During the Ottoman period, the Levantine Armenian communities had diminished in number because of previous conflicts, such as the Mamluk invasion of Cilicia,[REF] Tamerlane's invasion of Syria, and so on.
Many Ottoman Armenians forcefully came to the Levant and Mesopotamia (known today as Iraq) while many strengthened the already large Armenian community in neighboring Iran, while others moved to Russia and other parts of the world, as they fled during the Armenian Genocide, during which 1.5 million Armenians perished.