The Armenian diaspora refers to the communities of Armenians outside Armenia and other locations where Armenians are considered an indigenous population. Since antiquity, Armenians have established communities in many regions throughout the world. However, the modern Armenian diaspora was largely formed as a result of World War I, when the genocide which was committed by the Ottoman Empire forced Armenians who were living in their homeland to flee from it or risk being killed. Another wave of emigration started during the energy crisis and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs established in 2019 is in charge of coordinating and developing Armenia's relations with the diaspora.
Terminology
In Armenian, the diaspora is referred to as spyurk (pronounced [spʰʏrkʰ]), spelled սփիւռք in classical orthography and սփյուռք in reformed orthography. In the past, the word gaghut (գաղութ pronounced [ɡɑˈʁutʰ]) was used mostly to refer to the Armenian communities outside the Armenian homeland. It is borrowed from the Aramaic (Classical Syriac) cognate of Hebrew galut (גלות).
History
The Armenian diaspora has been present for over 1,700 years. The Armenian diaspora is divided into two communities – those communities from Anatolia (or Western Armenia) and those communities which are from the Caucasus or Eastern Armenia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and other communities from the former Soviet Union).
The modern Armenian diaspora was largely formed after World War I as a result of the Armenian genocide. According to Randall Hansen, "Both in the past and today, the Armenian communities around the world have developed in significantly different ways within the constraints and opportunities found in varied host cultures and countries."
In the fourth century, Armenian communities already existed outside Greater Armenia. Diasporic Armenian communities emerged in the Achaemenid and Sassanid empires, and they also defended the eastern and northern borders of the Byzantine Empire. In order to populate the less populated areas of Byzantium, Armenians were relocated to those regions. Some Armenians converted to Greek Orthodoxy while retaining Armenian as their primary language, whereas others remained in the Armenian Apostolic Church despite pressure from official authorities. A growing number of Armenians migrated to Cilicia during the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries as a result of the Seljuk Turk invasions. After the fall of the kingdom to the Mamelukes and loss of Armenian statehood in 1375, up to 150,000 went to Cyprus, the Balkans, and Italy. The Armenian diaspora is also notable for its historical mercantile communities throughout Asia in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Period, in countries such as China, India, and Iran, many of whom rose to high positions within the various Asian royal courts. Although an Armenian diaspora existed during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, it grew in size due to emigration from the Ottoman Empire, Iran, Russia, and the Caucasus.
Armenians in Turkey, such as Hrant Dink, do not consider themselves a part of the Armenian Diaspora, since they have been living in their historical homeland for more than four thousand years. They are not considered part of the diaspora either by the Ministry of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan: "Diaspora represents all the Armenians who live beyond the Armenian Highland. In this context, we have singled out the Armenians of Istanbul and those living on the territory of Western Armenia. Those people have inhabited the lands for thousands of years, and they are not considered Diaspora."
Before 1870, 60 Armenian immigrants settled in New England. Armenian immigration rose to 1,500 by the end of the 1880s, and rose to 2,500 in the mid-1890s due to massacres caused by the Ottoman Empire. Armenians who immigrated to the United States before WWI were primarily from Asia Minor and settled on the East Coast.
The Armenian diaspora grew considerably both during and after the First World War due to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. In the year 1910, over 5,500 Armenians immigrated to the United States, and by 1913, 9,355 more Armenians entered the North American borders. As World War I approached, the rate of Armenian immigration rose to about 60,000. In 1920 and until the Immigration Act of 1924, 30,771 Armenians came to the United States; the immigrants were predominantly widowed women, children, and orphans. Although many Armenians perished during the Armenian genocide, some of the Armenians who managed to escape, established themselves in various parts of the world.
By 1966, around 40 years after the start of the Armenian genocide, 2 million Armenians still lived in Armenia, while 330,000 Armenians lived in Russia, and 450,000 Armenians lived in the United States and Canada.
In the United States, the rate of immigration increased after the Immigration Act was passed in 1965. The outbreak of the civil War in Lebanon in 1975 and the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in Iran during 1978 were factors which pushed Armenians to immigrate. The 1980 U.S. Census reported that 90 percent of the immigration to the United States was undertaken by Iranian-Armenians during the years from 1975 and 1980.
The energy crisis in Armenia in the early 1990s also resulted in the emigration of 676,000-800,000 Armenians from the Caucasus.
Distribution
Less than one third of the world's Armenian population lives in Armenia. Their pre-World War I population area was six times larger than that of present-day Armenia, including the eastern regions of Turkey, northern part of Iran, and the southern part of Georgia.
By 2000, there were 7,580,000 Armenians living abroad in total.
See also
- Armenia–Azerbaijan relations
- Armenia–European Union relations
- Armenia–France relations
- Armenia–Georgia relations
- Armenia–Russia relations
- Armenia–Turkey relations
- Armenia–United States relations
- Foreign relations of Armenia
- Largest Armenian diaspora communities
- List of diasporas
- Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs
- Visa requirements for Armenian citizens
- White genocide (Armenians)
Sources
- Ayvazyan, Hovhannes (2003). Հայ Սփյուռք հանրագիտարան [Encyclopedia of Armenian Diaspora] (in Armenian). Vol. 1. Yerevan: Armenian Encyclopedia publishing. ISBN 5-89700-020-4.
- de Waal, Thomas (2003). Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-1945-9.
References
- Hansen, Randall. Immigration and asylum: from 1900 to the present. p. 13.
- Lewis, Martin W. (2015-05-27). "The Armenian Diaspora Is An Ongoing Phenomenon". In Berlatsky, Noah (ed.). The Armenian Genocide. Greenhaven Publishing LLC. pp. 66–72. ISBN 978-0-7377-7319-4.
- Vardanian, Astghik (1996). "Armenia's Choice". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 52 (4): 50–54. doi:10.1080/00963402.1996.11456644.
According to the U.N. Development Program, 676,000 people—or about one fifth of the population—left during this period, mainly settling in Russia, the United States, or Israel.
- Astghik Chaloyan (2017). Fluctuating Transnationalism Social Formation and Reproduction among Armenians in Germany. Springer. p. 65. ISBN 978-3-658-18826-9.
Roughly calculated, this wave can be determined from 1991 until 1995. According to CRRC (the Caucasus Research Resource Centres)...more than 17% of Armenia's population migrated between the years of 1991-1995...
- Jerry L. Johnson (2000). Crossing Borders--confronting History Intercultural Adjustment in a Post-Cold War World. University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-1536-8.
The destabilizing exodus of some 800,000 educated and resourceful Armenians, mostly young people, occurred at a time when they were needed the most for nation-building.
- Dufoix, Stéphane (2008). Diasporas. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-520-25359-9.
- Harutyunyan, Arus (2009). Contesting National Identities in an Ethnically Homogeneous State: The Case of Armenian Democratization. Western Michigan University. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-109-12012-7.
- Ačaṙean, Hračʿeay (1971–1979). Hayerēn Armatakan Baṙaran [Dictionary of Armenian Root Words]. Vol. 1. Yerevan: Yerevan University Press. p. 505.
- Melvin Ember; Carol R. Ember; Ian A. Skoggard (2004). Encyclopedia of diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9.
- Diaspora: Volume 1, Issue 1. Oxford University Press. 1991. ISBN 978-0-19-507081-1.
- Herzig, Edmund (2004-12-10). The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. Taylor & Francis. p. 126. ISBN 9780203004937.
- Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R.; Skoggard, Ian (2004). Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures around the World. Springer. pp. 36–43. ISBN 0-306-48321-1.
- "Sebouh Aslanian — On the Boundaries of History: The Armenian Diaspora of the Early Modern Period". 23 January 2020.
- Halton, Dan; Constantine, Laura L. "Rise and Shine | AGBU". agbu.org.
- Baronian, Marie-Aude; Besser, Stephan; Jansen, Yolande (2006-01-01). Diaspora and Memory: Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature, Arts and Politics. BRILL. doi:10.1163/9789401203807_006. ISBN 978-94-012-0380-7.
- Baser, Bahar; Swain, Ashok (2009). "Diaspora Design Versus Homeland Realities: Case Study of Armenian Diaspora". Caucasian Review of International Affairs: 57.
- "Minister denies calling Armenians 'Diaspora representatives' in Istanbul". www.tert.am. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
- Bakalian, Anny P. (1993). Armenian-Americans : from being to feeling Armenian. New Brunswick (U.S.A.): Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-025-2. OCLC 24538802.
- Harutyunyan, Arus (April 2009). Contesting National Identities in an Ethnically Homogeneous State: The Case of Armenian Democratization (PhD thesis). Western Michigan University.
- Cohen, Robin (2010). Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Routledge. pp. 48–63.
- Jerry L. Johnson (2000). Crossing Borders--confronting History Intercultural Adjustment in a Post-Cold War World. University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-1536-8.
The destabilizing exodus of some 800,000 educated and resourceful Armenians, mostly young people, occurred at a time when they were needed the most for nation-building.
- "Armenia - Caucasus, Soviet Union, Genocide", Encyclopedia Britannica, archived from the original on 2024-08-10, retrieved 2024-08-21,
A blockade imposed by Azerbaijan in 1989 had devastated the Armenian economy; the resulting severe decline in living conditions led hundreds of thousands of Armenians to emigrate.
- Melvin Ember; Carol R. Ember; Ian A. Skoggard (2004). Encyclopedia of diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9.
Currently, only one-sixth of that land [ancestral territory] is inhabited by Armenians, due first to variously coerced emigrations and finally to the genocide of the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1915.
External links
- Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs
- Ovenk.com, Armenian Diaspora Memory and Innovation
- The Armenian Diaspora Today: Anthropological Perspectives. Articles in the Caucasus Anallytical Digest No. 29
- Neruzh Diaspora Tech Startup Program
The Armenian diaspora refers to the communities of Armenians outside Armenia and other locations where Armenians are considered an indigenous population Since antiquity Armenians have established communities in many regions throughout the world However the modern Armenian diaspora was largely formed as a result of World War I when the genocide which was committed by the Ottoman Empire forced Armenians who were living in their homeland to flee from it or risk being killed Another wave of emigration started during the energy crisis and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 Map of the Armenian diaspora in the world includes people with Armenian ancestry or citizenship For detailed statistics see Armenian population by country Armenia 1 000 000 100 000 10 000 1 000 The High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs established in 2019 is in charge of coordinating and developing Armenia s relations with the diaspora TerminologyIn Armenian the diaspora is referred to as spyurk pronounced spʰʏrkʰ spelled սփիւռք in classical orthography and սփյուռք in reformed orthography In the past the word gaghut գաղութ pronounced ɡɑˈʁutʰ was used mostly to refer to the Armenian communities outside the Armenian homeland It is borrowed from the Aramaic Classical Syriac cognate of Hebrew galut גלות HistoryThe Armenian diaspora has been present for over 1 700 years The Armenian diaspora is divided into two communities those communities from Anatolia or Western Armenia and those communities which are from the Caucasus or Eastern Armenia Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia Iran and other communities from the former Soviet Union The modern Armenian diaspora was largely formed after World War I as a result of the Armenian genocide According to Randall Hansen Both in the past and today the Armenian communities around the world have developed in significantly different ways within the constraints and opportunities found in varied host cultures and countries In the fourth century Armenian communities already existed outside Greater Armenia Diasporic Armenian communities emerged in the Achaemenid and Sassanid empires and they also defended the eastern and northern borders of the Byzantine Empire In order to populate the less populated areas of Byzantium Armenians were relocated to those regions Some Armenians converted to Greek Orthodoxy while retaining Armenian as their primary language whereas others remained in the Armenian Apostolic Church despite pressure from official authorities A growing number of Armenians migrated to Cilicia during the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries as a result of the Seljuk Turk invasions After the fall of the kingdom to the Mamelukes and loss of Armenian statehood in 1375 up to 150 000 went to Cyprus the Balkans and Italy The Armenian diaspora is also notable for its historical mercantile communities throughout Asia in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Period in countries such as China India and Iran many of whom rose to high positions within the various Asian royal courts Although an Armenian diaspora existed during Antiquity and the Middle Ages it grew in size due to emigration from the Ottoman Empire Iran Russia and the Caucasus Armenians in Turkey such as Hrant Dink do not consider themselves a part of the Armenian Diaspora since they have been living in their historical homeland for more than four thousand years They are not considered part of the diaspora either by the Ministry of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan Diaspora represents all the Armenians who live beyond the Armenian Highland In this context we have singled out the Armenians of Istanbul and those living on the territory of Western Armenia Those people have inhabited the lands for thousands of years and they are not considered Diaspora Before 1870 60 Armenian immigrants settled in New England Armenian immigration rose to 1 500 by the end of the 1880s and rose to 2 500 in the mid 1890s due to massacres caused by the Ottoman Empire Armenians who immigrated to the United States before WWI were primarily from Asia Minor and settled on the East Coast Routes of Armenian refugees during the 20s and 30s including the exodus from the Hatay province The Armenian diaspora grew considerably both during and after the First World War due to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire In the year 1910 over 5 500 Armenians immigrated to the United States and by 1913 9 355 more Armenians entered the North American borders As World War I approached the rate of Armenian immigration rose to about 60 000 In 1920 and until the Immigration Act of 1924 30 771 Armenians came to the United States the immigrants were predominantly widowed women children and orphans Although many Armenians perished during the Armenian genocide some of the Armenians who managed to escape established themselves in various parts of the world By 1966 around 40 years after the start of the Armenian genocide 2 million Armenians still lived in Armenia while 330 000 Armenians lived in Russia and 450 000 Armenians lived in the United States and Canada In the United States the rate of immigration increased after the Immigration Act was passed in 1965 The outbreak of the civil War in Lebanon in 1975 and the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in Iran during 1978 were factors which pushed Armenians to immigrate The 1980 U S Census reported that 90 percent of the immigration to the United States was undertaken by Iranian Armenians during the years from 1975 and 1980 The energy crisis in Armenia in the early 1990s also resulted in the emigration of 676 000 800 000 Armenians from the Caucasus DistributionLess than one third of the world s Armenian population lives in Armenia Their pre World War I population area was six times larger than that of present day Armenia including the eastern regions of Turkey northern part of Iran and the southern part of Georgia By 2000 there were 7 580 000 Armenians living abroad in total See alsoArmenia Azerbaijan relations Armenia European Union relations Armenia France relations Armenia Georgia relations Armenia Russia relations Armenia Turkey relations Armenia United States relations Foreign relations of Armenia Largest Armenian diaspora communities List of diasporas Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Visa requirements for Armenian citizens White genocide Armenians SourcesAyvazyan Hovhannes 2003 Հայ Սփյուռք հանրագիտարան Encyclopedia of Armenian Diaspora in Armenian Vol 1 Yerevan Armenian Encyclopedia publishing ISBN 5 89700 020 4 de Waal Thomas 2003 Black Garden Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War New York New York University Press ISBN 978 0 8147 1945 9 ReferencesHansen Randall Immigration and asylum from 1900 to the present p 13 Lewis Martin W 2015 05 27 The Armenian Diaspora Is An Ongoing Phenomenon In Berlatsky Noah ed The Armenian Genocide Greenhaven Publishing LLC pp 66 72 ISBN 978 0 7377 7319 4 Vardanian Astghik 1996 Armenia s Choice Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 52 4 50 54 doi 10 1080 00963402 1996 11456644 According to the U N Development Program 676 000 people or about one fifth of the population left during this period mainly settling in Russia the United States or Israel Astghik Chaloyan 2017 Fluctuating Transnationalism Social Formation and Reproduction among Armenians in Germany Springer p 65 ISBN 978 3 658 18826 9 Roughly calculated this wave can be determined from 1991 until 1995 According to CRRC the Caucasus Research Resource Centres more than 17 of Armenia s population migrated between the years of 1991 1995 Jerry L Johnson 2000 Crossing Borders confronting History Intercultural Adjustment in a Post Cold War World University Press of America ISBN 0 7618 1536 8 The destabilizing exodus of some 800 000 educated and resourceful Armenians mostly young people occurred at a time when they were needed the most for nation building Dufoix Stephane 2008 Diasporas Berkeley California University of California Press p 84 ISBN 978 0 520 25359 9 Harutyunyan Arus 2009 Contesting National Identities in an Ethnically Homogeneous State The Case of Armenian Democratization Western Michigan University p 56 ISBN 978 1 109 12012 7 Acaṙean Hracʿeay 1971 1979 Hayeren Armatakan Baṙaran Dictionary of Armenian Root Words Vol 1 Yerevan Yerevan University Press p 505 Melvin Ember Carol R Ember Ian A Skoggard 2004 Encyclopedia of diasporas immigrant and refugee cultures around the world Dordrecht Netherlands Kluwer Academic Publishers p 37 ISBN 978 0 306 48321 9 Diaspora Volume 1 Issue 1 Oxford University Press 1991 ISBN 978 0 19 507081 1 Herzig Edmund 2004 12 10 The Armenians Past and Present in the Making of National Identity Taylor amp Francis p 126 ISBN 9780203004937 Ember Melvin Ember Carol R Skoggard Ian 2004 Encyclopedia of Diasporas Immigrant and Refugee Cultures around the World Springer pp 36 43 ISBN 0 306 48321 1 Sebouh Aslanian On the Boundaries of History The Armenian Diaspora of the Early Modern Period 23 January 2020 Halton Dan Constantine Laura L Rise and Shine AGBU agbu org Baronian Marie Aude Besser Stephan Jansen Yolande 2006 01 01 Diaspora and Memory Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature Arts and Politics BRILL doi 10 1163 9789401203807 006 ISBN 978 94 012 0380 7 Baser Bahar Swain Ashok 2009 Diaspora Design Versus Homeland Realities Case Study of Armenian Diaspora Caucasian Review of International Affairs 57 Minister denies calling Armenians Diaspora representatives in Istanbul www tert am Retrieved 2023 10 08 Bakalian Anny P 1993 Armenian Americans from being to feeling Armenian New Brunswick U S A Transaction Publishers ISBN 1 56000 025 2 OCLC 24538802 Harutyunyan Arus April 2009 Contesting National Identities in an Ethnically Homogeneous State The Case of Armenian Democratization PhD thesis Western Michigan University Cohen Robin 2010 Global Diasporas An Introduction Routledge pp 48 63 Jerry L Johnson 2000 Crossing Borders confronting History Intercultural Adjustment in a Post Cold War World University Press of America ISBN 0 7618 1536 8 The destabilizing exodus of some 800 000 educated and resourceful Armenians mostly young people occurred at a time when they were needed the most for nation building Armenia Caucasus Soviet Union Genocide Encyclopedia Britannica archived from the original on 2024 08 10 retrieved 2024 08 21 A blockade imposed by Azerbaijan in 1989 had devastated the Armenian economy the resulting severe decline in living conditions led hundreds of thousands of Armenians to emigrate Melvin Ember Carol R Ember Ian A Skoggard 2004 Encyclopedia of diasporas immigrant and refugee cultures around the world Dordrecht Netherlands Kluwer Academic Publishers p 36 ISBN 978 0 306 48321 9 Currently only one sixth of that land ancestral territory is inhabited by Armenians due first to variously coerced emigrations and finally to the genocide of the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1915 External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Armenian diaspora Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Ovenk com Armenian Diaspora Memory and Innovation The Armenian Diaspora Today Anthropological Perspectives Articles in the Caucasus Anallytical Digest No 29 Neruzh Diaspora Tech Startup Program
