Richard G. Hovannisian. The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times: Foreign dominion to statehood : the fifteenth century to the twentieth century, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p.96"By the end of the eighteenth century, the Armenian population of the territory had shrunk considerably. Centuries of warfare and invasions combined with the tyranny of local khans had forced the emigration of the Armenians. It is probable the until the seventeenth century, the Armenians still maintained a majority in Eastern Armenia, but the forced relocation of some 250,000 Armenians by Shah Abbas and the numerous exoduses described in this chapter had reduced the Armenian population considerably"
James Stuart Olson, Lee Brigance Pappas, Nicholas Charles Pappas. An Ethnohistorical dictionary of the Russian and Soviet empires, p.44:"Armenians were uprooted during these wars, and, in 1604, some 250,000 Armenians were forcibly transferred by Shah Abbas to Iran. By the seventeenth century, the Armenians had become a minority in parts of their historic lands«
