stanbul’daki Katolik Ermeni Gruplar n n Problemleri ve Papal n Müdahaleleri ( 19. yy.)//// The Problems of Catholic Armenian Communities in Istanbul and Interferences from the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century

Internal strife among Istanbul Armenians started as a result of Catholic missionary activities. After becoming Catholic, Catholic Armenians did not wish to live under the religious authority of Armenian Patriarch and this fact caused many disputes. These disputes remained unsolved until the first decades of the nineteenth century. Catholic Armenians also had some disputes among themselves. While a group of Catholic Armenians wanted to carry on their ancient tradition and elect their own patriarch and bishops at their councils, another Catholic Armenian group wanted to transfer this right to Papacy. The latter group even tried to hand over the control of Armenian community properties, such as churches, hospitals and schools to the Papacy. In that respect,the Ottoman administration supported the former group. According to the Ottoman administration the Pope had clerical authority over Catholic Armenians but not a civil one. The Papacy had no legal right to Armenian community properties such as hospitals, schools and churches. However, the Papacy ignored Ottoman sovereignty and still tried to widen its authority over the eastern Catholics. The Papacy's policy to gather all the eastern Catholic churches under its control and its actions to implement this policy among the Catholic Armenians caused great disputes among the Catholic Armenians of Istanbul.