on the eve of world war i in 1914, around two million armenians lived in anatolia out of a total population of 15–17.5 million. according to the armenian patriarchate's estimates for 1913–1914, there were 2,925 armenian towns and villages in the ottoman empire, of which 2,084 were in the armenian highlands in the vilayets of bitlis, diyarbekir, erzerum, harput, and van. armenians were a minority in most places where they lived, alongside turkish and kurdish muslim and greek orthodox christian neighbors. according to the patriarchate's figure, 215,131 armenians lived in urban areas, especially constantinople, smyrna, and eastern thrace. although most ottoman armenians were peasant farmers, they were overrepresented in commerce. as middleman minorities, despite the wealth of some armenians, their overall political power was low, making them especially vulnerable. the ethnic cleansing of armenians during the final years of the ottoman empire is widely considered a genocide, the ottoman empire massacred approximately 600,000–1,500,000 armenians. the first wave of persecution was in the years 1894 to 1896, the second one culminating in the events of the armenian genocide in 1915 and 1916.