 In 1915 Manzikert was part of Bitlis Vilayet and had a population of 5,000, the great majority of them Armenians.The city's economy revolved around the cultivation of grain, trade and the production of handicrafts.There existed two Armenian churches, Yerek Khoran Surb Astvatsatsin (Three Altars Holy Mother of God) and Surb Gevork (St. George, called St. Sergius by H. F. B. Lynch), and one Armenian school.