Armenian diaspora

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 Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire forced Armenians living in their homeland to flee or risk being killed.[1]

Armenian population by country (in thousands):
  > 2,000
  1,000–2,000
  500–1,000
  200–500
  100–200
  75–100
  10–75
  1–10
  0.1–1
  <0.1
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Terminology

In Armenian, the diaspora is referred to as spyurk (pronounced [spʰʏrkʰ]), spelled սփիւռք in classical orthography and սփյուռք in reformed orthography.[2][3] 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[4] of Hebrew galut (גלות).[5][6]

History

The Armenian diaspora has been present for over 1,700 years.[7] The modern Armenian diaspora was formed largely 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."[1]

In the fourth century, Armenian communities already existed outside of Greater Armenia. Diasporic Armenian communities emerged in the Sassanid and Persian empires, and also to defend the eastern and northern borders of the Byzantine Empire.[8] 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.[8] 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.

The Armenian diaspora is divided into two communities – those from Ottoman Armenia (or Western Armenia) and those who are from the former Soviet Union, the independent Armenia and Iran (or Eastern Armenia).

Armenians of the modern Republic of Turkey do not consider themselves as part of the Armenian Diaspora, since they believe that they continue residing in their historical homeland.

The Armenian diaspora grew considerably during and after the First World War due to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.[9] 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 lived in Russia, and 450,000 lived in the United States and Canada.[10]

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.[11]

By the year 2000, there were 7,580,000 Armenians living abroad in total.[12]

Today, the Armenian diaspora refers to communities of Armenians living outside of Armenia. The total Armenian population living worldwide is estimated to be 11,000,000. Of those, approximately 3 million currently live in Armenia, 130,000 in the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh and 120,000 in the region of Javakheti[13] in neighboring Georgia. This leaves approximately 7,000,000 throughout the diaspora (with the largest populations in Russia, the United States, France, Argentina, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Canada, Ukraine, Greece, Cyprus, and Australia).[14] One the largest and most established Armenian communities abroad exists in the United States, in the year 2000, there were 945,615 Armenians living in the United States and Canada.[15]

Population by country
Main article: Armenian population by country
See also: Historical Armenian population

See also

References
  1. Hansen, Randall. Immigration and asylum: from 1900 to the present. p. 13.
  2. Dufoix, Stéphane (2008). Diasporas. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-520-25359-9.
  3. 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.
  4. Ačaṙean, Hračʿeay (1971–1979). Hayerēn Armatakan Baṙaran [Dictionary of Armenian Root Words]. 1. Yerevan: Yerevan University Press. p. 505.
  5. 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.
  6. Diaspora: Volume 1, Issue 1. Oxford University Press. 1991. ISBN 978-0-19-507081-1.
  7. Herzig, Edmund (2004-12-10). The Armenians: Past And Present In The Making Of National Identity. p. 126. ISBN 9780203004937.
  8. 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.
  9. Harutyunyan, Arus. Contesting National Identities in an Ethnically Homogeneous State: The Case of Armenian Democratization. Western Michigan University. p. 192. ISBN 9781109120127.
  10. Cohen, Robin (2010). Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Routledge. pp. 48–63.
  11. 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.
  12. Cohen, Robin (2010). Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Routledge. pp. 48–63.
  13. Alanishvil (1893). Iveria. p. 227.
  14. "Armenia seeks to boost population". BBC News. 2007-02-21. Archived from the original on 3 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
  15. Cohen, Robin (2010). Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Routledge. pp. 48–63.
Bibliography
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