In this paper I will analyze the development of the concept of Ottoman subjecthood in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and demonstrate how an essentially Western and liberal regime of modern subjecthood was altered to deal with the Armenian question at first and how these deviations were later generalized to apply to the entire population. Thus the apparently imported concept of subjecthood evolved into a uniquely Turkish regime. The Law of Ottoman Subjecthood was adopted in 1869 for the purpose of integrating the empire to the international legal framework of passports and citizenship. Although the law included special provisions to limit the granting of the privileges of extraterritoriality to the Ottoman subjects by Western countries, these were almost never implemented and the law appeared as a fairly neutral text introducing the European concept of modern subjecthood to the Ottoman domains. This started to change in the 1890s, when the Ottoman government was challenged by growing overseas emigration and Armenian insurgency, and in response the regime of Ottoman subjecthood was gradually altered. Not only were hitherto unused provisions of the law implemented, but also the law was expanded with various amendments. The end result was an imperial order in 1896, which introduced a new regime of subjecthood tailored for the Armenians only; they were given the right to leave the country and forgo their Ottoman subjecthood, under the condition that they would never return to the empire again. Significantly, this new regime only applied to Armenians; the rest of the Ottoman population was not subject to it. The intention was excluding as many Armenians as possible and thus diminishing their proportion within the population. After the revolution in 1908 these Armenians returned to the empire, leaving the Unionist government with a legal challenge. To solve the problem, the Unionists considered the introduction of a new Law of Subjecthood. When this was eventually done, it was World War; drafted by a war cabinet the amendment to the Law of Ottoman Subjecthood in 1916, as well as an entirely new law in 1917 practically generalized the special regime for Armenians as to include all Ottoman subjects. Whereas the law of 1917 was not promulgated, it nevertheless constituted the basis for the Law of Turkish Citizenship of 1928 and shaped the regime of citizenship in the republican Turkey. Texts of laws and documents from the Ottoman archives are among the primary sources.