful.