The new rdgime solemnly agreed that there would be no further enslavement of the Armenians. no further confiscation of property. and a just system of taxation. the rights of the Armenians to be regarded as citizens and to bear arms and to have places in the army and a voice in the administrative affairs of the Empire. But none of these promises were fulfilled. In 1914 the great World War began. It is difficult to ascertain the number of Armenians then living in Asiatic Turkey. It is estimated by some that there were 2.000.000. Other writers place the number at 2.500.000.