The Balian family dominated Ottoman architecture for much of the 18th and 19th centuries. A recent work by Pascal Carmont maintains that "For two centuries, this family created the Ottoman splendour of Constantinople, covering it with magnificent buildings in a cultural encounter between East and West. From 1840 they were all trained in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. The family continuity of the Balians was one of the determining factors of their influence, whose starting point was the Era of the Tulips. Without compromising the architectural canons of the Orient or Islam, the Balians dominated a gradual westernization of official Ottoman architecture.” Some members of the Balian family were given the title of Ser Mimar-i Devlet (Chief State Architect) and decorated with Grand Cross of the Medjidia. However, a Turkish historian, Selman Can, has recently maintained that the Balians were simply contractors and not great architects of Ottoman landmarks such as the Dolmabahce theatre, the old Ciragan Palace,Beylerbey Palace, the Mosques of Ortakoy, Nusretiye, and Hirka-I Sherif. So far, no serious art historian has credited Can's assertion. Not surprisingly, Yusuf Halacoglu, the former head of the Turkish Historical Society, has praised Can's work. According to Pascal Carmont, the Balians were part of a broader Ottoman Armenian aristocracy (the Amiras) who dominated much of Ottoman economy, finances, military production, and architecture for several generations. These Armenians were at the heart of the Ottoman Empire and enjoyed the favours of a succession of Ottoman Sultans. In his semi-biographical account of the Amiras, based around ten major families, Carmont argues that the Ottoman Empire was not simply a Turkish Empireas it is maintained today. The Ottoman Empire was a mosaic of different peoples, religions and classes, who served Ottoman Sultans in their different capacities. The Armenian Amira class, including the Balian family, had a special place in this structure. They even produced important dignitaries in the Ottoman civil administration. When the Russian armies were at the gates of Constantinople at the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, Sultan Abdul-Hamid II sent Arakel Dadian to greet Grand Duke Nicolas, the brother of the Tsar. The Amiras, however, were also at the heart of the Armenian community (millet) of the Ottoman Empire. They represented the power of "Ottoman Armenia" by working for the well-being of such national institutions as theConstantinople and Jerusalem Patriarchates, the formation of an Armenian Catholic Millet and educational and artistic projects.

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